Country Life

Not to be sniffed at

WILD garlic. . Ramsons. Gypsy’s onions, bear leek, snake’s food and stinking Jenny. Call it what you will, this is the first glorious whiff of spring, a heady, pungent and intoxicating odour that gets the sap rising and the taste buds priapic with lust. Forget honeysuckle, roses and jasmine. Nope, this is a scent to truly stir the senses, primal, ancient and powerful, the essence of damp dells and shady bowers, of ancient woods and hidden streams. It’s

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Country Life

Country Life3 min read
A King’s Ramsons
HISTORICALLY consumed only in times of famine, local names reflect the British disdain for wild garlic—Devil’s posey, onion stinkers, stinking Jenny, snake’s food and more. Garlic (the cultivated form, at least) gained a little traction in Victorian
Country Life3 min read
Don’t Get Caught With Your Apple-catchers Down
Big knickers. The opposite of a G-string. Somewhere you could also stash a few pieces of fruit, if the occasion called for it. A certain lingering dampness in the air. The type of weather that tricks you into leaving your coat at home, then soaks you
Country Life9 min read
Town & Country
TURNS out the staff of COUNTRY LIFE can be quite interesting when we want to be. Editor Mark Hedges can currently be heard extolling the virtues of the countryside in Winkworth’s latest Property Exchange podcast, presented by Anne Ashworth. ‘It smell

Related Books & Audiobooks