Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Hairy Bittercress along with all the Hairy Bittercress containing recipes presented on this site, with 2 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Hairy Bittercress recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Hairy Bittercress as a major wild food ingredient.

Hairy Bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta, (also known as bittercress, land-cress and lamb's cress) is a winter annual member of the Brassicaceae (mustard) family which is native to Europe and Asia (though it has been introduced as a weed to North America. The plant germinates in the Autumn and remains green throughout the winter months. It flowers from quite early in the Spring until the Autumn. The small white flowers are borne in a corymb on wiry green stems, soon followed by the seeds and often continuing to flower as the first seeds ripen. The seed are borne in siliquae which, as with many Brassica species, will burst explosively, often when touched, sending the seeds flying far from the parent plant.

Hairy bittercress likes damp, freshly-disturbed soil and thus grows extensively as a weed in gardens. Because it remains green throughout the winter this is an important plant for the wild forager as it provides much-needed greens through the winter month though the best time to pick is during January and February. The plant is, as its name suggests, bitter in flavour and benefits from being gently wilted in heavily-salted water. This tempers the bitterness and yields a vegetable somewhat reminiscent of cauliflower greens.