From Exmoor to Sarawak food: Bracken

Bracken on sale in a street market in Sarawak

You can find yourself thinking weird things during a lockdown, like this, for example… If we humans disappeared along with all those powerful machines that help us keep nature in check, who would be king of our West Country jungle? 

Bracken would probably have a good shout. At this time of year the great green frond is cropping up all over the place. It totally dominates many wild untamed hilly areas like the Quantock Hills, but as summer gets into gear it begins to creep beyond the high heaths and into the lowland hedgerows.

In evolutionarily terms it’s no wonder bracken may be considered to be one of the most successful ferns. It is one of the oldest plants we have, with fossil records that stretch back over 55 million years – and its generally agreed to be the most successful fern there is.

Quantock bracken - the hills are covered in it

First you see its short single finger of a frond beginning to unfurl, looking for all the world like some alien intruder that been lying dormant underground. That, indeed, is part of bracken’s storyline - it does have that Triffid look about it - if ever there was going to be an invasion of verdant body-snatchers, bracken would be up there among the culprits.

You can eat these very young bracken shoots - they're supposed to taste a bit like asparagus - but I have eaten young bracken in Borneo, of all places, and it wasn’t asparagus that came to mind. Bracken shoots are regarded as a delicacy in the Far East, but I think there is something just too green about their appearance - those tender fronds seem to shout "Watch out - I'm poisonous."

Of course bracken does become poisonous in its adulthood - or carcinogenic anyway. The spores that collect under its feathery branches are not healthy things to inhale – indeed, a Danish scientist published a study in 2004 showing that the carcinogenic compound in bracken can leach into the water supply – which he said may explain an increase in the incidence of gastric and oesophageal cancers in bracken-rich areas.

I’ve always had a fondness for the plant because it seems to signify the wild places, which I happen to love – but that last bit of information is enough to put me off the King of the West Country Jungle for ever.

By the way, this is our 62nd day of lockdown - I only began doing this diary three days after the start. nd today I am left wondering if there is anything such thing as a lockdown. The Minehead road was packed earlier, as was the seafront and all the town’s supermarket car parks. What lockdown? I came home in a hurry, I can tell you.

Winter bracken on the Quantocks