Wild herbs

Wild herbs are the underestimated cousins of our cultivated vegetables. They grow and thrive without human intervention - in forests, on roadsides, in meadows, in parks and even in your own garden. What is often pulled out of the ground as a weed and ends up on the compost heap is a primal ingredient for vital raw food cuisine - and it's completely free!

Wild herbs: all the power of nature

Wild herbs are plants that have never been cultivated by humans. They have always been left to their own devices and defy the challenges of nature. This natural development makes wild herbs exceptionally robust and resilient. They are a vital and original addition to our diet.

Wild herbs: use in the kitchen

Many wild herbs are excellent for use in the kitchen. They go well in salads, pestos, green smoothies, freshly pressed juices, cashew herb cream cheese, raw food soups or dips.

Some wild herbs have an intense and spicy flavour. If you find them too bitter at first, you can combine them with fruit or vegetables and slowly get used to them. Prepare a mixed salad, for example, in which you mix in wild herb flowers and leaves. Over time, you will find out which combinations taste best to you.

You can of course also drink your wild herbs - in juices or green smoothies. This is a great way to increase the chlorophyll content in your diet. Combine the wild herbs with fresh seasonal fruit and you have a fruity, fresh drink with a hint of "green" in the flavour.

Green smoothies with wild herbs

Green smoothies are a great way to incorporate wild herbs into your diet. They are quick to prepare, varied and provide a wholesome meal.

For wild herb beginners, it is advisable to slowly increase the proportion of wild herbs in the smoothie. Start with a few leaves and lots of fruit. Then increase the proportion of wild herbs from smoothie to smoothie until you have found the right balance for you.

Wild herbs are a big challenge for some blenders. They often fail because of the fibrous parts of the plant. This leaves behind coarse pieces that you have to chew on while drinking.

A smoothie is not just about good flavour alone. The consistency is a decisive factor in whether the drinking experience is enjoyable or whether it is categorised as "I don't like it". For uniquely smooth and creamy blending results, we recommend a high-performance blender. Only it has the power to completely chop fibrous herbs, hard vegetables or fruit stones.

We recommend the high-performance blenders from Vitamix or bianco di puro. Thanks to their powerful motor, you can effortlessly achieve perfect blending results even with stubborn ingredients.

The special shape of the blender jug, patented by Vitamix, guides the food to the blade block, where it is powerfully chopped and pureed. The blades grip the stems and leaves of wild herbs with ease and blend them to a fine, homogeneous consistency.

Juices with wild herbs

Another way to process wild herbs is to juice them. A gently pressed juice made from wild greens adds variety to your daily beverage selection and is a naturally flavoursome boost of freshness at any time of year. Enjoyed on its own, it is often too bitter for many people. However, mixed with sweet fruit, you can soften the intense flavour very well.

You can also enhance fresh vegetable juices with wild herbs and enjoy the original flavour experience. Work your way up slowly and gradually increase the proportion of herbs in your juices.

Anyone who wants to juice wild herbs will sooner or later ask themselves the question: "Which juicer is best suited?" Low-speed juicers are the best choice for juicing wild herbs. In general, every pressed product should be processed as gently as possible.

For careful handling of the ingredients, we recommend a juicer with a press screw, twin press rollers or a cutting unit with a low number of revolutions. The pressed product is first processed into a pulp and then pressed through a sieve. With this method, you can achieve a high juice yield of very good quality.

Centrifugal juicers are less suitable for juicing wild herbs. Due to their high rotational speed and the centrifugal spinning forces, a lot of oxygen is whirled in, which causes the juice to oxidise more quickly.

Devices with press screw technology are:

• the Omega Juicers VSJ843
• the Omega Juicers 8226/8227
• the Slowstar juicer
• the Solostar 4 juicer
• the Z-Star manual juicer

Juicers with twin press rollers:

• the Greenstar Pro juicer
• the Green Star Elite juicer

An appliance that works with an effective cutting unit:

• the Champion juicer

The Champion juicer is a personal recommendation from Dr Norman W. Walker - raw food pioneer and author of the book "Fresh fruit and vegetable juices". The Champion juicer - just like all other juicers and juice extractors in our range - first processes the pressed product very gently into a pulp and then presses it through a sieve.

These juicers are ideal for juicing wild herbs. They cope excellently with the fibre-rich plants and dispose of the resulting fibrous matter via the pulp outlet.

Tips for juicing wild herbs

There are a few things to bear in mind when juicing wild herbs to ensure that the joy of juicing does not turn into juice frustration. We have put together 3 tips for you so that you can get to work with pleasure:

• Our appliances work at low speeds. Don't put in too much juice at once and juice slowly.
• Keep an eye on the pomace outlet. If a blockage occurs, switch off the appliance, dismantle the juicing attachment and roughly clean the appliance to remove any fibres. You can then continue juicing.
• If you do not drink your freshly squeezed juice immediately, pour it into an airtight container (e.g. glass bottle or thermo mug). The amount of juice should correspond to the fill level of the container - this prevents unnecessary oxygen from being trapped. Store the juice in the fridge and consume it within 24 hours.

Recognising wild herbs

If you've never collected wild herbs before, you'll be amazed at what you discover: "I've walked past here a thousand times, but I've never noticed the goose cinquefoil." On guided herb tours, you will learn from knowledgeable wild herb experts where ground ivy grows, how best to pick a nettle or why goutweed should be picked from the centre of a goutweed field and not from the edge.

Hunting for wild herbs is also fun on your own. With an identification book, you can explore your surroundings, wander through the forest and across meadows and discover the wild flora on your own.

Tip: If you are travelling alone and are not one hundred percent sure that you have the right plant in front of you, it is better to leave it. Some poisonous herbs look very similar to their edible doppelgangers. You can also take a photo of the plant and seek advice from an herbalist or on a relevant internet forum.

Where can I find wild herbs?

In theory, you can collect wild herbs wherever they grow. But whether you really want to eat them is another matter. Avoid unpleasant surprises by following our 8 collection tips:

• Collect wild herbs
• not on popular dog walking routes
• not directly next to trees
• not in fields and meadows that are fertilised
• far away from roads
• not on railway embankments
• not on pastures
• not in higher places in the forest
• not at the edge of the forest

Good places to collect wild herbs are forests and meadows that are far away from roads and conventional farming. In the case of wild orchards, you should enquire with the owner before collecting whether the trees are sprayed.

A hiking map will help you to explore your surroundings. Explore your surroundings and be curious to see which wild herbs you discover.

How city dwellers get their wild herbs

If you live in the city, meadows and forests are not right on your doorstep. To get your daily portion of wild herbs anyway, you simply have to think a little differently.

Use the weekend to get out into nature - a hiking map is also an advantage here. Collect as many wild herbs as you need for the week. You can find out how best to store them in -> How best to store wild herbs?

Another way for city dwellers to obtain wild herbs is by speciality mail order. Here you can conveniently order the desired wild herb mixtures online and have them delivered directly to your home. You need to have enough confidence in the supplier that the herbs are really fresh and free from pesticides or animal faeces.

If you collect your own wild herbs:

• you know that the wild herbs are absolutely fresh when you use them in the kitchen
• you can be sure that the wild herbs are free from animal droppings, fertilisers and pesticides
• learn to distinguish between edible and inedible wild herbs

When can you start collecting the first wild herbs?

The good news is that you can enjoy fresh, young leaves even in winter! This is because you can collect many types of wild herbs all year round - even in frost and snow. The plants are not so easy to find under the white splendour, but if you have already noted the places where your wild favourites grow, this is not a particular obstacle.

In addition to chickweed, ribwort plantain, dandelion, ground ivy and yarrow, in winter you will also find wild chives, wild strawberry leaves, creeping cinquefoil, garlic rocket, sorrel, comfrey, daisies, skipping foamwort, field verbena and forget-me-nots. If you prefer something a little stronger, collect the roots of dandelion or horseradish.

Which wild herbs grow when?

The wonderful world of wild plants presents us with many different forms and flavours all year round. Spring and summer are the high season for wild herbs. But you can find all kinds of wild delicacies in every season. Nature takes good care of us!

With our wild herb factsheets in the encyclopaedia, we present you with a clear overview of the most popular edible wild plants - with a photo, harvest period, occurrence and possible uses.

Find out everything you need to know about your favourite wild herbs here. This means you are always in the right place at the right (harvest) time and can enrich your diet with flavoursome ingredients straight from nature.

Which wild herbs taste good?

Herbs are like clothes, music or art: tastes are different. Wild plants often have a more intense flavour than cultivated vegetables. Many recipes therefore combine wild herbs with conventional vegetables and bring out their special flavours.

Among the wild herbs you will find tart, pungent, sweet and mild flavours. Chickweed, for example, tastes like young corn, burnet tastes like cucumber and sorrel - as the name suggests - has a sour flavour. Dandelion and its leaves are nutty and slightly bitter, the flowers of ribwort plantain taste like mushrooms and daisies have a bitter flavour with a sour note. Yarrow adds a spicy, bitter flavour to the range of wild herbs, while meadowfoam has a hint of cress.

What is the best way to store wild herbs?

If you are not going to use the herbs you have collected straight away, you can store them in a sealable plastic bag in the fridge. Bags with zip fasteners are particularly suitable. If you keep the wild herbs moist, they can easily be stored in the fridge for 3 days or longer.

If you don't want to use plastic, you can also wrap your herbs in a damp kitchen towel and place them in the fridge. Wild herbs that you pick with stems can be placed in a glass of water and also kept in the fridge. This is possible with ground ivy, stinging nettle and goutweed, for example.

The roots and bulbs of wild herbs can be stored for several months in the right conditions. Dig them out of the ground with a spade in autumn and place them in a mixture of dry quartz sand and peat. Remove the leaves beforehand, otherwise they will rot, and cover the roots and bulbs with the sand and peat mixture. The wild vegetables will keep for 3 to 4 months in a cool, dark place with relatively high humidity.

Drying wild herbs

Drying is a very gentle preservation method. You can use dried wild herbs for seasoning mixes or teas. It is important that the temperature does not exceed 40°C during drying so that the ingredients are preserved as well as possible.

If the plant parts are still damp, dab them carefully with a kitchen towel. Then place the wild herbs on a wire rack and dry them in the oven at a maximum temperature of 40°C. The oven door must remain ajar to allow the moisture to escape. Tip: Insert a wooden spoon between the oven and the lid.

If you have a dehydrator at home, you can also use it to dry the wild herbs. It is important that the process proceeds as quickly as possible, that the herbs are dried without interruption and that the temperature does not rise above 40°C.

All the dehydrators we offer in our shop dry your valuable dried goods gently and in raw food quality. Spread the plants out directly on the dehydrator grids or first place a dehydrating film on which you spread the herbs.

The dehydrators from Sedona, Excalibur, Tribest and Wartmann fulfil the requirements for gentle drying and are ideal for preserving your home-collected wild herbs.

When they rustle, the leaves are dry and can be filled into airtight storage jars. To save space in the jars, you can crumble the dried wild herbs a little with your fingers before adding them.

Another option is air drying. Tie the herbs together in bundles and hang them upside down in an airy place. The herbs should not hang in the sun. This method takes a little longer than drying in a dehydrator. In addition, the environment can cause dust to settle on the herbs or spiders may use the bundles of herbs to build their webs.

Preserving wild herbs in oil

Wild herb flowers and buds preserved in oil are an eye-catcher on the shelf, a delicacy on the plate and a very special gift for friends and family.

Boil the jars and lids thoroughly before filling them. They must be absolutely clean, otherwise mould will form and you will have to throw the preserves away.

Pour cold-pressed oil and wild herbs into the jar and store it in a cool, dark place. The pickled wild herbs will keep for up to a year.

Pickling wild herbs in vinegar

Wild herbs pickled in vinegar are a welcome change and a special treat for the palate. Fill the previously boiled and clean preserving jar with the desired wild herbs and pour in a good vinegar. If sealed airtight and stored in a cool, dark place, the pickled wild herbs will keep for up to a year.

Pickling wild herbs

We know sauerkraut as the classic lactic-fermented vegetable. In the past, it was common practice to pickle leafy vegetables in lactic acid. This method is not only particularly gentle. From a nutritional and physiological point of view, this is the most valuable way of preserving vegetables.

To pickle wild herbs in lactic acid, you will need a wild leafy herb - for example goutweed, screw-top or preserving jars and about 2 tablespoons of Himalayan or sea salt.

Tip: Do not use table salt with added iodine, as this hinders lactic acid fermentation.

Cut the wild herbs into strips, place them in a large bowl together with the salt and knead everything well until liquid is released. Once the leaves are covered in juice, the jars come into play.

The jars must be rinsed out with hot water and cleaned before filling. Otherwise there is a risk of mould! Now fill the jars with the wild herbs. The leaves must be completely covered with liquid. If there is not enough juice, top up with clear water.

Leave the jars at room temperature (14-18°C) for about a week to ten days. During this phase, the lactic acid fermentation starts. Then place the pickled herb in the fridge or in a cool place in the cellar for 4 to 6 weeks.

We hope you enjoy your forays into nature and experimenting with wild herbs in the kitchen.