Matthew Roman Kopinski on foraging while cycling

ONE of the things I try to teach my children is to use all their senses when they are on the bicycle.

First and foremost this is to enhance their safety, using eyes, ears and nose to anticipate any dangers that may be encountered. However, these senses can also be put to excellent use to bring home the dinner or spot tasty treats in the hedgerows.

I do not purport to be an expert in foraging, but I have a few years of experience that have brought in such game delicacies as venison, rabbit, pheasant and partridge aplenty, all killed cleanly so that the meat is highly edible and delicious (okay, my neighbour Mark brought in the venison aided by a funky little cart on the back of his bike, but once it was butchered and frozen, we all enjoyed venison for a good part of that year).

What you don’t want to do is to spend more time picking out bone shards from your meat than you spend enjoying it – there are two questions that help in deciding whether to pick it up or leave it. They are, ‘How fresh is it?’ and ‘How flat is it?’ This is the freshest meat you can get, I only pick up roadkill in a good state of repair that has appeared on the roadside proverbial pass that day ie: appears by the end of the day en route back home. I avoid the unfortunates that have been crushed beneath the wheels of a speeding vehicle, this is not good in my book, not only for bone shards but also for bowel contents contaminating the meat. You have to use your sixth sense when it comes to roadkill and that is common sense!

At this time of year, it is the sense of smell that can gain a cyclist a wealthy bounty of green woodland gold – wild (or bear) garlic is nearly over in Oxfordshire as the season for it is short, though this year it has been delayed by the colder spring. The advantage the cyclist has over those hermetically-sealed in their vehicles, is that they can use the sense of smell on the road, and with wild garlic, you can nose it before you see it! If you get a whiff of the stuff on the road, then it is pretty likely that nearby there is a woodland floor festooned with it.

It is the leaves that you are after, Cut leaves them individually with your nail or a knife close to the base (please do not dig them up, the bulbs are not useful, and you will not be successful transplanting them to a spot in your garden). Garlic mustard, wild hops and elderflower are also prevalent at this time. Mustard leaves can be added to salads or sauces, and hop tips (the tender few inches of the hop’s shoot) can be steamed as an asparagus substitute.

Flavourful Elderflower cordial can be easily made and frozen for year round pleasure. The key to foraging is to take what you need, and not too much, so that others can have their share and the plant can regenerate for the next year. Be warned that If you take a scythe to it, then you are likely to incorporate Lily of the Valley or Arum maculatum into your basket, potentially deadly bedfellows. Wild garlic recipes abound on the internet, but our favourite is making pesto with walnuts from our tree and local rapeseed oil, which can be conveniently frozen in ice cube trays and transferred to bags latterly to bring a taste of garlic spring to your cuisine throughout the year.

Deyumscious! I look forward to sharing more seasonal foraging secrets with you throughout the coming year.