Some years ago, I have discovered the beauty of wild garlic and I've been preserving it every year now. It is delicious as pesto, chopped on slice of a fresh bread, marinated in oil or dried as seasoning for soups. It's such a versatile herb and every year I'm excited when I see its lush green leaves coming out again.
I haven't searched for wild garlic in this region yet, so I asked my family and friends to give me tips where to find it. It grows in huge quantities, but only in certain places. They all told me to go to one location, so we gave it a go. They even told me where to park the car and we managed to find that spot, but little did we know that we walked in opposite direction of where we were supposed to go.
My husband put his wellies on and it was a great choice. I still had to purchase my wellies for gardening, so I chose a pair of old boots which was the best choice I could make, but as soon as we entered the forest I realized that it wasn't enough. There were swamps everywhere, and it took us some time to find a way around them.
I made my peace with the situation and enjoyed the surroundings. My shoes were getting wet, and there was no wild garlic, but I enjoyed the early signs of spring. There were lush tufts of grass and small buds on trees. You might think that it looks a bit chaotic, but this is a protected area, and therefore it is left to live its own life.
Recently, there were quite a few wind storms that broke off old branches, and we saw many of them on the ground.
My husband walked ahead of me as there was too much water and I didn't want to sink up to my knees. He was actually hoping it would happen to him as he wanted to test his new wellies 馃檪
Poloniny National Park is a national park in Slovakia which is bordering Ukraine and Poland. We were close to the Ukrainian borders and our phone providers were welcoming us in Ukraine while we were still in Slovakia. This national park belongs to Carpathian mountain range which goes down to Romania.
We say that there are more bears and wolves than people living in this area. It was a warm winter and bears didn't get their rest, so now they are roaming the streets and it is not unusual to meet them in the forests. They are aggressive due to lack of sleep, and it is good to make noise, so that they can hear you and walk away. I was singing all the time, and we didn't see any bears. It is probably because I am not a good singer 馃檪
There are also plenty of wild boars in the area and we saw many of their footprints. It wouldn't be fun to meet them either.
We were walking and walking and walking, and at some point we understood that there is no wild garlic and we should collect anything edible which we will find in the forest.
As there was not much growing around the swamps we started to walk up the hill.
Only a few meters up the hill we could already enjoy some views of surroundings mountains.
The hill was covered with grass and we hoped to find some nettle or wild flowers.
Soon, we entered a small forest, and we were lucky to find some violets. It is difficult to see them on the photo, but trust me they were there. I collected as many as I could (I left more than half there untouched), and then we continued up the hill.
It started to drizzle, but we continued walking. We didn't want to return with an almost empty bag. That would be embarrassing. We would rather get sick from cold and rain 馃檪
It was so peaceful but I kept singing as I was scared to come across wild animals. There are really many of them. Luckily, my repertoire is large 馃檪
After a few hundred meters I turned around and it was all worth it. The views were stunning and I forgot that I was wet and could probably throw away my shoes.
I put a plastic bag on the ground and sat down. I was wet anyway, so why not to enjoy it?
We deserved to take a break as we had a nice collection of wild chives, mint, nettle, violet and lung wort.
I already knew what I would make. Chives will become garnish for my potato salad, nettle and mint will be perfect for pesto, lung wort for tea and I thought it would be a good idea to turn those violets into delicious syrup.
We didn't find wild garlic, but we were happy with our collection. We knew we were in the right area, but we were not sure where we made a mistake. We planned to check with my family and return the next day. So we did, but I will tell you about it another time.
On the way back we walked in the forest as we were not losing our hope to find the wild garlic.
Well, we didn't find it, but we found plenty of flowers. They were only good for the eyes as they were poisonous.
We were getting closer to the car...
And returned back to the mud. Luckily, it was not so far away from the road anymore...
As I mentioned, there are not so many people who live here, so it is quite easy to take a photo of an empty road 馃檪 Actually, this area is one of the least light polluted places in Europe and you can see so many stars on clear nights!
And off we go! I couldn't wait to start cooking...
There will be some recipes coming!
See you next time!