Walking my dog this morning, I was greeted by the beautiful sight of the beech tress bursting into leaf. Finally! Growing up in Denmark, I have come to associate the mark of spring with the sight of fresh beech leaves lightly decorating the tall trees in the forests. I was also thrilled to see that the entire forest flour was covered by the beautiful snow white flowers of the wild garlic. They are extremely pretty incorporated into a salad, or stuck in a vase at home, if you dont mind the faint smell of garlic..Or make them into this great recipe

I have adapted a super simple recipe from Anette Eckman’s ‘Naturens Spisekammer’ that uses new beech leaves filled with cheese, as a little spring snack.

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24 new beech leaves

200g soft cream cheese

4 wild garlic leaves

1 tsp cayenne pepper or chilli oil

a pinch of salt and pepper

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Pick your beech leaves and wild garlic leaves the day you intend to eat them. Wash and pat them dry.
Finly chop the garlic leaves, and mix them with the cream cheese. Add the spices, salt and pepper and place a tsp of the filling onto each of the beech leaves. Gently fold the leaves in half and secure with a cocktail stick. Place in the fridge for an hour before serving them.

Enjoy on their own or served with little slices of rye bread.