Day 23: Cleaver seed in white chocolate

Cleavers, Galium apanine



Another plant that goes by many names including goosegrass and sticky willie.  It is mainly considered a garden pest – able to smother other plants, cover your clothes with small furry beads and generally just get in the way. 

However, it does have many uses – the young green plant is quite tasty – quite a lot like cucumber, and you can press the greenery to release a refreshing and health giving juice; you can also just soak a few sections of stem and leaves in a pitcher of water to freshen up the water – like people do with cucumber.

It is the pesky sticky seeds though that hold an amazing secret; wait until they ripen and go brown, collect them up, roast them for 10 minutes or so in a reasonably hot oven, grind them up, and make a really ‘passable’ coffee with them.  I reckon, way back in the 16th century when coffee first arrived in the UK, that grumpy old men in cafes tried the new fangled beverage begrudgingly, and muttered ‘not sure it will catch on, just tastes like cleavers to me!’

 This is a white chocolate – despite its brown colour!  A milky latte really.

 

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