Wild garlic is one of the kitchen herbs that are usually collected in the wild. This means that there is also a certain risk of infection with the fox tapeworm pathogen in affected areas if safety rules are not observed.

The use of wild garlic collected in the forest

The fox tapeworm is a dangerous disease that can also be transmitted to humans via the excrement of foxes when eating wild herbs. This is problematic with wild garlic because it is often eaten raw as part of herb salads or as a topping on sandwiches and quark bread. However, the risk of ingesting the invisible small eggs of the fox tapeworm is minimized if you wash the wild garlic thoroughly and rub the individual leaves with your hands under hot running water. Incidentally, you should also do this if you have bought potted or already harvested wild garlic, since commercially sold wild garlic does not necessarily come from cultivation on fenced-in properties.

Ways to use wild garlic in cooked form

If you want to be on the safe side, you should simply use the wild garlic in cooked form, despite a certain loss of aroma. You can do this, for example, with the following types of use:

  • Wild garlic gnocchi
  • Wild garlic rosti
  • Puff pastry snails with wild garlic
  • Pickled wild garlic buds

Boiling and storing the wild garlic buds that have not yet blossomed also has the advantage that the buds that have been preserved in this way can be stored much longer than fresh wild garlic.

Grow wild garlic safely in your own garden

If your garden is not on the edge of a forest and is surrounded by a garden fence, you can plant wild garlic in your garden by sowing seeds or by transplanting entire plants and thus harvesting its leaves without contamination with the fox tapeworm pathogen.

tips and tricks

Planting wild garlic in your own garden has the advantage that with fenced plots of land far from forests, not only can the risk of fox tapeworms be practically ruled out. Controlled cultivation in an open space under deciduous trees also minimizes the risk of confusion with poisonous doubles such as autumn crocus, lily of the valley and aurora.

Category:

Herbs