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Wild Salmon is Lower in Fat Than Farmed Salmon

On hearty wholemeal bread with a hint of spicy horseradish and a sprig of dill or steamed with a delicious mustard dip – salmon always tastes delicious! If you want to do something for your figure and the environment in addition to enjoying it, you should prefer the lower-fat wild salmon to the farmed salmon when shopping.

Wild salmon is the first choice

The range extends from one percent fat in wild salmon to more than 16 percent fat in farmed salmon. Wild salmon is, therefore, lower in fat than farmed salmon. However, the wild variant should not only be used for figure-friendly reasons: it is more expensive than farmed salmon, but the wild fish does not pollute the environment with medicines or excrement.

Of course, the wild salmon should still only be eaten sparingly. The following applies: the rare enjoyment of a wild fish is better than the frequent enjoyment of cheaper farmed fish. It is best for fish lovers to go for the products marked with the MSC seal. This seal guarantees that the fish comes from stock and is environmentally friendly fishing.

That’s why salmon is healthy

The fish with the pink flesh is extremely healthy. Salmon contains vitamins B6, B12, D, niacin, and folic acid. It also contains a lot of potassium, iodine, and omega-3 fatty acids.

The latter belongs to the group of polyunsaturated fatty acids and has a positive effect on cardiovascular health and rheumatic complaints. The omega-3 fatty acids are also involved in many reactions in the body’s cells and are stored less in body fat than saturated fatty acids.

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Honeyberry: Cultivation and Use of The Wild Fruit

The honeyberry is a pretty plant whose berries are safe to eat. Here you will find everything you need to know about the cultivation and use of wild fruit from Siberia.

The exotic honeyberry (Lonicera kamtschatica) comes from the Kamchatka region, the border area between Russia and China. It is also known as Mayberry or Kamchatka honeysuckle and belongs to the honeysuckle family. Unlike most other species in this family, the fruits of the honeyberry are edible. The taste of the pretty fruits is strongly reminiscent of our local blueberries. Honeyberries have a high proportion of vitamins and are suitable for direct consumption, but also for further processing into jams, mousse or juice.

It’s not just the elongated, deep blue fruits of the honeyberry that make a good impression. The shrub and its filigree flowers also make the plant a pretty ornamental shrub for your garden.

Honeyberry: location and soil for the plant

As a densely branched shrub, the honeyberry reaches a height of up to one meter and is similar in growth form to the blueberry. The deciduous twigs and leaves sprout in the first warm days of spring. You can expect the first flowers as early as March. The honeyberry already bears fruit between April and the end of May, making it one of the earliest wild fruit varieties. Their short development span is due to the homeland of the plant. In the cold Siberian regions, it has to adapt to a very short growing season, which has always resulted in early flowering and fruiting.

Thanks to the harsh weather conditions of its homeland, the honeyberry is a very hardy shrub that is easy to grow and care for:

Location: The ideal location for the Geissaceae is a damp, partially shaded to sunny location. Honeyberries combine well with hedge plants and other berry bushes.
Soil: The honeyberry grows on both peaty and loamy soils. In order to achieve rich fruit stands, you can support your plant with humus or compost.

Growing and caring for honeyberries

Cultivation: Add an extra portion of compost to the excavated planting hole before planting young honeyberry bushes. It is ideal if you plant your young shrubs in pairs to make it easier for them to be fertilized. Different types also harmonize with each other. Always keep a planting distance of at least one meter.

Care: The honeyberry is a very frugal shrub. Only long periods of drought can damage it. Therefore, especially during the growing season, make sure to always keep the root ball slightly moist without waterlogging. The honeyberry survives even cold winters without any problems. The wood can withstand temperatures as low as -45°C and even her delicate flowers can withstand sub-zero temperatures. Your berry plant does not need special winter protection. Fertilizing is also not absolutely necessary. However, if you want to do something good for your plant, you can treat your shrub in moderation with organic berry fertilizer or homemade fertilizer.

Pests and diseases are not known for the honeyberry. If you want to look forward to a rich harvest, you should cover your berries with a protective net, especially during the growing season. This way you make sure that the birds in your garden don’t get there before you. If you don’t want to eat the berries yourself, you can of course leave them to the birds as food.

Pruning: Honeyberries sprout new shoots from the base. A pruning should therefore only be carried out once a year on the oldest shoots. The best time is right after harvest. To do this, select the three to four oldest shoots and cut them back to the ground with sharp hedge trimmers. To keep your shrub strong and healthy, it should never have more than ten to twelve shoots.

Cook jam & Co. from honeyberries

Honeyberries are rich in vitamins C and B, making them a healthy snack to snack on in the garden. However, since its fruits are relatively small and not easy to harvest, the plant is hardly suitable for large-scale industrial cultivation. However, honeyberries are ideal for preparing your own delicious jams, mousse, compote or juice. For example, you can use the varieties “Maistar”, “Mailon”, “Morena” and “Failon”.

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Wild Rice: Characteristics and Peculiarities of The Dark Rice Variety

Wild rice is also called “water rice” – and that is a first indication that it is not real rice. However, the sweet grass seeds, which are considered a delicacy, also have a downside. You can find out more here.

Wild rice: fruits instead of grains

Wild rice grains look like rice, they are cooked like rice, and the name suggests that they are a wild form of rice. But botanically, wild rice is not a “real” rice variety. In contrast to normal rice (Oryza genus), which is cultivated on fields and terraces, wild rice (Zizanie genus) grows on the banks of rivers, lakes and ponds. That is why it is also called “water rice”.

Wild rice is a genus of plants in the grass family. While rice plants produce cereal grains, with wild rice we eat the fruits of some sweet grasses, which can be prepared like conventional grain rice.

Demand from Europe is displacing tradition

Wild rice originally comes from North America and East China. Wild rice has played an important role in the diet of the Chippewa, a North American indigenous people, for thousands of years. They still harvest it in the traditional way: in late summer, canoes go into the shallow water where the wild rice grasses grow. The stalks are pulled into the boat with sticks and tapped lightly, causing the fruit to fall to the bottom of the canoe. If the stalks snap back again, more fruit will fall into the water. These ensure the existence of the grasses, because they provide the basis for the next harvest.

The paddy rice is now also exported to Europe, where it is marketed as a delicacy. Growing demand has led to higher-yielding hybrid varieties being grown extensively on aquatic plantations in North America. There are also efforts to achieve a higher crop yield with a wild rice variety where the fruit no longer falls out. These industrially bred varieties have little to do with the original wild rice. In addition, the traditional cultivation and harvesting methods of the Chippewa cannot keep up with these new methods, which is why the indigenous group has to fear a loss of income.

Taste and preparation of wild rice

Immediately after harvesting, wild rice still has a water content of 40 percent and the fruits are initially green-brown. They only get their typical dark color after they have been dried and roasted. The grains are then dehulled, i.e. freed from the outer shell. Wild rice is still whole grain rice because it is not husked or milled. Its dark appearance makes it visually easy to confuse with black rice, but the latter is a real rice variety.

In terms of taste, wild rice offers a smoky, nutty aroma that is significantly heartier than the relatively neutral taste of white rice.

Here are a few tips for preparation:
Wild rice swells a lot. To cook it, you need about three to four times the amount of liquid. Salt is added at the end.
Cooking time is up to 50 minutes, or until about half the seeds have popped open.
In mixtures with other types of rice, broken seeds are often used, reducing their cooking time to that of regular rice. It only takes about half an hour to prepare.

Nutritional values ​​of wild rice at a glance

The nutritional values ​​for 100 grams of wild rice are as follows:
Energy: 385 kcal
Egg white: 14.73 g
Fat: 1.08g
Carbohydrates: 74.90 g
A comparison with other types of rice shows that wild rice has slightly more calories than types of rice such as jasmine rice (350 kcal per 100 grams) or basmati rice (354 kcal per 100 grams), but also provides up to twice as much protein. Parboiled rice, for example, only has 7.3 grams of protein.

In addition, wild rice contains many antioxidants, as well as some minerals, including iron and phosphorus.

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Collect, Identify, Eat Wild Herbs: 11 Tips

Collecting wild herbs is not only popular in spring and summer: you can also find wild herbs outside in winter. They literally shoot out of the ground, along the way, in the forest and on meadows.

They are delicious and also a health boost for your body. Here are 11 things you should know about wild herbs.

Wild herbs – the hidden heroes

By definition, wild herbs are on the one hand herbaceous plants that are suitable for consumption and on the other hand have not been processed by breeding. “Herbal” means that the plants do not become woody. Some of them are also medicinal herbs, and they have been proven to have a positive health effect.

1. Collect wild herbs: Not all wild plants are edible!

You should be careful when collecting wild herbs: not everything that looks like wild herbs is actually edible!

The edible wild garlic is sometimes confused with the poisonous plants lily of the valley and arum. Similarly, there is a risk of confusion between wood sorrel and poisonous wood anemone, juniper and sallow tree. Lesser celandine, which can be found under fruit trees or in the forest, should also not be eaten once it has bloomed.

2. Collect wild herbs – even in winter

Unless there is a thick blanket of snow, you can of course also find wild herbs in winter. Typical candidates are

Daisies bloom year-round and are high in vitamin C, magnesium, and iron.
Dandelions sprout very early. Especially at the end of a mild winter, fresh leaves rich in vitamins A and C will soon appear. If you have enough leaves, you can conjure up a fresh salad from them, and the leaves are also good in a smoothie.
Clover is a good addition to salads or smoothies.
Nettles grow very quickly once the snow disappears.

3. They are delicious, for example as a wild herb salad

If you have collected the right herbs, they can be processed into tasty dishes.

Daisies and dandelion leaves go well in a wild herb salad, wild garlic can be used to conjure up tasty soups or wild herb pesto, nettle can be used like spinach.

Herbs are also conquering modern cuisine as tea or green smoothies. If you like it milder, you can add it to herb butter, cream cheese and egg dishes.

4. Collect and store wild herbs

Collecting wild herbs is all well and good, but how do you pick them up? Actually like salad and vegetables: Most herbs can be stored in sealed metal or glass bread boxes in the refrigerator for a few days. They can also be hung upside down in bundles to dry.

If you have a dehydrator, you can also use it to preserve the plants. Flower buds and other plant parts can be inserted and also make an excellent small gift.

5. Wild herbs are better than some medicines

Many plants, whether medicinal or not, can be administered as home remedies. They are processed in a wide variety of forms, such as powder, tea, juice, syrup, ointment, oil or tincture.

Dandelion can be used to promote digestion, ground elder helps with gout, buckhorn against coughs.

6. Wild herbs are bursting with minerals

A simple lettuce and even the superfood kale far outshine wild herbs. If kale contains about 490 milligrams of potassium per 100 grams, the inconspicuous daisy has 600.

Stinging nettle contains three times the calcium and four times the iron of kale. It also offers twice as much magnesium as kale and six times as much as lettuce.

7. Wild herbs are rich in vitamins.

Many wild herbs are rich in vitamins. Stinging nettle, burnet and cinquefoil contain more vitamin C than the cultivated plants kale, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

The situation is similar with vitamin A and also with the protein content. Eating a wild herb salad is definitely better than doing “functional food” and dizzying vitamin products.

8. Wild herbs contain many bioactive plant substances.

Because of their many ingredients, they taste more aromatic and spicier than cultivated products and can help to cure or prevent diseases. The bitter substances it contains promote healthy intestinal flora and protect against fungal infestation.

Bitter substances are mainly found in dandelion, yarrow and daisies. Protection against free radicals is attributed to flavonoids, which can be found in lady’s mantle and plantain.

The tannins in ground ivy, lesser celandine and loosestrife inhibit inflammation, diarrhea and skin diseases. In addition, saponins, silicic acid, essential oils and much more can be found in abundance in wild herbs.

9. Determine wild herbs

Whether in meadows or fields, in river meadows or forests – you can find and collect wild herbs almost everywhere. To be on the safe side, you should identify the wild herbs before consumption.

10. Buy wild herbs?

It is also practical to have your own herb garden, which can become part of the natural garden. Since wild herbs are particularly robust against bad weather and pests, they hardly need any care. There are now also special mail order companies where you can buy wild herbs. Pharmacies and health food stores also offer them, sometimes as a powder.

Of course, your own harvest guarantees the freshest herbs – and is also more fun.

11. Wild herbs are back in fashion!

A few years ago, picking wild herbs was dismissed as a crank and a romantic, but today they are experiencing a real boom. More and more people are interested in these unjustly forgotten regional superfoods, which are hard to find in supermarkets and which many mistake for weeds.

Anyone who sees wild herbs as part of their kitchen and medicine today is back in fashion, benefits in terms of their health and, on top of that, has something delicious to eat!

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Cooking Tips

Wild Asparagus: Where it Grows and Preparation

Wild asparagus grows in the Mediterranean region and is the spicier version of green cultivated asparagus. Where it often occurs, how to prepare it and more information can be found here.

Wild asparagus, also known as forest asparagus, is a delicacy for asparagus lovers. The wild asparagus is mainly found in the Mediterranean region, for example in Croatia, southern Italy or Greece. You can collect it there between March and May. Wild asparagus looks similar to green cultivated asparagus, but tastes much more aromatic and spicier. Not everyone likes the intense, slightly bitter taste, but you should definitely try the healthy vegetable at least once.

Wild asparagus: Attention, risk of confusion!

Wild asparagus is not always “real” wild asparagus. It is often a question of other plants that are incorrectly named as such – for example wild hops or the Pyrenees milk star. As the name suggests, the latter comes from the Pyrenees and is often imported from France. Although both belong to the asparagus family, the milk star is only distantly related to the true forest asparagus.

Collect wild asparagus

On the other hand, it grows lush in parts of southern Europe, for example Apulia, and on Istria, a Croatian peninsula. The annual forest asparagus harvest takes place there from March to May: thousands of Croatians then collect the wild asparagus. But even there you need a practiced eye and patience, because the thin rungs are not always easy to spot.

So if you ever want to prick wild asparagus yourself, you could combine the whole thing with a trip. Alternatively, you can get hold of the asparagus at the weekly markets there.

Warning: there are many snakes in Croatia. If you go looking for wild asparagus, you should have a stick with you to scare them away. Also wear long clothes.

Wild asparagus: How to prepare it

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on wild asparagus, the preparation is very easy. First check if it has woody ends and cut them off if necessary. Simply blanch the rest in salted water for five minutes. You can serve it with olive oil and some lemon juice, for example.

You can also prepare wild asparagus in a frittata. Or you puree the cooked asparagus spears and add them to a risotto.

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Wild Carrots: How to Plant, Care For And Use Them

As the archetype of today’s carrot, the wild carrot is also an important food source for insects. The white flowers attract bees, butterflies and beetles. You can read here how to plant the wild carrot and how you can use it.

The wild carrot is the archetype of today’s carrot. It belongs to the umbelliferae family and is widespread in large parts of Europe, North Africa and Asia. It usually grows on roadsides or embankments. You can eat their roots just like those of cultivated carrots, but wild carrots are significantly smaller and less tender. In addition, the wild carrot has a long tradition as a medicinal plant.

Read here how to cultivate wild carrots in your garden and how you can use them.

Wild carrot in your garden

The wild carrot is the archetype of a classic example of old types of vegetables. If you grow them in your garden, you make a double contribution to maintaining the diversity of varieties: in addition to the types of vegetables that you get, the original form of the carrot with its white umbels offers valuable food for insects. According to NABU, the wild carrot is very popular with many insects. These include wild bees, sawflies, bugs, beetles and flies. Some caterpillars, such as those of the swallowtail, particularly value the wild carrot as a food source. It is therefore also a good addition to an insect-friendly garden.

You should consider the following points so that the wild carrot feels comfortable in your garden.

Location: The wild carrot prefers a sunny location, but also thrives in semi-shade.

Floor:
The original form of the carrot is quite adaptable as far as soil conditions are concerned.
In nature, it grows on dry, calcareous and well-drained soils.

Planting and caring for wild carrots

The wild carrot is usually a biennial herbaceous plant. In the first year, it forms its leaves close to the ground, which are arranged in a circle. The wild carrot only flowers in the second year. It grows between 10 and 30 centimeters high. Although the roots contain hardly any carotene and are therefore white instead of orange, their scent is strongly reminiscent of carrots.

If you want to plant wild carrots in your garden, we recommend using organic seeds. In this way you avoid genetic engineering and support the diversity of varieties.

How to plant wild carrots:
The wild carrot is one of the so-called cold germs. It therefore needs a longer cold period at the beginning in order to be able to germinate.
From April you can sow the wild carrot directly into the bed. If you want to cultivate them as a vegetable, a planting distance of about 40 centimeters is recommended. For a wild flower meadow, you can simply scatter the seeds widely.
How to care for the wild carrot:
Until the seeds start to germinate, be sure to keep them moist.
In addition, you only need to water them during long periods of drought.
Since the wild carrot is used to nutrient-poor soil, you do not need to fertilize it.

This is how you use the wild carrot

From a culinary point of view, the wild carrot is particularly valuable because you can use all parts.

Root:
If you want to process the roots of the wild carrot, you should harvest them at the end of the first year. Once the plant has started flowering, the roots become woody and very sharp. In the first year, on the other hand, they store sugar and are particularly sweet.
You can eat them raw or cook them like regular carrots.
leaves and flowers:
You can use the young leaves to prepare wild herb salad, process them like spinach or use them as soup greens.
It is best to harvest the leaves in spring, between April and June, before the stems harden.
The young flowers are also edible. You can use them to decorate dishes. When cooked, they add a pleasant flavor to your dishes.

Fruit:
The fruits or seeds of the plant are rarely used. Basically, you can use them as a spice similar to aniseed or fennel, which come from the same family.
The seeds are ready for harvest from September to October.
Due to its diverse effects, the wild carrot is also considered a medicinal plant. It is traditionally used, among other things, for digestive problems or to regulate menstruation. Here, too, all parts of the plant are used.

According to a study from 2017, the wild carrot also has other healing properties:
antioxidant
anti-inflammatory
conducive to wound healing
hypoglycemic
lowers cholesterol levels.
Tip: If you collect the wild carrot in nature, you can recognize it by its characteristic dark spot in the middle of the light flowers. This spot has also given it the name “carrot”. It is said to attract insects and thus help with pollination. But beware: There are some doubles of the wild plant, such as the poisonous dog parsley, with which you should not confuse the plant.

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4 Edible Wild Plants to Collect in The Fall

Many wild plants bear fruit in autumn and thus provide us with nutrient-rich food for free. We introduce you to four interesting wild plants and show you how you can use them in the kitchen.

If you go for a walk regularly in autumn, you can also keep an eye out for edible wild plants and thus obtain food directly from nature. You can easily recognize many plants by their colorful fruits.

Wild plants in autumn: the mountain ash

You can recognize the mountain ash, also known as the rowan berry, by its small, spherical and red-colored fruits. These usually grow in small bundles on the branch. You can harvest them between August and October. However, only the fruits of the sweet rowan varieties are edible. Other varieties contain too many bitter substances, which makes the small berries inedible.

You can recognize the Moravian (or edible) mountain ash, for example, by the multi-pinnate leaves, which are darker and larger than the leaves of other varieties. The rowan berries of this rowan species are also significantly larger with a diameter of about 13 millimeters.

Thorny, but with sweet fruits: the hawthorn

Another wild plant that bears fruit in the fall is the hawthorn. It belongs to the rose family and grows as a small tree or large shrub. It reaches a height of about 500 to 700 centimeters. Its long sharp thorns are particularly characteristic. In spring you can also recognize it by the magnificent white flowers, which look beautiful but smell unpleasant.

The fruits are ripe in August and September. They have a diameter of about one centimeter, are uniform and dark red in color. You should only harvest the fruits after the first frost, when they are really sweet and tasty.

Well-known wild plant in autumn: the rosehip

One of the best-known types of fruit that grows on wild plants in autumn is the rosehip. Rose hips are the fruit of different types of roses. They come from the blossoms of the rose. Particularly common types of roses that form the aromatic fruits are, for example, the dog, mountain or wine rose.

You can harvest the rosehips themselves in October and November. They are rarely available from September. In addition to the characteristic and mostly pleasantly scented rose blossoms, you can recognize the rose hips themselves by their spherical or oval shape. The fruits are usually red, orange or yellow in colour. However, some varieties also have a greenish to brownish tinge.

It hurts, but it’s healthy: the stinging nettle

You can use all parts of the nettle plant as a spice or medicinal herb. Leaves and roots are available all year round and contain, among other things, significant amounts of vitamins A, C and K as well as calcium, iron, magnesium and high-quality vegetable protein.

In autumn, the wild plant provides us with its seeds in particular. You can recognize stinging nettles by their oval-shaped leaves, which end in a point at the front and are deeply notched at the edges. The burning pain that emanates from the leaves is also particularly characteristic. You should therefore be careful when harvesting.

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Cooking Tips

Preserve Wild Garlic and Freeze

Here you will find instructions for freezing and preserving wild garlic. Wild garlic can be used in a variety of ways in the kitchen to prepare tasty dishes. But you have to preserve the delicious wild vegetables because they are not available all year round.

Cool wild garlic and preserve it

Wild garlic stays fresh in the fridge for about 2 days, after which it begins to lose its aromatic freshness. By the way, did you know that you can easily freeze wild garlic? So you can extend its availability to the whole year.

Ferment wild garlic

Fermentation is a typical way of storing food in Japan and Korea. In order to preserve wild garlic, it is fermented. The taste then changes to something sour, as the lactic acid bacteria decompose the wild garlic and convert it into acid. Vegetables preserved by fermentation are a tasty change of taste and have a very health-promoting effect on your body. Be sure to use gloves for the preparation if you don’t like green hands. You will need salt, empty screw-top jars, labels to write on, and a tray or plate. Fermenting only works in a dark place at 18-20 °Celsius.

  • First, clean the wild garlic by carefully shaking out the leaves.
  • Add 0.5 to 1 g salt per 100 g and put the wild garlic in a bowl.
  • Knead everything well with your hands for a while.
  • Fill the softly kneaded wild garlic into a clean glass.
  • Leave 2 cm under the lid after you push it in.
  • Seal the jar and label it with self-written labels.
  • For two weeks you put it on a plate in a dark place at 18-20 degrees.
  • Now the wild garlic is ready to eat. It has a shelf life of one year in a cool, dark place.
  • Wild garlic deep-frozen

You can buy frozen wild garlic from many companies. But to go collect it yourself or to harvest it in your own garden is an experience. Hopefully, you have found a suitable method for preserving wild garlic in our compilation and can now season many delicious dishes with your own wild garlic. By the way: Even the flowers are edible and have a very aromatic taste!

Freezing wild garlic

Another way to preserve wild garlic is to freeze it. You need fresh wild garlic, water, broth, or olive oil. When it comes to wild garlic, you should note that it has not yet bloomed. This method works best if you’d like to take small portions for daily meals. By the way, did you know that wild garlic doesn’t smell as strong as garlic? You can grab it and still not smell like garlic from your mouth.

  • Then pluck off the leaves first.
  • Next, the wild garlic must be carefully washed.
  • Then you should finely chop the leaves.
  • Fill them in airtight plastic containers or in portions in ice cube trays.
  • You can fill the small compartments of the ice cube tray with water, broth, or olive oil.

Freeze wild garlic differently

There are several ways to freeze wild garlic. They differ with regard to the type of use when later cooking with wild garlic. For example, you can freeze the wild garlic ready-made as pesto, herb butter, or spice stock cubes. You need clean containers with lids. Depending on the type of preparation, you also need butter, oil, or broth. We have put together preparation for pesto, a preparation for herb butter, and a preparation of the spice stock cubes for you.

  • For the preparation with butter: Simply stir the chopped wild garlic into the butter with a spoon, using plenty of wild garlic. Then pour the mixture into the prepared glasses. You can even freeze the glasses.
  • However, it is best to only fill the jars three-quarters full, as the liquid inside expands below 4 °C. If there is still enough space in the glass, it will not burst in the refrigerator compartment. Wild garlic butter tastes particularly good with freshly grilled meat, fish, or vegetables.
  • For the preparation with oil: Puree the wild garlic with a little olive oil. Then simply pour it into a glass as usual. This way of preparing wild garlic is particularly suitable for preparing spaghetti with pesto. Pesto with wild garlic is a tasty change from tomato pesto or basil pesto.
  • For the preparation with broth: With this preparation, you should puree the wild garlic with as little liquid as possible. Then freeze the wild garlic. This way of preparing wild garlic is particularly suitable for seasoning soups or sauces. You can use them like bouillon cubes. To freeze a cube shape, use an ice cube tray to freeze.
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Planting, Caring for and Using Wild Apples: This is How It Works

Wild apple is a small tree that attracts attention in summer with its lush flowers and provides you with numerous fruits in autumn. Here you can find out what you should consider when planting, caring for and eating.

The winter apple (also known as the crab apple) is a native plant: it has been cultivated regionally and its fruits eaten for centuries. Today, however, the winter apple is rarely found in Germany. It is also a popular refuge for birds and mammals and an important food source for various insects.

Characteristic is the thin trunk, which only reaches a diameter of two to four centimeters, and the slightly woody consistency. Some branches have thorns. Some varieties also have slightly wrinkled skin. However, this does not affect the health of the tree or the taste of the apples.

The flowering period of the tree extends from April to May and lets it shine in a white to light pink splendour. The apples ripen in early autumn and are yellowish to reddish in color, depending on the variety. Be sure to choose local varieties for planting.

Plant wild apple: The basic conditions

Before you plant wild apples, you should think about the time and place of planting. Please note the following:

Timing: Autumn is the best time to plant. In principle, however, it is possible all year round.
Location: Choose a sunny to partially shaded spot. The tree likes sun and warmth and should not be overshadowed by other plants. Otherwise it is quite robust, so that wind and rain cannot harm it. Note that the apple tree can grow between 3 and 6 meters tall. However, this varies depending on the variety. At the same time, the roots grow quite extensively and close below the surface of the earth. There are also varieties that are suitable for hedge planting.
Soil: Since the wild apple tree is a wild tree, it can get along with almost any soil. He just doesn’t particularly like extremely wet soil like moor. Nevertheless, you can enrich the particularly nutrient-poor soil with nutrients and sand.

This is how you plant the wild apple

Planting a wild apple is not difficult. To do this, follow the steps below:

Place the young tree in a bucket of water so the roots can soak.
Dig a planting hole. This should be at least twice as large as the plant ball of the wild apple tree.
Enrich the soil with some compost or other organic fertilizer.
Place the small tree in the hole and refill the soil. Squeeze them tight.
Water the freshly planted wild apple tree properly.
Depending on the location, it may make sense to initially secure the young tree with a stake.
If you sprinkle bark mulch around the tree, you prevent weeds and at the same time protect the tree from unwanted competing plants.

Caring for a tree: tips and hints

The wild apple tree is robust and quite undemanding. For care, it is sufficient if you observe the following tips:

The most important thing is that you protect the wild apple from drought. Especially when young, you should water the tree regularly during long periods of drought. We recommend collecting rainwater and using it to feed your plants.
If you want to do something good for your wild apple, you can fertilize it in the first half of the year (spring to June), preferably with compost.
Basically, it is not necessary to trim the wild apple tree. However, if it is not developing in the way that is best for your garden and other plants, or if you want to shape it, you should cut it from time to time. You can read here how to best make the cut: Cutting an apple tree: The right tree cut in spring and autumn
Wild apple is hardy. So you don’t have to take any special precautions for the cold season.
If you want to propagate the apple, the best way to do this is by sowing: Scatter the seeds of the fruit in a pot outside in autumn and keep it moist. Cutting a cutting and cultivating it is often not successful.
Diseases and pests do not worry the wild apple tree for the most part. However, typical apple tree diseases such as apple scab or fire blight can sometimes occur.

Here’s how you can use the wild apple

Wild apples are edible. However, young apples of the tree are rather sour and tart because they contain a lot of tannin. You can cook them to tone down the flavor. In addition, the kernels of wild apples, like other apples, contain the substance amygdalin, which is converted to toxic hydrocyanic acid in the body. Even if you bite into the seeds, they are harmless in small amounts.

Wild apples contain a comparatively large amount of pectin. You may know the substance as a vegan gelling agent. They also have a firmer consistency than cultivated apples. You can take advantage of these two properties by using the fruit for homemade applesauce or apple jelly. You can also make tea, juice or syrup from wild apples.

The fruits are also often used as a decorative element in arrangements or wreaths.

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Planting, Caring for and Using Wild Pears: Here’s How

As a pasture for insects, the wild pear is an important food source for bees and the like. The wild form of the pear, which grows in sparse forests, also thrives in domestic gardens. We will show you how to properly plant and care for the rare pear tree.

Plant wild pears in your own garden

The wild pear is the original form of the pear tree and originally grows mainly on the edges of forests and in clearings. Unlike cultivated pears, the wild fruits can only be eaten in processed form, but the gnarled wild pear should not be missing in any natural garden simply because of its ecological benefits. The white umbelliferous flowers provide food for bees and other insects, while the fruits that are stuck are eaten by native birds.

You can buy the wild pear as a young tree in well-stocked garden shops. Before you plant the fruit tree, however, you should pay attention to a few points:

Location: You can plant the wild pear almost anywhere. The only important thing is that it gets a sunny and warm place in your garden. Even on slopes, the wild pear thrives thanks to its deep roots. The blazing sun doesn’t bother her either. On the contrary, in order for the leaves to turn fully colored in autumn, the tree even has to be in full sun.
Soil: Since the wild pear is very adaptable, it grows well on all permeable soils. The only thing you should not plant the tree in is very wet or acidic soil. You can recognize acidic soils, for example, by means of special indicator plants.
When to plant: As with most fruit trees, spring or autumn is the best time to plant the wild pear.
Plant neighbors: In order to reproduce, the wild pear needs nearby pollinators. Apple trees or other types of pears are well suited for this.
Plant wild pear:

First dig a planting hole at the site. Make sure it’s at least twice the size of the wild pear’s root ball.
Slightly loosen the soil at the bottom of the hole and lay a drainage layer of gravel or sand.
Now place the wild pear with the root ball in the hole and fill it up again with the excavation from the plant.
Put a support stick in the ground and tie the young wild pear to it.
Finally, lightly press down the top layer of soil and water the pear tree generously.

The right care for the wild pear

Even if the wild pear is very easy to care for and robust overall, it is worth taking the following care instructions into account:

Watering: The wild pear’s water requirements are usually covered by the occasional rainwater that falls. In particularly long periods of drought, however, you should water them so that the soil does not dry out completely. You should definitely avoid watering too often, as the pear species is very sensitive to waterlogging.
Fertilizer: The frugal wild pear does not depend on additional nutrients.
Pruning: The wild pear is very tolerant of pruning. Once a year, in spring, you can safely remove dead and laterally growing branches. In addition, you should leave the naturally growing fruit tree unpruned.
Harvesting: In autumn, the real wild pear develops round fruits that are about three centimeters in size. At first glance, they don’t look like typical pears at all. The pears only lose their bitter taste when they are overripe or after the first frost. Then you can harvest and process them. The fruits of the Chinese wild pear, on the other hand, are inedible and remain on the branches until they are softened by the frost and serve as food for birds.
Overwintering: In order to protect the wild pear from frost in winter, you should mulch its treetop in autumn with a thick layer of bark mulch or autumn leaves.
Diseases and pests: You no longer need to worry about pests with the robust wild pear. Even the dreaded pear rust rarely occurs with her.

You can use the wild pear in so many different ways

The fruits of the wild pear contain many tannins and fruit acids. In the raw state, they are therefore hardly edible due to the bitter taste. Nevertheless, there are a few ways in which you can still use the wild pear in the kitchen:

Using wild pears in the kitchen: After the first frost, wild pears lose their bitter taste. If you want to speed up this process and process the fruit faster, you can dry and bake the pears. In combination with cultivated pears or apples, you can then process the wild pear into pear syrup or pear puree.
Use wild pear blossoms: Wild pear blossoms can also be useful in the kitchen. As a side dish, the flower buds taste good in a wild herb salad. You can also process the mild-tasting flowers into tea or lemonade. If you sprinkle the buds with sugar water, you can candy them in the oven over low heat and use them to decorate desserts.

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