Jumping Jesus!
- Annie
- Apr 17, 2016
- 2 min read
Dining
April - the time when 'weeds' start to appear en masse but this can be a good thing! Very many gardeners will be more than familiar with this little fellow - hairy bittercress (cardamine hirsuta). A member of the cabbage family and it is indeed an edible variety. Some of the clues to its flavour is in the name but don't be put off by the mention of 'bitter', it's really not especially. Hirsuta tastees very much like the shop bought variety popular in egg and cress sandwiches and its free. A great addition to salads, it was one of our wild plants that were foraged during wartime to bulk up the plate. Unlike acorn coffee though, this abundant wild food can be actively be enjoyed today for its flavour, not just as a substitute. It has a lovely peppery taste, and is rich in vitamins A and C and contains calcium, phosphorus and magnesium.
Magic
As a peppery herb, it has be used for curses. With an amazing quality called “explosive propagation”, it also helped with direct intention. Cardamine hirsute is used in the ‘Nine Herbs charm,’ it was supposed to fight against the serpent. The ‘Nine Herbs Charm’ was recorded in the 10th century, and was an Old English incantation intended to be uttered over 9 herbs before their use in treating poisonings and infections.
A snake came crawling, it bit a man. Then Woden took nine glory-twigs, Smote the serpent so that it flew into nine parts. There apple brought this pass against poison, That she nevermore would enter her house.
It is thought that this passage describes Woden coming to the assistance of the herbs through his use of nine twigs, each twig inscribed with the runic first-letter initial of a plant. Maybe a bit of a faff getting the other eight herbs and grinding them to dust though.
Apparently in the New Forest, the plant is known as Jumping Jesus. I rather like that. In other places Jumping Cress is more common and a very apt name as once the pods have ripened, during weeding, the unsuspecting gardener triggers an explosion and the tiny seeds scatter up to 80cm! They love plant pots as you can see from my crop above. Don't wait for the flowers and definitely don't eat the plant once it's gone to seed, (it's certainly not tasty then) but get outside as soon as you can on a sunny day and harvest this free salad. No need for Sutton's - nature's done the planting for you.
As always, NEVER ingest a plant that you're not 100% certain you can correctly identify.
With love, Annie x
© Norfolk Psychics 2016
Bibliography
Phillips Roger: Garden and Field Weeds (Elm Tree Books, 1986)
Wright John: River Cottage Hedgerow Handbook (Bloomsbury, 2010)
Comments