Hogweed

The people of Lithuania, said John Gerard in the 16th century, ‘used to make drinks with the decoction of this herb and leven or some other thing made of meale, which is used instead of beare and other ordinarie drinks’. Young succulent stems, after being stripped of their envelope, are occasionally eaten as a salad in the Outer Hebrides. In Russia and Siberia the leaf-stalks are dried in the sun and tied up in close bundles until they acquire a yellow colour. When a sweet substance resembling sugar forms upon them, they are eaten as a great delicacy. In Lithuania and Siberia a spirit is distilled from the stalks, either on its own or mixed with bilberries. The young shoots and leaves may be boiled and eaten as a green vegetable and when just sprouting from the ground they resemble asparagus in flavour.