Going the whole hog

Raw hogweed can have blistering consequences, yet, if sautéed, it is a startlingly versatile vegetable–but never confuse it with hemlock, warns John Wright

APPROPRIATELY enough, historical opinions on the edibility of hogweed may be summed up as ‘feed the stuff to pigs and eat the pigs’. As for cow parsley, it has always been viewed as nothing more than an irredeemable weed. Fortunately or not, today’s imaginative chefs have discovered ways of preparing almost any plant that is at least not actually poisonous. I must remind you that both plants are in the carrot family, a family that harbours several species that are extremely dangerous if eaten. Confusion will be allayed by remembering that hogweed and cow parsley are respectively hairy and slightly hairy, whereas the bad guys—hemlock, hemlock water dropwort and fool’s parsley—are hairless. Then there’s giant hogweed, an invasive streamside/wetland plant notorious for sensitising the skin to ultraviolet light, causing blisters…

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Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 19, 2025

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