Friday Foraging #109 - 11th April 2025

Clover (Red)

Also known as: Trefoil, Clovers, Hares Tail Clover, Hop Trefoil and Meadow Clover. It’s Latin name is Trifolium sp.

This plant is easy to tell apart of other plants and grows all year round, so makes a good food source. It grows around grassland including gardens, verges, pastures, fields, parks and waste ground.

The leaves of this plant tend to taste quite grassy! but the seeds taste like peas and the flowers, depending when they are picked can be quite sweet and make a good addition to herbal teas if you usually take sugar.

The leaves are trifoliate, (three leaves opposing each other on one stem). The individual leaves are green, generally oval shaped, sometimes with a point at the end and can show variegation.

Many clovers have a ‘ball’ of small tubular flowers that are pink or a reddish purple, the tiny seeds or ‘peas’ are found at the base of the flowers.

The flowers taste best when foraged on a nice sunny day, you just need to beat the bees to them, and they are great in salads. The peas have a good taste but you would expend more energy on collecting them than you would gain eating them, so bear that in mind! The leaves are edible but too many, which isn’t that much, causes bloating and in some flatulence too.

Any spoilage should be added to your compost bin as clover is good at ‘fixing’ nitrogen in the soil, so really helps make a good compost for growing.