Normally just hearing this word is enough to make me sneeze. Both John and I get runny eyes and noses when we cycle through clouds of pollen. We mostly get it from grass. But this weekend we’ve had a pollen-positive experience!
Many trees are producing catkins right now, for example the Hazel. Someone called them “the bananas of the north” 😆. You can see why though:
These catkins are the male flowers, producing pollen that travel to the female flowers on the wind. The good news for us foragers: they are edible! As they are essentially providing half the building blocks for a seed (and hence, a new tree), these little ‘bananas’ are quite nutritious. I dried them out on our stove and then crumbled them up. This morning it made a tasty (slightly nutty) cereal topper.
Other trees in bloom are the Larches. Their female flowers are delicate and spectacularly coloured, quite unexpectedly so. They’re also edible but I find them too beautiful to pick.
John and I walked on Hill of Fare today. Immersed in a heather-granite-pine landscape, my soul got infused with the Cairngorm scent and I felt deeply happy.
We’re bracing ourselves for another round of snow, so the images below will have to get us through the week. Have a good one and stay warm!
The healthy forager 