Last weekend we took the kids out on their skates and headed down towards Manor Park in Caterham.
Manor Park is a large open space with grassland and woodland -during the storms, a couple of months ago, a huge tree came down and it's in the process of being chopped up.
By the way, my son is wearing a helmet as he refused to take it off after riding his skateboard!
We took a pathway through the back of the woods where there are huge amounts of wild garlic (ramsons).
Ramsons are unmistakeable - the garlicy smell alone can be a tell-tale sign! Otherwise, look for their rounded clusters of star-like, white flowers on green oval leaves, carpeting the woodland floor.
They are more common in the south of England and are a member of the onion family.
They taste a lot like spring onions, the leaves are edible, as are the flowers and buds and the stems are crunchy like bean sprouts.
We picked a bag full to take home. We have frozen some and already used some of the leaves in with our meatball sauce.
The added bonus (apart from the free food) was the lovely walk home along a very quiet road.
Our lucky glimpse of the day were two fallow deer (although one ran off) this one stayed still, but this is the closest we got to a semi-decent photo.
Spring is here, ferns are uncurling and we can't wait to see what the warmer weather brings.