Wild watercress

Hi,

I have discovered a dyke in open countryside away from roads which is full of watercress.

Can the cress be eaten safely? If not is there any way to cleanse it to make it safe to eat?

Thanks

 

Wild watercress can be contaminated with liver flukes which can cause serious illness http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Liver-Flukes.htm . I grow land cress and that tastes almost as good imo but its not the same as free foraging in the countryside but maybe safer. :hehe:

 

You can rinse it in a very dilute mixture of Chlorosan (available from chemists)

This is what is done commercially.

 

I read the article you linked to. Scary stuff, made all the more scary because of all the big words

It seemed to be saying that the biggest risk is a tummy ache and cold/mild flu like symptoms if I understand it correctly (I'm not a medical expert so may be way off the mark), with a very slim chance of complications leading to death.

It also seemed to be suggesting that it is a problem more in the warmer parts of Asia and Eastern Europe.

There are lots of things that can make us ill or even kill us in the countryside, but I think the risk is extremely low. I'm told that we can catch weils disease from water where rats are, legionnaire's disease from standing water, septicemia from tick bites, cancer from bracken spores, anaphylactic shock from bee stings or blackthorn scratches and a whole world of pain from poisoning caused by misidentification of wild plants and fungi. I'm still here though

Personally, I suspect the biggest danger when taking food from the wild is misidentification. In the UK we have lots of fairly common wild plants and fungi that look like familiar edible stuff but are actually extremely poisonous. On that point, whenever I think I've identified something edible, I always research poisonous things that look like it. For example if you search something like 'large flat field mushrooms', and see some pics of such and they look like what you've seen, a search for 'poisonous large flat mushrooms' might turn up Amanita Phalloides (Death Cap), which might also look like it too.

 

I found this which does show that incidents of diseases caused by liver flukes in animals had risen steadily http://www.sac.ac.uk/mainrep/pdfs/tn557liverfluke.pdf in Scotland between 1995 and 2002, I don't know if this trend has continued.

I agree with what you have written above and if I came across some wild watercress I would probably not be able to resist picking it but I know that it could be infected and would now know to treat it as advised by kindredspirit.

 

You can grow it at home.... just find a bunch from the shops with wee roots and plant it up in very wet soil. (in a bucket)..with no danger of liver fluke.... and no danger of misidentification. It's probably best to get it started in the spring

 

I love foraging in the wild but wouldn't pick watercress - you never know what is in the water.

I remember walking in the lake district with a friend, we came accross a tiny stream and he waxed lyrically about the purity of water in the hills away from houses and factories. He drank from the stream and pronounced it the freshest he had ever drunk.
A short while later and a litle further upstream we found a dead sheep in the middle of said stream! I was glad I had stuck to my waterbottle

 

That has happened to me TWICE!

On the second occasion, because I was gasping on a very hot day, I just moistened my lips as I vividly remembered the first time. Walking uphill then, we found another dead sheep in the water. I'll never do it again.

Anyway, no problem with the cress. Just use Chlorosan.

 

I don't think I'd worry too much about drinking from mountain streams. Ok there might be a few floaters in it, but your tap water comes through 100+ year old pipes with cracks in them and who knows what finding its way in.

 

I spent 5 years living in the Scottish Highlands, where it's common to take all the drinking water straight off the mountain streams... untreated and clean... just pure sparkling mountain fresh water (and no danger of dead sheep)... it used to sometimes have tadpoles and bits of fern in it... bet wey-hey!

We still didn't eat the wild watercress, except cooked, in soup... as there was the potentially dangerous combination of sheep and water snails,.

 

Thanks for all the replies,

Going back to chlorosan,

What dilution rate and what is the process you use?

 

Get a plastic bowl. Fill it with water and just put a miniscule drop of Chlorosan (or other chlorine based brand) into the water. Rinse your Water cress VIGOROUSLY in the treated water and Hey! Presto! the flukes are dead. Make sure you rinse in clear water after that; although the small amount of chlorine shoudn't produce any health hazard, it's more to ensure there's no chlorine taste.

Years ago, my mother just used to add salt to the water and rinse vigorously. But I don't know if that kills fluke worms. As kids we used to cycle out to a neighbouring village in Oxfordshire and gather up a bucketful of water cress. For all I know, I could be full of fluke to this day! :D We also used to dig up horseradish in the fields but we'd eat half the horseradish on the way cycling back! I still love horseradish but I can take or leave watercress.

 

we used to get watercress growing in a spring ,we are all still alive.

 

Oh good lord!

Why do they always end up in the stream it seems?! Poor things.