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Wild Folk Apothecary, Suffolk (2026)

06/04/2026

Nettle Love

The humble yet powerful nettle effortlessly bridges the physical and spiritual worlds. She is one of my favourite herbs, a healing matriarch who deeply nourishes, holds space, and brings transformative healing to all.

In folklore, nettles were often used in rituals to break curses or as protection against malevolent forces. Many herbs are said to act against malevolent forces, and we must understand that this is indicative of an older understanding of the multidimensional nature of plants, and how they can act in ways we cannot see but can certainly feel and understand. In the tale of “The Wild Swans” by Hans Christian Andersen, a princess must weave shirts from nettles to break a curse placed on her brothers.

Nettles invoke strength and fertility, physically and in rituals to invoke vitality and growth. This herb is deeply nourishing for the reproductive system and the blood, laying the deepest foundations of health to allow the flourishing of the true self from within.

Nettles have long been associated with transformation and transmutation. The paradox of causing pain and irritation when touched yet nutrition and healing when processed exemplifies the dual nature of transformation as a painful yet deeply rewarding process.

I could talk about nettle for days, her use in cordage, cloth, and paper-making; her messages of protection and boundaries, of awakening self-love and sovereignty, and her calls for reconnection.

I like to be surrounded by nettles, to pick her by hand and welcome her stinging medicine, to eat her fresh leaves in the spring, infuse her older leaves, flowers, and stems in oil in the early summer, harvest her seeds in late summer and autumn, and dig her roots in winter.

My love for her runs deep, back to my childhood, back to the ancestors, back into the deep dark earth.

How much do you love nettle? Enough to wander into a patch and listen deeply to the messages of her stings?

01/04/2026

Plants have powers far beyond those of healing the physical body. Some plants can reconnect us with the bone-deep memories of what it is to be fully human; wild, free, and in resonance with our natural souls.

Mugwort has long been known as the bridge between the worlds, a sacred plant being of hedgerow and meadow who carries the power of dream, of vision, and of freedom. She is an opener of doors, a guardian of thresholds, a holder of ancient wisdom, a key to unlocking who we truly are beyond the confines of conditioning.

Mugwort has opened many doors for me in my practice and in my body, in my visions and in my understanding of my place here on this earth. She is a plant with the power to show us through the veils of corruption, culture, and capital, and to bring us back into resonance with natural law.

Today, I’m honouring her with a cake, a dream cake, it’s like a magical, hedgerow twist on a classic Victoria Sandwich. I fed this to my 93 year old Nana (who has just made me new curtains, the woman is a living legend) and she loved it, although she does have a weakness for my hedgerow jelly!

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you might want to give this one a miss, but as always, make up your own mind.

Mugwort & Almond Dream Cake

Ingredients
• 100g plain flour (gluten-free or regular)
• 100g ground almonds
• 150g soft butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 generous handfuls fresh mugwort leaves, finely chopped
• Hedgerow jelly or blackcurrant/blackberry jam (for filling)
• A few extra mugwort leaves to decorate
• Icing sugar to dust

Method
Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C fan).
Grease and line two 9-inch cake tins.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until pale, light, and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gently fold in the ground almonds and flour.
Stir in the baking powder.
Fold through the finely chopped mugwort leaves.
Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and smooth the tops.
Bake for 20–30 minutes, or until the cakes are risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins briefly, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
Sandwich the cakes with the jam or jelly between, one cake with hedgerow jelly or blackcurrant jam, dust with icing sugar, and decorate with the reserved leaves of mugwort.

If you want to fall further into the arms of Mugwort, I have an immersive course available at Wild Folk Apothecary.

31/03/2026

The spirit medicine of the beautiful sweet Violet is rich and potent, she is a plant who hides her beautiful face and transformative power close to the ground, while still shining the deepest medicine into the densest energies.

She helps us to embody that same energy, reaching deep into our depths and helping to pull out stagnation, shift from one state of being to the next, and moves grief, abandonment, and a lack of faith in one’s own voice up and out into the world with power and humility.

I’ve been deep in her medicine this week, and she came at the perfect time, as I’m in need of exactly what she gives right now, and her medicine is unfolding in layers of understanding each day as I gather her, nibble her leaves and flowers, make medicines and spend time in deep conversation.

I have a beautiful sweet Violet flower essence in the apothecary, and made a white violet essence this year too. A leaf of violet on my beloved’s knee improved a patch of stubborn eczema overnight.

There’s a single drop of (eyewateringly expensive) Violet essential oil in each small tin of my Bone-deep healing balm and oil, which have a magical effect on the lymphatic system.

The wild folk apothecary OSTARA offer ends at midnight tonight (31st). See 🔗

29/03/2026

Why do we eat wild foods?

This is a really important question, because I often find people asking things like, “Why would you put nettles in a cake?”, or, “What does this add to the recipe?” And the truth is, in flavor terms, it might add something a little bit challenging to your palate, particularly if you’re not used to eating wild foods, because they are not softened, sanitised, or flattened like many of our commercial, cultivated foods are.

Wild plants are still free to express themselves, they are vibrant and filled with their natural ways of being. They haven’t been shoved into a box to make them more palatable, or more transportable, or more accessible to more people. They just are who they are. And for nettles, as an example, they wear their mineral-rich wonder right there in their flavour profile.

They taste earthy, sometimes even a little bit metallic, they taste incredibly green and verdant and awake and alive. They are rich and deep, and they taste of the deep, rich earth. And that is something that we often have to train ourselves back into knowing and craving in our bodies, as we have been so trained to expect sweetness and softness and homogeneity, but that is not the natural way of things, and wild foods keep us guessing, challenging us to flow with the seasons, the phases of the moon, the time of day, the weather, and the quality of the relationships we have with the world around us.

Eating wild foods reminds us, right down to a cellular level, that we are made of wildness too.

Nettle and Lemon Balm Hearth Biscuits

These are kind of like flat scones, they sit somewhere between a scone and a biscuit. Crumbly, like a good scone, but flatter and more crispy. They have lots of cheese inside and sprinkled on the top, and they’re filled with chopped nettles and lemon balm. Serve them with butter, or alongside some soup, or with a homemade hedgerow jelly and some mature cheddar. These can also be cooked on a griddle like a bannock, or even on a stick over a fire.

Ingredients
• 100g cold butter
• 20 fresh nettle tops
• 10 lemon balm sprigs
• 150–200g gluten-free flour (you can of course use regular plain flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 75–100g mature cheddar, grated
• 3-4 tablespoons of yogurt/buttermilk

Method
Preheat the oven to 180.
Chop the nettles and lemon balm finely by hand
In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper.
Grate the cold butter into the flour and mix gently with a fork (ten less you touch the dough the more crispy and crumbly the biscuits will be)
Add the grated cheese, nettle and lemon balm.
Add the yogurt and mix so the dough just comes together.
Roll the dough out only once to about an 3/4 inch thick, then cut into squares.
Brush the tops with a little milk and sprinkle with extra cheese.
Bake until golden, crusty, and crispy (around 20-25 minutes, but depends on your oven).
Serve warm or cooled, with butter, mature cheddar, and a hedgerow jelly, chilli jam, or chutney.

28/03/2026

The three cornered leek is such a faithful friend of mine, she is one of the first wild plants I formed a relationship with, and I seek her out at this time of year wherever I go. I have my spots to find her, but as she is an “invasive” non-native plant she can be found colonising front gardens and streetsides with her oniony goodness.

She awakens the cells with her green vibrancy and brings wild nourishment to a body still languishing in the sleepiness of winter.

Here are some beautiful things I made; a three cornered leek and ground elder crustless tarty quichey thing, and a wild food mandala of wild leek pan breads with wild leek, nettle, and primrose leaf pesto and edible flowers.

I know people find it hard to think of ways to eat to wild greens, and that certainly isn’t an issue I suffer with, so in the interests of the greater good I’ll share my recipe.

Wild Leek & Ground Elder Crustless Tarty Quichey Thing (also it’s gluten free, thankfully, because we all know gluten is the devil)

2 cups ground almonds
4 organic free range eggs
1 block feta, crumbled
2 cups milk of choice
Pinch chilli flakes
Salt (not too much because the feta is salty)
Black pepper (lots)
Three or four large handfuls each of three cornered leek and ground elder (or any other edible wild greens) chopped.

Mix everything together, pour into a pan, decorate with more wild greens, drizzle with olive oil, bake for about 15 minutes (depending on the depth of your pan) until just firm to the touch.

I think this would work if the eggs were replaced with gram flour and water if you wanted to make it vegan. You could replace the feta with tofu but I don’t think that would be very nice texturally so I’d probably just leave it out, or use some extra veggies instead.

This recipes continues to get glowing reports from the people who make it.

26/03/2026

In foraging, as in life, it’s important to celebrate our abject failures, so we can be the cautionary tale held up as an example of true imperfection.

This is that tale. It serves to remind us that we are fallible, that we are incompetent, and that many of the glossy foraging videos we see online are utter, utter horsesh*t.

Actually while I’m on the subject, let’s talk about cooking videos. I won’t make them. I don’t make them. I have no wish to live a life under surveillance, and certainly not from the all-seeing panopticon in my pocket.

The thought of setting up cameras to film me pottering about makes me very, very tired, and all I can think when I see people filming themselves wandering off into the distance is, “you’re going to have to go back and get that now, that’s the walk ruined.”

So here’s to cooking with the freedom of not being watched, to celebrating failure in a non-victimised way, and to not believing everything you see online.

I give you, UTTERLY REPUGNANT DOCK SEED & HOGWEED SHORTBREAD

Let me tell you there is nothing that I like more than wasting expensive ingredients like coconut sugar, unpasteurised butter and organic wholemeal spelt flour.

There’s nothing I like more than swanning around a field collecting something like dock seeds, going through the effort of roasting them and grinding them into a flour and then making them into disastrously bitter, mealy, rough, and utterly repugnant biscuits.

Now I’ve got a fairly low bar with eating sweet things. Partly because I don’t like waste, partly due to my inherent stubbornness, but on this occasion I can’t do it. I’ve had one tiny nibble of one biscuit and now I understand how my little boy felt the day I tried to feed him my (actually delicious) nettle cake.

Let me tell you it is no coincidence that it looks like I have tried to decorate a rather large turd.

I would share the recipe but I will save you from repeating my disaster. I feel it may have been an excess of hogweed seeds. I threw loads in thinking they would add their amazing coriander-orange-cardamom flavour. I was more than a little bit liberal considering the amount of biscuits I got. I was wrong, so very wrong.

24/03/2026

Further to requests for the inside view of a cake, may I present, Controversial Comfrey Cake. The last time I shared this there was much of a to-do about the edibility of comfrey. I am firmly in the edible camp, obviously, but make up your own mind, please.

An important aspect of foraging and being a natural human in general is responsibility, for yourself, for your environment, for your intentions, for your interwoven connections with the web of life.

Far be it from me to tell anyone what to do. I will, however, tell you not to mix up comfrey with foxgloves though, that would be very silly, and would make a far less life-giving cake.

If you don’t want to eat comfrey, DON’T EAT COMFREY. Just let the rest of us get on with it.

How do you like to take your medicine?

In cake form, preferably.

Comfrey and Orange Cake form to be precise.

Far, far tastier than your average pharmaceutical cake. This delicious creature will heal, soothe, and calm the system in the way only comfrey can.

In my healing cafe (it exists inside my head, for now) this cake would be served for customers with sore throats and raspy chests alongside a cup of mallow flower and ground Ivy tea.

And they would leave happier than when they arrived.

***there are differing opinions on the edibility and potential toxicity of comfrey. I am personally happy to ingest comfrey leaves occasionally and have done for many years, but I am not you and I cannot decide what is ok for you. Personal responsibility always.***

23/03/2026

This cake is intended as an insult to all those people who can’t, won’t, don’t want to, or are offended by the mere idea of making cakes or foraging or beautiful things or flowers or spring or sunshine.

I want everyone to feel entirely inferior to and attacked by me and my ridiculously beautiful cake.

It has a whole basket of nettles inside it, and a homemade blackberry jam made from blackberries I foraged with my bare hands last year. I am outraged by myself in fairness.

This cake hates you and wants to inspire you to hate yourself too.

I’ve cobbled a recipe of sorts together too, for your edification and delight.

Nettle & Blackberry Cake

Ingredients

For the Cake:
• 20 fresh, young nettle tops
• 3 eggs
• 150 g softened butter
• 150 g caster sugar
• 150 g flour (plus extra if needed)
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp nettle seeds
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

For the Filling and Icing:
• 3–4 tbsp blackberry jam
• Icing sugar
• Lemon juice

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan).
• Grease and line two 9-inch cake pans.
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Blend the nettle tops with the eggs.
• Mix the nettle and egg mixture into the creamed butter and sugar.
• Stir in the lemon juice and nettle seeds.
• Sift over the flour and baking powder and mix until thick. Add a little extra flour if the batter seems too runny.
• Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans.
• Bake for 10–20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside to cool.
• Spread blackberry jam between the two cakes.

Mix icing sugar and lemon juice to a pourable consistency. Drizzle over the cake in a chic and lackadaisical fashion.

Decorate with wildflowers. Serve, and feel smug about your life choices.

If you want my recipes and insults straight to your inbox, you can join me on Substack. Link in bio.

At these times, we need whimsy more than ever, and cake. We always need cake.

Wild Folk Apothecary

06/04/2026

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31/03/2026

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