Packaging

My garden is full of hogweed.  Apart from its delicious early shoots I love the way it wraps its buds in a translucent green membrane, a complicatedly-folded enclosure that, by dint of "the force that through the green fuse drives the flower",  gradually peels apart to liberate its contents.

Now that interest in foraging for wild food is HUGE many novices are  nervous of the Apiaceae family (formerly known as the Umbelliferae). Rightly so since it includes the very toxic plants Giant Hogweed, Hemlock and Hemlock Water Dropwort.

However since angelica, aniseed, caraway, carrot, celery, chervil, corander, cumin, fennel, lovage, cow parsley, parsley and parsnip also belong to the same family it's worth getting to know it thoroughly.