Wild plants conjure up thoughts of a quiet country road menaced by man-eating triffids but the truth for implacable carnivores is far more terrible than that. Much of France has gone vegetarian, seduced by the extraordinary range of natural vegetable organisms that can be turned into succulent dishes.  

 

A typical example of these wild plant festivals, now all the rage, took place recently at the small village of La Sauvetat-de-Savères in the Lot-et-Garonne. A total of 225 visitors joined 40 local residents in a seven-course meal so exotic that no ordinary dictionary would contain the words needed to translate most of the dishes into English.

 

It began with three different apéritifs: dandelion root, camomile and periwinkle, served with toasts with “beurre de cardamine” (a kind of cress made from the crushed leaves of the cuckoo flower) and small daisies to nibble.
Followed by an extraordinary menu:
1^st   Velouté aux cinq côtes (soup with dandelion, plantain, nettle, wild onions and potato)
2^nd   Salade folle de la prairie (salad with leaves of dandelion, plantain, violet, poppy, mallow, borage and pimpernel - what a mixture !)
3^rd   Le flan jaune d’or (tart of dandelion petals)
4^th   Magret (no meal in the French countryside is complete without breast of duck !) aux 3 purées: “ortigot” made with potato and nettle, then two others made with consoude (comfrey) and pulmonaire (lungwort), which sound like ingredients making up the more unpleasant spells in a Harry Potter story! For those who like to delve deeper into these plants found on the edge of ditches, both are members of the borage family. Comfrey has hairy leaves and the lungwort leaves are spotted.
5^th   Montagne aux 2 confitures (goat’s cheese with elder jam and dandelion)
6^th   Glace à la lavande (lavender ice cream)
7^th   Tarte au calendula (calendula tart)
Three breads were served with the meal: classic nettle bread, thyme bread and a new lavender bread.

 

The festivals themselves have an even wider range of produce. What distinguishes the stall-holders is a rare passion for their produce: bamboo, bonsai, cactus, medicinal plants, aromatic plants, perennial plants, honey and derivatives of honey, home-made syrups, herbal teas, herbalists with naturopaths promoting natural healing, floral compositions, leather and wool products and a huge range of unusual alcoholic drinks. Extravagant claims are made for some of the plants. Take dandelion, for instance. Every part of the plant is said to have beneficial properties, the root, the flower, the leaves, even the buds. Rich in vitamin C and in beta-carotene, the nutrient found in yellow plants and vegetables, it claims to relieve arthritis, gout, eczema and even varicose veins.

 

So, tuck into the periwinkle and the lungwort and don’t blame us if you turn into a toad on the way home.