Kitchen Garden Forum

Did anybody see the mention of Alexander's as a "subsistance" food in the Tudor Monastery Farm programme on BBC 2 last night? . It looked like some kind of green weed/wild plant. Has anybody grown it or eaten it ? I wasn,t sure from the reference on the programme whether you were supposed to eat it as a salad or cook it as greens.

I have eaten it, but I haven't grown it because it's a common enough plant of our highways and hedgerows. Personally I find it repellant, but then I am averse to most Umbellifers — parsley, parsnips, angelica and their like (with the exception of carrots and coriander). It can be eaten raw or cooked. It's currently the "in thing" for trendy chefs who like their foraged greens. Ground elder is finding a place on some high-dining menus at the moment, too, but that's another one, from the same family, I'd rather avoid.

They ate a lot of things we don't bother with now, probably because they shoot up early and it's better than starving...