Jubilee weekend. I have seen more red, white and blue than I ever want to see again, a few blow-up crowns and an array of odd pictures of the Queen, which I don’t think she would be proud of. However, as a student with no TV licence (and no one I know who has) I have missed the entire day of festivities…

I refuse to let my grandmother guilt trip me into feeling bad though, and instead will celebrate the fact that I had a day of accidental foraging in the very British drizzle.

I went walking with a great friend across the Falmouth coastline with ‘Food For Free’ in my bag. We found sorrel and ramsons. We walked back to have this incredible salad:

Ingredients

  • About 10 sorrel leaves, chopped
  • About 7 ramson stalks with flowers, chopped
  • A small bunch of fresh coriander
  • Half a small chilli
  • A can of chickpeas in water, drained
  • Half a red pepper, chopped
  • Half a courgette, grated
  • Toasted cumin seeds
  • Bit of balsamic vinegar
  • Some lettuce
  1. In a wok or a large frying pan with a little bit of olive oil, add the chickpeas, red pepper and grated courgette, keep stirring until heated through.
  2. Add all the herby, spicy bits to the stir fried chickpeas, stir until wilted but not soggy.
  3. Either toss with lettuce leaves or serve on top of lettuce – who cares? It tastes GOOD!

Then I popped round to the house of another lovely friend, where I helped to make her famous baked cheesecake with berries. I missed out last time she made it, and it really was delicious. It also provided sustenance for a quick pelt up to Pendennis point to watch the castle-to-castle swim from the safety of the shore. I was grateful not to be sloshing around in the expanse of very grey sea, though such a sight to see the RNLI boats and fishing boats all decked out in red, white and blue bunting, lining the way for the swimmers. From the distance we were at, it looked as mackerel do when they are wrenched to the surface in a fishing net, splashing across the surface. Small fish in a big ocean.

I then whizzed back to mine, picked some nettles and have just made a spicy carrot and nettle soup with leftover celeriac. I didn’t whizz it up properly enough because I was too impatient, so every so often got a clog of slightly bristly nettle… Tasted good though!

I have not panicked about jobs but more particularly money, since about 1 o’clock… This is a very good thing. This must sound like I’m completely ‘on’ the foraging thang, and that it cuts out loads of people from the recipes, but it really doesn’t mean to. I think today has just been ultra outdoorsy. When I move to London, I feel like it might be a different story altogether…

Argh! Stop! Good things: I also got my camera checked out by the camera man and it’s not broken – hurrah! So photos are soon to follow!

Also contemplating the idea of maybe doing recipes with just 5 accessible ingredients, that has multi-functional uses… Work in progress perhaps?

TBC, Rosie x

P.S. For a wet and very grey day, Nick Drake – Sunday…