TITLE: Foraging and making wild garlic pesto
DATE: 2018-05-05
AUTHOR: John L. Godlee
====================================================================


It was the Dirty Weekenders' annual charity ceilidh last Thursday,
and there was a raffle to raise money for the Scottish Wildlife
Trust, so I decided to make some pesto as a raffle prize. I got all
the leafy ingredients from Roslin Glen, which is a Dirty Weekenders
project location, and one of my favourite places in the world.

I collected Allium ursinum (Ramsons), Allium paradoxum
(Few-flowered Leek), and Allaria petiolata (Garlic Mustard), all of
which are really easy to identify and in full growth at the moment
(late April). I used the following recipe:

   # Ingredients

   * 100 g garlicky leaves
   * 50g Parmesan grated
   * 50g pine nuts, toasted
   * Olive oil
   * Lemon juice, to taste
   * Salt & pepper

   # Method

   1. Blitz all of the leaves in a food processor until
homogenized, but not pasty
   2. Add the parmesan, olive oil, lemon juice, blitz again
   3. Toast the pine nuts in a frying pan until fragrant, then add
to mixture
   4. Blitz again, but keep some chunky pine nuts
   5. Season

Few flowered leek:

 ![Few
flowered-leek](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/pesto/leek_1.jpg)

 ![Few flowered-leek
2](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/pesto/leek_2.jpg)

Garlic mustard:

 ![Garlic
mustard](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/pesto/mustard_1.jpg)

 ![Garlic mustard growing
tip](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/pesto/mustard_2.jpg)

 ![Garlic mustard
plant](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/pesto/mustard_3.jpg)

Ramsons:

 ![Ramsons
leaves](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/pesto/ramsons_1.jpg)

 ![Ramsons
plant](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/pesto/ramsons_2.jpg)

The finished pesto:

 ![Pesto](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/pesto/pesto.jpg)

Bonus flower, a Grape Hyacinth (Muscari sp.):

 ![Grape hyacinth
flower](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/pesto/flower.jpg)