Vegetable chat

Pretext to this conversation = I have been foraging once. Once.

This is a conversation I had with some of the other volunteers yesterday at Ham House.

Volunteer 1: "Oo, this asparagus is huge! Is it from the kitchen garden?"

Me: "Yeh. The gardeners just brought it over. It's amazing, isn't it?"





Volunteer 2: "I don't know how they've got it so soon either. The warm weather hasn't been here long."

Volunteer 1: "The cabbage in my vegetable patch has only just put in an appearance and my cherry tomatoes are yet to arrive."

Volunteer 2: "Mine have only just started to grow and are still really small."

Me: "I know what you mean. The long cold winter has meant hardly anything has grown."

Volunteer 2: "Yeh."

Me: "I mean, the best thing I've found has been nettles, because the winter doesn't affect them."

Volunteer 1: "Nettles?"

Me: *all knowledgeable* "Yehhhhh. They're great. I make nettle soup with them or steam them and have them as a vegetable with my dinner."

Volunteer 2: "That sounds interesting."

Me: *super casual* "O, I'm always doing it. It's so easy. I just come to the river with a glove and a tupperware box. I love it. I forage loads of stuff. Some people call me Madame Forager, actually."

Volunteer 1: "O, right. What other stuff do you get?"

Me: *panic* "O, there's loads of things about. Loads. Edible flowers... Sorrel.... Nettles...."

Volunteer 2: "Wow, that's brilliant."

Me: "It is, yeh. I love it."