Roger Phillips

Primrose

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Wild Food

By Roger Phillips

Published 1986

  • About

Primula vulgaris Primroses tend to have ominous associations because in the past they were much sought after to strew on graves and dress corpses. It was thought dangerous to bring fewer than 13 into the house.

The leaves of the primrose may be eaten as a salad or boiled as a green pot-herb. The flowers may be fermented to make an intoxicating wine or ground with rice, almonds, honey and saffron to form a ‘primrose pottage’. Primrose tea may be used to cure ‘the frenzy’.

© 1986 All rights reserved. Published by Macmillan.