Bushcraft Foraging: Lesser Celandine

Description

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Video Transcription

hi there guys well well within spring and as a result lots of wild plants are growing through at the moment and lots of wild edibles as well so I thought we'd go and find one specific wild edible today we talked about it for ID purposes so you'll be able to identify about the kind of terrain it grows in and parts of the world you'll find it in so if you want to go and find it yourself and obviously we'll dig it up we'll process it and cook it and talk about its nutritional content so by the end of the video if you do on approach this edible and actually eat it you should have a good idea of what to do you'll see behind me a yellow flower scattered all over the woodland floor and it's very very common very common edible indeed especially where there's damp soil so it's not too difficult to find and that's one good thing about it you can gather quite a lot of it because there is a lot of it around although it does require some caution to cook and process but let's go take a closer look at it

the plant I've got here in front of me is called lessor celandine unless a celandine is a member of the Buttercup family so that's the ranunculaceae family and the thing about that particular family is this got a lot of toxins associated with it and none of the family are really edible so lesser Saladin is the only member of the family that's actually edible and it does require some processing to leech the toxin out of it so you can benefit from its nutrition or go into that later and we actually start to cook and process it but why would you approach this plant in this particular family well if it's in your area you actually wanted to utilize it has a lot of vitamin C within the root of the plant despite its toxin then we will process further later actually make it edible so we can benefit from its nutrition it makes a fantastic substitute for mashed potato or rice or you can fry it like chips you can really do anything you like with it after you've processed it and got rid of that toxin kind of terrain this plant is going to grow and it's going to be in damp conditions I'm on a moss bed woodland and it's very very damp here even though it's been dry for a few days all this moss and the root structure underground really hold water well and there's quite a lot of clay here as well so the tops all generally holds water quite well too so you're going to find it in damp conditions so it grows all throughout the British Isles in certain parts of Europe they're probably central northern Europe similar climates to this provided the conditions are correct and you will find it in parts of North America and Canada as well where it's considered invasive simply because it has a bit of an impact on various other wildflowers but you'll find it in huge bed site there in sort of flooded woodlands and you know you can obviously eat it to your heart's content I'm sure you'd be doing conservation a favor in that case the kind of season that will go along with this plan is it will emerge very very early in January sometimes even before January sort of late December you'll see it coming through and it we tie knee we really sort of dwarven and small and there will be no flower but the leaf is really how you will pick your name the heart shaped leaf is very easy to identify I'll obviously the plant growing a lot like a dandy lion or a fern for example growing out of a central cluster of roots will make it easier to identify if you sort of further dig it up and process it then want to explore how the plant is built in terms of its structure but the leaf is very easy to identify it by and sometimes they'll be coloration on it much like lords and ladies and certain you know types of ivy but don't let that put off your ID really you're just looking at the shape of the leaf and the structure of the plant if the flower isn't there for you to see the flower will emerge sort of early March all the way through to May and the flower has about 8 to 12 petals it can differ and it's yellow and very bright about two centimeters in diameter at most and yeah it's very beautiful it covers the forest floor and you'll see it all around me here you know very very obvious yellow flower you know it draws you to it you can go and have a look at it provided you see that leaf structure there you'll generally get a very clear idea for the plant you'll know what it is almost immediately if you're familiar with celandine or you've got a field guide with you and then you can sort of proceed further and explore it or utilize it how you want to do my Paco is carrying around a small shovel with me just a folding trowel like that you can always attach a piece of hazel to the back end to lengthen it but it's very good for tapping trees and creating runs to get a SAP but very good for foraging if you're in the process of getting roots the roots go down about three inches on this plum and you really just want to circle the shovel or trowel around it like that you don't have to worry too much because the roots go down like tubes if we could just bring it up like that

you can see as a few little roots about but if we just uncover the roots away you'll see we've got these kind of tubes that hang down just like that and you do need to give them a wash so what I'm gonna do is give this one a clean and we'll have a closer look at it I've gathered a few clusters of celandine and I found a water source have to come quite far to actually find this water source had to branch out a fair bit but is the best I can find imagine this would have been flowing quite rapidly in the floods sometime back but it's drying up a little bit now so I've just got the leftovers but I'll get these washed up and you can see how the roots look as they're washed

so you can see all the roots there there's still a little bit of dirt on them but I'll clean that off there's obviously one of the parts of the plant that we're gonna process and eat so now I've washed these roots and washed the plants in general you can see them a little bit clearer now you can see the roots just coming off the base of the plant they're the little tubes and that's really what we're gonna be cooking up and processing now other parts of the plant you can eat there's no reason why you can't eat the leaves and the stalks and the flowers as well although you know they do require some processing we talked about the toxicity of the plant a little bit earlier but being a member of the Buttercup family you know the renowned having you know sort of toxins associated with them now the toxicity of this plant is that the chemical it contains will cause blistering of the skin if bruised and rubbed all over your skin or in the contact with the mouth for example and the toxicity of the plant varies depending on the time of year you approach if you approach your very early Jan it might be lower if you approach it after it's flowered it might be lower you know in the heat of spring like that we're coming into now it might be higher because obviously that the toxicity of this plant the SAP assists nutrition getting from the root to the flower and that's what this toxic chemical does and it can cause blistering it basically makes SAP run a lot better so what we're gonna have to do is process this to make it safe now I have read that you know people have eaten the leaves of the plant while they're very young you know and atoms of salads and things and eating them but personally I wouldn't risk it I would just process the plan because heat neutralizes the toxin and makes it okay to eat so we're gonna process this now but first I need to get a fire going so we've just got to set up some cooking apparatus real quick so actually got a bit of an easier job when I'm doing some cooking

so I've made myself a very simple adjustable pot hanger there I need to turn the heat up I've got some wood nice bed of ash got my Ferro rod I brought some water out with me so I did have my suspicions about whether the water be flowing cuz things have dried out a bit obviously got my plants my tinder fungus was just cramp bulls have just picked off some fallen ash and a bit of honeysuckle bark so I should have all the components needed ready to do a bit of cooking so I'll get started some of these crumbles look dry others don't I'll certainly find out soon enough and this one's alright so - you get a fire going that it did take some time just very damp materials basically so you're sort of always trying to reach the optimum temperature so I've chopped the roots off the plant and I'm gonna bring them to a boil and I'm gonna do it twice so two changes of water bring to a boil leave for two minutes tip the water away bring to a boil again leave for two or three minutes tip away and I'm ready to eat what that is or neutralize any toxins it will leach it if anything I don't want the change of water will really help that and that last change of water at the end will make it ready to eat in my opinion I just really like the roots on this plant you know I don't really the leaves or anything else though you can cook those as well and neutralize the toxicity and eat them as I'm sure you can do with the flowers and I imagine some people do that but for me all I've done here it's just taking the plant cut it just high over the root obviously you'd wash that first this is one I've just dug up a second ago to show you popped it in the pot and this is the first boil that I'm just bringing it to now so we'll just keep an eye on it then we can change the water soon enough it's not spoiling quite nicely now I'll let that boil for a couple of minutes change the water nice this has been boiling for a couple minutes now so we'll just change the water back on for the second boil and that should be it ready to eat so I let this boil for a couple of minutes and then drain it and then they're ready to go she's been boiling for a couple minutes now so we're ready to drain the second batch of water just take that off all right okay so get these served up so at the end of the process there by boiling them we're left with some bald roots and we'll try them so a lot like rice really all sort of potato a texture you know they're not really I'm amazingly tasty but I'm sure there's more you could do to make them tastier than that you could um fry them for example I mean that method I just used there is probably really good if you're you know you're processing lots of them and you want to boil a mass of them together and make like a mashed potato substitute or rice or pasta something like that something starchy that's gonna fill you up and go alongside something else they do contain a lot of vitamin C which is great so you do benefit from that nutrition another thing I use and I keep in here no names to keep it in a slightly different container here's a bit of fat this is pig fat or bacon grease that I've just rendered down and purified a bit so I've got a frying pan here or a plate that I can put a handle on or make a handle for and use as a frying pan I might want to fry them and make little chips and that might be something a bit better suited if you've got a smaller amount and you know you want them to taste a bit better rather than mix them in with something else like mashed potato so they taste a lot better when you fry them just on their own for example yeah it tastes so much better it's obviously the bacon grease gives it some flavor and I carry some salt and pepper and various other spices and the other end so I can always spice them up a bit so they could make a decent meal provided which way you approach them for cooking but if you do want to make like um you know I can mash substitute for example it's probably better to just boil them and then mash them up with something else to give them some good flavor and provided you collect enough of them you can make a really filling mere alongside some meat or any protein or game that you bring with you or catch while you're out or fish for example if you're fishing so they do go quite well but there is another way that you can cook them if you're on the move and you really want to be quick about it so another way in which you can approach the edibles just by placing the roots and the embers of a fire and leaving it there for a good few minutes and then you can take it out and you can eat the root but I wouldn't really recommend doing it that way you do end up with a lot of grit and your mouth and it's very bitter and it's not particularly tasty although you know there might be you know a requirement for doing it that way in different parts of the world you never really know you know what scenarios people will end up him so it is an option and it is something you can do if you don't have a container or anything to cook it on and you have got a fire going and that edible plant is available to you but just make sure you wash it first if you can and leave it in there for a good few minutes ready to to bake on some good hot embers and then you can obviously eat them that way and spend some time kind of replenishing some nutrition in yourself so guys I hope that helped when approaching lesser celandine it's probably one of the more complex edibles to approach there are a lot of them out there that need processing but this one obviously has a degree of toxicity to it so it needs to be processed to eliminate that toxicity make it edible for you I'm obviously palatable you know so it's not bitter and it tastes good by boiling it you know a couple of boils or if you've got a large quantity you know you want to judge it and boil it more and more till the waters nice and clear and they look good and obviously you can do a taste test part the way through see how bitter they are how crunchy they are and then you know whether you want to sort of boil them again if they're really bitter and not to your liking and after that you can mash them up salt pepper all the rest of it if you get a bit of wood pigeon maybe you have some steak and potatoes in the woods and it does taste pretty good but you can fry them like little chips as well which is a really tasty way of doing it if you've got goose fat or bacon grease which is what I'm using at the moment because bacon grease really does hold its solidity a bit more in hot weather which we are coming into now goose fat tends to get a bit runny you know it does make them taste a bit better but if you are getting into foraging or bushcraft and you want to go out there and sustain yourself from a food perspective it's best to have a look at other edibles there are a lot out there that don't require any processing at all and they're very tasty and you can just pick them and eat them all day long and if you

take some provisions with you they go well with other provisions that you do bring out in the field so there's no shame in bringing things with you obviously I bring you know hot chocolate and salt and pepper sometimes flower with me you know in the woods to make other things with to go with game that might get for example and make myself a decent meal so it's really good coming out and doing this side of bushcraft and coming into spring it's the best time to do it so now is the time guys really to get out have a look at those edibles take an ID book with you and you know just see what's out there and try it perhaps try some of the safer ones and you know like bitter crafts for example or Sorrells they're really tasty and good ones to start with but I will be doing a lot of videos on edibles throughout this year all the way through to autumn you know focusing on one edible per video exploring its habitat ID where you might find it for example and then processing it in a few different ways and then obviously trying it and showing different ways and things you can do with it I just think it helps kind of put that edible in perspective as opposed to my other with videos which are really just me going through a whole string of them for example but I hope you enjoyed the video and appreciate you watching and if you have any questions then police feel free to comment below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can and thanks again for watching