Watercress

[OBG]

I have found a dyke full of watercress in open countryside, away from roads.

Is it safe to eat? If not, how can i make this watercress safe to eat?

Thanks

[Sue B]

Hello- I think that there is a type of wild watercress that grow's
in dyke's etc. I have picked a lot (and ate same) but usually look
for the one growing in running water (stream's etc.)
Saying that I am growing some in my fish pond- I just wash it well.
Make's beautiful soup if you can find enough !
Just wanted to let you know I am still alive !- all the best

[davidbr]

Originally Posted by OBG

I have found a dyke full of watercress in open countryside, away from roads.

Is it safe to eat? If not, how can i make this watercress safe to eat?

Thanks

If it's definitely Water-cress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum) then it doesn't matter where it's growing, you'll be fine to eat it - a bit of dirt won't do you any harm, if you're bothered then wash it Most of the plants you could pick in error aren't dangerous, they just don't taste very nice - Fool's Water-cress (Apium nodiflorum) & Lesser Water-parsnip (Berula erecta) are sometimes confused by the inexperienced, but they're not really very similar and actually belong to a totally different family (both members of the carrot family; water-cress is a crucifer, like cabbage )

However... at this time of year, have a good look at some photographs of Hemlock Water-dropwort (Oenanthe crocata) to make 150% sure you're not about to munch the winter foliage of that. Because if you do, you probably won't be posting on here again

[Johnny Redgate]

There is a worry about watercress and liver fluke i.e. fluke cists get attached to watercress and you can get infected after eating the cress. Have a look on the web for advice, especially if your source of cress is close to wet pasture with sheep and cattle.
Johnny

[Paul mabbott]

Yes, worth checking out - Fasciola hepatica but, as with all wild food, there re other possible contaminants. I think that sheep were the main problem and I think that infestation rates are not what they were. Nonetheless best not to eat cress from water below grazing sheep (or other animals).
The best water cress is grown on fast-running shallow streams - thorough washing is essential.

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

but, as with all wild food, there re other possible contaminants.

As far as waterborne problems in addition those already mentioned:

Leptospirosis

Cryptosporidium

The latter is closely linked with 'farm run off'.

Also to be considerered - fertiliser and pesticide run off, highway run off (less serious these days with lower lead levels in fuel but still a problem) and industrial pollution of water courses.

Proper cooking of wild food will deal with most biological problems but may not make chemically affected food, safe. With something like water cress, not only are the water sources used for commercial growing chosen for optimal safety, there's also regular monitoring of water quality. By contrast there's very little monitoring of 'natural' waterways except where there's already an established problem. Drainage works like rhynes and dykes, and small bodies of still water get virtually no monitoring at all.

CM

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Johnny Redgate

There is a worry about watercress and liver fluke i.e. fluke cists get attached to watercress and you can get infected after eating the cress. Have a look on the web for advice, especially if your source of cress is close to wet pasture with sheep and cattle.
Johnny

I would take this advice find out all you can before you take a chance..
I would get it from a supermarket to on the safe side.

[davidbr]

Sorry, I don't mean to be facetious, but the amount of panic around "wild-caught/grown" food nowadays never fails to make me smile. Yes, of course, most of what you will buy at Tesco/Sainsbury/Asda/Morrison/WallsRUs is grown under conditions where they claim a microbe would need combat gear to get in. Does that make it any healthier? Erm, no. Because the bacteria that cause fatalities are carried by the handlers, not the food - by poor hygiene in processing plants, in packaging, in supermarkets, etc. Since most of these kind of conditions (the lethal ones) are notifiable diseases, the details can be found online - and I've never heard of a death that's been related to home-gathered produce.

My grandparents on my fathers' side, with whom I spent most of my childhood, were brought up in a time where food was precious and what you could gather yourself was worth its weight in gold. I'd watched my grandad collect fungi off a cowpat, happily fish for shrimps within yards of a coastal sewage outflow and hop into a stream, sniff a dead trout and loudly proclaim, "this 'un's fresh, he'll do for dinner." He died in 2008 of cancer at the age of 95. My grandmother died later in the year at 92. Until they were 90, neither had been in hospital apart from to be born or give birth.

I, on the other hand, get most of my diet from the pre-packaged stuff I mentioned. Like almost all of us do nowadays. At the end of October I almost died from septic shock, and for the third time in my life I needed an emergency surgeon to perform a laparotomy to keep me going. Now, one op always makes the next one far more likely... but I'm 27. I had the first one in 2005, when I developed sepsis from a ruptured gallbladder. My grandad had the same surgery in 1929, at home under chloroform sedation - and he said he strolled through it. I spent 40 days in ITU. Now, maybe it's just bad luck - but to me it kind of suggests that, despite all the scientific advances, on the base level, we're not exactly benefiting from the rise of Health 'Un Safety...??

[Johnny Redgate]

Well I'm not one to panic about wild food but liver fluke is endemic in the sheep flock in western UK at least. However, as pointed out already, clean, fast flowing streams especially where there are no sheep are least likely to be a problem as I believe the intermediate host to be the mud snail which lives in marshes and slow flowing ditches. A little caution is advisable I think.