[Janeymiddlewife]

I've got some landcress seeds somewhere which are supposed to be easier to cultivate than watercress - I'll let you know when I find them 

[tode]

Chookster:  watercress should NEVER be collected from streams and eaten, no matter how clean and idyllic the surroundings may seem.  I have an acquaintance who caught liver fluke from doing that, and he was in hospital for a month while they got all the worms out of his liver and tried to repair the damage. 
Nearly all watercourses are now infested with water rats and coypu, the urine of which, in the water, can transmit leptospirosis to humans (and other animals). In its more severe form, this is Weil's disease: liver damage with a significant mortality rate. It can be caught by conact with the water, through a cut, or by inhalation of water droplets, or by contact with the mouth.
Sorry to be so doom-and-gloom, but there are quite a few cases here every year, and, I should imagine, in UK.   Try googling these 2 diseases, but you'll need a stiff drink afterwards !

On a brighter note, I thought of growing watercress (we have a little stream at the bottom of the garden, full of watercress !!!).   Apparently its quite simple if you have a source of clean running water, or if you can change the water 2 or 3 times a day. Think I'll give it a go next year.

[Salmo]

You can grow it at home but it will never taste as good as fresh from a running brook. Just make sure that you wash it well.

The risk from liver fluke is minimal unless there are sheep regularly grazing the area.

The life cycle of a liver fluke is strange and as follows. The fluke, a bit like a slug, lives in the liver of sheep. It lays its eggs which pass out with the faeces. When they hatch they invade the gut of a tiny water snail. Here they stay until the snail is accidentally eaten by a sheep while eating plants in marshy areas. Once inside the sheep the tiny fluke migrate through the tissues and eventually settle in the liver. A few do no harm but sometimes there are hundreds which destroy the liver. Nasty but true.

Wash your watercress well as they can live in man. Watercress farms treat their beds with chemicals to eliminate snails.  Is garden grown stuff 100% safe?

[tode]

I used to think that "Nature is best", but everyone should be aware of the real dangers of these two diseases which are not often publicized.
Liver fluke can be transmitted by sheep, horses and cattle, and are widely present, which is why the sale of wild watercress is illegal (in France, at least).  Weil's disease is a growing problem, due to the poor maintenance of the waterways.

Everyone is, of course, at liberty to eat what they prefer, but I certainly wouldn't run the (real) risk for a bunch of watercress. 

[Trillium]

Peapod, watercress can become invasive in the right conditions. A friend put in a small trickling water stream on his hillside  and decided to add 2 bits of watercress. I saw the stream next year and you couldn't see water for cress. needless to say he was pulling iall the cress out. If you really want it, then a contained space is ideal.
As for eating/drinking from 'natural' water sources, people are always shocked to find way upstream somewhere a factory with an illegal dump pipe going directly into the river or people simply dumping crud into water systems. Their brains seem to be on hold when they pollute in this way.   

[Etherelda]

Our neighbour used to water his veg plot by 'scooping' water out of the river.  He complained to the local Water Board because the  weed that grew progrifitaly (PHONETIC SPELLING) and they told him it was illegal to take water for horticultural purposes from running water and they could sue him! Removal of watercress from a wild running water course could be seen in the same light.  (I don't know for sure, just guessing).

Our local council pump water from the Ouse into bowsers, towed by vans to water the hanging baskets and tubs in and around Ely. A good bit of water recycling. Maybe they have permission.

I can imagine with the scale of market gardening in this area (some companies own miles and miles of land, covered with carrots, salad leaves, pots, etc) and all the irrigation ditches, that it does have to be monitored, as some farming companies could take the pee, but obviously, some water authority killjoy can't tell the difference between a smallholder and a giant company.

All the sprayers are still on in the fens, we haven't had rain here for at least 4 weeks.


Most commercial watercress is picked from beds that are fed from streams, I guess they have the technology and chemicals to zap any bugs off it.

My mum used to be a watercress picker/planter for Vitacress near Andover, hampshire. It gives you terrible wrinkles, having the sun bouncing back off the water!


http://www.meetthegrower.com/environment.asp

[Swing Swang]

Personaly I'd never eat wild watercress fresh, but have been quite happy to turn it into soup.

Increase in Weil's disease concerns me though.

There are a lot of rats around and that includes our gardens and allotments as well as watercourses, so I guess that there's be a chance of contamination if home grown too.

SS

[HilaryG]

I have a little manmade stream running through to my pond. It's about 15' long and powered by pond pump. We have had watercress in it for 2 years now and we've eaten tons of it, fresh and in soups. I always wash it but  on reading this blog I'm wondering if I'm doing the right thing. We haven't suffered any ill effects but I've no doubt there are rats in the vicinity. Is cooking it in soups going to kill off these nasty bugs? 
I hope so, because it's so delicious and v. expensive in the shops.

[tode]

I didn't know that ordinary rats can carry it, but according to NHS they can:

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Leptospirosis/Pages/Introduction.aspx

The big problem with rivers and streams is that water rats and coypu urinate directly in the water, so it's readily transmittable.
"Earth" rats however probably urinate more on earth, where it gets broken down (maybe ? ? ).

The same, of course applies to picking fruit in the wild when its growing low (fox urine, etc).

I used to strim the edge of our stream until I found out about it. Now I just mow and leave the edge to itself !

No need to get paranoic about it, but it's certainly a real danger. Especially since most GPs wouldn't think of diagnosing it, unless they knew that you'd been in contaminated water previously.

Hilary:  if you're certain that there are no water-rats visiting your pond, I would imagine that the risk would be minimal, but would still avoid contact with mouth etc, and wash stuff really well.

[Chookster]

Chookster thats a really really good idea

  ::)aaaa haa haa  8)wot a giraffe 

[Chookster]

When I lived on the mainland we had the Blackwater River flowing along the bottom of our  garden (Surrey/Hampshire Border).  Our neighbour used to water his veg plot by 'scooping' water out of the river.  He complained to the local Water Board because the  weed that grew progrifitaly (PHONETIC SPELLING) and they told him it was illegal to take water for horticultural purposes from running water and they could sue him! Removal of watercress from a wild running water course could be seen in the same light.  (I don't know for sure, just guessing).

Blimey!

[Chookster]

Ive never grown watercress.  OH and I were pondering it last year (see what I did there?  )

Does anyone know if it takes over? Ill never grow aquatic mint again 

what? what? what? what?

(sorry - got morphed into a goldfish in a pond for a bit! nightmare!)

[DD.]

You can harvest the flowers, fruit & foliage of any plant, tree or shrub, growing wild on any land. (I remember from my "job" days).

Doesn't mean you can trespass to harvest it though!

[Chookster]

Chookster:  watercress should NEVER be collected from streams and eaten, no matter how clean and idyllic the surroundings may seem.  I have an acquaintance who caught liver fluke from doing that, and he was in hospital for a month while they got all the worms out of his liver and tried to repair the damage. 
Nearly all watercourses are now infested with water rats and coypu, the urine of which, in the water, can transmit leptospirosis to humans (and other animals). In its more severe form, this is Weil's disease: liver damage with a significant mortality rate. It can be caught by conact with the water, through a cut, or by inhalation of water droplets, or by contact with the mouth.
Sorry to be so doom-and-gloom, but there are quite a few cases here every year, and, I should imagine, in UK.   Try googling these 2 diseases, but you'll need a stiff drink afterwards !

On a brighter note, I thought of growing watercress (we have a little stream at the bottom of the garden, full of watercress !!!).   Apparently its quite simple if you have a source of clean running water, or if you can change the water 2 or 3 times a day. Think I'll give it a go next year.

Well I think that's very sensible advice. Thank you Tode. 

[Chookster]

Wash your watercress well as they can live in man. Watercress farms treat their beds with chemicals to eliminate snails.  Is garden grown stuff 100% safe?

What do you think then guys? about garden grown stuff as Salmo says??