GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT

Far from being just a weed, the Common Bistort can be eaten - and it still is in northern areas of England, where it's made into a dish called Dock Pudding. The long-stalked, heart-shaped leaves are mixed with chopped nettle leaves, onions, oatmeal, salt and pepper and then fried. Other leaves might include cabbage leaves, dandelion leaves... almost anything green! Delicious!

FAST AND FEAST

Dock pudding is eaten around Easter. This is a very appropriate time. The dock leaves are fresh and tender, of course, but the period before Easter is called Lent, traditionally a time of fasting. There are no exact rules but in earlier times people were encouraged to avoid eating meat, eggs and other rich foods. Instead they ate bread, vegetables and water. Pancakes are eaten on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins, to use up the last of the rich foods like eggs, sugar and milk. Dock pudding, made of vegetables, makes an ideal dish for Lent.

THINKING ABOUT FASTING

Fasting in some form is found in many different religions. Islam has several regular fasts, the most famous being Ramadan, when nothing is eaten between dawn and dusk. In Judaism, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is preceded by ten days of fasting.

Why deny yourself food? The motives vary. It can be an outward sign of sorrow and penitence. Some people also think of it as a way of leaving the mind free to meditate on more important things. Within Christianity, Lent is a time of sorrow and reflection - sorrow because of the approaching death of Jesus and reflection on how every individual does wrong things and needs forgiveness. Fasting is, traditionally, a time to pause for a moment and think about our values.