Gorse

Oh to see sunshine in a flower, on the dreariest dreich days.

Known as Conasg in Gaelic.

Gorse // Ulex spp.

Gorse is a very special plant that cheers me up and feels like home. Quite often on the West Coast of Scotland Spring is slow to arrive but this plant can singlehandedly change that. When the sun shines on the petals they release the most delightful coconut aroma which transports you to more exotic locations and leaves you feeling hopeful for the warmer days to come.

Identification

• A large evergreen bush/shrub with bright yellow flowers.

• The flowers look like pea flowers as they are members of the same family -Faboideae.

• The leaves are green, hard and spiky protecting the flowers against nibblers!

• There are three very similar species which can be treated as the same for edibility purposes.

• The purple to brown to almost black seedpods again resemble pea plants covered in silver hairs.

• Flowers can be found at any time of the year and quite often you will see many shrubs in one location provided they had the space to fill.

• It can grow in many locations like hillsides, coastline, hedgerows and woodland edges.

• ONLY the flowers and buds are edible. Many sources suggest that you should only consume small amounts due to the toxic alkaloids found in the plant. The roots, leaves, branches and seedpods should not be consumed.

• A similar looking species is Broom (pictured below) which usually flavours after the Spring flush of gorse. The flowers and buds can be eaten in a similar way.

Uses

As well as a food source for us, gorse has been used as animal fodder, fuel, clothing dye, as natural fencing and fertiliser. It works wonders on the coastline as a way of protecting and stabilising the ground. It is a nitrogen fixer and spreads across poor spoils. Apparently the spiky branches were used to clean chimneys and floors. Imagine that.

“When Gorse is out of bloom, Kissing’s out of fashion.”

A beautiful old proverb referring to the fact that gorse can be in flower every month of the year. There are other mentions of it in folklore. People used to think that it could ward off evil spirits and would hang gorse wreaths on May day to stop the witches visiting.

Wildlife

Gorse attracts many beasties so (as ever) it's important to leave plenty of flowers for them. There is one visitor that I absolutely love. This is the beautiful green hairstreak butterfly. They are very small and very flitty so you need to get your eye in to spot them.

Harvesting

Like with all flowers, try to pick them on a sunny morning. It is very hard to avoid the spikes which you will want to do as they are painful. Over the years I have perfected a harvesting technique that causes minimal damage to the plant and to me! I find branches laden with flowers and run my fingers and thumb in an upward motion towards the tip. This way you move with the spikes and avoid their sharp ends. Well, most of the time.

Preservation

They are very easy to dry and doing so will encourage the coconut/vanilla flavour. I always try and keep a jar to hand.

Recipes and thoughts

In it's raw state, I love to add gorse flowers to salads and cakes. They make a great garnish.

As a dried ingredient I find it slightly more flavoursome. I tend to think about recipes with coconut and use it in those. It's lovely in coconut rice for example and the cake above is a coconut loaf. Full exclosure, I have not been brave enough to substitute the coconut completely with gorse. I omit some of the volume and replace that with petals.

When the garden meets the wild

This is a salad of gorse, violets, lime leaves, elm samaras, chives and calendula. Finished with a flash of elderberry balsamic. Yum!

Drinking gorse is the way forward. From wine, liqueurs and beer to fragrant teas, it is so versatile. I like to use gorse in a flower mix to make mead and it is a useful ingredient to add with other florals when making homemade champagne (like elderflower fizz). You can make cordial with it but I don't find the flavour strong enough to bother.

Gorse and lime flower fizz

If you can find gorse with a view I am sure that it tastes even sweeter. This is plant you can find in abundance so fill a bag and get playing.

Thanks for reading. Please check out my other blogs for more wild food stories, tips and descriptions.