Spring foraging will soon arrive. In the spring, we have fungi, such as St Georges that starts to appear on, well, St George’s Day, and morels, which start around March. If I find a good location for these, I will set up another mushroom foraging day. Meanwhile, something you can forage all year long are Parmotrema perlatum, commonly known as Black Stone Flowers.
Black stone flower is not actually a flower, but a lichen. It grows on trees and often found on dead wood where the air quality is good, like in the Surrey Hills. Roasted, it gives a woody almost salty flavour, which doesn’t surprise me as lichen is part algae and part fungus. It is often used in south Indian food, where it is called Kalpasi. There seems to be evidence of some health benefits, such as stimulating digestive enzymes, decreasing inflammation as well as having anti-bacterial qualities.
I decided to dry roast them with nigella seeds, cloves, cardamom, star anise, hogweed seeds (these can be foraged on my Foraging Walk later this summer) and bay leaves. Once roasted, I ground them up. Then added cinnamon and nutmeg to the mix.
Here I made a chai masala with oat milk by warming the oat milk with a tablespoon of the mix, some black tea leaves, slices of ginger, and let steep for a few minutes. Then I strained them and added agave as a sweetener. It was a delicious afternoon pick-me-up!
