The distinctive early leaves of pignut, one of the creamy white umbellifer flowers. (Check my post of 27th May 2017.) These leaves will wither away as the stem grows upwards. The new leaves are also finely divided but different.
It grows from a small brown knobbly tuber, which pigs and children really like. Tastes a bit like a hazel nut. The pigs can scent them out like truffles.
In Shakespeare's The Tempest, Caliban says, while offering all the best organic wild foods to Trinculo and Stefano, 'I with my long nails will dig thee pignuts.' so they were known to be good even in Elizabethan times.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I just love getting comments so go ahead.