It's free...it's delicious...and it is everywhere at the moment.
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© Fig.1.L.Moore 'Jack by the hedge pesto with cream cheese'
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You will find this garlic mustard in field margins, road verges, hedges, river and stream banks, edges of woods and ditches. This is a native biennial. First year growth have long stalked cordate (heart shaped) leaves with regular saw-like teeth and a crinkly looking network of veins. The main stem that appears in the spring of the second year has paler green nettle like leaves. It grows tall and thin like nettles. The leaves have the distinct smell of garlic when crushed. Small white flowers (6 mm wide) appear in clusters from mid April;seed pods are long, up to 60 mm, and 2 - 3 mm thick curving out from the stem.
It is a slightly bitter plant and needs to be mixed with ingredients that accompany such as fatty meats and salt fish. However I love it mixed with a number of ingredients such as goats cheese and nettle pasta or pirogi, and/or mushroom and salmon pirogi...yum. My Polish friend taught me how to make pirogi and it's stunning in a lot of my recipes.
You can eat the leaves sparingly in salads and sandwiches, add to risottos and the flowers are also a delightful ingredient in garnishes salads. This is one of my favorite free wild edibles which you can't get in a supermarket. I have used the roots grated which is amazing and similar to horseradish mixed with yogurt and served with beef.You can even use the green seed pods as spices and use as you would as mustard seeds.
Get out and find Jack...you will be amazed and so proud of your find. Share the love with this stunning wild edible. When I first came across 'Jack' I can't tell you how liberating it was. I was taking a walk one day along a common pathway I use everyday. I looked down and thought 'that looks like Jack'. I gave it a crush between my fingers and got the unmistakable whiff. OMG I could not believe my luck. It was one of my first finds and I wanted to share it with the world. Yep I nearly shoved it up a strangers nose but I contained my excitement and shared it with my partners nose instead when I got home. Now I see it everywhere and I am sharing it with you.
If you have any 'Jack' recipes to share then please contact me I would love to hear about your experiments.
Jack pesto with cream cheese
1 handful of lightly toasted pine nuts
3 handfuls of Jack
3 cloves of garlic
1 handful of grated parmesan cheese
a few glugs of olive oil (to your taste and consistency)
black pepper
salt to taste
2 tbs lime juice
2-3 tablespoons of Philadelphia cheese (or any of your choice)
Place all ingredients into a bowl and blitz with your hand held blender or machine. It will keep longer in the fridge if you pour some olive oil over the top of it. Enjoy this with anything or as you would any pesto. I tried mine with pirogi filled with goats cheese and nettles and smoked salmon and mushroom pirogi. The photographs you see are taken when I tried this pesto with roasted butternut squash. For me the squash was too sweet with Jack but as with all my recipes you can experiment with this strong flavored pesto.
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© Fig.3. L.Moore 'Jack pesto'
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© Fig.4. L.Moore Pirogi with jack pesto
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Irving, M. (2009) The Forager Handbook: A Guide to the Edible Plants of Britain, Ebury Press, pp, 76-77
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© Fig.5. L.Moore an young Jack to scale with a ten pence piece
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