Seasonal food in April

April and with it comes spring, all of a sudden the world seems a brighter place. Lots of new produce is starting to come through now, with much of it holding the promise of the summer to come. Let's start this month by looking at free food, (yes, I did say free!) that which grows wild in our hedgerows and woods, for this is the month when we really start to notice new additions to the floors of woods and uncultivated areas everywhere.

Over in continental Europe our cousins there understand the glories of foraging for wild foods and this month sees the start of many delicacies ready for picking in our numerous woods, coppices, hedgerows and fields. Take wild garlic for instance or ransoms as they are also known, to be found in some of the damper areas of woods around the county, their leaves are quite fantastic and have started to become a bit of a cult item in restaurants over the past few years, although the aroma is quite pungent the flavour is actually very subtle.

Or what about dandelions, they thrive on waste ground and grassy areas country wide yet who takes much notice of them, well the French certainly do, housewives can often be seen pulling up plants on the verges of country roads for the lunchtime salad. Try cultivating a wild dandelion plant while it is still young, cover it with a bucket or something similar in order to deprive the plant of all light, leave it like that for about 10 days, by excluding the light like this it results in the production of delicate light lemon yellow coloured leaves. Used in salads or where a collation of green leaves is required they add a uniquely delicate piquant flavour.

Then there are of course nettles, most of us have gardens that are normally ravaged by nettles so lets put them to some use! From about mid March and throughout April is the best time to pick this pernicious weed, while it is still young, tender and fresh. Although they are around almost all year it is only the tips of these juvenile shoots that are worth bothering about, mind you, once a taste for them has been acquired and if you keep chopping them down, they will continue cropping through to September. They make a great soup with the addition of bacon the flavour is reminiscent of pea and ham except the colour is so much darker and richer, more like that of spinach, be careful when picking them, wear gloves!

As April 23rd sees St. Georges day then it is apt also to mention the St. Georges mushroom, very much the archetypical mushroom sought after by countless generations in old established grassland, meadow, dune, and particularly on the limestone ridges, escarpments and chalk downs that dot the British landscape. Appearing in April and going on through till June, in particular areas it is quite common, and groups and rings of reasonable numbers can often be seen in some parts. Take care when picking, a gentle twisting will avoid damage and disturbance to the part of the fungus that is hidden below the soil. This along with the Morel are the two main types of wild mushroom to be found at this time of year but as the year progresses then there will be more to come!

Now back to the stuff we have to buy! Purple sprouting broccoli (did you know there is a white sprouting too?) is still around this month and well worth buying, as to are spring greens. We often see early English tomatoes around in April and considering how mild it has been I see no reason for them not to be around this year. April does however always seem too early to my mind to be buying English tomatoes, they often have very little flavour, certainly hardly any sweetness, and more often than not are extremely hard.

April sees the start of the trout season, many managed still waters are open all year round for trout fishing but the main wild trout season kicks off this month. Once quite an uncommon fish the trout was only for the tables of those that fished them, nowadays however they are so extensively farmed that they have become almost omnipresent on every fish counter in the land. Cheap and extremely adaptable the trout is often considered a bit of a boring fish yet there is so much one can do with it.