“These angelicas grow wild near abandoned ruins and damp places. In February the Salentines go feverishly in search of them. This is the moment when the incipient flower-heads are still enclosed in their sheaths right up against the greenish-purple stem. You cut these sheaths with a knife”. –Patience Grey, Honey From a Weed. I love…
Leafy Greens | Basic Profiles
Garlic Mustard
When I walk through the maple hardwood forests of Minnesota and Wisconsin in the Spring, saying hi to all the plants I haven’t seen for a year, the nettles, cress, waterleaf, ramps, spring beauty, sochan, and all the others, I get excited–finding them is like seeing an old friend. Not so with garlic mustard. Unlike…
Creeping Bellflower
Creeping bellflower, also known as rampion bellflower, like a lot of edible wild plants that I like to eat, is a weed. A transplant from Europe and Siberia, it was apparently popular as a garden plant (like many weeds in the United States) and, as weeds will do, it rapidly spread from gardens to yards,…
Dames Rocket / Hesperis matronalis
In the early spring, and I mean early, before the nettles, before dandelions, ramps and sochan, there’s dames rocket, or Hesperis matronalis, although it also goes by: damask-violet, dames-wort, dame’s gilliflower, night-scented gilliflower, summer lilac, sweet rocket, mother-of-the-evening, winter gilliflower, dame’s-violet, and queen’s gilliflower, and more. Whatever you call it, it’s a fantastic edible spring…
Cryptotaenia canadensis / Mitsuba / Japanese Parsley / Honewort
If you’ve ever wondered if there was a plant to forage as a parsley substitute, and from there, if it would be worth picking, the answer is yes, and yes. And to sweeten the deal, the plant is widespread, at least around me. It’s goes by the name of Mitsuba, wild Japanese parsley or Cryptotaenia…
Hedge Mustard
2018. It was early Spring, and I was at a new spot, hoping to get a morel or a hundred, but I hadn’t been planning on bringing home any mustard greens, especially big, juicy leaves like I’d expect in early Summer. Big juicy leaves are what I saw though, and they made me hungry. All…
Bittercress / Wintercress / Barbarea vulgaris
Barbarea vulgaris also known as wintercress, bittercress and yellow rocket is one of the first plants to come up in the Spring where I live around Minnesota and Wisconsin, and it’s an ok, widely available edible to know. Along with bergamot / Monarda fistulosa, it was also one of the first plants I ever knew,…
Miner’s Lettuce
Miner’s lettuce is one of the best wild greens you’ll ever taste, but, if you don’t have a place to harvest, it can cost you an arm and a leg. It was a real annomaly for me trying to find it in growing wild in the Midwest. Plenty of foraging books describe the green, but…
Horseradish Leaves
If you’ve ever seen horseradish growing, you might have wondered “can I eat the leaves?”. The answer is yes, definitely. Horseradish leaves are a great example of finding underused parts of plants to enjoy, I mean sure, everyone is familiar with jars of horseradish you find on grocery store shelves, but the leaves create different…
Common Amaranth: Amaranthus retroflexus & Friends
For me, amaranth is the king of greens to pick in the mid to late summer. Come July, the lamb’s quarter at the farm is probably wanting to go to seed soon, and unless I continually cut it down, it will. I still usually get a good blend of greens until early August, but during…
Wood Nettles
If you know and love stinging nettle like I do, you’re going to love wood nettle or Laportea canadensis, for a couple different reasons I’ll get into, not least of which is their flavor. First though, I think it’s interesting to know some of the different characteristics that differentiate it from the nettle most people…
Dames rocket buds / raabs
Here’s a great addition to your plant repertoire: dames rocket buds, or the unopened raabs of Hesperis matronalis (an invasive species in Minnesota, so pick them as you please). I’d seen the little buds before around the Midwest and I’d even brought some home to analyze and key out, since they look like something that…
Sochan
Sochan, pound for pound, is one of the best greens I’ve eaten and to sweeten the deal, is one of the cornerstones of traditional, and severely under-documented Cherokee cuisine. You might be thinking, Alan, I’m a forager, and if it’s as great as you say, what is sochan and why haven’t I heard of it…