We’ve been picking loads of ground elder this week to go into our wild garlic and ground elder piri piri sauce.
Ground elder is one of those plants most gardeners would happily never see again. Once it arrives, it spreads relentlessly through underground rhizomes, forming dense mats that smother forest floors and crowd out native plants. It’s an aggressive, persistent presence - and famously difficult to eradicate.
Yet for all its thuggish reputation in the garden, it turns out to be a surprisingly good wild food. It's young leaves have a fresh, herby flavour with hints of parsley, carrot tops, celery and a subtle lemon note.
Historically, ground elder is thought to have been introduced to Britain by the Romans and has been with us ever since. Whether deliberately planted along roadsides or simply naturalised over time, it thrives in disturbed ground and shaded woodland edges. It’s especially abundant in places like the Derbyshire Peak District, a landscape deeply shaped by Roman roads linking settlements and mineral-rich uplands.
In medieval times it was known as “gout weed”, reflecting its traditional use in herbal medicine. While there’s little modern evidence for it as a treatment, the name hints at a long history of people experimenting with the plants growing around them and finding uses wherever they could.
What’s particularly interesting about ground elder today is not just its history, but its abundance. It’s widely considered invasive, and almost impossible to fully remove once established. But that very persistence creates an unusual opportunity: a plant that is already here, in huge quantities, requiring no cultivation, fertiliser or planting - just careful, respectful harvesting.
From a foraging perspective, it’s hard to ignore that. When picked locally, the only real environmental cost is the short journey to gather it. In a time when we’re increasingly thinking about food miles and land use, it raises an interesting question about what we choose to overlook.
As far as we know, it’s still largely absent from commercial kitchens in the UK, despite being one of the most abundant wild greens growing right under our feet.