Free food no.3?

Can anyone tell me how to identify Japanese Knotweed in the UK?  Does it have any look-a-likelies this side of the pond?  I know it's edible but all the sites I've looked at are US ones.  All help gratefully received. 

Free food no.2

Dandilion leaves. I have nothing to report about this, as on our recent walk to the meadow I was forbidden from collecting them by my husband worrying overly that dogs had weed on them.

Of course they would have been weed on. If you were worried about that you wouldn't eat anything!

I was planning to put them in a salad... Maybe he'd feel better if I boiled/sauteed the hell out of them before eating.

Anyway, where we were, the flowers were just coming, and apparently you're best picking them before flowers appear. All is not lost however, you can also harvest in late autumn and even use the flowers (see here).

Free food no.1

Don't these look lovely? Perhaps not, but stinging nettles are a powerful source of vitamin A, iron, calcium, flavinoids, the list goes on... They are of course also free. What's to lose?

Cover up well when picking them, and choose the top, young leaves (they're a more vibrant green than the old ones). Now is a great time to pick them before they get too old. I got my nettles from an obliging field in Wytham.

Here I am with my nettles in a bowl of water. I'm looking for intruders, discarding tough stems, black bits and curled up leaves.

Don't throw away the bits you have discarded. I'm told that nettles left in a bucket of water until they stink is nature's own plant food. And that's free too, although I think my neighbours might have something to say about that little project...

Here are my nettles, rinsed in clean water, ready to use.

I looked up a couple of very different recipes, and so in the end decided to make a veggie soup as I would normally make it, but without too many additions as I was interested what the flavour would be.

Onions and garlic...

Add a large chopped carrot and a few sticks of celery...

Don't forget some potato to thicken...

Add your nettles, stock and simmer for about 20 mins. It's this bit that kills the sting. At this point I had to change pans because of the non-wilting surprise (see below).

Whiz it up and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice...

Voila!

The first thing to say is that it doesn't wilt like spinach; nettles are quite a lot more robust. So actually making soup like this I had too many nettles, or too little stock base depending on how you look at it. Next time I'll definitely start with a little grilled bacon for flavour. Having said all that, it is surprisingly nice and the flavour is definitely unexpected. I'll serve this up to my guests tomorrow with a swirl of cream in the bowl.

I think I'll go nettle-picking again next weekend. I want to make nettle tea and nettle omelette (you boil them for a few minutes before adding them to the egg to avoid nasty surprises).