Meadowsweet

Meadowsweet

Sweetly scented meadowsweet was famous as a strewing herb and as a flavouring for mead.

It later gained recognition as one of the plants that contain salicylic acid, from which is derived aspirin and has been used for many of the same complaints for which aspirin is used today.

Scientific Name

Filipendula ulmaria syn. Spiraea ulmaria

Family

Rosaceae.

Botanical Description

The tall stems are furrowed and sometimes purplish, and the leaves are dark green on the upper side and downy whitish underneath. The fern-like foliage with tufty, creamy-white clusters of flowers bears tiny, dry capsules as seeds.

Status

Perennial. Native.

Habitat and Distribution

Found in damp meadows, drainage ditches and alongside lakes and rivers. Britain and Ireland, temperate parts of Europe and Asia. Introduced to North America.

Parts Used for Food

Leaves, flowers, roots; all parts of the plant have been used.

Harvest Time

May to September.

Food Uses of Meadowsweet

Meadowsweet was famous as a honey-wine herb. Meadwort, or Medwort, was one of fifty ingredients in a drink called ‘Save’ mentioned by English author Geoffrey Chaucer in a Knight’s Tale. English physician and herbalist Nicholas Culpeper also recommended a leaf of meadowsweet in a cup of claret wine to give it a “fine relish”.

Today, meadowsweet is also one of thirty herbs and spices added to the popular Norfolk punch cordial drink, originally made by the monks of Norfolk, England.

All parts of the plant can be added to soups, sauces or stewed fruit for an aromatic flavour.

The bitter roots have been used as a tea substitute along with the leaves and flowers.

Nutritional Profile

Meadowsweet is considered a good example of the old adage ‘let food be your medicine’ thanks to its reputation for soothing overactive stomachs and treating coughs and colds.

Meadowsweet Recipes

Herbal Medicine Uses of Meadowsweet

Meadowsweet’s most famous claim to medicinal success is as a forerunner of aspirin.

Meadowsweet has been considered the go-to herb for indigestion, flatulence, gastric ulcers, gastric reflux, liver disorders, cystitis, diarrhoea in children, rheumatism, cellulitis, bladder stones, and oedema.

Other Uses

Meadowsweet was also used to scour milk churns.

Safety Note

Despite its acclaimed success, Foster and Duke warn that all salicylic-containing plants should be used with caution, given that salicylic medicines can thin the blood and cause internal bleeding.

References

Facciola, S. (1998) Cornucopia II: a source book of edible plants. Vista: Kampong Publications.

Foster, S. & Duke, J. A. (2014) Peterson field guide to medicinal plants and herbs of eastern and central North America. Peterson field guides. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Grieve, M. M. (1998) A modern herbal. London: Tiger Books International.

Grigson, G. (1996) The Englishman’s flora. Oxford: Helicon.

Hatfield, G. (2008) Hatfield’s herbal: the secret history of British plants. London: Penguin.

Irving, M. (2009) The forager handbook: a guide to the edible plants of Britain. London: Ebury.

Karalliedde, L. et al. (2008) Traditional herbal medicines: a guide to their safer use. London: Hammersmith.

Wyse Jackson, P. (2013) Ireland’s generous nature: the past and present uses of wild plants in Ireland. St. Louis: Missouri Botanical Garden Press.

Try This Majestic Meadowsweet Cordial

The delights of this super quick wild meadowsweet cordial recipe are worth trying.

With Summer finally looking like it has arrived, my spirits pick up as I know that meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) is flowering.

Culpepper tells us meadowsweet “makes a merry heart”. Something I can definitely attest to. I just perk up whenever I breathe in its delicious honey scent.

Yesterday, I walked slowly along a path by the side of the small canal near my house. I pass my hands through the bobbing heads of wild grasses.

The colours, if you get down close, are a plethora of rainbow hues. Rush by and you’ll miss them. Stop, stoop or squat. And a whole world opens up to you.

Finally, I see my prize a few yards away. The soft, fluffy, creamy flower heads of meadowsweet gently swaying in the breeze.

Plastic bags are a thing of the past now. Sack, string, paper, linen or canvas bags are what I use for gathering

I encourage you to use the same.

I’m not a hoarder forager. There are far too many plants on offer to stay stuck in the farmer’s scarcity-based worldview.

Far more comfortable to relax into life and know that nature provides vast abundance to us.

So instead of gathering kilos of meadowsweet, I simply gather enough for a couple of bottles of meadowsweet cordial syrup.

While other folks quaff Pimms, fine wines and ales in the Summer heat. I prefer crafting non-alcoholic botanical beverages.

If you’re joining the lifestyle trend of going alcohol-free, you won’t go too far wrong with my meadowsweet cordial syrup recipe.

Drizzle it liberally over local strawberries and ice cream, use diluted for the juice of a fresh fruit salad, or drink with ice-cold sparkling or still water and a slice of lemon.

How To Make A Meadowsweet Cordial Syrup Drink

Strip 20 grams of fresh meadowsweet flowers from their stalks, and put into a cafetière along with a few of the top young leaves.

Pour over 500 ml of boiling water, and push the plunger down to just submerge the meadowsweet flowers below the surface of the water.

Allow to sit for two hours, then strain. For every 100ml of liquid add 100ml of organic maple syrup. Bottle, shake and keep in your refrigerator. It should last a week or so.

To make a refreshing drink, put 2 tablespoons of meadowsweet syrup into a glass and top up with 200ml of water, either sparkling or still. Serve over ice.

Further Reading

Meadowsweet & Vanilla Panna Cotta

The scented delights of Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) are sadly drawing to a close for this year.

Fortunately, as I was visiting some of my favourite foraging haunts along the North Cornwall coast I spied some. It was like it was waving good-bye until next season.

I stopped and picked a small container of the delightful Meadowsweet flowers, then returned home and gave them to Marion, friend and resident Eatweeds’ Wild Food Cook.

What a joy I discovered, as I returned from having a very problematic tooth extracted to be greeted with the beautiful, sensual flavours of this wonderful Meadowsweet & Vanilla Panna Cotta.

My moping about feeling sorry for myself faded as I immersed my taste buds in this gorgeous dessert.

Hopefully, you’ll just have enough time to forage some of the flowers yourself and be able to create this glorious Meadowsweet recipe.

Meadowsweet Recipe Ingredients

  • 3 sprigs of Meadowsweet
  • 300g double cream
  • 100g milk
  • 1 vanilla pod or 1tsp of vanilla extract
  • 1½ gelatine sheets
  • 2tbsp icing sugar
  • 150g Greek yoghurt

Meadowsweet Recipe Instructions

  1. Put the double cream and milk into a small saucepan.
  2. Split the vanilla pod down its length and scrape out the seeds with the point of a knife.
  3. Stir the seed or extract into the cream.
  4. Shake the Meadowsweet to remove any lurking bugs, then place on top of the cream. Leave the flavours to infuse for a couple of hours.
  5. Put the pan on a low heat and gently simmer for 5 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile soak the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water.
  7. Remove the cream from the heat and stir in the icing sugar. When it has dissolved add the drained gelatine and whisk in the yoghurt.
  8. Pour the mixture through a sieve balanced over a jug, then pour into four ramekins or cups. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge to set.
  9. Turn out and serve with berries or fruit puree.

Serves: Four

Further reading: Meadowsweet – A Foraging Guide to Its Food, Medicine and Other Uses

Meadowsweet Sorbet

I can smell the gentle scent of Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) as it is carried on the breeze down the country lane I am ambling along.

My now elderly cairn terrier, Pip, is taking his time as we do the ritual afternoon stroll.

Old and lazy, Pip allows me time to harvest the beautiful, cotton-wooly flowers of this delightful plant. But what to do with Meadowsweet?

All the recipe books tell me to make it into a tea, or transfer the scent to some high dairy pudding or use in various game dishes.

I find dairy too heavy, and if I eat too much I end up itching, and slightly deaf. So allergies aside, I really wanted to experience the wonder of this plant, in all its sensualness. Its light, honey scent needed a carrier that was light too.

Traditionally, meadowsweet was used to flavour mead, dried for tea, and was a sacred herb of the Celts. Most people use it to create some kind of alcoholic drink.

So after throwing some ideas around, I came to the conclusion that a sorbet would be the ideal carrier.

And so I toddled off back home and made my first ever Meadowsweet sorbet, which worked a treat.

Its relaxing flavour will have you oohing and argghhing with your loved ones.

Meadowsweet Sorbet Recipe Ingredients

  • 4 handfuls of Meadowsweet flowers
  • 225g of brown caster sugar
  • 3 juiced lemons
  • 1 thinly grated lemon rind
  • 600ml of water

Meadowsweet Sorbet Recipe Instructions

  1. Put sugar into water, stir and bring to a boil.
  2. Rapid boil the sugar water for 10 minutes to produce a light syrup.
  3. Remove the pan from the heat.
  4. Now add the juiced lemons and the thinly grated lemon rind. Stir.
  5. Next add the Meadowsweet flowers. Stir. Allow to infuse until the syrup is cool/cold.
  6. Strain the syrup through a muslin and freeze in a plastic container overnight.
  7. Now take out your frozen Meadowsweet syrup (it won’t be that frozen), and blend with a hand-blender until smooth. Then put back in the freezer for 24 hours.
  8. Take out and blend again, then freeze for a further 48 hours. Enjoy.

Serves: 1 to 6 people depending on how greedy you are.

Further reading: Meadowsweet – A Foraging Guide to Its Food, Medicine and Other Uses