Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Wild Food guide to Heather along with all the Heather containing recipes presented on this site, with 11 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 Heather as a major wild food ingredient.

Almost all Britain's heathland is covered in heather which is generally heathland heather (Calluna vulgaris), also known as Scotch Heather. This is a rather scrubby shrub, with attractive pink to lilac flowers. The plant's range covers most of Europe, south to Northwest Morocco. It is an ericaceous shrub and prefers moist, acidic, soils. It also tolerates maritime environments well.

Calluna vulgaris is the sole member of the genus Calluna and is a low-growing perennial shrub growing to 20 to 50cm tall, or rarely to 1m and taller. It iss found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade. It is the dominant plant in most heathland and moorland in Europe, and in some bog vegetation and acidic pine and oak woodland. It is tolerant of grazing and regenerates following occasional burning, and is often managed in nature reserves and grouse moors by sheep or cattle grazing, and also by light burning.

The young tips of heather can be used to flavour and bitter ale or mead (see this recipe for heather ale and this recipe for heather mead).

The flowers are also edible and make a colourful addition to a hedgerow salad or a boiled pudding. If you have an acid well-drained soil then you can use heather to cover a wall or as part of a rockery with the benefit that you can use the flowers in your cookery!

The flower stems can be infused in boiling water to make a tisane. Heather tips and heather flower stems have been used for centuries to make mead (particularly Celtic meads) and as a bittering agent for beer and ales.

In traditional Scottish cookery heather is sometimes used as an aromatic stuffing for chicken.

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