Crim is a very old irish word for wild garlic and crimfeis refers to a annual feast provided by a client or tenenant to his lord. Evidence for this is from the 8th century and who knows how long before that it may have existed. The feast itself concisted of the crim with cheese and milk and was usually offered in the weeks coming up to Easter.
There is also some evidence to suggest that late spring was a time when the heaver meat based diets of winter were replaced by more plant based diet with Wild Garlic and no doudt Fat Hen and Good King Henry being consumed. These plants were, at one time commonly grown in gardens but have fallen out of favour or flavour or been replaced by other plants but they can still be found in the wild. As recently as the 19th century in Ireland, wild garlic was used to flavour butter instead of salt. There is also some evidence of bog butter, found by turf cutters, was flavoured with wild garlic and left to mature in the bog to enhance its flavour and probably to store it over a period of time.
This allium has become a bit of a star over the past number of years making appearances on menus where there is an interest in the current trend for wild food. It also benefits from being easily recognisable and identifiable with its oval shaped leaves and tiny white flowers. Its pungent smell will also give a pretty good indication of location and identity. it favours shaded woodland and can form large carpets where it has been left to grow undisturbed. All parts of the plant are edable but its the leaves that are most often used and they are at their best in the comming weeks. once the flowers emmerge the leaves become tough and woody and are best left alone. But the flowers are a wonderful addition to salads and the sedheads that follow are great picked fresh or pickled.
Traditionaly its healing uses have been often in relation to stomach and digestion issues. A quick glance through the folklore collection archive revels a few details of old country traditions and in general provides with a positive glimpses of the localised uses of the plant. No mentions of cullinary so much as for its healing qualities. Interestingly one quote says '
Years ago garlic was grown in several parts of every farm to prevent disease in cattle. But as farmers became more "up to date" they dug it up as it was supposed to injure the flavour of their butter.'
What an evocotive turn of phrase “injure the flavour of the butter” . Interesting too that the more up to date notion was to dig up the garlic and not to let the cattle graze it.