Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Wild Food guide to Hawthorn along with all the Hawthorn containing recipes presented on this site, with 17 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 Hawthorn as a major wild food ingredient.

Hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, (also known as May, Maythorn, Quickthorn, Oneseed Hawthorn and Haw) is a small tree growing to some 10m tall which is a member of the Rosaceae (rose) family. It is native to Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia where it generally produces flowers in May and early June. The flowers develop to numerous small bright-red fruit known as Haws which are an important foodstuff for wild birds.

The hawthorn is one of the archetypical hedgerow trees of the British countryside. In the images above the tree is shown as it is in spring (with its white intensely-scented flowers) and as it is in autumn, full of the red berries that birds love so much.

What may surprise you is that young hawthorn leaves are extremely tasty and make a great addition to any salad (but it's only worth picking the really young ones). The leaf buds are also edible and are collected in the West of England to make springtime puddings. The berries (fruit) are edible and are very high in vitamin C and can be made into jams, jellies and preserves. They have a very mild apple taste but are not worthwhile in and of themselves. They are best used as a base for sauces or to bulk-out other fruit. The flower buds are also edible can be made into a spring pudding.

In addition, the flowers are edible and they can be candied, or used as garnishes or added to syrups and included in sweet puddings. If dried, the whole fruit (with seeds) can be ground. This can be used as a flour or mixed with wheat flours as an adulterant. The young shoots when used in salads have a pleasant, nutty, taste and make a good addition to springtime salads. The mature leaves, when dried can be infused in water to form a tea. The seeds, when cleared of their flesh, dried and roasted can be ground and used as a coffee substitute.

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