Food for Free!

Roger Snook of East London Nature was looking for mosses recently and noticed three men coming out from under the concrete bridge over the Roding which gives access from the recreation grounds on the Ilford side into the Exchange lands. They all had with them plastic bags which were stuffed full of something, so he decided to brave asking one of them what they'd - evidently - been collecting.

It was explained that they were collecting what they called "Wild Brocolli" for an Italian restaurant possibly somewhere near Gants Hill. Roger thought that it looked like some sort of brassica, and I suspect that it is Brassica rapa var. sylvestris, or Bargeman's Cabbage, which grows in profusion along the river banks. Now it really does grow in profusion along there, but then I understand that primroses used to frequently be found by English roadsides -  until they were all picked - and Roger is always telling me how sparse the fungi growth is now in Epping Forest - now that they are all harvested for restaurants!

This brassica incident took place at much the same time as Kathy Hartnett of the Wren Group and I, having spotted a large and impressive clump of potential comfrey in the Exchange Lands, returned a week or so later to find that all of the growth had been taken down to ground-level. I am told that this is used to make an excellent wet-compost, or may be used medicinally. I have seen groups of people on the Plain in Wanstead Park harvesting Common Sorrel, it is oft reported that fish are taken from the lakes in the Park and elsewhere, and even birds have been known to disappear off the lakes.

I reported on this website some time ago how I'd listened to a R4 programme (click here) that not only talked about mushrooms taken from the Forest, but also included a recorded comment from a stallholder at the City of London's own Spitalfield Market that sounded very much like he were a perpetrator. Just a few days ago there was a "Women's Hour" programme that dealt with the different types of "Wild Garlic" - including Ramsons - that could (and should?) be used for cooking. When we are faced with national broadcasts that promote food for free backed up by an increasing number of people that have been used to obtaining much of it that way - then some of our wildlife may be in trouble!

Paul Ferris, 19th April