Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Wild Food guide to Cleavers along with all the Cleavers containing recipes presented on this site, with 4 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 Cornish recipes added to this site.

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

Cleavers, Galium aparine represents a species of annual herbaceous plants in the family Rubiaceae (madder and coffee family) which is variously known as cleavers, rough corn bedstraw, roughfruit corn bedstraw, and corn cleavers. Anyone who's been walking in rough woodland will instantly recogize the bedstraw plant as the tendrils that clamber up banks and hedgerows. The stem of the plant (and the fruit) is covered in barbs that hook onto clothing. The leaves are formed from six to eight lobes and project laterally in whorls from the stems. The flowers appear in thin clusters of white corollas. The fruit are spherical nutlets hanging in pairs at the leaf axils.

Cleavers, G tricornutum is an annual herbaceous plant with a trailing or climbing aspect, where the tender young shoots are edible, either raw or cooked as a pot-herb (as it ages, it becomes bitter). Young growing tips make an excellent base for soups. The older stems can be dried for making tisanes and the seeds can be lightly roasted as a surprisingly good coffee substitute. I have also heard reports that the immature fruit are also edible, but have not personally tried them.

The plant is edible and the tender young shoot tips (before they become fibrous), can be finely chopped for inclusion into salads. Young stems and leaves can be cooked as a potherb (by boiling and then chopping) and can be cooked as a leafy green or it can be used as the base for soups and stews (older stems become stringy). The next time you're grubbing this weed from your garden, why not try eating it rather than throwing it on your compost heap?

Surprisingly the dried seeds of cleavers make one of the best coffee substitutes I've come across (maybe not so surprising, as cleavers is a member of the coffee family)... simply take the mature seeds, dry them in the sun then roast lightly in a low oven before grinding. As well as the leaves, the seeds are also edible. These seeds can also be roasted and ground as a coffee substitute. The whole plant, when dried, can be prepared as a decoction and drunk like tea.

References:

[1]. David Evans Notes from field observations, tastings and cookery experiments.
[2]. Huxley, A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992
[3]. Tanaka, T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World.
[4]. Lim T.K. Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants, Vols 1–8.
[5]. Thomas, G. S. Perennial Garden Plants
[6]. Milner, E. Trees of Britain and Ireland
[7]. Rose, F. & O'Reilly, C. The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) – How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland
[8]. Streeter, D. & Garrard, I. The Wild Flowers of the British Isles
[9]. Clapham, A.R.; Tutin, T.G. & Moore, D.M. Flora of the British Isles
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[11]. Jordan, P. & Wheeler, S. The Complete Book of Mushrooms: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Edible Mushrooms
[12]. Bunker, F.; Brodie, J.A.; Maggs, C.A. & Bunker, A. Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland.
[13]. Facciola, S. Cornucopia — A Source Book of Edible Plants