Foraged Garlic Butter with Beech Group

Late spring is a wonderful time to forage for edible leaves. In previous sessions, Beech group had tried some wild garlic and garlic mustard. They had discussed how the leaves could be used in cooking and it was agreed that we could use them to make our own garlic butter. So this week, we decided to do exactly that. We filled jars half full with whipping cream and a little salt and set about shaking them (to turn the cream to butter) on our walk to the woods. 


By the time we had reached the entrance to the woods, the buttermilk had begun to separate from the butter solids. We collected a few leaves of garlic mustard and wild garlic, rinsed them and added them to the jars (pouring off the buttermilk as it separated). Kieran supervised the building and lighting of the fire. 

With us, we had brought a selection of different breads (bannock, pitta, gluten-free, bagels) to toast over the fire and serve with our garlic butter. A few of the children enjoyed the garlic butter so much that they collected some more garlic mustard leaves to try it at home. Some of the children preferred the plain butter, but we all agreed it was great fun making it.