Do you live in South East Scotland? Do you fancy the idea of unlimited garlic?

Got some Great News for you!!!

There is an invasive species known as the Few-flowered Leek that entered Scotland around Edinburgh a while back. It is a problem since it reproduces asexually -- its flowers aren't good for pollinators, and it clones itself into dense "fields" that have no room for anything else. It pushes out bluebells and native wild garlic.

🧄 and it is Garlic, and the entire plant is edible!!! 🧄

Rip that stuff up!!! Cook it, make it into pesto and soup. Store it in oil.

Be sure to check your boots after, it spreads by hitching a ride using its round, white/green bulbils.

It can be distinguished from the native species as it has narrow leaves, the native one has wide leaves. It can be distinguished from inedible plants due to the strong garlic smell.

Log your records on fallingfruit so others can find them: https://beta.fallingfruit.org/map/@55.9157005,-3.1058607,11z

Images:
1) A patch of the invasive.
2) A close-up of the plant, showing the bulbils (clones).
3) A shopping bag full of the stuff. I've taken three bags full from the patch in (1) but it's far from gone.
4) All of the green on the ground here (found this patch in Edinburgh) is the invasive.

#foraging #scotland #invasivespecies #edinburgh #fife #lothians #garlic #onion #leek #allium #alliumparadoxum #nature #environment

Feeling happy now that I can, with a clear conscience, relax this afternoon & do some painting. In the last 24 hrs I've defrosted one of our freezers while batch making:

Spiced #Tea #bread
#Cream of #Sweetcorn #soup
Cream of #Cauliflower & #Ginger soup
#Leek & #Pea soup
#Tomato & #Butterbean soup

We've ate half of the tea bread, with the other half in the freezer and had soup for our lunches. There are now 30 single portions of soup in our freezer which will keep us going for a while 😋

I'm really impressed with how well these leeks are growing but I'm not entirely convinced that the flower head is going to be all that impressive given the size of the flower bud so far..... 🤔🤷‍♂️

#art #garden #gardening #nature #outdoor #photo #photograph #photography #plant #leek