Cleavers (Galium aparine) is best known as that weed you can stick onto your clothes – but it has a history of herbal use as a purifying tonic. Added to homemade lemonade it makes a refreshing and astringent drink.| Wild Concoctions
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I'm quite ridiculously proud of myself for thinking of this idea, although I'm sure I'm not the first! Kawakawa berries - which are adorning many female kawakawa bushes around Wellington at the moment - taste to me like a cross between passionfruit and hot black pepper. And they go beautifully with dark chocolate.| Wild Concoctions
Actually you can make these from any foraged greens, but puha lends itself especially well. (And I like the alliteration.) If you are using big stalks of puha, while you wash it, bruise the stalks a bit to let the bitter white sap out.| Wild Concoctions
As with the basic junket recipe below, you can of course use a different kind of rennet, and adapt the temperatures and quantities to that.| Wild Concoctions
Junket is a delicious dessert, as well as classic invalid food.| Wild Concoctions
It's not a recipe, but I stumbled on this idea while tearing my hair out over the hordes of little critters in our elderflowers the other day. I've since used this method with roses as well.| Wild Concoctions
I was going to call it a root vege curry, but then I realised potatoes and onions are not officially roots, so I had to go a bit more general.| Wild Concoctions
This has been a big hit in our family. The helping below looks sparser than I would have liked. Stealthy fingers got to the plate before I managed to take a photo ...| Wild Concoctions
This is a custard ice-cream infused with kawakawa leaves. It's delicious, but you don't want to have too much of it at one time. Kawakawa is not just an amazing culinary herb, but a potent medicinal that makes your mouth tingly. (Although if you leave the ice-cream a couple of days after making it, some of the mouth-tingling properties disappear.)| Wild Concoctions
This deliciously addictive recipe has done the rounds on the internet. The online English version originated with Clothilde Dusoulier at Chocolate and Zucchini. We’ve adapted it to our own resources (home-fermented kefir, no agave, no icecream maker) and our own needs (two family members don’t like bits of lemon zest in their ice cream!)| Wild Concoctions