View Full Version : What edible weeds/volunteers are you starting to discover this season?
We found a whole bunch of volunteer or wild carrots in the yard today, and ascertained that they are not poison hemlock. So, yay! We'll be consuming them as we weed them :-) No idea how they got there-possibly someone planted carrots at some point and let them go to seed and they just reseeded. I'm hoping some purslane shows up but we'll see. Last year my parents had some so I'll snitch theirs if we don't get any.
There's of course plenty of dandelions to start picking as well. Haven't noticed lambs ear though. We'll see about the sunflowers too...I think it's too early to see them yet but we usually have lots of volunteers from a planting several years ago followed by lots of bird scatter.
How about you-any forgotten/edible weed/unexpected volunteers in your yard?
Blackdog Lin
4-2-12, 5:23am
Funny you should ask. We've been at our current property almost 19 years and have never found any wild edibles (well, we have plenty of dandelions), but just last week I saw a clump of what looked like onion tops. Plucked one up and ..... wild garlic! I'll remind DH not to mow them over and we'll see what we end up with as they mature.
Enjoy your carrots!
I've been finding globe mallow has spread into the back yard which is all good for me. A new wildflower also arrived within my seasonal African Daisy bloom (I'm not sure of the name yet) and I left it alone hoping the seed will spread and I'll have more next year.
Oops! Sorry, nothing edible that I've discovered yet.
I'm just learning to identify edible wild plants, so aside from dandelion and purslane I'm not sure what-all is in the yard.
While not wild, there are large spreading juniper bushes beside the front steps and I recently found out that the berries have lots of medicinal uses. Now I have to find out how to dry and powder them. Any help here would be appreciated.
Every year i look at the cattail and say I really should eat some. Well, this year i will. Within a few weeks I can cut some of the canes and peel and eat the heart. I've actually chewed on one before, kind of tastes like a mild cucumber. I expected it to taste muddy but not at all. I'm also watching for the annual patch of goosefoot. I've never eaten it but again, this year I will.
Lot of weeks coming up, but I can't identify most of them. The ones I do know are dandelion and chickweed. I usually get purslane later in the season when its warm. I have a lot of plantain in the lawn, as well as violets (which I think are pretty). I intentionally plant clover, which some consider a weed, because I don't have to mow it and it adds nitrogen to the soil for the grass to use.
As far as volunteers, there are always chives coming up in odd places, and some valerian is coming up in the area where it used to be 2 years ago.
I wish I knew more. Can anyone recommend a handbook or something? I guess it would have to be specific to my location.
Peterson guides are pretty good. I have one on edible/medicinal plants.
I need to find out if garlic mustard plants are edible. If they are.........we have about 1,000,000 salads worth of it!
Jemima.......I think juniper berries can be used as a garnish in some meat dishes.
Stinging nettle is edible if you get it very young. I don't have the courage to try it. haha
Yes, garlic mustard is edible! Also can be sauteed like spinach. Stinging nettle doesn't have any sting if you dry it or cook it, although I will say I've only dried it for tea, not used it like spinach. I do wear gloves and long sleeves. At least after the first time I discovered it growing wild as a foundation weed and picked it. Yow-eeee! Has a flavor reminiscent of black currant. Very good against allergies.
Dandelions and nettles. Yumm! And then there are our edible flowers...
Lot of weeks coming up, but I can't identify most of them. The ones I do know are dandelion and chickweed. I usually get purslane later in the season when its warm. I have a lot of plantain in the lawn, as well as violets (which I think are pretty). I intentionally plant clover, which some consider a weed, because I don't have to mow it and it adds nitrogen to the soil for the grass to use.
As far as volunteers, there are always chives coming up in odd places, and some valerian is coming up in the area where it used to be 2 years ago.
Oh I plant clover too! I love the stuff. It has such a billowy soft look when you look out over the lawn. Plus the woodland critters like it. I love watching the geese graze. Would rather the deer stay away, but what can I do? You know you can make flour from the flowers. Supposedly very nutritious. I'm going to try that this year. I have made tea from red clover flowers. Actually not a whole lot of taste. Very mild. The flour is make from the dutch white.
I've never heard of clover flour peggy. Seems like it would take a LOT of flowers to get a batch. Do you just dry them and grind them?
Well from what I've seen, they just pick the flower heads and put them on a screen to dry. Then they sort of rub or crush them to get out the big stems then simply grind in a blender. I don't think they worry too much about getting leaves or a bit of green stem in it as these are supposedly edible too. The bread I saw on the Internet where they used some was in fact a light green! It's supposed to be very high in nutrients. Clover is a legume, related to soy and such. I'm actually pretty pumped about trying it. We have so much dutch white clover. When it blooms it looks like drifts of snow across the lawn. And we don't spray or anything so it's all good. 'Free range' if you will.! ;)
I would think if you had to separate every little petal from the green it might be more bother than worth, but if you can essentially grind it all, why not! I suppose you want more flower than green, but that really shouldn't be too much of a problem. Of course, like any alternative flour, you only substitute a bit. I may try a little at first then more as I'm used to baking exclusively with alternative flours and know most of the good tricks. If it's truly tasty, it will be nice to have a nutritious flour to add to my pantry as so many alternative flours are void of much nutrition.
Something else I'd like to try this summer but does seem more bother than worth is cattail pollen flour. The way our cattails are it wouldn't be hard to gather, but just seems tedious. But, it might be worth trying at least once just to see.:)
If it's truly tasty, it will be nice to have a nutritious flour to add to my pantry as so many alternative flours are void of much nutrition.
Slightly off topic here. I'm not sure what you mean by "alternative flours", but I'm gluten intolerant and use brown rice, garbanzo, and buckwheat flours, all of which are more nutritious than wheat flour. Buckwheat is especially so, although it has to be mixed with other flour(s). Here's a quote from Living Gluten-Free for Dummies: "...this grain has a high proportion of all eight essential amino acids which the body doesn't make but still needs to keep functioning...It's also high in the B vitamins, as well as the minerals phosphorus, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, and zinc...a good source of lineolic acid, an essential fatty acid."
From my reading, it looks like nearly every gluten-free flour is a lot more nutritious than wheat flour, which, unless certified organic, is made from genetically modified wheat in the bargain. (BTW, I highly recommend this book. The recipes aren't so great, but the nutritional info and gluten-avoidance tips are worth the price.)
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