Getting past the hungry gap

Dandelion, burdock & blood tonics for the spring equinox.

It’s officially spring. I love winter farmers’ markets; crops heaped up on stalls often have a coating of field frost on them, and the sweetness of root vegetables and the cabbage family are really appreciated. But there’s no getting away from the positivity of lighter mornings, bird song, blossom and a return to the abundance of spring and summer.  

I’ve always thought that recipes for pasta primavera are stretching credibility. The recipe was only invented in the 1970’s at a New York Italian restaurant, and the word seems to have become embedded as a cookery term. The original included courgettes and peas, vegetables that don’t appear until early Summer. At this time of the year sprouting broccoli is very welcome and we’re lucky if we can find early broad beans and asparagus.

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UK farmers face a difficult few months as the hungry gap is waiting in the wings with hungry jaws.

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We’re approaching the hungry gap. A period that not so long ago for most of the population would have meant a restricted diet until the first green shoots could be harvested or foraged. Stores of Winter roots and apples are running out, new crops can’t be planted until the soil is warm enough, and spring crops aren’t ready to be harvested. It’s not all doom and gloom. Parsley is verdant, spring onions are on show, rhubarb is a welcome pink blush and sprouting broccoli & wild garlic are seasonal highlights. Obviously if you only shop in supermarkets, there’s never a hungry gap.

Meanwhile, UK farmers face a difficult few months as the hungry gap is waiting in the wings with hungry jaws. You’ll notice it the most on organic and bio-dynamic vegetable stalls at farmers markets.

At the equinox on the 20^th March, it’s traditional in Wiltshire to drink dandelion and burdock. The recipe goes back to medieval times, to the cleansing herbs eaten or drunk after the bland winter diet.  Apocryphal and totally unverified tales say that St Thomas Aquinas invented it, reaching for the first herbs at his feet. I’m more inclined to put the recipe down to trial and error and women herbalists who lived by their skills and knowledge.

Dandelion root helps cleanse the liver whilst the leaf helps remove toxins through the urine. Burdock is a powerful tissue cleanser.

If you can’t get hold of either, nettle leaves are known as a blood tonic with many essential minerals.

American root beer is a relation of dandelion and burdock. And one of my favourite London shops, the herbalists Baldwin’s at Elephant and castle still serves sarsaparilla. It’s so popular that some years ago the company started to produce it in bottles and it’s now available all over the UK. Sarsaprilla is another detoxifying plant. Found in Central and South America, it found its way to Europe in the 16^th Century, gaining popularity as a supposed cure for syphilis! Historically, it’s been used as a natural blood purifyer.

For me, root beer was an alien brew drunk by characters in the Snoopy & Charlie Brown cartoons. I love the fact that it shares its history with Dandelion & Burdock.

If there’s a north-south Dandelion & Burdock divide, it could be something to do with the history of temperance bars.

From the 1830’s onwards, these bars thrived in Lancashire, especially in towns with a strong Methodist following. One still exists, Fitzpatrick’s Temperance Bar where sarsaparilla has been made since 1890. Mawson’s in Oldham continues to produce soft drinks with a similar traditional character including cream soda and sarsaparilla. No-one would claim any health benefits for them, nevertheless the flavours; ginger, liquorice, and aniseed are delicious.

The other dominant flavour in these drinks is usually sassafras or wintergreen, both now derived artificially rather than from the plant itself, in part because during the 1960s safrole, the major component of the volatile oil of sassafras, was found to be carcinogenic. Dandelion and burdock is most similar in flavour to sarsaparilla. Thanks to companies such as Fentimans, the drink has increased in popularity. There is even a dandelion and burdock bitters for cocktails produced by Amazing Botanicals man Adam Elan-Elmegrab

Fitzpatricks calls itself the last temperance bar, but it’s good to know that there are other bars focusing on non alcoholic drinks. Unlikely as it is that many of us are drinking dandelion and burdock to purify our blood, it’s the end of winter. Cheers to that and to our hard working farmers.