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FORAGER | CHEF

Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Hosta Buds

Edible hosta flower buds

Hosta buds, harvested before the flowers form, can make a fun addition to a meal.

Wait a minute, that looks like an artichoke! I stooped down and snapped a hosta bud off of one of the plants in the garden of my apartment building,  put it in my pocket, and went to work.

When I got to the kitchen, I took the little bud out of my pocket, it was an attractive pattern of tightly coiled petals, still fresh as if I’d just picked it a couple hours later.

Edible Hosta Shoots

Hosta shoots, eventually these will grow flower buds, and then flowers.

Hosta sensitivity (scratchy throat) 

I found out earlier in the year that eating hostas raw is no bueno for me: I get a sort of scratchy throat feeling, I don’t know if I’d say it’s an allergy, but it’s definitely an intolerance of some kind. I get the same feeling if I eat a few different species of Gallium, especially the most common species. The uncomfortable feeling is definitely not as strong as the allergy I have to raw daylily shoots and flower buds- a really strong nausea that doesn’t involve vomiting.

Edible hosta flower buds

I dropped the hosta bud into a little boiling, salted water and cooked it for just a moment, for a quick blanch. The dull green turned a vibrant hue, that attractive, super-chlorophyll color you get from dunking in boiling water or cooking quickly. I took the bud out of the pan, rolled it around in my palm and poked at it to see if it was tender. It wouldn’t be as tender as an artichoke heart, but it wouldn’t suck dipper in butter, either. Even though the flower buds, compared to the delicious hosta shoots are more of a novelty, my hunch was right.

Edible hosta flower buds

Hosta flower buds have a beautiful cross-section.

Hosta buds are a great example of how watching plants grow and paying attention to new, young parts can show you new vegetables. If I see something young, something new, I know that a lot of the time, that young growth tissue (meristematic cells) will be tender. If it will actually taste good can be an issue (plantain shoots) but for me it’s a tried and true method for sleuthing out new foodstuffs.

edible hosta flowers

Hosta flowers are the last edible stage of the plant, they can be sprinkled on salads and, whatever you like. They have a nice, sweet flavor.

The best part about the hosta buds is that if you’re growing them as an ornamental, you don’t have to sacrifice the pretty white flowers. Hosta buds are only the very tip top of the flower stalk. More unopened flowers are located down the stalk, and they’ll keep flowering after the shoot is gone. You might not even notice their gone, my landlord hasn’t said anything yet.

General Cooking

There’s a lot you can do with these. Steaming them and dipping in butter was something I thought of as a novelty, but if you have only a few to eat, it would be a fun way to make a little appetizer out of them to surprise someone.

I’d say that the way I cooked them the most though was just a quick sauté in a pan until they’re hot, if you want, you could blanch them beforehand, but they might be more apt to fall apart then. Cutting extra large ones in half is also good since the underside can be seared and browned, showing off the cross-section of the cut bud. Either way, I’m sure you can find something fun to do if you come across some.

One last thing. A lot of hostas have smaller flower buds. I don’t know the exact species I’ve been picking, but they’re worth it. For eating, as with the shoots, you want the biggest you can find. Catching them at the right time yielded a good half gallon bag of buds that were the width of a quarter. I was surprised at how many I was able to pick in such a short amount of time.

Related

Previous Post: « Foraging and Cooking with Pine Pollen
Next Post: Chicken Blood Sausage »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Judy Benton

    April 26, 2022 at 2:29 pm

    If you have a balcony, you can grow hostas in containers. They’ll comeback year after year and multiply.🌿😊🌿

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      April 27, 2022 at 8:34 am

      Thanks Judy.

      Reply
  2. SSharon Johnson

    July 23, 2022 at 6:00 am

    can hosta shoots be frozen? Also I have made some peony jelly from the petals. Should I dispose of it? Thank you.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      July 23, 2022 at 3:08 pm

      They can be frozen raw and then cooked. You might cut them into pieces beforehand and freeze them just like that so they can be thrown right in a hot pan from the freezer. I can’t speak to the peony jelly, sorry.

      Reply

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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
James Beard Award ‘22
Host: Field Forest Feast 👇
streaming on @tastemade

Alan Bergo
Sometimes I forget we have good traditions in Amer Sometimes I forget we have good traditions in America too. Case in point: bourbon. 

TIL about American traditions, and the role of the white oak in aging. Tasted some of that sweet nectar too. 

The rye finished in rum barrels smells like pure maple syrup 🤤. @angelsenvy

#bourbon #whiskeyrow #angelsenvy #whiteoak
Summer veg PSA: One of the edible plant parts I co Summer veg PSA: One of the edible plant parts I cover in my book you might not know are squash and pumpkin shoots. 

Tender and delicious, these are eaten around the world. The US is still coming around, but I see them occasionally at farmers markets. 

I like to give them a dip in boiling water to wilt them quick, then toss them with some fat or stir-fry them quick. The little curly-cues make them look like fairy tale veggies to me. 

#squashshoots #cucurbitaceae #eatmoreplants #kehoecarboncookware
Shaved cattail rhizomes with smoked trout, chickwe Shaved cattail rhizomes with smoked trout, chickweed, lemon, hickory nut oil and tarragon from the @wild.fed shoot. 

I spent a couple days trying to cook the rhizomes, and it works, but raw is my favorite prep. 

I add some smoked trout both for the salty pop and because it’s fun to mix aquatic edibles. Runner bean flowers for a splash of color. 

#cattails #foraging #chickweed #runnerbeans #saladsofinstagram
Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water by hand with Sam Thayer and @danielvitalis for @wild.fed 

Daniel and Sam were the apex predators, but I got a few. 

Without a net catching crayfish by hand is definitely a wax-on wax-off sort of skill. Clears your mind. 

They’re going into gumbo with porcini, sausage and milkweed pods today. 

#crayfish #ninjareflexes #waxonwaxoff #normalthings #onset🎥🎬
Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizo Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizomes and blueberries for this weeks shoot with @wildfed 

Been a few years since I worked with these. Thankfully Sam Thayer dropped a couple off for me to work with. They’re tender, crisp and delicious. 

Sam mentioned their mild flavor and texture could be because they don’t have to worry about predators eating them, since they grow in the muck of cattail marshes. 

I think they could use a pet name. Pond tusk? Swamp spears? Help me out here. 😂

Nature makes the coolest things. 

#itcamefromthepond #cattail #rhizomes #foraging #typhalatifolia
I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so much we filmed it instead of the original dish I’d planned. 

Cooked natural wild rice (not the black shiny stuff) is great hot, cold, sweet or savory. It’s a perfect, filling lunch for a long day of berry picking. 

I make them with whatever I have on hand. Mushrooms will fade into the background a little here, so I use a bunch of them, along with lots of herbs and hickory nut oil + dill flowers. 

I’m eating the leftovers today back up in the barrens (hopefully) getting some more bluebs for another shoot this week w @wild.fed 

#wilwilwice #wildrice #chanterelles #campfood #castironcooking
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