Edible Flowers Tempt the Palate

Mango, Catnip, Pignut, Lovage, Salsify, Hairy Cowpea, Fritillary, Mint, Cow Slip, Birch

Mango blossoms

Did you know mangoes and poison ivy  are botanical kissing cousins? And a sensitivity to one can be a sensitivity to the other? In fact there several related species, all in the Anacardiaceae family: Mangoes, poison ivy, poison sumac, Brazilian pepper, cashews, and pistachios. You can see the spread, three edibles, one on the cusp of edible/toxic, and two toxics. Some folks might be allergic to all, some to only a couple. Many people get a rash on their mouth after eating mango, called Urushiol-Induced Contact Dermatitis. The fruit is originally from India, cultivated for some 4,000 to 6,000 years. It is reported to be the most produced tropical fruit…. yah know…. I question that statistic. I would have thought bananas would have claimed that title. Incidentally, bananas are dying off. Your grandkids may never get to eat a banana. Anyway… when first exported around the world mangoes were pickled because of the distances and time involved. In fact “mangoed” became a verb meaning pickled. Mango blossoms grow on long panicles and have a scent similar to Lily of the Valley. Not only are they edible but young leaves as well… as long as you don’t have an allergy. Young leaves and flowers boiled. You can make a natural mosquito repellent by burning dried mango flowers, or use them to make a tea high in tannin. Oh, never burn mango wood. It’s like burning poison ivy. The urushiol gets in the air then your lungs then you’re in the emergency room with poison all over your outside and insides.

Catnip

Catnip: Most cats love it, a few don’t. The difference is genetic. The active chemical is Nepetalactone. It’s a mild hallucinogenic that produces euphoria in many cats. In humans it makes you sleepy, like chamomile though in large amounts it is emetic. Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is an herb of the mint family and at one time was a spice found in the kitchen. Although a native to Europe, it has been exported to the rest of the world and in some places is considered a weed. It is naturalized in every state except Florida and all the first tier providences of Canada. Even though it is considered a weed most folks still think of it as a cultivated plant because most buy it for their cats. Indeed, growing catnip can be a problem because feral cats and domestics on the roam won’t leave it alone. When protected catnip grows to about a yard high, branches much, and is topped by small white flowers with purple spots, a common trait of the mint family. The leaves can be candied or brewed into a mint-like aromatic tea. In Europe the leaves and young shoots are put into salads or seasoning for sauces, soups and stews. While the flowers can be sprinkled on salads they are usually used to make tea, often along with leaves. Catnip is also high in Vitamin C.

Pignut blossoms for flavoring

Do you know where the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon are? Do you know what they are? Among other things they’re the only place in North America where Bunium bulbocastanum is naturalized. The islands are situated at the entrance of Fortune Bay off the southern coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The odd part is they are not part of Canada but still part of France, a tiny toehold still in the New World. Residents are French citizens and vote in French election though the home county is more than 4,000 miles away. It was from these islands that a large amount of Canadian whisky was smuggled in the the United States during prohibition. Easy to grow B. bulbocastanum is called Pignut and Earth Chestnut. It has lacy white flowers similar to Queen Ann’s Lace and attractive foliage. Pignut sets large clusters of small tubers that taste like sweet chestnuts. They are eaten raw or boiled as a vegetable. Leaves can be used like parsley. The seeds and flowers are used for flavoring. British forager Ray Mears included the Pignut in one of his early television series but not in his subsequent books because they taste so good they’re becoming scarce in England.

Lovage

Botanists can’t agree exactly where Lovage came from, though the Old World is close enough for our purposes. Lovage’s beginnings may be humble but it has risen to high esteem for its many usages. Native to perhaps the Mediterranean or southwest Asia, Lovage is cultivate throughout Europe and North America. Highly aromatic it is similar looking to flat-leaf parsley only much larger. The flavor is similar to parsley and celery combined with a notes of anise and curry. Botanically Levisticum officinale leaf stalks and stem are blanched and eaten like celery, or peeled and eaten. They can also be candied. Young leaves are chopped and added to salad, soups, stews, seafood, and omelets. The seeds are used for flavoring, often in breads and confections. An aromatic tea can be made from dried leaves or grated roots. And the flowers are edible.

Salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius

This plant’s other names include Goatsbeard, Oyster Plant, Vegetable Oyster, Jerusalem star, Purple Oyster Plant, and Meadow salsify. Commoningly called just Salsify, botanically it is Tragopogon porrifolius. As you might have surmised to some the root tastes faintly of oysters, to others parsnip, and probably to some like oystery parsnips. Native to the Mediterranean area it has been introduced to Great Britain, northern Europe, South Africa, Australia, Canada and the United States. It is found in almost all the states including Hawaii but excluding the Old South except Georgia which has it. Roots are eaten raw in salads, or they are boiled, baked, and sauteed. They are added to soups or can be grated and made into cakes. Flower buds and flowers are eaten raw in salads or cooked then cooled and added to salads. The flowers are also pickled. Young flower stalks are cooked and dressed like asparagus. Sprouted seeds are put in sandwiches or in salads. The sap can be used as gum. Bradford Angier, a well-known Canada-based forager, says the yellow salsify is also edible.

Hairy Cowpea, Vigna luteola

Hairy cowpeas like water. Not exactly in water but certainly near it, water’s edge. You’ll find them in the same places you find the Ground Nut, Apios americana. When you’re near water, fresh or salt, look for pure yellow pea-like blossoms though it’s not really a pea but a bean, and related to the Mung Bean and the Black Eye Pea, which is also a bean. While the Hairy Cowpea blooms and fruits all year locally it prefers the fall for seed production. It’s usually at that time collecting them is a calorie-positive activity because you can get a lot of the seeds at one time. Of course, the rest of the year is a good time to collect the blossoms and boil them with other potherb fare. The roots can be chewed to extract their sweetness, the seeds can be shelled and cooked and as mentioned the flowers cooked.

Fritillaria's Bell-shaped blossoms

Originally from China but now grown around the world the Fritillary makes an interesting addition to a flower garden. Soft bell-shaped blossoms with a pale green netting on the outside of the petals and a pale red netting on the inside makes this Lily family member easy to identify.  The particular species we’re interested in is Fritillaria verticillata. Their name comes from Dead Latin for dice box, fritillus, a reference to the check patttern the veining makes. And while we like fritilaries rodents and deer do not. Young plants, peals and flower buds are eaten after parboiling. They are used in soups or as a herb or cooked with soy sauce. The bulbs are eaten fried or candied. Another members of the genus with edible bulbs is Fritillaria camtschatcensis. The buds might remind you of the Daylily and indeed while in different genera they are botanically standing next to each other. One more point: Do not experiment with fritilaries. The two listed here are known edibles. Others may contain toxic amounts of various alkaloids.

Wild mint, this one is Micromeria brownei

Mint is such a common edible I almost didn’t include it. Also, which one do you use and do I put it in the cultivated edible lineup or the wild edibles? There’s over 200 genera and some 7,000 species in the mint family. The largest is Salvia with some 900 members. It would be a lot easier if we were talking about Florida Pennyroyal which is a monotypic genus, a family with one member, not thousands. I am going to opt for a local mint as you  probably already know about your local mint. I learned this mint as Micromeria brownei. Now it is Clinopodium brownei.  Ahhh… botany always trying to improve itself. The mint went from Small Flower Parts Brown to Slope Footed Brown. I’m sure you can see the immediate and dramatic nomenclature improvement…. I was also told all those decades ago it had no common name. When the Internet was born the aquarium trade starting calling it Creeping Charlie (which many different species are called.)  Later I saw St. John’s Mint… hmmm not too bad as the St. John’s River runs north through the peninsula of Florida.  Only recently has it been called “Florida Water Mint” not a name that inspires me as it can be found in much of the Old South… Maybe Old South Mint is in the offering. This little plant can be found anywhere I teach in the warm south near fresh water. In fact it also grows in Interstate medians leaving a mint aroma in the air for days after cars careered off the pavement during accidents. A one-inch part of any of it, blossoms or stem in a cup of hot water makes a minty tea. The entire plant can be used as mint. Warning: It is a strong, no wimpy mint it. Start sparingly until you get your gauge of use.

Cow Slip

One of my grandmothers loved Cow Slip greens. Cow Slip is from the old English word “cuslyppe” which means cow dung. Apparently the species has the same feeding preferences as some famous mushrooms. So my grandmother would make my mother go out in the cow-containing pastures to pick the Cow Slip greens. And from the way my mother tells the tale my grandmother didn’t care whose pasture she spied the plants in. They were destined for consumption after my mother fetched them. From temperate Europe and Asia originally, Cow Slip, Primula veris, is in the same genus as the (English) Primrose mentioned earlier. Flowers are used in salads, conserves, or as pickles and a garnish. They have also been used to make cow slip wine and vinegar. Leaves are eaten raw in salads or used to make a tea. It is found in northeastern North America.

Paper Birch Catkins

There are several advantages to living where it never snows, and a few disadvantages. Many plants need cooler weather to reproduce or fruit or just thrive. Birches do not like Florida though they can be planted in the northern bounds of the state. Birches were a common tree of my youth, white birch, golden birch and paper birch. Birches can be tapped like maples. The twigs and catskins have been used as a wintergreen-ish flavoring for as long as we have written records about North America. And of course there were the famous birch bark canoes. What you also might not know is that an epoxy-like tar can be extracted from birchwood. The original super glue. While most birches have edible parts the birch we are interested in this overview in the Paper Birch, Betula papyrifera. Very young leaves, shoots and catkins can be eaten in salads or stir fried. The sap makes a drink, a syrup or a sugar, depending upon how long you heat it up. It can also be used to make birch beer and vinegar. A tea can be made from the leaves and the wood is used to smoke meat.

See Edible Flowers: Part Sixteen

Ilex vomitoria, Yapon Holly

History has many layers and shades. It’s not a straight timeline of great clarity but more like a meandering muddy river with much confluence, influence and effluents. During the European 100-year war composers wrote a lot of quartets because there weren’t enough musicians around to play the larger symphonies. Carburetors for primitive cars came from perfume sprayers and those developed out of the brewing industry. And Europeans didn’t go to the new world to move there, at least not in the beginning. They were looking for plants. Gold was low on the list until explorers got to Mexico.

Captain John Smith

Sassafras was the first export from the new world. Ground nuts, Apios americana, were second. Captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame (1607) was mainly interested in plants and wrote about them extensively. Some of the earliest writings on North American species and their use are from the notes of Smith, right, who is still referenced today. Plants are intertwined with history including Ilex vomitoria. Whether we know about Ilex vomitoria because of Billy Powell, or we know about Billy Powell because of Ilex vomitoria is a good debate. It’s difficult to have one without the other.

Osceola, Black Drink Shouter

Billy Powell’s great-grand father was one James McQueen, a good Scotsman. His grandmother was Ann McQueen, grandfather Jose Coppinger. His mother was Polly Coppinger, probably christened Mary as Polly was a common nickname for Mary. His father was an English trader called William Powell. Now you know where the name Billy came from. And his uncle was Peter McQueen, a well-known fighter. While Billy’s genealogy is interesting, what’s was more important is that he was born with a cast iron stomach. And in part because of that we know him as Osceloa, leader of Seminole Indians.

It was a complicated time three hundred years ago as the 1700s gave way to the 1800s. The natives knew there was no way of stopping the Europeans. In 200 years the white men from the east went from a trickle to a tidal wave. The Creeks, Billy’s  “Indian” heritage, chose a strategy of intermarriage to Europeans to form alliances. The Seminoles, with a higher percentage of runaway slaves and free blacks, forbade intermarriage with Europeans.  The Creeks were also matriarchal so McQueen’s kids stayed in the Creek Clan with his wife.

The intermarriage approach didn’t work well (nor frankly did forbidding it.)  When Billy was ten General later-to-be-president Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek. Billy moved with his mother from their native Alabama to Florida to live with the Seminoles. “Seminole” is Creek for “wild people” or “run-aways.” They were essentially Lower Creeks who went south to avoid Upper Creeks. They also included run-away slaves. The Seminoles had a religious purging ritual that took an every day refreshing drink (“Yaupon tea”) and turned it into an emetic. Drinking a lot of it  and holding it down longer than others moved one up in tribal leadership, along with other skills. We presume Billy held the black drink down well, that is to say, it took a lot to make him hurl and when he did it was a lot (thus he was very clean.) It was there in Florida, in an adopted tribe, where Billy Powell became Osceola and in time a leader of warriors.

“Osceola” is Anglicized Creek for Asi-yahola which is usually translated into “Shouter of Black Drink” or “Black Drink Singer.” But Yahola was also the name of a Creek sky deity revered for his immaculate nature, read purity. Among some tribes only high-status males were allowed to drink the brew. For special ceremonies it was brewed extra strong. That’s where the vomitoria part of Ilex vomitoria came from. Ceremonies that included fasting and drinking large amounts of Yaupon “tea” and subsequent vomiting demonstrates how important spiritual purity and cleanliness were to the natives before assembling for important meetings or military action. It was not unlike some rituals of the Spartans.

Osceola Death Mask

While some of the many Seminole tribes signed a peace treaty, which meant abandoning their Florida land and relocation to west of the Mississippi, five did not including Osceola’s. He supported powerful Chief Micanopy’s opposition which culminated in some ambushes that led to the Second Seminole War. The names of people involved in that upheaval are still heard here in historical echos. Osceola County, Marion County, Payne’s Prairie, the town of Micanopy, Lake Jesup (now incorrectly spelled with two S’s) and Jacksonville.

Captured by deceit under a flag of truce by Gen. Thomas Jesup in October 1837 Osceola was taken to Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. It was there after much persuasion he posed for paintings. The by-gone cigar store “Indian” was fashioned after him. Ocseola died there of malaria on 30 January 1838, age 33, perhaps 34. He left behind two wives, one white, one black, and at least five children. Besides relocation the second reason Osceola went to war was he opposed enslaving free-born blacks. In the long run he lost the battle but won the war. And if there had not been a warrior like Osceola might there not have been a Second Seminole War and the continuing festering of racial issues in early America? Ilex vomitoria influenced history.

While hollies are covered in a different article on site — click here — there is so much interest in Ilex vomitoria (EYE-lecks vom-ah-TOR-ee-uh) as a beverage that it was time to craft a separate article about it.

Yerba Mate's from South America

The Yaupon Holly is North America’s version Yerba Mate, which is Ilex paraguariensis. Preparation of Yaupon (YAH-pon) ranges from putting four or five leaves in hot water — not boiling — for five or six minutes to elaborate drying, steaming, roasting and percolation. Some brew leaves and twigs. Not only does Yaupon have more caffeine than any other species in North America it also is high in antioxidants. A 2009 article in the Journal of Economic Botany recommended it become a commercial crop. Not surprising, a 1919 journal article recommended it as well. Spanish colonists in early Florida drank Yaupon tea. One priest in 1615 wrote: “There is no Spaniard or Indian who does not drink it every day in the morning or evening.”   They called it “Indian Tea” or Cacina (the latter a name that confounded botanists for a few centuries.)  In the 1700s English settlers in the Carolinas drank the “Indian tea” daily. It was very popular in the second half of the 1800s but fell out of favor. Scholars don’t know why but one would think the proliferation of coffee might of had something to do with it.

Left on its own the Yaupon Holly is a spindly understory tree, never growing much presence or height. The best examples of the species I know are cultivated ones in the landscaping of the Winter Park Library, in Winter Park, Florida. It’s easy to miss the native tree in the forest. However, two of its cultivars are very well known.

Ilex vomitoria var. nana

If nature makes a slight variation in a species it is called a variety. If man makes a variety it is called a cultivar. Two cultivars of the Ilex vomitoria are quite common. The most common is Ilex nana, or Ilex vomitoria var. nana. It is the ubiquitous hedge plant of the south. In fact there are some 17 different varieties of it. Thus finding a caffeine substitute is not difficult at all. The only question is how wholesome is the water and the environment where the hedge is located.

Ilex vomitoria var. pendula

The second cultivar is more dramatic, the Weeping Holly, or Ilex vomitoria var. pendula. It makes a very attractive statement in landscaping growing into a mid-sized tree with red berries (not edible.) Sometimes it is also trimmed to look like an upside down bowl. Researchers report that under controlled agricultural conditions the pendula variation produced the most caffeine of all. The amount of caffeine in the “vomitorias” varies depending upon how much nitrogen they are fed. More nitrogen, more caffeine.

Many years ago in the Orlando Public Library I found a crumbling book written Dr. William A. Morrill. a plant PhD. He wrote in 1940 the best Yaupon “tea” was made by using an equal mix of chopped brown dry roasted leaves and chopped steamed green leaves.  While Yaupon Holly tea does have a caffeine it is practically free of tannin, which reduces bitterness considerably.

The odd finding, according to the researchers however, was the presence of anti-oxidants in the leaves. This was influenced by sunlight. The more sunlight the plant received the more anti-oxidants, or perhaps said correctly, the less shade the more anti-oxidants. While the researchers said more testing was needed it would appear that an Ilex vomitoria var. pendula grown in full sun and fed a high-nitrogen fertilizer would produce the maximum amount of caffeine and anti-oxidants. They recommended it become a commercial crop.

Available cultivars include: `Folsom’s Weeping’, `Jewel’, female plant with heavy fruit production; `Nana’, dwarf, compact shrub form, male plant, no berries; `Pendula’ (`Grey’s Weeping’), large weeping specimen, sparsely foliated, to 35 feet tall; `Pride of Houston’, medium-sized shrub with heavy fruit production; and a low shrub called `Schelling’s Dwarf’ (`Stroke’s Dwarf’), more compact than `Nana’. Yellow-fruited cultivars include `Aureo’, yellow berries; `Otis Miley’, small leaves, yellow fruit; `Wiggins’ Yellow’, yellow fruit.

Two more tid-bits: Yaupon leaves are a good browse food for white-tail deer, and cattle. And some 4,000 people still speak Creek. It was the first “Indian” language to be standardized and written down. There was even a Creek newspaper.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Yaupon Holly

IDENTIFICATION: An erect, slow-growing, evergreen shrub or small tree forming dense thickets about 25 feet  (8 m) tall in some areas. Usually much smaller. Many stems, low, dense, rounded crown. Thick, evergreen leaves, simple, alternate, leathery, and vary in size and shape from plant to plant. Flowers inconspicuous, male and female flowers on different trees, bark thin, gray, and smooth. Toxic red fruit is a small, shiny drupe.

TIME OF YEAR: Evergreen, leaves year round.

ENVIRONMENT: Grows best in climates with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. It is found on coastal dunes, maritime forests, upland woodlands and pine flat woods. For the most part Yaupon inhabits well-drained sites but also occurs on stream banks, in wet woodlands, and floodplains. Found in southeastern coastal plains of the United States from Virgina to Florida and westward to South Central Texas. Drought and disease resistant, salt tolerant. Fast growing. Not native to south Florida.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Ranges from seeping a few leaves a few minute in hot water to elaborate preparation of leaves and twigs, roasting, steaming, percolating.

Edible flowers are a treat on a winter's day

Manzanita, Rose of Sharon, Tea, Campanula, Artichoke, Saffron, Samphire, Sage, Parsley, Common Mallow

Manzanita blossom become red berries

Western states often seem to get short-changed in the foraging realm because most of the edible foreign weeds landed on the east coast. They’ve been slowly working their way west for centuries, which from a botanical point of view is a small amount of time. The West, however, has its own wild edibles including the Manzanita of the Arctostaphylos genus. Both Manzanitas and Bearberries are in the same genus. Of the Manzanitas several have flowers worthy of nibbling on including Arctostaphylos glauca, Arctostaphylos manzanita, Arctostaphylos nevadaensis, Arctostaphylos parryana, Arctostaphylos patula, Arctostaphylos pungens, and Arctostaphylos tomentosa. Besides the blossoms, the berries are edible as well.

Rose of Sharon

South Korea is crazy about The Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus. It’s their national flower. The Blossom’s on everything, and it’s native to Korean and much of Asia. So why is it called syriacus, which means “from Syria.” They got it wrong a few centuries ago. They thought it was from Syria. Oddly mistakes like that cannot be changed. That it is wrong in not enough. There has to be a botanical reason to change a plant’s name once given, not a geographical one. Called mugunghwa in Korean — which translates into “flower of eternity” or something close to that — it has been a garden staple in that country since there were gardens hence the eternity spin. The leaves are made into tea and the flowers eaten, usually raw. The hibiscus made it to Europe by the 1500s and was in most English gardens by the 1700s. The American colonies followed suit. It’s also my mother’s favorite flower. Had to mention that or I wouldn’t hear the end of it.

Tea Blossom

Our next plant is known by billions. Wars were fought over it, an empire built and fortunes made, Camillia sinensis, better known as tea. Yep, the tea in your cup. When I first bought land I planted a C. sinensis knowing it was iffy. It was. Didn’t make it. Too warm, too humid. And it is an understatement to say tea change the course of history. Read about Robert Fortune in my article on Forsythia. He was sent by the British government to China, undercover, to steal tea seeds and the like to start a tea industry in India, a thef and resulting Indian tea industry that China has only recently surpassed. Besides a beverage, tea makes a marinade for fish and meat, mixed with anise blossoms it is used to make “tea eggs” which are tasty and wonderfully marbled (you crack the shells to pattern the eggwhite with brown lines.)  Kombucha is basically tea cider, leaves are used to smoke meat, its fruits are eaten, leaves are chewed to remove the odor of garlic and onions, and the blossoms are cooked. One favorite way is to make tempura out of them, deep frying them.

Clustered Bellflower

Campanulas are not a small clan. There’s some 500 of them in the genus. Some are eaten for their roots, leaves or flowers. The rampion, or Campanula rapunculus was widly grown in Europe for its radish-like roots and leaves. In fact, “rapunculus” is Dead Latin for “little turnip” and was the Brothers Grimm’s inspiration for the fable name Repunzel. The Clustered Bellflower, Campanula glomerata, has bluish flowers that are eaten raw. They are sweet in flavor as are their leaves. Usually used in salads. Campanula punctata flowers and leaves are cooked like a potherb. Campanula rapunculoides, Rover Bellflower, roots and leaves are eaten (remember, in Dead Latin -oides means looks like or resembles. So the C. rapunculoides looks like the C. rapunculus.) In parts of Greece the Campanula versicolor, Variously Colored Bellflower, are eaten and cooked like a vegetable. The leaves are used in salads and taste similar to peas. The flowers are also very good.

Artichoke blossom

If I don’t include artichokes among the edible flowers several will gleefully write and tell me I missed one. No doubt I have missed many. That said we really don’t eat the blossoms of the artichoke. They are actually bitter but if you want to have at it. We eat the floral bracts, read fat leaves below what will become the flower. We eat them raw, boiled, steamed, baked, fried, stuffed, and marinated. When marinated they are called artichokes hearts. In Europe they are dried and used in soups. The inner portion of the flower stalk is also edible, much like true thistles. The flowers themselves are used for a substitute for rennet, meaning they will curdle milk. I said they were bitter. Young artichoke leaves are fed to snails to improve their flavor. Yum. Artichokes have been around for a long time. Zeus (said Zeff in Greek) turned a scorned lover into an artichoke. It doesn’t pay to irritate a god. And young Norma Mortenson got her start in 1948 when she became the first “Artichoke Queen.” You know her as Marilyn Monroe

Three Saffron Stigmas

As of this writing the best price I can find on the Internet for saffron is $92.95 an ounce, free shipping, marked down from $144. Why is it expensive? Because “saffron” is the three red stigmas of the flower and must be picked by hand. Limited amount, labor intensive. It is the most costly spice by weight. Then again, one uses very little of it. Saffron is acually a crocus, Crocus sativus. It does not grow in the wild and is totally cultivated by man. Technically it is a monomorphic clone and believed to be a mutant form of Crocus cartwrightianus. The Greeks were the first to cultivate it, probably on Crete. Historians tell us it has been bought and sold for over four thousand years. Ninety percent of the world’s saffron comes from Iran. The styles are used to flavor and color sauces, creams, breads, preserves, curries, rice, soups, caked, puddings, eggs even butter and cheese. It can be a tea substitute and the roots roasted. It’s not a spice you keep on hand. Usually purchased for a dish specific. It takes about 13,125 dried stigmas to weigh an ounce. Oh, I forgot to mention: In large amounts saffron is deadly. That’s an expensive way to go.

Samphire Blossoms

I have a soft spot for edible plants that grow that can grow in salty places. They are usually fleshy, salty greens edible raw or cooked. A traditional seaside green is Samphire, Crithmum maritimum. At one time it was sold under the name of “Crest Marine.”  It has fleshy, aromatic leaves that are spicy, peppery.  The stems, leaves and pods can be pickled and the leaves are used fresh in salads. They can also be boiled as greens. In Italy and Greece the leaves are cut into small pieces, mixed with olive oil and lemon juice making a salad dressing. The raw blossom are used in salads. Very high in Vitamin C. The name, Samphire, is a French corruption of St. Pieere, (St. Peter) patron saint of fishermen.

Sage Blossoms

Where would poultry seasoning be without sage? Or sage cheese? Or Paul Simon’s song Scarbrough Fair? Sage is used for seasoning meats, fowl, stuffings, soup, stews, sausages, sauce, beans, corn, mushrooms, and butter. Young leaves and flowers are eaten raw, boiled, pickled or on bread and butter sandwiches. Leaves are used to make a tea. Flowers can be sprinkled on salads to add color and flavor. It’s been in the kitchen and the herbalists medical kits for a long time. The Greeks were writing about sage some 2200 years ago.  Sage blossoms are violet to blue, pink to white. They are not as strong flavored as the leaves. Botanically it is Salvia officinalis for the moment. There have been six attempts to change the name in the last 70 years. Though a native of the Mediterranean, it is naturalized in many northeastern states though it has a short growing season. Not the best performer either in the herb garden but a powerhouse in the kitchen.

Parsley Blossom

Like so many of our spices Parsley is a native of the Mediterranean. While for this article we are interested in the flowers there are actually two major divisions within the parsley realm, leaves and roots. Among the leaves there is curly or flat leaf. Interestinlgy the flat leaf is closer to the wild parlsey than the curly. Flat leaf is easier to grow, more tolerant of agricultural abuses, and has a stronger flavor. Curly leaf is more decorative and milder in flavor. It is the one used mostly for a garnish. There is also a root parsley, not common outside of central and eastern Europe where it is used in soups and stews. It has a nutty celery/parsley taste and is often fried like potato chips. From Argentine salsa to a tea Vitamin C rich parsley has multifold uses in the kitchen. Even the stems can be dried and added to dishes. The blossoms are salad fare or can be added to anything the leaves are used for. Parsley, incidentally, means “forked turnip” though parsely and turnips are not related.

The Common Mallow

How many names does this mallow have? There’s Common Mallow, High Mallow, Tall mallow, Mauve des Bois, Cheeses, and botanically Malva Sylvestris, which means mallow of the woods. Native to western Europe as the plant moved with colonialists it picked up various names. It’s an annual in cool areas and a perennial in warmer areas. It is found in most states save the Old South and Nevada though it does grow in South Carolina. the mucilaginous leaves are eaten like spinach, added to soups to give them texture, or used to make a tea. Flowers are used like a vegetable or as a garnish. Unripe fruits are called cheese because they look like a small wheel of cheese. They are a nibble. Look for blossoms from June to September.

See Edible Flowers: Part Fifteen

The Tulip Tree Sweet Blossom

Not every edible plant has to be a nutritional powerhouse. Some are “edible” by the barest of means. A good example is the Tulip Tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, said leer-ee-oh-DEN-drawn too-lih-PIFF-er-uh.

Note unusual tip of leaf

What if you read that a native plant was “used to make honey.”  What would you think? Probably that the plant was cultivated for bees to make honey. Unfortunately that is not what my reference says. It say the Native Americans made honey from the Tulip Tree. That’s rather doubtful. First people don’t make honey, bees do. And more specifically honey bees are not native to North America. They came with Europeans. It doubtful until perhaps late in the game did Natives cultivate the Tulip Tree for honey. They didn’t have the bees.  However, when the bees got here the flying nectar mavens did discover Tulip Trees.

Some references say Tulip Tree roots were used as a flavoring to take the bitterness out of Spruce Beer. I’ve had Spruce Beer and it does need something to make it more palatable. But one expert on Native Americans lists under “sauces and garnishes” that Tulip Trees were used to make honey. As mentioned above that’s not probable but here’s a possible answer thaat fits nicely with our foraging interests.

The flower quickly turns to non-edible seeds.

For just a short time while the tree is blossoming there is a small amount of very sweet nectar in each blossom. It is heavy and honey-flavored. You can drink it directly from the blossom. The expert was relying on old reports that probably didn’t describe how the natives used the tree. They weren’t collecting honey, they were collecting nectar. The tree was also called the Sap Poplar, perhaps because its sap is consumable. I don’t know and have not found any reference to said but it wouldn’t surprise me. As a source of nectar the tree also attracts hummingbirds, squirrels and is a host plant for tiger and spicebush swallowtail butterflies.

The genus name is bastardized Greek via Dead Latin. Liriodendron. Lirio is a Greek derivative for Lily, dendron Greek for tree, Lily Tree.  Tulip is the English version of a Turkish word Tuliband. That is bastardized Persian for dulband which means turban. “Ifera” is Latin and means producing. Liriodendron tulipifera thusis “Lily Tree Producing Tulips.” The tree is also called Yellow Poplar, Tulip Poplar, White Poplar, and Whitewood.

Related to the Magnolias, the Tulip Tree can be found in eastern North America plus Texas. To see a good video on the Tulip Tree by my foraging colleague Blanche Derby, click here.

Green Deane’s Itemized Plant Profile: Tulip Tree

IDENTIFICATION: Liriodendron tulipifera, 100-foot tree, sometimes to 150 feet. Leaves alternating, simple, palmately veined, orbicular (circular and flat) 4-lobes, no teeth, 4 to 8 inches long, notched to flat top. Somewhat shaped like a tulip, light green to green. Blossom, monoecious; perfect, showy, resembling a large tulip, but high in the tree, 2.5 inches long, with yellow-green petals and an orange corolla.  Fruit is cone-like with many samaras (2 inches long) falling off at maturity; each samara is 1-winged, 1.5 inches long, and curved upwards resembling the front keel of a boat, maturing August to October and falling through late fall and winter. The base whorls of samaras persist into following spring and resemble wooden flowers high in the tree.

TIME OF YEAR: Flowers appear in late spring to early summer.

ENVIRONMENT: Grows in a wide variety of soil. The effects of temperature and moisture extremes are mitigated some by the lay of the land. At the northern end of its range, yellow-poplar is usually found in valleys and stream bottoms at elevations below 1,000 feet. In southern Appalachia, it can grow on a variety of sites, including stream bottoms, coves, and moist slopes up to an elevation of about 4,500 feet. Toward the southern limit of the range, where high temperatures and soil moisture probably become limiting, the species is usually confined to moist, well-drained, stream bottoms. Optimum development occurs where rainfall is well-distributed over a long growing season.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: The blossom can be tipped and the nectar sipped out.

Edible flowers, tasty and nutritious

Sesbania Grandifolia, Lemon Verbena, Szechaun Buttons, Horseradish, Tea Olive, Tiger Lily, Currants, Honewort, Thyme, Indian Paint Brush

Sesbania grandifolia

Sesbania grandifolia, also called the Vegetable Hummingbird Tree and the Scarlet Wisteria, has managed to work its way into warmer areas of the world. If you have a frost you might be able to pot it but you won’t find it out in the field. Originating in either India or southeast Asia, it grows best in hot, humid areas including south Florida. The shrub’s long narrow pods are eaten as a vegetable dish, similar in use as string beans.  The seeds are fermented into a tempeh turi. Young leaves and shoots are eaten in salads or as a pot herb or in soups and stews. Sesbania grandifolia flowers are eaten raw in salads, boiled, fried or use in curries, stews and soups. They taste like mushrooms and are rich in iron and sugar.

Lemon Verbena

There is hardly an established garden that doesn’t have a Lemon Verbena in it. A native of South America it was “discovered” in 1785 in Buenos Aires. By 1797 it was the rage of England and has been exported around the world since around 1785. It’s in a well-known association with a lot of plants used for seasoning and antioxidants.  The Aloysia triphylla was named to compliment the morganatic wife of Infant Lois Anonio de Borbon, prince of Asturias  and brother to King Carlos III of Spain. The Infant was a supporter of the arts and botany.  Young leaves are eaten as spinach. they are also used to flavor fruit cups, jellies, cold drinks, salads, omelets, salad dressings, and vegetable dishes. The leaves or tiny, citrus-scented flowers, are brewed into a refreshing tea. Tea from just the flowers is sweeter.

Szechaun Buttons

Szechaun Buttons. No, they’re not from China but Brazil. This is an edible flower you will likely want to grow yourself rather than order. Right now a 30-blossom order is selling for $39.95 not including shipping. Why would you order them? Because they are the current party favor but they have other uses as well. Spilanthes acmella, aka, Acmella ocleracea, grow in Brazil. They are peppery like capsaicin, hence their name because of a heat similar to Szechuan peppers… well almost. The active chemical is spilanthol. That used to numb gums for toothaches. It causes a reaction with the trigeminal nerve pathway controlling the control motor and sensory functions of your mouth. The result is a tingling, popping sensation in the mouth. Kind of a cross between Pop Rocks and a 9-volt battery. Besides that, they are cooked and used in salads, sauces, soups, sorbets and as cocktail garnishes. You can add shredded uncooked greens to your salad, sparingly, or sprinkle some uncooked petals on your salad. The taste is herbal and slightly bitter. One high end restaurant uses them in a cheese plate.  At another eatery the tiny petals and some lemon thyme are infuse a small pot of honey that accompanies roasted kabocha squash, sweet peppers and toasted walnuts. A third offers patrons a Concord grape soda float with lemon verbena sorbet into which shreds of Sechuan buttons are dispersed through a soda siphon. Did I mention they use Szechaun Bottons to flavor chewing tobacco in India?

Horseradish blossoms

My cousin in southern Quebec… actually first cousin once removed, Beulah Knudson nee Smith, grew the largest horseradish I ever saw. The winters are harsh thereabouts and that horseradish, Armoracia rusticana,  was making the most of their very short growing season. Here in flat iron Florida it is too hot to grow horseradish except perhaps in the most extreme northern counties. Most everyone knows that horseradish is a hot root. In fact, the root is rather cleaver. The two chemicals that make horseradish hot have to be mixed to be hot but the plant keeps them in separate cells so they don’t bother the plant. Only when the cells are crushed together is a hot chemical created. It’s called “horse” radish because “horse” is also used to describe anything big or rough. Young leaves can be added to salads, pickled or cooked as a potherb. Sprouts can be added to salads, or the roots can be cooked as eaten that way. The flowers are edible, quite mild compared to the root. Sprinkle them on salads, throw them in when pickling or cooking string beans and the like.

Tea Olive, aka Fragrant Olive

If you go to an Asian market and buy “Cassia Blossom Jam” it is not from the Cassia clan at all but rather Osmanthus frangrans, the Tea Olive, also called the Fragrant Olive and Sweet Olive. Its name(s) gives you a good idea what it is used for.  It a glossy evergreen with little white blossoms that bloom almost all year long, making it a favorite landscape plant where it is warm all year. The blossoms smell deliciously fragrant of ripe peaches or apricots. It tends to bloom in autumn, winter and spring. Fruit follows about six months later. The unripe fruit are preserved in brine like olives. The flowers are used to make tea fragrant as well as wine, liqueurs, and confections. The blossoms are either preserved in a salty brine or made into a sugary paste. The Osmanthus americana, the American Olive, is used a similar way.

Lilium lancifolium

Many lilies are called the Tiger Lily but botanists argue there is only one, Lilium landifolium, a native of Asia and Japan but naturalized in the northeast quarter of North America, among other places. Almost all of the Tiger Lily is edible, bulb to flower. In fact it is a cultivated crop in Asia and Japan turnips or parsnips in flavor. Flower buds are eaten raw or cooked, as are the flowers. The pollen is edible as well. Yes, I know there are dire warnings on the Internet that it is poisonous for humans but evidence of that is absent. Dr. François Couplan, author of the Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America told me “…Lilium bulbs and Hemerocallis flowers are commonly sold as food on eastern asian markets. And I’ve had lilium pollen myself, albeit in fairly small quantities, and never suffered any wrong effect…”  It IS toxic to cats. One way to identify this lily from the natives is small black bulbils on the stem. While it is naturalized it usually does not go far from urban areas. When I used to traipse around the countryside in New England I always found these and daylilies near old or abandoned farms. In fact, out in the country they were usually right across the road from the farm house. See full article on site.

Ribes aureum, the Golden Currant

We used to ride our horses on abandoned roads, of which there were plenty. One was still passable if you had a vehicle with a high suspension because the road went over washed out ledge. It was no problem for the horses. At the top of the ledge were high bush blueberries, some eight feet tall. Just beyond the crest were two fallen-in farms, across the road from each other which usually meant the same family. Still growing at one of the homestead was currants. Currants, gooseberries and Kiwis are related to each other. Currants were made into jellies and jams as well as wine… very good wine. The natives dried them and use them in making pemmican. Some species, perhaps most, have edible flowers. At the top of the flower list is Ribes aureum, or Golden Currant, found in most of North America except the Old South. Another currant noted for flower edibility is Ribes cereum. Wax Currant, found in the western half of North America. Black Currant (Ribes nigrum) flower buds are used in ice cream and liqueurs. I would suspect the open flowers would be usable as well. And of course, the berries have many uses and have antioxidants. Incidentally, R. aureum is not Ribes odorata.

Canadian Honewort, cryptotaenia canadensis,

The Canadian Honewort, Cryptotaenia canadensis, grows all the way down to Florida, and covers the eastern two third of North America. A member of the carrot family, it can be found growing along streams and creeks or in low, wet ground. The entire plant is edible, cooked, root to flowers. Flowering season is May to August and the blossom are small. Also called Wild Chervil, the roots are usually boiled in salted water and served with oil; young leaves and stems are soaked in water to moderate flavor then cooked as a pot herb. Cooked flowers are edible as well.  You can add a small portion to salads for their aromatic quality. Seeds are used for flavoring and the stems candied. Cryptotaenia japonica can be used in a similar way but needs far less cooking, usually just blanching. In warmer areas don’t mistake Tripogandra multiflora for it. The latter has black stems, large flowers, and is not edible.

Thyme blossoms are tiny but flavorful

I went to Crete in the spring once to hike Sanmaria Gorge, said to be the longest gorge in Europe if you count extreme southern Greece as geographically part of Europe proper. There was, however, a late season snow storm and the gorge was closed. So I hiked down Embrose Gorge, much smaller but not without its charms. I remember three things well from the hike. The first was the wonderful scent of wild thyme growing throughout the gorge. Next was literally being run over by a large heard of sheep and goats. And lastly later that evening discovering the local taverna-made rose smelled just like the sheep. Without thyme the chef and the herbalist would be hard pressed to find a suitable substitute. In the kitchen thyme has so many use including the blossoms. Thymus vulgaris, leaves and blossoms are used to flavor stuffing, fish, meat, fowl, cheese vinegar, gravies, sauces, bouquet garni, herbs de Provence, brine for olives, eggs, bread, tea and honey. Shoots are a garnish.  The blossoms are milder than the leaves. And yes, later I got to hike down Sanmaria Gorge, a hike of a lifetime.

Wyoming's Indian Paint Brush

While recreating my foraging instructor page for the new website I considered using the state flower next to each separate state entry. Unfortunately few states have state flowers that are edible. Wyoming is the exception. Its state flower is the Indian Paint Brush though it is found in most western states and has a huge variety of common names including  — no surprise here — the Wyoming Paintbrush. By statute, however, it is officially Indian Paint Brush. It was adopted as the state flower 31 January 1917 beating out columbine and fringed gentian. There was heated debate from the opponents, however. One said the Indian Paint Brush was not common in the state, had too many varieties only an expert could tell apart, was parasitic by feeding on the roots of others, wasn’t generally liked and that the fringe gentian had been already chosen by Wyoming school children as the sentimental favorite. He left out the Indian Paint Brush encourages foraging but no doubt would have if he had known it. This particular paint brush, Castillija linariaefolia, is the best tasting in its genus. Maybe that’s why it won. Flowers are eaten raw. However the plant can accumulate selenium making it toxic to cattle.

See Edible Flowers: Part Fourteen

Alocasia macrorrhiza

One can ignore large leaves for only so long, and the Alocasia macrorrhiza has big leaves, up to four feet long. As one might suspect, it also has a large root, up to a foot long and half a foot through.

The Giant Taro is native to India and Sri Lanka. Polynesian explorers took the large tuber eastward during their travels carrying it to Hawaii around 1500 years ago. It’s now a major food staple in areas that are too warm or humid to raise traditional starch vegetables such as potatoes. While it is a food crop it escapes from cultivation and becomes naturalized.

Giant Taro stems

Finding a Giant Taro is far more fun than growing one. It takes 18 to 24 months to put on a large root (actually a rhizome.)  However, Giant Taro can be harvested nearly any time in the growth cycle though a large mature root will feed an entire family. It propagates by offsets or by cutting up the root. If you are cultivating the species it can be quite demanding requiring rich soil, constant moisture and feeding three times a month. Should you decide to grow one know the root is planted vertically, not horizontally. It can be grown in northern climes but needs to be overwintered inside. And on the plus side is that it is a root crop that will grow in significant shade.

Fermented rice in Giant Taro leaves

The roots have a potato-like flavor and the white interior of the thick stems can also be eaten. After boiling the cooked stem material is dried then ground into flour. As with most plants in this family the Giant Taro has calcium oxalates, which are needle-shaped crystals. They give an affect of burning if you handle them improperly and can make you ill if you manage to consume them. Cooking breaks down the calcium oxalate making the root and stem material edible. The most common means of preparation is boiling cut up parts of the root.

Giant Taro Rhizomes (roots)

Alocasia (ah-low-KAY-see-ah) means “like but not Colocasia” that is, like the Taro but not the taro. Macrorrhiza (mak-row-RYE-zah) means large root. The species is also called “Upright Elephant Ears.” Giant Taro is a good source of Vitamin C, phosphorus and iron.

Lastly, in Borneo cooked rice is mixed with yeast and wrapped in Giant Taro leaves to ferment. It’s kept in a cool dry place for a couple of days until the rice is fermented but not alcoholic. You eat the rice not the leaf.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Giant Taro

IDENTIFICATION: A massive perennial, huge “elephant ear” leaves 3-6 feet in length, 2-4 feet wide stalks 2-4 feet long. Stalks emerge from an upright trunk to 6-feet tall. Whole plant can be 12-15 feet tall and 6-10 feet wide. Leaves a glossy medium green with paler veins, arrow-shaped at the bases. The leaves stand upright, pointing skyward, unlike other large “elephant ears.” Greenish spathe and spadix (like “Jack-in-the-pulpit”) to ten inches, not particularly showy. Other species: ‘Variegata’ leaves are decorated with creamy white or grayish splotches. ‘Violacea’ has pale violet leaves.
TIME OF YEAR: Edible cooked most of the time though a fully mature root takes two years.
ENVIRONMENT: Partial shade is ideal if not total shade. Moist well-drained soil rich in organic humus. Lots of fertilizer. Thrives in humid environments, can tolerate shallow flooding. Not all salt tolerant. Once established can tolerate a mild frost.
METHOD OF PREPARATION: Roots, or parts of the root, boiled the same as potatoes. Stems pith boiled, dried, ground into flour.

Acorn flour has fat and protein

A wild flour is different than a starchy root. The Spurge Nettle has a starchy root that tastes like pasta but it does not lend itself to being processed into flour or starch. Below are many sources of flour or starch in five large categories… okay, six categories. Material you can bake with by itself is referred to as a flour; material that is usually added to something else is referred to as a starch. While those definitions satisfy culinary needs they are not highly scientific and are used inconsistently. The energy required to get the material to a usable flour/starch stage has also been considered and in fact is a very limiting factor. A food the might be an outstanding wild edible can be listed as “poor” here because of the work required to make a “flour” out of it. This list is not definitive and will be added to and edited from time to time.

Outstanding

Puffy amaranth seed

Amaranth is a grain that has been used for some 8,000 years. It is rich in amino acids and higher in protein than most grains, some 16%. It was one of the staple foods of the Aztecs. Amaranth is usually added to other flours or materials and is gluten free. You can collect your own seeds and process them into flour or buy it at health food stores. The latter is a good idea to see if you like the flavor which is nutty and slightly peppery.  While you can collect seeds from nearly any Amaranth, three species are commonly used: Amaranthus hypochondriacus, Amaranthus cruentus and Amaranthus caudatus. Four ounces of amaranth grain provides 100% of an adult’s daily protein need. It can be combined with wheat flour for yeast breads. Nutritionally 100 grams or about 3.5 ounces of Amaranth grain has 374 calories, 14.45 grams of protein 6.5 grams of fat, 15 grams of fiber, 4.2 mg of vitamin C, 153 mg calcium, 366 mg of potassium, 455 mg phosphorus, and 266 mg magnesium. You can collect it by putting the seed head in a bag and shaking the seed head. Amaranth grain does not have to be soaked before use.

Quinoa flour produces a crumbly texture

Chenopodium, quinoa is another staple used like Amaranth. It is 11.2% moisture, 13.5% crude protein, 9.5% crude fibre, and 58.3% carbohydrate. Quinoa has a high proportion of D-xylose (120.0 mg in 100 g sample) and maltose (101.0 mg in 100 g sample) but is low in  glucose (19.0 mg in 100 g sample) and fructose (19.6 mg in 100 g sample.) The protein content is as high as 18% and it contains a balance of amino acids. The seeds are high in saponins. Think of saponins as soap which is why the seeds need to be soaked. After soaking in two changes of water to reduce the saponins, quinoa can be used similar to rice, that is twice as much water as grains when cooking. It has a light, fluffy texture with a slightly nutty taste. It’s not a true grain but is an excellent substitute for grain flour.

Good

Acorn Waffles

Acorn flour has sustained millions for thousands of years, from the Ancient Greeks to the Japanese. During World War II Nipponese school children collected acorns daily in season to feed the nation. Today oak flour is still a common food in Korea and can be purchased in local markets. The main problem with acorn flour is collecting, shelling, and leaching the acorns. They have varying amounts of tannin which has to be removed though a few species have no tannins. Once the acid is removed and the nuts dried and ground, the flour is tasty and nutritious. It behaves more like corn starch than a cooking flour but can be used as flour. An ounce of acorn flour has 140 calories, 15 grams of carbs, 8 grams of fat (one of those saturated, 1.5 polyunsaturated) and 2 grams of protein. It also provides 1% of your daily need in calcium and 2% of iron, thiamine, riboflavin and zinc, 3% niacin and phosphorus, 5% folate, 5% magnesium, 6% vitamin B6. Acorns are gluten free and their oil can be used for cooking.

Barnyard Grass

Barnyard Grass:  Echinochloa crus-galli, winnowed seeds used as a staple grain. They can be parched, roasted, boiled, or ground into flour. Seeds can be popped like popcorn. In Japan Barnyard Grass seed is used to make macaroni and dumplings. Seeds are also roasted and used as a caffeine-less coffee substitute. In North America the Cocopa, Paiute and Tubatulabal tribes used it for food and stored it for winter use. The Yuma, however, really liked it. They pounded the seeds, winnowed them, ground them and made a meal and mush out of it. They also preferred to cook fish with the grain. It is not emergent but it likes its feet damp.

Chia seeds sans pet

Chia flour is not totally chia flour unless you make it yourself. The commercial version is made from brown rice flour and chia seeds (yes the ones you use for your Chia Pet.) Chia seeds are chock full of nutrition. They contain lots of Omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, fiber, and protein. Commercial chia flour, which is gluten free, can be used as a one to one replacement for wheat flour. Sift chia seed flour before using, use small pans when baking, and increase baking time by five percent.

Crabgrass seeds and hull

Crabgrass would be listed as outstanding if it weren’t a big pain to dehusk. In parts of Africa crabgrass (Fonio) is a staple grain, and under cultivation it can produce a whopping 17 tons per acre. Crabgrass seed can be used as a flour, couscous or as a grain, such as in porridge or fermented for use in beer making. Now that’s another label I’d like to see: Crabgrass Beer. Crabgrass is not only nutritious but one of the world’s fastest growing cereals, producing edible seeds in six to eight weeks (excellent for short-summer northern climes.)  It grows well in dry areas with poor soils and fantastically well in watered lawns. It’s a horrible weed if you own a lawn and a wonderful edible. Husking the small grains can be time-consuming, however. Traditional methods include pounding in a mortar with sand then separating the grain and sand (not advised.) Another method is  “popping” seeds over a flame and then pounding said which produces a toasted grain. If you have a LOT of crabgrass you can even buy a crabgrass husking machine.

Crowfoot Grass browns as it ages

Crowfoot Grass is a staple grain in some areas of Africa used to make unleavened bread — Kisera — and often beer. It’s a very small grain, even smaller than amaranth or quinoa. Indeed, if it were larger it would be an outstanding source of flour. Fortunately it grows in larger colonies and is easy to harvest so from a “calories-in-calories-out” perspective it’s certainly worth your while. You can collect about two quarts an hour. Seed heads that are ready to give up seeds come off easily. I collect a large amount of seed heads then rub them over a colander to dislodge the seeds and sift out larger pieces. Then I winnow the rest. The grain is the size of sand but is fragile so it can easily be ground into grain that has a flavor of buckwheat. I usually mix it 50/50 with regular flour. There are some precautions so read the full article.

Wild rice requires long cooking

Wild Rice (Zizania aquatica) is not really a rice. It’s an aquatic grass seed which can be cooked and eaten as is. Wild Rice was important to the survival of many Native American tribes. A subsistence food, it’s very dark brown to black in color and is tan when ground into flour. It does require some collecting technique and a canoe or the like but from an energy in/out perspective it is certainly worth ones while. Wild rice flour is usually added to other flours or used to thicken dishes.

Yam flour (Dioscorea alata) is made from yams dried and ground. Yam flour works great in cookies and pie crusts. It is not good for sticky or doughy applications. As a flour it stores very well and is more than 5% fiber.

Acceptable

Arrowroot flour is closely related to Canna, below, and is used in similar ways. It is easy to digest and is one of the few wild flours with calcium ash in it. Most people know it know as a thickener for gravies and it’s neutral flavor and color when used as a thickener. Like Canna it’s from warm region plants whose roots have to be ground to release the non-gluten starch. Read work.

Canna Root

Canna flour has more starch in it than grain flours and has the highest swelling point, good for thickening. It is high in amylose and is slowly digested so it doesn’t spike blood glucose levels. Canna, however, suffers the same problem as cattails; it requires a lot of work to get the flour. Roots have to be dug up before the plant flowers, ground up, the starch settled out then dried. It is just easier to cook the root though that takes about 12 hours.

Cattail roots can be processed many ways

Cattail flour has long history, from feeding primitive man to armies. The starch is trapped in fibers much like kudzu but is easier to get out than kudzu but still requires processing. There are several ways to extract it. Chopped roots (rhizomes actually) can be pounded in a mortar with some water, the fiber removed and the gloop dried. You can also hand crush the roots in a lot of water, let the starch settle and pour the water off slowly drying the starch.  This essentially produces flour but requires time and many hands such as one would find in a camp or village. A different way is to just rub the rhizome with the back of a knife and eat the starch off the knife. However, it’s like eating plain flour. If I am on the move I prefer to take the rhizome with me. Later I will roast the root on coals then pull the cooked starch off the fibers with my teeth. It tastes like chestnut. Cattail, or as the Brits call it, the greater reed mace, is certainly prime as it is nearly impossible to misidentify, is very common, and an excellent source or calories. The down side is it grows in water so harvesting can be an issue. That water can also be polluted. Cleaning the muck off roots can be a long, smelly chore, and the rhizome requires processing. Bulrush has similar uses as cattails.

Chestnut flour is popular in Italy. Like many foods that can be prepared simply. First roast the chestnuts then shell, dry, and grind. That takes time and energy for a food that can be eaten after simple roasting. The flour is gluten-free, low in fat (1%) but high on the glycemic index, for a nut (78% carbs.)  Chestnut flour can be used by itself but is usually mixed with other flours.

Lotus Root

Lotus Root:  The lotus root is not really a root but a stem swelling and the flour isn’t a flour, but neither are several “flours” listed here. Think starch. Lotus root doesn’t need much processing. Simply slice, dry, then grind into a powder. If you add hot water you have a gelatinous paste. Like many root starches it is added to wheat flour or used in cooking. Often it is used to make batter for frying. The problem is the “root” is often several feet underwater and hard to locate. While it is tasty and full of energy and nutrition it can take a lot of energy and time to harvest. Indeed, lotus seeds require less work and are nutritious as well. Lotus roots tend to be buried in deep mud. Getting them can be foul and smelly.

Mesquite flour is sweet and used as sugar

Mesquite flour is made from mesquite pods by milling and sieving the grind. The flavor is rich and deep, often compared to chocolate or coffee. Sounds good but the pods have to be cleaned, usually with chlorinated water then dried at 125° F for at least 6 hours, including the “dry” ones you pick up off the ground. Lastly they have to be milled into a powder. It is sweet with a pleasant aroma and often is used like sugar than flour. Normally up to 17% of regular flour can be substituted with Mesquite flour in recipes.

Peanut flour is made by grinding up peanuts. They have to be shelled first. Whether one roasts the peanuts first or not depends on how quickly you are going to use the “flour” and whether the peanuts will be squeezed of oil first. Roasting the peanuts first creates a stronger peanut taste to the final product. Another method is to dip raw peanuts in boiling water for 10 seconds before drying and grinding. Don’t use salted peanuts. In its raw state a peanut contains 18 different amino acids, including 8 essential amino acids. I had to debate whether to include peanuts because one doesn’t find them in the wild much. I did grow them one year, however.

Processing Sago Palm Pith

Sago palm trunks are used to make a flour. Ancient plants, the Sago Palm saves up starch for many years in anticipation of reproducing. When around 15 years old they are cut down, the trunk/stem/bole is ground and the starch washed out. It take time and many hands but production is large. The flour is commonly used in Indonesia and Malaysia to make noodles and bread. Don’t confuse the Sago Palm with the common ornamental also called Sago. The latter is a cycad is very toxic. The cycad can kill you, or perhaps, give you Alzheimer’s Disease decades from now. Very old books say cycad seeds are edible but research into folks who ate said during WWII shows high rates of various dementia later in life.

Poor

Coconut flour should be defatted

Coconut flour is mildly sweet and commonly used in quickbread recipes and some desserts. It contains a high amount of fiber, protein and fat. In fact it is some 19 percent protein, very nutritious. The main problem is the energy and time required processing the nut meat into flour when the nut is readily edible without processing. One has to separate the oil from the nut’s meat, usually by pressing, then dry and grind it. Coconut “flour” is usually added to grain flour in a 3 to 7 ratio. It takes a lot of work to get the flour. Eating the coconut takes far less energy.

Groundnuts have latex

Groundnuts, Apios americana, can be made into flour. Like the coconut above it is high in protein. But, they have to be cooked, dried, and ground. It is easier to just dig up the roots, cook them and eat them. More so, groundnuts as a vegetable taste great when warm but are tasteless when cold.  When warm the flavor is slightly like a turnip, not exactly a flour flavor.

Hickory Nuts

Hickory, pecans, walnuts:  Most nuts can be made into “flour” depending upon the oil content; the less oil the better for storage. Again while these nuts can be eaten out of hand getting enough nutmeat to grind into flour would be very time consuming and require much energy. What Aative Americans did was crush the entire nut, add water, pick off the floating woody bits, and drink the milky liquid they called ee-koh-RAH which got changed into Hickory.

Indian Rice Grass

Indian Rice Grass, Oryzopsis hymenoides, is nutritious and at the right time and place is easy to harvest. It was a statple of many tribes of Native Americans. What the down side? The seed is very tough and often the plant loses its seed so easily it falls on the ground before you get a chance to harvest it. Also the seed often needs to after-ripen one to five years. It’s found in the western half of North America almost as if it has been planned that way. A commercial version has been grown in Montana since 2000 and is sold under the name “Montina.” The botanical name means “rice like.”

Sunchoke flour does not store well

Jerusalem artichoke flour takes some processing, does not store well, and usually has to be mixed with some other flour. Why bother? Peel the roots, slice them into chips and dry. Then grind and use. It make as bread that is as heavy as a brick. The flour has inulin which the human body cannot digest but the bacteria in your gut can. That explains the gas production you could fill a blimp with. Stored for any length of time it takes on a dusty, musty taste. That’s a lot of work for a root that can be eaten raw right out of the ground.

Konjac roots and shoots

Konjac. What can one expect of a plant whose botanical name means poorly-formed penis, Amorphophallus konjac. The corms of this tropical plant have a lot of edible starch. However, to get the starch the corms are washed, peeled, grated, rinsed many times then boiled. The starch is settled out, dried, then treated with dissolved lime, much like corn. Then it can be used. Lot of nutrition and food value but a lot of work as well.

Kudzu root is very tough

Kudzu roots are full of starch but getting the starch out is a caloric- or energy-intensive chore. They either have to be pounded for hours or ground then steamed. If you have a water wheel and volcanic heat for energy then you could craft mechanical means to get the starch out. Either way, by hand requires much time and energy. By hand extracting Kudzu starch is a calorie deficit proposition. Want to lose weight? Eat only kudzu starch you process yourself.

Macadamia flour is very soft and has the same feel and look as white flour but has a high oil content and should be used immediately. It is made from ground up raw macadamias. It works well in recipes that do not require the mixture to rise. Sunflower seed flour is similar.

Pine cambium is nearlly flavorless

Pine cambium is actually quite nutritious. A pound of it is the equivalent of nine cups of whole milk. It’s not too difficult to get. It is, however, surprise, nearly flavorless. Frying improves the flavor some. Boiling does not. Pine cambium can be dried and ground into a “flour.” It is added to other flours or to soups and stews and the like.

Pumpkin seeds make a poor flour

Pumpkin Seeds are 61% protein and most of the rest is fat. As a flour it does not play well with others in the oven. Low on carbohydrates as a flour it is used sparingly, usually added to other things or as a protein drink. As pumpkins seeds are quite edible roasted one is not sure why some folks are compelled to make seeds into flour.

Burn off the spines or dehull

Sandspur seeds are nutritious and easy to find. They are nutty and tasty and make a good porridge. The problem, as with several foods in this class, is making them into flour. Like any grain they have to be dehulled, dried, then ground. Whereas the grass itself can be held over an open fire to burn the spines off and then consumed then and there. Very little energy expended. The cooked seeds do make a good source of starch for making beer, or sake.

Sea Club Rush is tough

Sea Club Rush, Scirpus maritimus, has a bit of disconnect. We are told by those who study such things they were widely eaten in the past. Yet the work required to make them edible is excessive.  They have to be collected, pounded to remove the bark, then crushed into flaky bits or ground into powder. You can however, peel them and eat them raw. Has a flavor similar to coconut. The seeds can be parched and ground into “flour” as well, but they are tiny.

Smilax roots can pound nails

Smilax roots suffers the same fate as Kudzu. The root is 10% pink starch but it requires much pounding or grinding to get the starch out, which is washed out then settles in water. A better choice is to find the roots when finger size and cook them for eating. Better still, eat the growing tips in the spring. They are among the best spring vegetables.

Sorghum: The flour is gluten free. It’s mildly sweet with an aftertaste many don’t care for. It’s used to make beer and animal feed… One out of two isn’t bad.

Famine

Black medic seeds are very tiny and unless cultivated it might be difficult to find enough plants to get enough seed to make flour. There is also some reports it can stimulate or make worse auto-immune diseases.

Tough cabbage palm seeds

Cabbage Palm:  The prune-flavored fruit have pea-size kernels of starch. If you put them in your coffee grinder raw they will destroy it… I warned you…  They can be ground but they are exceptionally hard and require much work. Better to roast them. They grind easily then and have a flavor similar to coffee. The inner core, the heart, is edible but it, too, requires much work by hand. A chain saw is better.

Cactus/prickly pear:  The seeds are very nutritious and also extremely hard. Do to try to eat them whole. If they don’t ruin your teeth they will strafe your hemorrhoids. Cactus fruit seeds have to be milled and that takes time and energy.

Reindeer Moss is really a lichen

Lichen is a well-known famine food. There are around 20,000 lichen of which only two, or two families are near toxic; Wolf Lichen — which looks like a lime green beard — and Sunshine Powder lichen that is yellow like a school bus. The rest have to be thoroughly soaked in water to remove stomach-upsetting acids. Then when dried they can be turned into an edible “flour” that is usually used to thicken soups and stews or to extend bread.

Minute Purslane Seeds

Purslane seeds are quite edible and can be dried and ground into a flour. But they are so tiny it is difficult to find them in quantities large enough to make a flour out of them. It’s better to just throw the seeds pods into the salad and enjoy. Think of them as bland poppy seeds.

Truly Desperate

Golden club, Orontium aquaticum,  Native Americans pounded the root into flour.

Buck Beans, Menyanthes trifoliata, dry, crushed, leeched, settled starch makes an edible but disgusting flour.

Wild Calla, Calla palustris, thoroughly dried roots and seeds can be ground into an unpalatable flour.

Blue vervain, Verbena hastata, seeds soaked in several changes of water then roasted and ground make a bitter but edible flour.

Wild Rice: Male flowers droop, the female flowers are erect.

Love and marriage, horse and carriage, Zizania and canoe… not exactly lyrical but you get the idea. If you want Wild Rice you have to go where the Wild Rice is, and that’s in water, not greatly deep water, but water nonetheless. Emergent is the word.

Truth be known Wild Rice, Zizania aquatica, is not rice and often not wild particularly if you buy it in a store. But those are quibbling points. It’s a popular and delicious grass grain, fairly easy to collect — if you know the technique — and nutritious as well. It was the staple of many Native America tribes, particularly in northern climates.  They fought wars over it. Wild Rice is one of my favorite wild foods though locally we are on the very end of its range.

Zizania palustris

There are at least three species of Zizania maybe four. Botanists argue over that (think of it as a swamp turf war.)  Z. aquatica is along the Atlantic Coastal plain from right here — Central Florida — to the northeast end of North America. From that same northeast land’s end west and southwest along the Great Lakes one finds Zizania palustris (which is either a separate species or a variation of Z. aquatica.)  Both of those are annuals. Zizania texana is found only in Hays County, Texas, in the San Marcos River area, and is a perennial. There’s also a perennial Wild Rice in Japan, Taiwan, China and much of eastern Eurasia called Zizania latifolia. Incidently the latter becomes infected with  Ustilago esculenta which causes the lower stem to swell. The Chinese parboil the stem then saute it with meat or other vegetables.

The entire flower on Giant Cut Grass Droops

Locally the object de forage is Zizania aquatica, see top photo, not to be confused with Zizaniopsis miliacea, Giant Cut Grass, left, which also grows here. Z. aquatica is a very large grass to ten feet tall. Its stems are thick and spongy. Leaves are strap-like up to four feet long and two inches wide, smooth. The leaf’s edge is sharply toothed. The inflorescence is erect, very large up to two feet long and a foot across with spreading branches. The lower branchlets (male) droop, upper branchlets (female) are stiff and upright. Numerous spikelets and flowers, grain ovoid, yellow to reddish, up to an inch long. The flower is the quick key to separating the Zizania from the Zizaniopsis which resembles Wild Rice. The entire inflorescence — male and female parts — droop on the Zizaniopsis. The female parts of the flower on Wild Rice are stiff and point up.

Zizania texana

Several first foragers use the Zizania species. Captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame said of the Wild Rice that it “groweth as our bents do in meadows…. seed is not much unlike rye, though much smaller… this they use for dainty bread buttered with dear suet.”  Most folks don’t realize that Smith was a close friend of the king’s gardener and was in North America to basically find plants. His prowess with the barely pubertic Pocahontas seems to have captured historical fame more than his penchants for pokeweed. Smith was a swashbuckling kind of guy and probably the most famous of men who share his common name. He’s the first among John Smiths and was going to be executed when the ship he was on landed. However, papers labeled ‘only open in North America’ put him in charge of everyone including the captain who was going to execute him. That has to be the world’s sweetest reprieve.  The “bent” he was referring to is probably some speices of Agrostis.

As for the Wild Rice, the Menominee, who take their name from the plant in Ojibwan, manoomin, cooked the grain with deer broth, pork, or butter and seasoned it with maple syrup. The Ojibwa used it to make muffins as well as stuffing for duck and other birds. They steamed it to fluff it up and had it for breakfast with sugar and cream. Popping it was common. And… prepare yourself for this… No, I really mean it. Steel thyself, ’cause this ain’t pretty: TheOjibwa also boiled it with rabbit excrement and considered the concoction a delicious luxury. Other tribes that consumed the grain included the Dakota, Meskwaki, Omaha, Ponca, Thompson, and Winnebago.

Several early writers mentioned how the grain was harvested with the use of two sticks and a canoe. Basically the plant is leaned over the canoe with one stick and brushed with the other. After parching some tribes trod on the grain to winnow it. Not the best method as even just a little grit makes the grain difficult to consume. Sand is not an edible. Incidentally, the Zizaniopsis miliacea has edible seeds as well and the growing tips of its white rhizomes are edible cooked . Zizaniopsis means looks like Zizania. Miliacea is millet-like.

Aquatica means in the water, palustris means in the swamp, texana in Texas and latifolia wide leaf. Zizania is a bit more involved. It’s from the Greek word ζιζάνια  (zee-ZAH- nee-ah) or singular in modern Greek  ζιζάνιο (zee-ZAH-nee-oh.)  It was a weed that inflitrated wheat fields. In Dead Latin it is said zye-ZAY-nee-ah. The word in modern Greek also means dissension or a mischievous person or tare (said tear which is a vetch.) Linguistically you have a choice: You can use Dead Latin and say zye-ZAY-nee-ah or use Living Greek and call it zee-ZAH-nee-ah. I’ve made my choice…

Nutrionally Wild Rice is about 77% carbohydrates and between 15 and 17% protein. The grains are rich in glutelins and essential amino acids, especially lysine and methionine. It is a good source of B vitamins and is low in amylose, only 2%.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Wild Rice

IDENTIFICATION: Zizania aquatica: Annual, erect, aquatic grass  to ten feet. Stems hollow; leaves flat, to four feet long, two inches wide, leaf-markings purple with thick midrib often nearer one leaf side than the other. Flowers cross-fertilized and wind-pollinated, large, open, terminal panicles, two-feet long a foot wide. Male flowers on lower portion of the flower droop; female parts of the flowers are stiff and erect, twisted barbed awns; kernels (seed) closely adhering to thin brown hull, shallow-grooved the entire length of one surface, long, nearly cylindrical, purplish-black when ripe. Roots slender, fibrous, penetrating shallowly.

TIME OF YEAR: Late summer, mid-August into mid-September. Grains are collected by using two sticks the length of your arm. One is used to bend the plant over the canoe. The other stick is used to gently brush the plant to knock off ripe seeds. Successive visits to the same plant are possible as not all the seeds ripen at the same time. Harvesting can start as early as after 4.5 months of growth. Grain is harvested when the plants are still green. If they are brown, you’re too late. Collected grains should be sun dried for at least a couple of days. An alternative is parching the grains which is heating them in an open pan, stiring until they are dry. Hull parched rice immedately or they will remoisten. Keep away from sand. A little grit goes a long ways.

ENVIRONMENT: Wild Rice is completely absent from strongly alkaline waters and avoids stagnant water. The current must not be perceptible but a constant change of water is desirable. Fresh water plant, not growing successfully in water with a salty taste, thrives in brackish water in low marshes bordering tidal rivers, and in no more than two feet of water, and where the annual change of water level is not more than two feet. Grows wild in shallow freshwater lakes and edges of lakes and streams. It requires slow-flowing water through the rice bed or field, with depth of water from one to four feet with constant or slightly declining water levels through the growing season. Raising water uproots the plant.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Cleaned grains are usually boiled. They can also be popped or ground into a flour used with other flours or added to stews as a thickener.

Colorful as well as edible

Forget-Me-Nots, Calamint, Mimosa Silk Tree, Clary Sage, Petunia x hybrid, Balloon Flower, Yarrow, Corn Poppy, Daisy, Sweet Alyssum

Foreget-Me-Not

The story I heard from my mother, not the best source of romantic literature, was that he was in Alaska and braved rushing waters to get some wild flowers she requested. He got the flowers but was swept away by the current and as he was about to meet his watery fate over a falls he yelled “Forget Me Not.” Hmmmm… Guy dies, woman doesn’t get flowers, has to walk home alone where she meets a Paul Bunyan type… Let’s start with the fact Forget-Me-Nots aren’t native to Alaska but they are in England and… In exile from England in 1398 Henry IV adopted the flower as his symbol and retained it when he returned from the hinterlands a year later. Perhaps that is why historically Forget-Me-Nots represent faithfulness and enduring love. They are found sporadically in the wild in the northern half of North America and cultivated elsewhere. As most folks see them only in gardens we’ll call them cultivated though surprisingly they are invasive in Wisconsin. Botanically Forget-Me-Nots are Myosotis sylvatica, which means Mouse Ear of the Woods. Properly they are Wood Forget-Me-Nots. Five petals, flat face, a yellow eye, usually blue but can be pink to white.  The blossoms are added to salads as a garnish and make excellent candied blossoms.

Calamint

Think mint. Now think oregano. Put them together, mint and oregano and you have the Lesser Calamint. Important to Italian cooking, it’s an Old World plant found in flower gardens and a smattering of states from the Old South northeast to New York.  A hardy perennial to two feet, it is said to be indispensable in bean and mushroom dishes. The regular Calamint also has edible blossoms as well though its flavor is a cross between mint and majoram, read not quite as strong. They have been cooking with it in Rome since the Romans, particularly meat dishes. Toss the pink to lavender blossoms in salads or use to flavor dishes.

Mimosa Silk Tree, Albizia julibrissin

The Mimosa Silk Tree, Albizia julibrissin, is native to southern and eastern Asia. From there it was carried to Europe by the mid-1700s. Soon after it was introduced to North Carolina by the French botanist Andre Michaux. From there it spread north to New England, down around the Old South west to California and up the west coast, all except the northern plain states.  I have a separate article on site. To read it click here. Young leaves are edible cooked or dried to make a tea. The blossoms are edible like a vegetable or crystallized.

Clary Sage

Clary sage has been in the medicinal bag of tricks for at least 2,400 years. Theophrastus in the 4th century BCE wrote about it. Dioscroides did in the first century CE as did Pliny.  A native to the Old World it is naturalized in 14 states and Ontario with no apparent reason to the distribution. Like many edible flower it is found mostly under cultivation. It’s called “clary” because the sticky seeds were used to help get small foreign objects out of the eye, to help on see clearly.  Young and tender leaves are dipped in cream and fried, often eaten with an orange sugar sauce. They can also be dipped in an egg batter and cooked into fritters. The pleasant-flavored flowers are sprinkled on salads.

Petunia x hybrida

One wouldn’t think so but there is an edible petunia species. Petunias are in the solonace family which has some famous edibles and poisons members. This is not just any petunia but Petunia x hybrida first sent to Paris from South America in 1823.   The P. hybrida was created out of several Petunia species and comes in two types, grandiflora (larage flowered) and multiflora (many flowered.) Grandiflora have trailing stems and tend to spread with blossoms up to five inches.  Multiflora petunias are bushier and have smaller flowers from two to three inches in diameter.  Many colors and patterns are available. The mild-tasting flowers are used  in salads or as a garnish. The blue one is shown here because experts think if man did not continue to hybridize them only the blue species would continue.

Balloon Flower and Bee

Let’s start at the bottom and work up. Our next plant is known for its root. In the greater Campanula clan, the root of the Balloon Flower, Platycodon grandiflorus, is very popular in Korea where it is cut into strips, seasoned with chili’s, vinegar, sesame oil and soy  sauce and eaten as a salad (which also tells one you can can get the root still alive in Korean markets, plant it, and get blossoms.) It is also used in soups, stews, dishes with vinegar, and is one of the ingredients in Toso, or sweet Japanese sake. Boiled young leaves are eaten in salads. Its blossoms are sweet in taste, have a bit of texture, and are used in salads, stuffed, candied or dipped in butter. The Balloon Flower is so called because before the petals open are fused at first making the blossom look like a balloon.

Yarrow

This plant is used so much it’s surprising the flower has managed to put itself nearly everywhere, field and farm. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is found throughout North American and many parts of the world. Young leaves are eaten in salads, or cooked as a vegetable, or added to soups and stews. The leaves and flowers are brewed into a tea. Sometimes in beer making it is substituted for hops. An oil from the flowers is used in flavoring a variety of commercial drinks and alcoholic beverages. Yarrow’s primary use for our purposes is blossoms to make tea.

Corn Poppy

They used to be far more common than they are now, paper red poppies around Veterans Day, sold to raise money for disable veterans and the like. Aside from the veteran connection, mention Poppy and opium is usually the next topic mentioned. That’s a different poppy so hold the email please.  Our poppy is Papaver rhoeas, common name is Corn Poppy, sometimes Flanders Poppy.  From Athens Greece to Athens Georgia, you can find Corn Poppies. In fact, they are the flower of profusion about the Agora down from the Acropolis.  Young leaves are cooked and seasoned like spinach, or used for flavoring in everything from soup to salad. Syrup is made from the red petals is used to add flavor and color soups as well as wine. The seeds are used in confections and bread and the oil is an excellent substitute for Olive Oil. Originally from Eurasia they are found in most areas of North America.

Daisy blossoms are actually many flowers not one

If I remember correctly Jean Kerr titled one of her humerous books, “Please Don’t Eat The Daisies.” The daisy was Bellis perennis, or the English Daisy but now just called Daisy as it is the common flower of farm and field in North America, and South America. For a widespread plant in multiple uses it is not high on the flavor list, if not bitter. However, its leaves have been used as a cooked green, usually boiled or as a pot herb. Flower petals are eaten in salads,  remember bitter. Flower buds are eaten in sandwiches, soups and stews, or pickled and used like capers. The entire flower open in the day and closes at night. “Daisy” is from Day’s Eye, meaning open only during the day. And, while it looks just a center blossom with a lot of rays around it, each ray is a separate flower, and every tiny yellow section in the middle is a separate flower.

Alyssum

Mat-forming Alyssums recently underwent a genus and species name change. They were Allyssum lobularia and now they are Lobularia maritima. A native of the Mediterranean areas it has traveled far and is found 41 states most of Canada.The genus name lobularia comes from dead Latin and means small globe, referring to the shape of the flower cluster. Maritima refers to its habitat, meaning it likes to grow near the seashore and is somewhat salt tolerant. Leaves, young stems, and flowers are used for flavoring in salads or any dish where pungency is desired. The flowers candy well.  The blossom are honey-scented.

See Edible Flowers Part Thirteen

Edible Flowers, a cheery way to start the day

Coral Vine, Citron Melon, Milkweed Vine, Dayflower, Evening Primrose, Kudzu, Stock, Dame’s Rocket, Freesia, Dendrobium phalaenopsis

Coral Vine Blossoms must be cooked

The Coral Vine has dozens of names, not only as a cultivated blossom but an escapee on the most noxious list. Botanically it is Antigonon leptopus. A native of Mexico it has edible roots, leaves and for this series, flowers. To read more about it go here. The vine can climb to some 40 feet and blossoms nearly year round in warm area.  Butterflies and bees like it (you’ve been warned) because over 40% of its blossoms are open at a time. The blossoms, like the leaves and roots, have to be cooked. The roots, while edible, are hard to find and dig up.

Citron Melon

The two plants non-foraging people ask about all the time are Society Garlic (covered elsewhere) and those small watermelon like fruit seen in old citrus groves and abandoned fields. The short answer is they are Citron Melons. They used to be cultivated for to make preserves and I have a separate article about that here. However, their blossoms are edible if they are not bitter. The blossoms should be cooked though usually one never sees the plant until the late fall and winter when one can see the fruit from the seasonal die back. The blossom might be edible raw, I just haven’t tired them.

Milkweed Vine, Morrenia odorata

By looking at the names of this vine and the attitude of the state of Florida one would never suspect most of it is edible including the flowers. It’s called the Milkweed Vine, the Latex Vine, the Strangler Vine, the latter because it tends to climb on trees and cover them. Botanically it is Morrenia odorata. Literally from the ground up this plant is edible and the fruit has more Vitamin C than citrus (an industry that fights to get rid of it.) The flowers are very sweet and floral and can be eaten raw. This vine is only found in warm areas. Don’t try confuse it with the cool climate Honeyvine, Cynanchum laeve, which is not edible. Also Hemp Vine (Mikania Scandens) before it blossom looks vaguely similar as well.

Dayflower, a Commelina

My love affair with Dayflowers is over. They don’t like me anymore. Well, the raw stems don’t. The raw blossom still do. In the Commelina clan there’s quite a few of them and while the blossoms are fine to toss in a salad, candy or use as a garnish — just like their relative the Spiderworts,  I am beginning to think the stems and older leaves are overrated. Raw they irritate my tummy these days.  The blossoms can vary in size depending on which species and can have three blue petals, two blue petals and one small white petal or two large blue petals and one smaller blue petal. Their flavor is an inoffensive green. The Yellow Commelina, Commelina africana, is edible cooked. They both are closely related to the tiny Doveweed.

Evening Primrose, Oenothera biennis

Every climate has its good and bad points and one of the bad points locally is that the tall, northern Evening Primrose does not grow here. I think the the most amazing specimen I ever saw was in Vathia, Greece (Vathis is literally the end of the road on the central peninsula of southern Greece, deep in The Mani.)  The Evening Primerose was at least six feet tall and totally covered with flowers. Here in Florida we have a very scraggly ground hugging one. I have not tired its flowers. On my list of things to do. However, the common Evening Primrose of northern climes does have edible blossoms. They are sweet and can be used in a variety of ways raw or cooked if you prefer, salad to soups to garnish. They can even be pickled.

Kudzu's blossoms smell like grapes

You never have to go looking for kudzu blossoms. When kudzu is in bloom there is no mistaking its scent. It is smells exactly like the cheap grape bubble gum kids chew. And intense? You can detected it on the wind from 100 yards away, or more. Kudzu is the bane of the Old South. Introduced by the government which paid farmers to use it for land reclamation, it can grow a foot a day and covers some 120,000 new acres every year. Goats love to eat it and all of it is edible except the seeds. The blossoms are quite edible recipes abound in their use, jelly to wine. While the smell like grape they do not taste like grape. They are sweet and have a flavor of their own.

Stock is bred in many colors

Some like it hot, and some do not, and Stock does not. It’s a fragrant, two-foot tall, attractive flower that likes full sun, good, well-drained soil, and temperatures under 75 F°. They can even tolerate a light frost. There are some 140 species of Stock. The one we are interested in is Matthiola incana, common stock as it were though it comes in many colors. It’s native along the Mediterranean from Greece to Spain and was a mainstay of European gardens in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Elizabethans called them “gillyflower” and the Victorian allowed them in their cottage gardens. Even Thomas Jefferson got some for Monticello in 1771 and in fact one can still buy seed from Jefferson’s stock…of Stock. Stock flowers are usually added to salads  raw or a garnish to sweet desserts. They can be candied. Their flavor is perfume-ish. The plant’s pods are edible as well. A common cultivated flower in North American it is naturalized in North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, California and British Columbia usually in a few isolated areas but rather well-distributed in coastal southern California and San Francisco. It is also called Tenweeks Stock.

Dame's Rocket is a mustard

Dame’s Rocket is a declared invasive species in several places. It’s your civic duty eat the weed. Originally from Eurasia some 400 years ago it’s a mustard that at first glance looks like Phlox. Dame’s Rocket has the typical mustard family four petals, Phlox, five. It’s found essentially everywhere in North America except the Old South. Botanically known as Hesperis matronalis, it is cultivated, escaped and is included in wild bird seed mix. Young leave collected before flowering are eaten like cress. Seed pods can be added stews and soups. Seeds are a source of oil and can be sprouted and eaten. The flowers are used to add spicy flavors to fruit dishes and salads.

Freesia blossoms point the same way

As a forager one of the first things you learn is that there isn’t much to offer in the Iris family, or, if it is an Iris beware. Freesia is an exception.  A native of South Africa and Australia, it’s an Iris to about 18 inches tall and grows from a bulb. The stem branches once giving it a classic Y shape. One odd thing about the Freesia is that they grow in a helicoid, that is the flowers attach to the stem in a spiral fashion but they all point the same way.  Fragrance varies with the variety. And the usual debate is whether it’s a wild plant as it is in its native range or a cultivated plant as most of these readers will find it. I opted for cultivated. So far I have put only one flower in both wild and cultivated and that’s Dame’s Rocket. Freesias colors include white, purple, yellow, orange and red. In the language of flowers they represent “innocence.” The highly scented blossoms are used in salads raw or as a garnish. They are reported to be excellent infused with a sugar syrup, and are used in sorbets for flavoring.

Dendrobium phalaenopsis

If you go to a Thai restaurant often a Dendrobium phalaenopsis is put on your plate. No that not a creature, it’s an orchid unfortunately without a common name in English. Said Den-DROH-be-um fal-en-NOP-siss their flavor is light, if any, but they are pretty with a crisp texture. This also brings up the debate if all orchids are edible. Personally I think that is impossible for one person to say as there are more than 20,000 of them, maybe 26,000, in some 800 genera. Many do have edible roots. Edible flower information is sketchy. One would like to think orchids used as garnishes would be edible just to avoid liability. However garnish writers seem to skip over issues of orchid edibility. Kind of like writing about flying and leaving out the airplane. Dendrobium phalaenopsis comes in a variety of colors and are native to southeast Asia. They are not difficult to grow. Use in salads and as a garnish.

See Edible Flowers: Part Twelve

Tangy mustard and sweet violet flowers

Alliums, Oregano, Pinks, Peas, Okra, Galium, Ginger, Scented Geraniums, Primrose, Mustard/Radish

Onion Blossom

The author of “Florida’s Incredible Wild Edibles” Dick Deuerling, now in his 90s, taught me decades ago: If it looks like a garlic and smells like a garlic it is a garlic and you can eat it. If it looks like an onion and smells like an onion you can eat it. They must have both, however, look and aroma. We have a lily here in Florida, for example, that looks like an onion but no aroma, and raw it can be deadly.  Look and aroma, like horse and carriage and love and marriage. Together. Alliums can also be deceptive. Locally the “wild onions” (read really garlics) grow their cloves on the top of the plant, not underground. And if I remember correctly, an onion always has a singular bulb per plant where as the garlic has sectioned cloves. At any rate there are some 400 species if you include onions, garlic, chives, sallots, and closely related ramps/leeks, the latter having wide leaves. Usually the flowers have a stronger flavor than the leafy parts, and the developing seed head even stronger flavor. Blossoms are usually white but can also be pink. Onion stems are round, as are chives but smaller. Garlic leaves are flat. And since you know what those look like I’ll put up a picture of ramps, unfamiliar to some.

Honey Bee and Oregano Blossom

Where would Greeks be without oregano, or the rest of us? And is it a wild plant or cultivated? In most of the New World it is a cultivated plant. In the land of my ancestors it grows wild, particularly on the lopes of Mt. Taygetos (said tah-EE-gah-tos) south of Sparta in The Mani (and from where we get the word “maniacs” in English because of how the Maniotes fought.) Taygetos means “joy of mountain.”  Oregano is similar. It’s from two Greek words, oros, which means mountain, and ganousthal meaning delight in. “Delight in the mountain is” translates into good eats and where the oregano prefers to grow. There should be some truth to that because oregano also grows in Sanmaria Gorage on mountainous Crete, where I love to hike. We are told Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, created oregano as a symbol of happiness. Ancient Greeks would crown newlyweds with garlands of oregano to bless happiness on their marriage.  Oregano’s blossoms are a milder version of the plant’s leaves Incidentally, marjoram is in the same genus as oregano. Oregano is Origanum vulgare, and marjoram is Origanum majorana. Think of marjoram as oregano lite and used the same way. In many place in the Mediterranean area oregano is called Wild Marjoram.

Pinks

Carnations (Dianthus caryophyllus) were covered earlier in this series but let’s revisit the genus Dianthus’ miniature versions such as Pinks and Sweet William, respectfully Dianthus plumarius and Dianthus barbatus.  Dianthus means God Flower… Hmmm… would diandros be godfather? Anyway… These little carnations don’t like heat or alkaline soil which made them perfect for the cold acidic landscape of Maine’s summer. They don’t even like to be mulched. Curiously the name “Pink” does not refer to the color but a 14th century verb “to pink” meaning to perforate or create a punched patten. Apparently I grew up in the Dark Ages because it was a verb I heard around the home and every seemstress had pinking shears. Why Sweet William is called that is anyone’s guess but the term for the flower first showed up in 1596. (There were no King Williams at the time but William Shakespeare was mid-career… it’s a guess.) To use the blossoms cut away the bitter white base. The petals are sweet with a clove or nutmeg like scent.  Often used in salads, aspic and soups.

Garden Pea Blossom

There is a progression, I think. When  you are a kid you hate to eat your peas. You get past that then run into your first pea pod, usually at a Chinese restaurant. You get past that when you eat your first pea blossom. Note, eating pea blossoms will reduce your production of peas but a pea blossom here or there is pleasant. They are crunchy, slightly sweet, and taste like peas. That does vary some with what variety you have planted. Also the pea shoots and tendrils are edible as well. All usually consumed raw though you could cook them. A word of caution. I am referring to edible peas, the genus Pisum, not ornamental peas. Those can be toxic.

Okra Blossom

While we’re raiding the garden let’s not forget about okra blossoms. Like many edible flowers already mentioned it is in the hibiscus clan. I have grown okra in my garden and there are dozens of  cultivars to choose from that produce some variety of blossom colors.  Like most hibiscus blossoms they are shy on taste but add color and texture to salads as well as an attractive garnish. Of course you could also let them go on to produce okra which is a kitchen vegetable of many uses. In fact, growing okra is for the blossoms is perhaps the quickest and easiest way to get lovely large blossoms to your table quickly. And there are “dwarf” version for patio pot use. One word of warning, some okra plants have spines… big spines.

Sweet Woodruff

Several Galiums grow here in Florida, one of which can be used for dye, Galium tinctorium, and one of which is edible, Galium aparine. It’s easy to sort out the two. If you can find whorls of five leaves or less it is the G. tinctorum. If you can find whorls of seven leaves or more, its the G. aparine, among other characteristic. Their blossoms are really too tiny to attend to but edible. The favored Galium, however, does not grow here but I have run into it elsewhere, Galium odoratum. Imported from Eurasia and now naturalized it grows roughly in the northeast quadrant of North America and is commonly called Sweet Woodruff, or Wild Baby’s Breath. It’s been used a lot in Europe as a flavoring particularly in German May wine. Its flavor is sweet and vanilla-like which brings us to a warning. One of the chemicals that gives it a sweet smell is coumarin. Taken in large quantities it reduces the blood’s ability to clot. Flavoring and a few blossom here or there is not a worry unless you are in frail health and already taking blood thinners.

Ginger Blossoms

Right outside my kitchen window grows ginger, the kind we get ginger root from and use in cooking, Zingiber officinale. I planted it several years ago and when I need ginger for cooking, I did up a piece.  The word ginger comes from French gingembre which was borrowed from Medieval Latin ginginer which was bastardized from the Greek: zingiberis (ζιγγίβερις). Going back further it comes from the Indian subcontinent word inji ver. We just call it good, and a home remedy for motion sickness. Ginger blossoms are gingery and fragrant. They can be eaten raw.

Lemon-scented Geranium

Because of an early botanical screw up — among the first of many — the Geranium group can be confusing. Initially all Geraniums were in one group. But by the late 1700s it was decided they were in two different genus but both were called commonly Geraniums. Got it? Folks have been trying to keep it straight ever since. Generally speaking they fall into two groups, bitter Geraniums usually not consumed, though some can be, and scented geraniums, whose flowers we can use. The latter genus is Pelargonium. The name comes from the Greek word πελαργός, pelargós, which means stork because part of the flower looks like a stork’s beak. Scented geraniums have different scents, among them almond, apple, coconut, lemon, nutmeg, old spice, peppermint, rose, and strawberry. The flowers tend to agree with the plant’s name. They are used in salads, desserts, and drinks.

Primrose

The Primrose suffered the fate of several plants. Petty, edible and showed up very early in the spring after folks had spent a long winter with no fresh food. This wasn’t an issue when there were more primroses than humans. The primrose as been so harvested in the wild that it is illegal in many of its native places in Europe to pick it. However, it is also a common garden flower and a commerial product so getting some primrose legally really isn’t an issue. In the genus Primula the Primula vulgaris blossom reminds me very much of a small magnolia blossom. Several colors are available now. Also know as Cow Slip the blossoms are bland in flavor but sweet. They can be added to salad, the bud pickled, or cooked as a vegetable. They have even been used to make wine.

Radish Blossom

Perhaps I have been remiss in these last 99 blossoms to not mention mustards more. But they are a huge family and have been touched upon, such as with arugula. They all have yellow to white blossoms, sometimes pink, usually a simple cross which is there the family names Cruciferae comes from. They range from the mustard that produces the seed that makes the condiment to the radish in our salad to the plant that produces what eventually is cleaned and deodorized into Canola oil. In northern climates they are a spring and summer plant, here in Florida they are wintertime fare, showing up after Thanksgiving and usually totally gone by St. Patrick’s day. Wild radish and wild mustard look similar but have small differences. One is that mustards grow tall, radishes like to serpentine. Radish blossoms cluster and have noticeable veins, mustard blossoms are singular and the veins are not obvious. The seeds pods are different as well. Mustard’s pod is smooth, the radish jointed and why the mustard is called the charlock and the radish the jointed charlock. Their blossoms are both peppery and mustardy. They work best in cold salads or hot soups, the latter they can be tossed in just before serving. And of course mustard and radish leaves can be cooked up as greens.

See Edible Flowers: Part Eleven

Canna edulis, achira

How many species of Canna are there? Used to be perhaps 100 but now there are 20 or so, plus one Scottish island with a …ah.. population problem. And don’t misspell it Cana with one ‘N’ or you will get a cremation society.

I lived with a Taiwanese family for a while, perhaps that’s where I got my skills at cooking down home Chinese food. They grew Canna, red blossom with skinny petals (well, blossom parts that look like petals.) See above. I thought the flowers were Taiwanese Canna because they looked so different in blossom than Canna found in the southern United States, which has large fat blossoms of yellow. My presumption was that Canna was oriental. Come to find out everyone though that but it is origionally from the Americas. It went east and west and then it came back and got discovered.

Golden Canna, Canna flaccida

Canna is called a lily in common terms — Canna Lily — but it is not a lily. It’s in the order of Zingiberales which includes ginger, bananas, and marantas. The resemblance is in the leaves. How it got to be called a Canna Lily is unknown though it can be a bit orchid looking and was once called the Orchid-Flowered Canna. One can also easily see the ginger relationship just as kids in a family can look similar. Its leaves are large and green, some times brown to maroon, occasionally variegated. Blossom color varies but usually favoring the red/orange/yellow range. Hybids are often multi-colored. The blossom is rather odd in that what attracts our eye is often modified stamen (reproductive parts) rather than true petals. But I’ll call them blossoms for convenience. Like so many plants misnamed and renamed by personality-void botanists the genus proliferated with species and varieties and cultivars until it was a mangle morass of monikers. It took two botanists two careers to sort them from a big mess to a little mess. Here’s what happened.

Canna indica

Cannas are native to the warm areas of the Americas. They were taken to warm areas of the Orient, then called the East Indies.  From there they went to Europe. The first named species was Canna indica, which means Canna from India. In those days that meant from the West Indies but that was overlooked and the notion arose that the Canna was from the East Indies rather than the West Indies. More so, indica today mean from India not the West Indies. Subsequent botanists “discovered” Canna in Africa and Asia thinking it came from the India. Then they were “discovered” in the Americas, for a second time. It would be centuries before there was general agreement that Canna are native Americans and that scores of different Canna species was probably only one score. (Ya gotta love academics, like doctors, oh so right and oh so wrong.)

Canna edulis roots in the Andeas

So, what of the Canna, which parts can be used? If you believe everything on the Internet the entire plant is used, seeds to rhizome. Reality is a bit different. The seeds are tough. How tough? They can stay viable for 600 years and have been used for buckshot. That’s tough. Thus references that mature seeds can be sprinkled on tacos was not written by anyone who ever tried it. Cooked immature seeds, however, are edible. In some species the young shoots and leaves are a cooked green — usually boiled — and in some species the root starch is edible. In fact, it is the largest plant starch, molecularly speaking, and among if not the easiest to digest. Arrowroot starch, used as a thickener, comes from a relative of the Canna, Maranta arundinacea.

Canna Indica Purpurea rhizome

The best-known Canna for food is Canna Edulis, also called Achira. It can have a rhizome clump two feet long. At harvest time the plant is three to six feet high with alternative leaves that are a foot long and almost half a foot wide. The unisexual flowers have orange red petals and three petal-like staminodia, each of different lengths. Those lead to a three-cell seed capsule with round black seeds. Its starch has been used for food for at least 4,500 years. Canna indica roots are edible, too, as are the rhizomes of Canna coccinea. C. indica It looks similar to Canna edulis but is shorter and has brighter red flowers.

Locally the edible member of the species is Canna flaccida,  KAN-uh FLACK-sid-uh, also called Golden Canna. It’s a showy, emersed native that typically grows to four to five feet tall. Golden Canna is found in small stands at the edges of marshes, swamps, ponds and lakes. It is found throughout the southern United States. It also has been hybridized and found in household gardens around the world. Golden Canna flowers are showy yellow and usually open in the afternoon. Hybrid Golden Canna flowers are oranged tinged, or have large fat that are orange and red (compared to the skinny red species.) The three-inch-long flowers grow in clusters at the tops of long stalks. They attach in a spiral along the stem as do the leaves. The leaf shape is oblong to elliptic, tapering bases and pointed tips. Leaves can be two six inches wide and three feet long. Veins are parallel and sharply angled. The three-part seed capsule is rough to the touch turning black. Roots are long, thin, and white. Synonyms: Canna anahuacensis, Canna flaccidum, Canna reevesii. (That’s how they ended up with 100 botanical names, nearly everyone thought there had found a different species.)

Canna root does not store well so it is best left in the ground until when you intend to use it, say within a few days. It can be eaten raw, or is often boiled. Best method of preparation is long baking. The roots are not peeled before or after baking. Once cooked they are slit and the soft, shiny starchy content scooped out. A lot of the starch can make you hiccup. In the mountains of Peru the roots are backed in ground pits with coals and hot rocks covered with dirt, usually 12 hours at least.

Propagation: Plant the small corm-like rhizome segments. Flowering plants have rhizomes tinged with purple, immature plants have white rhizomes flesh. Rhizomes of the Canna iridiflora are not eaten because it is among the few Canna that does not produce fleshy rhizomes.

Canna Island, Scotland

You will read that Canna means reed and is from a Celtic word. Partially true, and there is a Scottish island named Canna. But the Celtic word is from the Dead Latin word Canna which is from the Living Greek Kanna. Kanna was a certain reed Greeks used to weave into mats and fences. And about Canna Island…

As detailed in my newsletter it is an island, above left, with about a dozen residents, though the Scottish government would like to increase that. The island had a rat over population problem. A few years ago they get rid of the rats then had a rabbit over population problem because the rats weren’t around to keep them in check.  Bunny birth control eased thate problem but the low human population remains a problem. The island is a tourist destination and at one time presumably had Canna, or more specifically local reeds.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Golden Canna, Bandana of the Everglades

IDENTIFICATION: Canna flaccida: Rhizomes fleshy. Leaves: sheath and blade hairless, narrowly ovate to narrowly elliptic, 20 to 50 inches long, base gradually narrowed into sheath, apex acute (pointed.) Inflorescences racemes, simple, bearing one-flower each, fewer than five flowers per inflorescence; Flowers pure yellow, pedicels short, sepals narrowly oblong-elliptic, petals strongly curve back, lobes narrowly oblong-elliptic, base sharply reflexed; three staminodes, broadly ovate, seed capsules irregular ellipsoid, seeds brown, nearly round.

TIME OF YEAR: Usually summer time. Roots should be harvested before the plant flowers.

ENVIRONMENT: Full sun, shallow water around six inched deep, open marshes, lake margins, ponds, savannahs, ditches,  and inundated pine flatwoods. Although Canna is frost sensitive it also grows very fast and has been grown in extreme northern climates such as northern Alaska and Canada because of the long days.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Canna edulis roots are either boiled or baked, or eaten raw. Usually they are slow roasted, usually 12 hours minimum, a good oven on low heat can do that in half the time. Young shoots are eaten as a green vegetable usually cooked but I have had one Hawaiian forager tell me he eats young shoots raw. Leaves can be used to cook food in. Immature seeds cooked. Starch can be used like arrowroot. Canna flaccida roots are usually ground and washed letting the starch settle. The water is then poured off and the starch dried then ground. Cooked Canna starch can be used to make Alcohol. The stems can be used to make fiber.

Deep Fried Guinea Pig Dinner

Peruvians eat more than 65 million guinea pigs every year. That should answer any question about edibility.

Sixty-five million guinea pigs (a 2005 figure) is more than two rodents for every every man, woman, and child in that county. Peruvians have been consuming the pseudo-porcines for some four thousands years. The furry piglets… (figlets?) …reportedly provide half of the needed daily protein for Peruvians. Known as Cavy, Cuy and a lot of other native names, they have more protein and less cholesterol than beef, pork, or chicken (21% protein, 8% fat.)  They’re also vegetarians, eat grass and behave much likes cows… except they aren’t milked…  While run-of-the-house Cavy weight one to two pounds specially bred livestock guinea pigs can weight up to seven pounds. And they aren’t pigs, nor are they from Guinea.

Just like Ma used to make

Scientifically they are Cavia porcellus, and are not found in the wild. Cavia (KAY-vee-ah) is Dead Latin for Cabiai which is what the Galibi Indians called them. The Galibi Indans were once native of French Guiana, which is possibly where the Guinea part of the name came from. Porcellus (poor-SELL-us) is Dead Latin for “little pig.” Cavy are somewhat shaped and colored like pigs and have among their various sounds grunts hence porcellus. When all of that is combined and abused into English we get Guinea Pig. They also have a huge number of names mangled in various other languages ranging from Meerschweinchen in German (sea piglet, because they also make grunting noises like a dolphin) Helanzhu (荷蘭豬) in Chinese (which means Holland Pig) to the Spanish conejilo de Indias (little rabbit of the Indies.) Later the ruderal rodents were used for a lot of medical research and lent their common name to anyone who was being used for an experiment.

Guinea pigs on the Barbi

As you may guess I am in contact with a lot survivialists. I have talked with quite a few who have argued earthworms are a good thing to raise for food. I will admit native American ate them, and you can read about that here. And some have argued mushroom raising is the key to survival should society fall apart, or aquaponics. But none have ever mentioned raising guinea pigs yet they are among the most prolific, easiest and least costly of all table meats to raise. They outbreed rabbits and can be raised indoors in suburbia on vegetable table scraps. A concern of 22 breeding guinea pigs (two guys and 20 girls) will meet the protein requirments for a family of four annually producing 160 to 200 guinea pigs a year. That same stock if not eaten immediately can produce 6,000 guinea pigs within two years. many Peruvians have a home business of raising guinea pigs. However, it must be said they are not neat animals and do require cage policing. One of the odd things about guinea pigs is like humans they cannot make vitamin C and must get enough of it in their diet or get scurvy. Some common plants are toxic to guinea pigs. They include: Parsley, wild mustard, dandelions, blackberries, coriander, and green potato peels.

Part of the world views them as pets

Of course the other issue is they are cute, in a Bambi’s not for for dinner sort of way, and are pets. Eating or killing them for food in California is illegal because they are a pet animal. While they are edible in New York State the city of New York made them illegal… too salty? No, they were being served at Euadorian festivals in the city and someone frowned upon food that resemble the city’s infamous wharf rats. I can hear the bureaucratic argument now: Without proper inspection you don’t know whether you’re eating a wholesome guinea pig or a disgusting wharf rat thus…

California law “prohibits any person from possessing, importing into the sate [or exporting from the state] selling, buying, giving away, or accepting any carcass or part of any carcass of any animal traditionally or commonly kept as a pet or companion with the sole intent of using or having another person use any part of the carcass as food.”  The same law also prohibits the killing of pet/companion animals for food. That would cover not only guinea pigs in California but dogs, cats, pot bellied pigs, horses, pet chickens, iguanas, pigeons and the like…  thought you Californians should know. Oh, and deceased, flash frozen, ready to cook guinea pigs cannot be imported into Canada, as of March 2011. The problem is not the guinea pig per se. Canada does not allow any meat to be imported from Peru as of this writing. You can read about the official Canadian Guinea Pig Swat Team here. On the other hand, raising and dispatching guinea pigs for food for your own personal use is allowed in Australia. Guinea pig meat can also be imported into the United States, where not prohibited.

Guinea pigs are usually served flat with head and feet on.

Two-month old guinea pigs that will be used for food are not fed for at least 15 hours. They are then knocked senseless from behind, their jugular cut then hung upside down to drain. This renders the meat white when cooked. The whole guinea pig is dipped in near boiling water for 20 seconds. This makes the hair easy to remove. The hair is then removed. The animal is slit from anus to neck without cutting visera to avoid cutting the gall bladder. The visera is removed and the cavity rinsed (also the site of where much stuffing is stuffed or to hold  sauce.) Head and feet are removed for aesthetic reasons but there is no consumption reason to remove said. Head, heart, lungs, liver and skin are also edible. In their native countries guinea pigs are usually cooked and served splayed. Different sensibilities determine plating in other areas. Younger guinea pigs are fried or grilled and the like. Older ones are roasted or stewed. Guinea pig is somewhat chewy and is usually served hot because the meat softens on cooling. The morsels are served numerous ways and when folks in Peru wax on about how their mother used to cook the guinea pig is the topic de jour. Down home cooking, Peruvian style.

If you prefer guinea pigs in your lap as pets and find the notion of eating one close to cannibalism there are many non-profit havens for the rescue, rehabilitation and adoption of guinea pigs, particularly in California. It is a good cause because we humans have a tacit agreement with the animals we domesticate as pets. They give us companionship and in exchange we don’t eat them. There is probably a guinea pig rescue near you if you want a little pet rather than a little meal. Just search for guinea pig and rescue.

For the more cuisine minded:

Cuy Chaqtado

Fried Guinea Pig (Ayacucho-style)

1 guinea pig, de-haired, gutted, and cleaned

1/2 c. flour

1/4 – 1/2 t. ground cumin

salt and black pepper to taste

1/2 c. oil

Pat dry the skin of the guinea pig and rub in the cumin, salt, and pepper. Preheat oil. Dust the carcass with the flour and place it on its back in the oil, turning to cook both sides. Alternately, the guinea pig can be cut and fried in quarters.

Serve with boiled potato or boiled manioc root, and a salad of cut tomatoes and slivered onions bathed in lime juice and a bit of salt. 

Cuy Picante Huanuqueño Style*

*Ingredients: *

*- **2 large guinea pigs*

*- **1 tablespoon crushed garlic*

*- **1½ teaspoon salt *

*- **1½ pepper*

*- **1½ teaspoon cumin powder*

*- **2 tablespoons aji panca (a Peruvian deep-clay red chile, liquefied in a blender)*

*- **2 tablespoons aji mirasol (a Peruvian dark yellow chile, liquefied in a blender)*

*- ** 1 cup cooking oil or margarine *

*- **10 scallions *

*- **The guinea pigs’ hearts, livers (and in an authentic version, also the intestines, thoroughly cleaned) *

*- **1 tablespoon of crushed peanuts*

*- **8 yellow potatoes boiled and skinned*

*Preparation: *

*Cut and quarter the guinea pigs, salt and pepper, then fry until golden brown. Put aside in a warm dish. In a heavy skillet, lightly greased with a few splashes of oil, combine the garlic, aji panca and aji mirasol over high heat. Mixing and scraping the ingredients from the bottom of the pan to keep it from sticking; continue until the mixture is thoroughly cooked to a golden brown. Chop the scallions, separating the white bulbs from the green stalks. Add the finely chopped scallion bulbs to the pan with the cumin. In a separate pan, combine the hearts, livers and peanuts and cook until thoroughly done, then place in a food processor or blender to liquefy. Add and mix with aji-garlic mixture in heavy skillet. Add guinea pig pieces, cooking for 10 to 15 minutes. Let stand for at least 15 minutes. Serve over sliced boiled potatoes sliced.
Serves four.*

“Picante de cuy” – Guinea Pig with spices

The whole guinea pig is marinated overnight in spices, including cumin, black pepper, paprika and dried red chillies.

Red and yellow peppers are also liquidised and added to the marinade just before cooking.

After marinating, the meat is barbecued and served whole, but split in two like a fillet.

“Cuyes en salsa de mani” – Guinea pigs with peanut sauce

The guinea pig is seasoned whole with salt and pepper and then slowly deep fried in vegetable oil.

It is then served with a creamy peanut sauce and traditionally accompanied by white rice, fried yuccas and boiled sweet potatoes.

A Spray of Edible Flowers Gladen the Day

Mahoe, Moringa, Pineapple Sage, Plum, Hawthorn, Cattail, Papaya, Purslane, Tuberose, Wisteria

One of the more fascinating flowers found in warm climates is that of the Mahoe, or the Sea Hibiscus. In the morning the blossom is yellow but by late afternoon it is red. The working theory is the shrub changes color to appeal to two different groups of pollinators. If one doesn’t get it in the morning, one might in the afternoon. The change in color also increases the amount of antioxidants. It also helps that almost the entire shrub is edible some way. The blossoms, yellow or red, can be eaten raw or cooked. Their flavor is mild. Incidentally, the Portia Tree, aka Seaside Mahoe, can be used the same way, flowerwise. Here’s an article on it.

Moringa Blossoms

I think besides an edible flower nearly everything else is also edible on our next species, the Moringa Tree. It is difficult to overstate the value of the tree. If a panel of experts were to design a nutritional, easy to grow, life-saving species it would be the Moringa. Indeed, it is being planted in many places around the world to not only fight hunger but malnutrition as well, ’cause they ain’t necessarily the same thing. I planted one on my property several years ago and it begate itself. Here in subtropical Florida the tree easily grows 10 feet a year. I coppice it every season, and feel he-man in the process because the tree is extremely brittle and one can break a three-inch branch easily by hand. I should do a video of that some year because it is rather amazing. The flowers are eaten cooked, usually boiled, and taste like mushrooms. To read about the Moringa click here.

Pineapple sage

Our next edible flower comes with a warning. Don’t eat its similar looking relative. How can you tell them apart? The one you want smells of pineapple, which is why it is called the Pineapple Sage, Salvia elegans. Sometimes it is also called the Tangerine sage. The point is crush a leaf and you will smell pineapple or tangerine. The one you don’t want is Salvia coccinea, also called the Scarlet Sage, the Texas Sage and the Hummingbird Sage. Crush its leaf and it smells grassy or slightly sage-like.  Flowers of the Pineapple Sage, which taste like a hint of pineapple, are quite edible. However, even a quarter-inch square portion of a Salvia coccinea blossom will give you a big stomach ache and make you more than mildly ill. It’s not go-to-the-emergency-room ill but close to it.  I know this from personal experience because once, for lack of a better word,  I titrated the S. coccinea for potential edible use. It quickly let me know it is definitely is not an edible, raw at least. After my experience I had no interest in seeing if S. coccinea had any uses cooked.

Chickasaw Plum Blossom

Read this next entry as carefully as the last: You can eat some plum or peach blossoms, a few, a half dozen, but not a lot. Why? Because they have a chemical which when it goes through your tummy tum tum produces cyanide. A little cyanide we can tolerated, a lot will make you ill. Too much and you are deceased though admittedly it would take a lot of plum flowers to do that. Plum and peach flowers are a trail side nibble, a sprinkle in salads or on a dessert. Sparingly is the key. They are sweet, taste like nectar. Which ones? As far as I know any plum that produces plums and any peach that produces a peach that is edible. It should hold true for cherry blossoms as well as they are in the genus Prunus as well but I really don’t know. I would avoid the Laurel Cherry as it does not produce edible cherries. To read about Chickasaw Plums click here.

Hawthorn Blossoms

When I was growing up I lived on a dirt road out in the country. Across the road, kitty-corner, where two pastures met, was a Hawthorn tree. It was old and large and had two-inch thorns in grand profusion. It was also ladened every year with several families of birds because few predators would brave the thorns. As to which Hawthorn tree it was is anybody’s guess, even for a Hawthorn expert. It is one of those genus in which there may be a 100 species or a thousand. It is supposedly a professional joke in the botanical world to send a known Hawthorn to some one rather new and ask them to identify it to which the often reply is it must be a new species. Long ago someone discovered that very young Hawthorn leaves and blossoms in the spring could be eaten together right off the tree, thus the “Bread and Cheese tree” was born. Young leaves can be added to salads or nibble on. The blossoms, which have a peculiar taste, can be added to salads, desserts and drinks. Interestingly old leaves and fruit (minus seeds) are a natural beta blocker for high blood pressure. Two teaspoons of either or mixed ground up in a cup of hot water morning and night is the herbalist’s usual prescription. Read about Hawthorns.

Immature Cattail Blossom

You many not think of a cattail as having a blossom but it does and before it matures it is edible. In fact, both the male part of the flower and the female part of the flower are edible. Later when the male part produces pollen that’s edible as well. When the female parts turn brown it’s way past edible. The male part is the spike on top, the female part the wider portion below the spike. When both are green they can be boiled. The rest of the plant has edibles as well and is a well-known staple of the forager. The cattail rhizome is full of starch. In fact, no plants produces more edible starch per acre than the cattail. Read about them.

Papaya Blossom

This won’t make much sense to those who live where there is a winter but the first time I climbed Turtle Mound — not a great feat as it is only 80 feet high — I was surprised to see papaya’s growing on top. Turtle Mound is a midden, an ancient trash heap made mostly of millions of oyster shells dumped there by ancient natives. It’s been more than three decades since my first visit and the papayas are still there, self-seeding as papayas do. A native of Mexico they are naturalized in warm areas of the world. Papaya blossoms, like very young leaves, are edible cooked, which is usually by boiling.  Actually cooking the yellow flowers is a lot easier than pollinating them because there are female blossoms, male blossom, and male/female blossoms, kinda you, me and us. You have to move pollinating material around correctly or you don’t get fruit (also edible.) To read more about papayas click here.

Purslane's Small Blossom

It was something of a debate, to make this entry or not. After all, purslane is one of the most esteemed wild and cultivated edibles in the world (except oddly the United States.) It is used as a salad ingredient, a vegetable, a soup thickener, a flour, and a pickle. And yes, the flowers are edible but they are only open for a day. And when I say purslane I mean Portulaca oleracea, the kind with yellow blossoms only. Yes, I know there are commercial cultivars of multiple colored blossoms and they might look wonderful in a salad. But, I don’t know if they are edible. The Moss Rose/Rose Moss, another wild Purslane, Portulaca pilosa, is in my estimate not edible. So I stick with the original, common purslane with the yellow blossom. They are edible raw and cooked. Incidentally, the tiny pink blossoms of the sea purslane, Sesuvium portulacastrum,  is also edible raw or cooked. Click here to read more.

Tuberose Blossoms Moving Up

Tuberose has been put to a lot of uses. The Hawaiians used it to make leis. In Victorian times it was the funeral flower of choice. Then it spent a long time helping perfumes smell the way they do. Now it can be found as a food in five star hotels, well… at least those in the Orient. Botanically it is Polianthes tuberosa and might be a native of Mexico.The flowers open from the bottom of the flower spike up and can last a couple of weeks if you remove the blossoms and eat them. The Aztec so liked the flower their used its oil to flavor their chocolate. They are eaten cooked and are traditionally added to vegetable soups. They are also used to flavor some soy sauces

Chinese Wisteria

Wisteria is a nibble of spring, here for a few weeks and then gone. The blossoms of various species are edible cooked — some raw — but they are usually blanched in boiling water, strained, and mixed into salads or the deep fried. The rest of the plant is toxic per se. In fact, as little as two raw seeds can kill a child. That is not uncommon for a member of the pea family which ranges from edible to toxic. See my full article on wisteria here. One of the most common of the 8 to 10 species of wisteria is Wisteria sinsensis, or the Chinese Wisteria. It’s a vigorous, fast grower that doesn’t need fertilizer and fixes nitrogen. In fact, abuse improves blossoming as does pruning. It can live at least 115 years (as of April 2011) and is consider an invasive species is some areas.  It has naturalized from  Maine to Florida and as far west as Arkansas. Not bad since its arrival in 1816. Another one commonly eaten wisteria is Wisteria floribunda from Japan, also escaped in the US.

See Edible Flowers: Part Ten

Nutria, or Coypu, are close to beaver size but have round tails

I have a close friend who’s Cajun. He said his family was so poor growing up in the bayou that if it moved they cooked it and threw it on rice. That included Nutria, or as a good portion of the world calls it Coypu.

Nutria distribution as reported by trappers

You can think of the Nutria as a large rat or a beaver with a small tail. Indeed the Italians call it Castorino (little beaver) the Dutch Beverrat (beaver rat) and the French, Ragondin.  It’s been on the menu in its native South America ever since man was hungry. It got to most other countries as part of the fur trade, and that’s where the name confusing began. “Nutria” is actually the Coypu’s fur and for several decades twice in the 1900s it was popular. In North America, particularly Louisiana where the rodent is a pest, it is called Nutria. The unwanted water resident has had a long history.

Nutria fur, Germany, 1966

First introduced in California in 1899 between then and 1940 they were imported for fur use not only California but Washington, Oregon, Michigan, New Mexico, Louisiana, Ohio, and Utah. When the Nutria Fur trade collapsed in the United States in the early 1940s business owners simply let the animals go free.  State and federal agencies as well as individuals relocated Nutria in the 1940s to Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas to control vegetation. Always a dollar to be made these nocturnal vegetarians were also sold to the public as  “weed cutters.”

Nutria Jambalaya

Louisiana became ground zero when the state intentionally introduced 20 Nutria into marshes there in 1938 and made them a protected species while promoting them as biological agents for controlling aquatic weeds, primarily water hyacinth. Further Tabasco sauce tycoon E.A. McIlhenny imported some Nutria from Argentina in the 1930s for a fur farm. Some of his Nutria liberated themselves during hurricanes in 1937 and 1941 but the main escalation happened when Nutria fur market crashed soon after. It is estimated that Louisiana fur farmer released about 150 animals. Those in northern Louisiana did not survive their first cold winter but those in the southern part of the state did. By the mid-1950s those few animals had some 20 million descendants calling Louisiana home and causing huge environmental damage. In 1958 the marsh muncher was taken off the protected species list. For the next three decades the state promoted the animal as a source of fur. Some 1.3 million of them were taken each year mostly for fur use in Europe but that market began to wane with the anti-fur movement in the 1980′s. As an alternative Louisiana then promoted Nutria consumption knowing Cajuns are palate to palate with the Chinese on culinary adventurism.

Unlike beavers Nutria tails are round

Nutria are still damaging 6,296 acres of wetlands in Louisiana. They have been reported in at least 40 states and three Canadian provinces adjacent to the U.S.  They are in many ways a curious creature. Mama Nutria has mammary glands on her sides so the little ones can nurse nose above water while floating. They are ready to start their own family at age four month and pregnant 80% of their lives, essentially they mate for life, just with different mates. As a species about 70% of them don’t make through even one year. In the wild a three-year-old Nutria is ancient. In captivity they can live 15 to 20 years. Besides man alligators, eagles, ospreys, turtles, snakes and several carnivores find them quite acceptable for dinner.

A rare albino Nutria

Nutria have short legs and highly arched body that is approximately two-feet long. Their round tail is a little over a foot long with little hair, average weight is 12 pounds but they can plump up to 20 pounds, sometimes 30 to 40. Their dense grayish underfur is overlaid by long, glossy guard hairs that vary in color from dark brown to yellowish brown.  Forepaws have four well-developed, clawed toes and one vestigial toe. Four of the five clawed toes on the hind foot have webbing. A fifth outer toe is free. The hind legs are much larger than the forelegs giving them a humped look particularly on land. Like beavers, Nutria have large incisors that are yellow-orange to orange-red on their outer surfaces. They are very well adapted to aquatic life.

Nutria dressed, cuts are similar to rabbit

Nutria are almost entirely vegetarians and only eat animal material by mistake, such as insects on the plants they feed on. Freshwater mussels and crustaceans are occasionally eaten. Gluttons, they eat approximately 25% of their body weight daily and prefer several small meals to one large one. The plump base of plants are preferred as food, but they will not pass up choice entire plants or several different parts of a plant including roots, rhizomes, and tubers. Important food plants in the United States are cordgrasses (Spartina spp.), bulrushes (Scirpus spp.), spikerushes (Eleocharis spp.), chafflower (Alternanthera spp.), pickerelweeds (Pontederia spp.), cattails (Typha spp.), arrowheads (Sagittaria spp.), and flatsedges (Cyperus spp.). In winter, the bark of trees such as black willow (Salix nigra) and baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) may be eaten. They also eat crops and lawn grasses found adjacent to aquatic habitat. Like raccoons they have quite dexterous front paws. They leave tracks that are four-toes and webbed, often with a tail dragging mark. Dropping are long, cylindrical and grooved.

Front paws are dexterous

When trapping them cracked corn is the preferred bait along with sweet potatoes and carrots. Floating the trap on a raft eliminates capturing most other animals. Nutria can carry Tularemia. Trapping regulations vary state to state. In some states no license is needed for live traps and live animals cannot be returned to the wild. If you are hunting them after dark you have to be careful where you shoot them or they will sink out of sight. Less humanely they can also be taken with gigs on very long poles, or clamp traps. The state of Maryland has been waging a war with Nutria since 2002 in the Chesapeake Bay region. By November 2011 it had killed some 13,000 of them and was trying to eliminate small remaining pockets. They hope to have them under control by 2015 but the wetland may take another 40 years to recover from the damage. Feral populations of Nutria, also called Bayou Rabbit, can be found not only in North America but Europe, the Soviet Union, the Middle East, Africa, and Japan. They have been introduced to every continent except Antarctica and Australia.

Nutria taking a handout

Scientifically the water rat in North America is known as Myocastor coypu var. bonariensis. There is only one genus and one species — monotypic –  but thre are four variations.  The genus is two Greek words mashed together to mean Mouse Beaver. Coypu is what the Mapuche Indians of Chile and Argentina called it though typical of Dead Latin their “Koypu” was changed to Coypu. This is the same part of the world that gave us Araucana chickens which lay light green eggs and the Aracarua araucana, or the Monkey Puzzle Tree which has pine cones the size of pineapples and edible seeds.

Nutria in Europe, see below

While Nutria meat can be cooked a wide variety of ways it can be on the tough side thus improves with low, moist heat. One common meat it is compared to is rabbit though the taste is closer to dark turkey meat. According to a state analysis, raw Nutria meat has more protein per serving than ground beef and is much lower in fat than farm-raised catfish.

The recipes are from Nutria.com, a site sponsored by the state of Louisiana. Below the recipes is a round up of Nutria in Europe.

Heart Healthy ‘Crock-Pot’ Nutria

2 hind saddle portions of nutria meat
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 tomato, cut into big wedges
2 potatoes, sliced thin
2 carrots, sliced thin
8 Brussels sprouts
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup water
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup demi-glace (optional)

Layer onion, tomato, potatoes, carrots and Brussels sprouts in crock pot. Season nutria with salt, pepper and garlic, and place nutria over vegetables. Add wine and water, set crockpot on low and let cook until meat is tender (approximately 1-1/2 hours). Garnish with vegetables and demi-glace. Makes four servings.

Nutria Chili

Recipe by: Chef Enola Prudhomme

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 pounds nutria ground meat
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced green bell pepper
1 cup diced red bell pepper
1 cup tomato paste
4 cups beef stock (or water)
1 can red kidney beans (opt.)

In a heavy 5-quart pot on high heat, add oil and heat until very hot. Add nutria meat, and cook and stir 10 minutes. Add salt, red pepper, chili powder, onion and both bell peppers. Cook and stir 15 minutes. Add tomato paste and 4 cups stock. Cook 30 minutes; reduce heat to medium. Add red kidney beans; cook an additional 10 minutes. Serve hot!

Enola’s Smothered Nutria

Makes 4 Servings

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1-3 pound nutria, cut in serving pieces
2 tablespoons Enola’s Secret Seasoning + 2 teaspoons
2 cups finely chopped onion
1 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon salt (opt.)
3 3/4 cups chicken stock or broth

In a heavy 5-quart pot on high heat, add oil, heat until very hot. Sprinkle seasoning on meat; stir well. Add meat to pot, brown on all sides. Cook and stir 10 minutes. Add onion, bell pepper and flour, cook and stir 10 minutes. Add salt and chicken stock to pot cook and stir occasionally, (about 15 minutes) scraping the bottom of pot to remove all the goodness. Serve over hot cooked rice, pasta or cream potatoes.

Ragodin au Choux Rouge

(Nutria with caramelized red cabbage and honey mustard sauce)

2 hind saddle of nutria (available at Calvin’s Bocage Supermarket)
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped carrots
Bouquet garni

1 branch french thyme, 1/2 bunch of parsley, 2 fresh bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil,
2 teaspoons flour
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard and 1/2 cup honey
1 cup red wine
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon crushed fresh rosemary
2 cups hot water
Season to taste

Caramelized choux rouge: 1 thinly sliced red cabbage, _ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, season to taste.

Saute red cabbage with oil, sugar and seasoning until sugar is caramelized (4 to 5 minutes).

Place oil, chopped vegetables and bouquet garni in a large saute pan. Rub each hind saddle with mustard, honey and rosemary. Place hind saddle into large saute pan with the vegetable and saute on medium high heat, until golden brown, sprinkle flour and stir will until flour disappears, deglaze with red wine, stir well then add hot water, simmer on low heat for 1 – hours. Remove hind saddle, strain juice into a sauce pot, bring to a low boil, skim the fat off of surface, add cream, reduce for 5 minutes and correct seasoning. Remove meat from bones and plate, top with sauce, garnish with caramelized red cabbage.

Nutria Sausage

Recipe by: Chef Enola Prudhomme

2 pounds nutria meat
1 pound pork meat
10 1/2 ounces potato, peeled
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons Enola’s Secret Seasoning (or Creole Seasoning)
1 teaspoon sage

Ground nutria and pork with potato. Add all other ingredients mix well. If using a
bar-b-que pit to smoke, build fire on one side of pit. Place sausage on the other side of pit; this will allow smoke to get to sausage without cooking to fast. If you have used bacon fat, put on your fire this will create lots of smoke. This will take less time to get a good smoketaste. Let sausage smoke 1 hour and 15 minutes; turn, let smoke 1 hour; remove from pit; letcool. Makes 4 pounds 5 ounces.

Stuffed Nutria Hindquarters

Recipe by: Chef Enola Prudhomme

Stuffing for nutria:
3 tablespoons butter
1 pound nutria meat, ground
4 cups chopped onion
1 cup green bell pepper
1 cup red bell pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Enola’s Secret Seasoning (or Creole Seasoning)
1 cup stock or water
1 10 3/4 ounce can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups fresh Louisiana crawfish, peeled, deveined and chopped
13 slices of bread (stale)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put bread in food processor; press pulse button several times. Bread crumbs must be course; set aside.

In a 5-quart pot on high heat melt butter. Add meat, onion and both bell peppers, cook and stir 10 minutes. Add red pepper, salt and seasoning; cook 5 minutes. Add stock; cook stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add cream of mushroom; cook for 7 minutes. Add crawfish, reduce heat to medium, and cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add bread crumbs, stir until mixture is moist but holds together.

Preparation of hindquarters:
15 nutria hindquarters
5 tablespoons Enola’s Secret Seasoning

Remove the large leg bone, then pound out legs, sprinkle seasoning evenly on both sides. Lay leg flat, stuff inside, roll and tie with cooking string. Place stuffed legs in oiled baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees covered, cook for 1 1/2 hour or until tender. Uncover; cook an additional 10 minutes or until brown. Makes 15 servings.

Smoked Nutria and Andouille Sausage Gumbo

Recipe by Brian Berry from Hotel Acadiana’s Bayou
Bistro

2 smoked nutria, cut into serving pieces
1/2 pound sliced andouille sausage
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped bell pepper
1/4 cup diced garlic
3 quarts chicken stock
2 cups sliced green onions
1 cup chopped parsley
salt and cracked black pepper to taste

In a two gallon stock pot, heat oil over medium high heat. Once oil is hot, add flour. Using a wire whisk, stir until roux is golden brown. Do not scorch. Should black specks appear, discard and begin again.

Add onions, celery, bell pepper, and garlic. Saute approximately three to five minutes or until vegetables are wilted. Add smoked nutria and andouille sausage. Saute in roux approximately fifteen minutes.

Add chicken stock, one ladle at a time, stirring constantly until all is incorporated. Bring to a rolling boil, reduce to simmer.

Cook until smoked nutria is tender, adding additional stock to retain volume of liquid. Once tender, approximately one hour, add green onions and parsley. Season to taste using salt and pepper. Cook additional five minutes and serve over cooked rice.

To see a video on cooking Coypu/Nutria, click here.

Coypu in Europe

Austria:Nutria have been bred in Austria (Laurie, 1946). The capture of free-living nutria began in 1935 (Aliev, 1967)

Belgium: Nutria have been bred in captivity since the 1930s and are now feral (Laurie, 1946; Aliev, 1967; Litjens, 1980). Nutria occur west of the Maas River near the city of Limburg (Litjens, 1980).

Bulgaria: Aliev (1967) did not report nutria here. Mitchell-Jones and others (1999) reported nutria along the borders with Greece and Romania.

Former Republic of Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic and Slovakia): According to Kinler and others (1987) and Aliev (1967), nutria have been raised in captivity.

Denmark: Stubbe (1989) reported nutria were observed in the wild in Denmark in the 1930s and 1940s but could not survive subsequent harsh winters. Currently, no nutria are reported in Denmark (Mitchell-Jones and others, 1999).

England: The first nutria were imported into Great Britain in 1929 for fur farms (Laurie, 1946). A 10-year eradication campaign was started in 1981 that employed 24 trappers (Gosling and Baker, 1987). On January 10, 1989 no nutria had been trapped in 21 months and the trapping campaign was declared a success and terminated (Gosling and Baker, 1989).

Finland: Aliev’s (1967) range map indicated wild nutria populations in Finland. In the early 1990s nutria were reported escaped from fur farms, and wild populations existed in the south of Finland near Turku (K. Jutila, oral communication.). Nutria were even listed as a game species by a hunting organization (Finnish Hunters’ Central Organization, 2000). However, Mitchell-Jones (1999) classifies them as extinct in the wild. It is hypothesized that harsh winters caused them to die out in the area (K. Jutila, oral communication.).

France: Introduced into France as early as 1882, fur farming began in earnest from 1925 to 1928 (Bourdelle, 1939). Some nutria escaped captivity and became feral (Bourdelle, 1939). From 1974 to 1985 they increased in number and have been controlled with anti-coagulant poisoning (Abbas, 1991).

Germany: Nutria were first introduced into Germany in 1926, and by 1935 small wild colonies began to appear in the Elbe-Trave Canal (Van Den Brink, 1968; Stubbe, 1992; Gebhardt, 1996).

Greece: Nutria have been raised in captivity in Greece (Aliev, 1967). Between 1948 and 1966 they were observed in the wild in a variety of habitats such as ponds, lakes, ditches, rivers, swamps, marshes, meadows, and wooded areas (Ehrlich, 1967).

Hungary: Nutria have been farmed in Hungary (Sztojkov and others, 1982; Kinler and others, 1987; Salyi and others, 1988). However, Mitchell-Jones and others (1999) list them as present in southern Hungary on the border.

Ireland: Aliev’s (1967) range map showed their presence here, but he provided no further information. Mitchell-Jones and others (1999) reported them as not being present.

Italy: First imported into Italy in 1928 for commercial use (Cocchi and Riga, 1999). Nutria were first reported in the wild in 1960 (Reggiani and others, 1993). Nutria have spread from Italy to Sicily and Sardinia and are presently regarded as a pest species because of the damage they cause to rice farms (Cocchi and Riga, 1999). Piero Genovese (written communication, 2003) calculated that between 1996 and 2000, nutria caused 14 million euros in damage, and losses from nutria are projected to rise 9-12 million euros/year.

Netherlands: Nutria were introduced into the Netherlands around 1930 for fur farming, and by 1940 were observed in the wild (Litjens, 1980). Because they damage levees and the sugar beet crop they are considered a candidate for eradication by European agencies (Litjens, 1980). Control is by trapping (Litjens, 1984). Despite population losses from trapping and harsh winters nutria persist in the Neatherlands because thermal pollution in rivers allow some to survive harsh winters and immigration from Belgium and Germany replenishes the population (Litjens, 1980).

Norway: Captive breeding has been practiced in Norway (Aliev, 1967; Laurie, 1946; Van Den Brink, 1968). However, Mitchell-Jones and others (1999) list them as extinct in the wild.

Poland: Bred in captivity but also managed in a semi-wild state on ponds in Poland (Ehrlich, 1962; Kinler and others, 1987). Observed in the wild there since 1948 (Ehrlich, 1967). In a semi-captive system ponds are drained in the winter to protect the nutria from freezing in the ice (Ehrlich, 1962).

Romania: Aliev’s (1967) review did not indicate the animals were present in Romania. In Stubbe’s (1989) review of nutria in Germany, he noted they had been observed in the wild. They are now on the southern border with Bulgaria and along the Black Sea (Mitchell-Jones and others, 1999).

Spain: Nutria were captive bred in Spain (Aliev, 1967). In 1999, (Mitchell-Jones and others) they were listed as extinct in the wild in Spain. However, recent correspondence (Piero Genovesi, written communication, 2003) indicates that small populations of nutria have become established in northern Spain along the border with France, where they apparently migrated from.

Sweden: A range map indicated their presence in the wild in 1967 (Aliev 1967), and they continue to be raised on farms. However, Mitchell-Jones and others (1999) list them as extinct in the wild.

Switzerland: Mitchell-Jones and others (1999) reported coypus within Switzerland, although Aliev (1967) did not.

Former Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia – Herz., Macedonia, Croatia, and Slovenia): Nutria were raised in captivity in Yugoslavia (Aliev, 1967). Their current status is unknown.

Dalhia tubers can range from bitter to sweet

Here’s the good news: At least one species of Dalhia has edible roots. Here’s the bad news, there are some 20,000 cultivars, maybe even thousands more. A short botany lesson to make things easier to understand:

The original Dahlia pinnata was probabably pink and double blossomed

The genus is like a family. Species are like brothers and sisters. With humans the breakdown stops there but with plants there’s another level down. If natures does it they are called varieties, a few changes but not enough to be a different species. If man does creates the next level down they are called cultivars. So within the Dahlia family there are 27 to 36 species — depending on who’s counting — and 20,000 or more cultivars or hybrids (that guess-timate is some 80 years old.)  There are so many varieties because Dahlias have eight sets of homologous chromosomes rather than the usual two most plants have. Said another way, it is a natural hybrid. That gives plant breeders a lot more to work with thus a huge amount of different cultivars.

Native Dalhias were single petaled

The edibility of the 20,000+ cultivars is for the most part unknown though that point might be moot and academic. Most of these cultivars are from crossing Dahlia coccinea and Dahlia pinnata, the latter is certainly edible. For this article I am writing about only the Dalhia pinnata. That keeps my lawyer happy. However, I note that the botanist they are named for, Andreas Dahl, tried to popularize Dahlias by saying they were an alternative to potatoes. He had some success in France and the Mediterranean area but their slightly bitter flavor (then) kept them from going mainstream. However, their flavor can range from bland to bitter. The size of sweet potatoes they are still eaten in Mexico, their native range. They may indeed all be edible but I don’t know as there are so many of them. Perhaps some readers can add some insight in that area. At least one cultivar/hybrid, the Yellow Gem introduced in 1914, is edible.

South African author Margaret Jones Roberts says on page 25 of her book “Edible and Medicinal Flowers” Spearhead Press, 2000, that “all the dahlia varieties are edible…” I don’t know that so if you experiment with Dahlias other than Dahlia pinnata or the Yellow Gem you are on your own. Sue her not me. I don’t think toxicology is a great issue I just personally don’t know about the multitude of other varieties.

Dahlia illustration from 1554

Dahlias are in the larger Sunflower family and are closely related to chrysanthemums, daisies, marigolds, dandelions and zinnias, all edible except for zinnias. Europeans knew of the flower from at least the early 1500s. It was included in an Aztec Herbal Medicine book, the Badianus Manuscript, in 1554.  That manuscript, by the way, disappeared for nearly 400 years. Francisco Hernández de Tole, personal physician to Spain’s Phillip II, visited Mexico from 1570 to 1577 and noted two species, maybe three. Unfortunately Hernandez returned to Spain and died the following year, 1578. Part of his work was published in Spain in 1615 but the entire book did not get imprinted until 1651. Hernandez wrote:

Dahlia imperalis is a good source of water from stems

“This plant, which the Quauhnahuascenses call ACOCOTLI and the Tepozthlanenses call CHICHIPATLI, is soft-tissued, its leaves similar to the leaves of Mountain Nard, but cut, some being fine cut, bearing at the ends of the stalks, which are nine inch, slender and rounded, stellate flowers, pale to reddening, with double roots of the size of acorns, ending in ever so many fibers, on the outside black, within white. This seems to belong to the order Ligusticum. It is found in the mountains of the Quauhnahuacenses. In taste the root is smelly, bitter, sharp; it is hot and dry in the third degree, one ounce eaten relieves stomach ache, helps windiness of the stomach, provokes urine, brings out sweat, drives out chill, strengthens a weak stomach against chill, resists the cholic, opens obstructions, reduces tumors.”

The Union Jack, a bicolored single petal hybrid

I wonder if the good doctor was referring to a raw root or cooked? We shall never know. One hundred and fifty years later there are Dahlia seeds in all the important places in Europe and hybridization underway. From the area near Mexico City Dahlias have become a staple of flower gardens worldwide. D. pinnata is the national flower of Mexico. Oddly, Dahlias are also naturalized in North Carolina and Mississippi.

As mentioned the genus is named for Dahl who was an 18th century Swedish botanist. He was also a student of Linnaeus who invented the bionominal naming of plants. Dahlias, which for a long time were also called Georgias, were also the favorite of the first Mrs. Bonapart, Napoleon’s Princess Josephine. By the way Corsicans argue that Napoleon was Greek in that he came from a section of Corsica that was inhabited by diaspora Greeks from south of Sparta. In fact, I’ve been to the small village in Greece, Paomia, and seen the commemorative plaque. You can read about that here.

Dahlia tubers washed and sliced, spicy, with fiber

Plant genera can get iffy and for a while Dahlia zimpanii was in the Bidens genus, which if you are follower of these pages you also know as an edible, though usually only the leaves and blossoms.

Incidentally, Dahlia imperalis, which can grow to some 20 feet tall, is a good source of drinking water. Indeed, one reason why Dahlias are sensitive to winter cold is because they store a lot of water in their stems. Lastly, don’t forget to see recipes below.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Dahlias

IDENTIFICATION: Dahlia pinnata is a double blossom version that can grow to six or seven feet tall, deciduous, with simple leaves arranged alternately along the stems. They’re elliptic with serrate margins. The original was many-petaled and pink.

TIME OF YEAR: They are perennials from tubers and are usually a summer flower but can extend into the fall.

ENVIRONMENT: The best environment replicates Dahlias native environment, which is growing on volcanic soil near Mexico City. Well-drained land in full sun works well.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Tubers, washed, peeled, washed again, then roasted or boiled. Or you can just wash them and not peel them before cooking. Flower petals can be used in salads. A sweet syrup is made form the tubers and is made into a beverage or used for flavoring. Dahlia seeds are 31.9 percent protein and 17.8 percent fat but I don’t know if they are edible.

Dahlia Bread

The tubers should be just dug so there’s not a thick skin on them. Washed well. Peeling is optional.

Preheat oven to 350*
3 eggs
1 cup veg. oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups grated Dahlia tuber
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
2+ tsp cinnamon
Beat eggs until light and foamy. Add oil, sugar, grated dahlia tuber and vanilla. Mix lightly but well. Sift dry ingredents together. Add to wet ingred. Mix only until blended. Put into greased loaf pans. Bake in 350* oven for 1 hour.

Dahlia Salad

3 large carrots, diced, preferably a mix of yellow and orange
1 pound dahlia tubers, pared and diced
1/2 pound fresh green string beans, cut into diamonds
1/2 cup virgin olive oil
3 tbsp vinegar (tarragon, chervil or dill vinegar recommended)
Mayonnaise to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1 hard boiled egg, quartered
Mixed herbs (dill, parsley, chives), chopped

Steam the carrots, Dahlia tubers and beans for 5 minutes or until still slightly “al dente.” Put the vegetables in a large mixing bowl and add the oil and vinegar while still hot. Let the vegetables cool, and then add mayonnaise to taste so it coats all the vegetables evenly. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a serving bowl and garnish with the egg and chopped herbs. Serve slightly chilled or at room temperature. Serves 4 to 6.

The Common Reed has a common look

Some 20 years ago I pondered upon the identity of what appeared to be a very tall grass in a former marlpit in Port Orange, a few miles south of Daytona beach. One would think there can’t be that many tall grasses locally but you would be surprised in a state with virtually thousands of non-native species. Further grasses can be maddening to identify, more so than mushrooms. They have a descriptive language all their own, the experts are few, and their books sometimes cost thousands of dollars. It took me three seasonal tries to get it right. First I thought an Arundaria, then an Arundo. I settled on Phragmites australis, the Common Reed, Wild Broomcorn… almost…

The nonnative is blue gree, the native yellow green

There’s one species — they think — and many varities, perhaps as many as 12 genetically different ones in the North America, eleven maybe native and one Eurasian. For me the question was Gulf Coast variety or Eurasian? Talk about a pain in the grass. Identifying it should have been easy. The Gulf Coast Common Reed has red stems where exposed to the sun —think sunburn — smooth stems, and a non-fuzzy blossom head that hangs to one side. The Eurasian Common Reed has green stems where exposed to the sun, lightly ribbed stems, and a fuzzy blossom head that goes out in all directions. Also the native tends to be yellow green and the non-native bluish green. I had three out of four. What an irritation but a change season produced the right fuzzy blossom. If it hadn’t I’d still be ignoring it. Even though the Gulf Coast Common Reed is native here my local one appears to be the non-native Eurasian Common Reed.

Typical wetland stand of common reeds

While the identification was difficult it turned out to be a good find because the Common Reed, which ever variety, has many edible uses. It’s also been around a long time, say the experts. They found evidence of it in 40,000 year old sloth dung…  (Now there’s an occupation for cocktail party chitchat…) Besides sloths humans have eaten it for a long time as well. Just about every where it grows the plant has been used and consumed. Indeed, it is perhaps more versatile than cattails. The Common Reed has been harvested for building housing, thatching rooves, making boats, fire drills, flutes, splints, pen tips, weapons, hunting spears, arrows, rope, snares, mats, baskets, prayer sticks, jewelry, smoking implements, clothing, medicine, and food as well as sugar and salt. Boys of all ages used mesquite (Prosopis spp.) spines attached to common reed stems to catch small fish and crabs. It can also be used to clean heavy metals and sewage out of contaminated water.

Nonnative stems also have more prounounced vertical ridges

As mentioned the Common Reed is Phragmites australis (frag-MY-tees oss-STRAY-less) which means “screen” and “south” or southern screen. It’s one of the most common flowering plants on he planet and is found throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia. In fact it is found on all continents except Antarctica. Hasn’t made its way to Alaska yet nor I think the Yukon and Nunavut. Usually a stand of Common Reeds are all clones. Each separate clone reed can live from five to eight years. The clone itself may reach a 1,000 years old. A stand provides shelter for various creatures but is not a major food source for any.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Common Reed

IDENTIFICATION: Phragmites australis: FloridaGrasses.org says it better than I:  Enormous cane often seen rising with a plumose inflorescence from wet ditches.  Ligule small (1 mm vs. > 2 mm in Saccharum).  Leaf blades not auriculate (as opposed to Arundo and Hymenachne) and without the light basal coloration characteristic of Arundo.  Spikelets unawned (vs. Saccharum giganteum).  Internodes pubescent (vs. glabrous in Neyraudia) and lemmas glabrous (vs. pubescent in Neyraudia). Plants of Phragmites are similar in overall appearance to Arundo, but the latter has subequal glumes, a glabrous rachilla, and hairy lemmas. Vegetatively, plants of Arundo, but not those of Phragmites, have a wedge-shaped, light to dark brown area at the base of the blades. They also tend to have thicker rhizomes, thicker and taller culms, and wider leaves than Phragmites, but there is some overlap. Phragmites is much more widely distributed than Arundo in North America.

Not so easy to read. Here’s one from the US Forest Service: Common reed produces stout, erect, hollow aerial stems. Stems are usually leafy, persistent, and without branches. At the base, stem thickness measures 5 to 15 mm. Leaves are aligned on one side of the stem, flat at maturity, and measure 4 to 20 inches (10-60 cm) long and 0.4 to 2 inches (1-6 cm) wide. Leaf margins are somewhat rough, and leaves are generally deciduous. Common reed flowers occur in a large, feathery, 6- to 20-inch (15-50 cm) long panicle. The panicle has many branches and is densely flowered. Panicles are up to 8 inches (20 cm) wide after anthesis. Spikelets contain 1 to 10 florets. Floret size decreases from the base of the panicle upward. Lower florets are staminate or sterile and without awns. Upper florets are pistillate or perfect with awns. Occasionally all spikelets are abortive. Sometimes spikelets are reduced to a single glume and floret, causing panicles to lose their feathery appearance. Seeds are small, measuring up to 1.5 mm long.

“Rhizomes are thick, “deep seated”, and scaly and can grow to 70 feet (20 m) long. Rhizomes may grow 16 inches (40 cm)/year and live 2 to 3 years. Rhizomes in soil are commonly long, thick, and unbranched. In water, rhizomes are more slender, produce multiple branches, and are often shorter.” The roots can be eight inches to 30 feet deep.

Locally the one reed we would confuse it with is Arundo donax. Arundos have auricles and a light to dark brown wedge shape at the base of the leaf. Phragmites do not. Said another way. When the Phragmites leaf leans out from the stem the transition is smooth, well tailored. When the Arundo leave leans out there’s a wrinkle or extra growth beside or around the main stem.

TIME OF YEAR: Varies greatly. Year round in warm climates, season in northern climes, flowers from early to mid-summer into early or late fall. Seeds, shed in the winter, can float in water up to 124 days.

ENVIRONMENT: Wet areas, ditches, roadsides, median strips, railroad tracks, marshes, river banks, lake shores, tidal wetlands. The reed can grow 1.6 inches a day.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: From Cornucopia II, page 178: Young shoots are eaten like bamboo sprouts [read cooked] or pickled. Dried stems were made into a marshmallow-like confections by North American Indians. In Japan, the young leaves are dried, ground, and mixed with cereal flour to make dumplings. The partly unfolded leaes can be eaten as a potherb. A sugary gum that exudes from the stem is rilled into balls and eaten as a swewet. The rhizomes are sometimes cooked like potatoes. Although difficult to remove from its hull, the grain is said to be very nutritious [ and high in fiber.]

The Paiute used common reed’s sugary sap to treat lung ailments. The Apache used its rhizomes to treat diarrhea, stomach troubles, earaches, and toothaches.

A very extensive report on said can be read here.

Mugwort best reproduces from rhizomes

Like some other plants with famous relatives Mugwort gets lost in the negative publicity.

Tops of leaves are dark green and hairless

Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, is completely over shadowed by Artemisia absinthium, the original narcotic ingredient in the liquor Absinthe. I have had the liquorice-like real Absinthe several times in Greece and I have no idea how 1) anyone could like it let alone 2) become addicted to it. It reminds me of extremely bad sweet Ouzo. That bring me to a bit of history.

Bottom of the leaf is silvery-white because of a covering of wooly hairs

Decades ago I studied cooking with a retired chef who claimed to have taught Chef Boyardee, Ettore Boiardi 1897 – 1985, the finer art of cooking. (Green Deane has the credentials to cook on ships.) This chef liked the original Oysters Rockefeller which was made with then-banned in the U.S. and still-banned original Absinthe. In his retirement community there was a retired chemist. So these two very old fellows helped each other out. The chemist distilled the Wormwood to add to the sanitized Absinthe and the chef made the original Oysters Rockefeller for them. I often wondered what the headline would have been if they had been arrested for making the illegal dish. Some 40 years later I still use that chef’s (legal) recipe to make Strawberries Romanoff at Christmas. Incidentally the word “Absinthe” comes from the Greek word apsinthion which can mean “undrinkable” a description I totally agree with.

Mugwort has a sage-like aroma

While Mugwort is not as powerful as its genus sibling it has its own chemical calling card: Cinceole, or wormwood oil, thujone, flavonoids, triterpenes and everyone’s favorite rat killer Warfarin aka courmarin also known in medical circles as coumadin. Despite all that the leaves and buds are used as a flavoring or a potherb. There is also an edible cultivar called the White Wormwood or Ghost Plant. It has a floral taste similar to chrysanthemums and is used in soups or fried as a side dish.

A native of Eurasia Mugwort is found in most of North America except the desert southwest and northern plains states. Artemisia vulgaris is said ar-tah-MIZ-ee-ah vole-GAR-us. Vulgaris means common. Artemisia is Dead Latin’s version of a Greek name for wormwood after the goddess Artemis for whom it was sacred. Artemis’ Roman equivalent is Diana.  She was the twin sister of Apollo, a goddess of transitions, a hunter, a virgin, and one of the goddesses who assists at childbirth. She also got really irritated with the love affair between Krokus, a human, and Smilax, a wood nymph. Such things were frowned upon. But even in her anger Artemis was romantic. She turned Krokus into the saffron crocus and Smilax into a brambly vine so they could be forever together… ain’t love grand. There are several real people named Artemisias in Greek history but the pronunciation is ar-tah-mah-SEE-ah.

Mugwort prefers poor soil

As one might guess the plant has many common names. Among them are:  Moxa, Traveler’s Herb, Artemis Herb, Felon Herb, Muggons, Old Man, Sailor’s Tobacco, Motherwort, Greenfinger, Bulwand, Chrysanthemum Weed, and Cingulum Sancti Johamis which means St. John’s Plant not St. Johnswort. Just where “Mugwort” came from is a lingusitic nightmare but the best scholarly guess is “mug” meant “midge” and wort “plant” or midge plant, to ward off insects. Indeed, you can make smudge sticks out of Mugwort.

Take a few branches, arrange into a small bouquet, and lay on it side. With string tie the stem end then wind the string up the bouquet like the stripes on a barbershop pole. Once at the top, wind back down and also tie at the bottom. Take the now bundled branches and roll in something like a sushi mat to tighten the roll. Let dry. Light when needed to keep irritating insects away.

To dry Mugwort for other uses clean branches (without water) and remove dead or damaged leaves. Make into a bundle and tie at the stems. Hang in a dry, dark area for a few weeks.

There are about 19 other Artemisias used in different ways around the world. They include, besides the two already mentioned: Artemisia abrotanum, Artemisia afra, Artemisia annua, Artemisia asiatica, Artemisia dracunculus, Artemisia dracunculus sativa, Artemisia frigida, Artemisia genipi, Artemisia glacialis, Artemisia japonica, Artemisia judaica, Artemisia ludoviciana, Artemisia maritima, Artemisia pallens, Artemisia princeps, Artemisia stelleriana, and Artemisia umbelliforme.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Mugwort

IDENTIFICATION: Artemisia vulgaris: Perennial weed with persistent rhizomes, may reach five feet tall, often reddish-brown in color, and become woody with age. Leaves two to four inches long, one to three inches wide, simple, alternate, deeply lobed, and have a distinctive aroma.   Leaves on the upper portions of the plant are more deeply lobed and may lack petioles.  Leaf undersides are covered with soft, white to gray hairs, while upper leaf surfaces may be smooth to slightly hairy. Flowers are inconspicuous occuring in clusters at the top of the plants.  Individual heads are very small and on short stalks. Mugwort looks similar the garden chrysanthemum as well as ragweed seedlings, which lack the distinctive aroma typical of mugwort.

TIME OF YEAR: Flowers summer into fall, greenery available most of the season.

ENVIRONEMENT: Waste ground, roadsides, railroads, fallow agricultural land with a lot of nitrogen still in it, sandy, open ground, prefers lime-rich soils.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: We will let Cornucopia II do that: “young shoots and leaves are an indispensable condiment for fatty poultry such as geese and duck as well as fat pork, mutton, and eel. In Japan they are boiled and eaten as a potherb, or used to give flavor and color to festival rice-cakes… Dried leaves and flowering tops are added to country beer, or seeped into tea. At one time in China the leaves were used for wrapping glutinous rice dumplings eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival.”

Note the leaves can be skinny or fat

When it comes to Carpetweed you need to know only two things: It grows nearly everywhere, or will. And the plant above ground is edible. To quote Cornucopia II, page 153:

“The entire plant can be cooked and eaten as a potherb, or added to vegetable soups during the last minutes of cooking.” Yes, I know it says “entire” plant but that usually does not include roots. When roots are edible they are usually mentioned separately.

Harvard Professor Merritt Fernald

Opinions of the species do vary. It is a fast-spreading weed from Tropical America that can survive northern winters, though there is some debate about that. Some folks say it will cover everything in sight. Merritt Fernald, left, no botanical slouch and the leading expert of his day, wrote on page 188 in Edible Plants of Eastern North America: “It is too small for most people to gather, except when very hungry.” Now you have the opinion spread: Will cover every thing in sight and too small to be bothered with.  Fernald was not beyound eating this or that strange plant but as he wrote in WWII he was concerned about the growing population and dwindling agricultural resources.

Botanists know Carpetweed is spreading rapidly because they have herbarium examples from almost two hundred years ago and then later in other areas. It has… carpeted… North America and is working on China. There are reports of it in Australia.  It is also found in Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, Eurasia, and Africa. Not every place, however, is graced with Carpetweed. It is absent from Utah — too dry — and Alaska, too cold. I found no complaints out of Western Europe, yet.

The number of whorled leaves vary 3 to 8

Botanically the weed is called Mollugo verticillata (mol-LOO-go ver-tee-see-LAH-tuh) which for once actually makes some sense. Often a botanical names has nothing to do with the plant nor describes it. This time it does. Mollugo used to be the genus name for the Galiums, which this plant does resembles. They are better know as Goose Grass, Cheavers, and Cleavers. And verticillata refers to the whorl of leaves the plant has at each node, which goes even further back to Vermes for worms. Mollugo is Dead Latin’s bastardization of the Greek mollis which means soft. Other names in English include Green Carpetweed, Indian Chickweed, and Devil’s Grip. In China it is 种棱粟米草 or zhong leng su mi cao. Botanists have been arguing for years whether there are two genera and exactly how many species there are. Confounding the issue is the fact the plant can vary a lot in the way it looks. Botanists say it is doubful a species able to overwinter is the same as the original in tropical America but no consensus has been reached… as if it is a pressing matter.

Typical look and location

As far as opinions go Fernald may win. To find Carpetweed look down for a spot of green one to two feet across, low-growing, usually in dry areas. such as a college lawn watered by rain not irrigation. I think that’s where I last saw an excellent patch of it in Jacksonville at the state college there. Carpetweed can, however, cover more ground but apparently not enough to get into foraging books.

Man, by the way, is not the only nibbler: Birds and small mammals eat the seeds. Lastly consuming Carpetweed may increase your levels of nitric oxide. In theory that should lower blood pressure.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Carpetweed

IDENTIFICATION: Mollugo verticillata: It’s a late-germinating, many-branched summer annual forming circular patches one to two feet in diameter, sometimes much larger, often much less. Leaves are in whorls of 3 to 8 at each node.  Leaves attach directly to the stem (sessile) widest above the middle and tapering to the base, often shiny. Don’t mistake for Galiums which show up in the fall. Galiums are rough to the touch, Carpetweed is smooth. Galiums tend to grow up into a tangled mass, Carpetweed grows low, like a carpet. Galiums were bunched up to strain cheese through. Can’t do that with Carpetweed. Stems are smooth, branch a lot, lying on the ground with the ends turning up. Flowers are very small, five white sepals (look like petals) in clusters of two to five on long stalks. Red to orange seeds in an egg-shaped capsule.

TIME OF YEAR: Warm months in northern climes nearly year round in warm climes, flowers summer to early fall

ENVIRONMENT: Fields, gardens, roadsides, moist to dry soils, sand.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: The entire plant above ground can be boiled. Leaves are more preferable; young and tender — the meristem stage — even better.

Pansies are among the edible flowers, go easy on the yellow ones.

Society Garlic, Anise Hyssop, Black Locust, Gardenia, Fragrant Water Lily, Strawberry, Marsh Mallow, Maypops, Milkweed, Hollyhocks

Society Garlic, Flowers on long stalks

It’s clearly not wild. It’s clearly a planted ornamental. But I get asked about it all the time. Is Society Garlic edible? The short answer is yes. The blossoms smell and taste far more like a vegetable than a blossom. Their flavor is sweeter than garlic, more like of an onion but still peppery. They’re actually a native of South Africa and only a distant relation to regular garlic. European settlers to South Africa considered it a more polite spice to eat at social functions than real garlic. It’s probably safe to say that there is more Society Garlic growing locally than real garlic. Garlic does not like the hot weather whereas Society Garlic thrives in it. If well-established they’re drought resistant, too. The leaves are also edible, and are the bulbs on many species. Use the flowers in salads or soups, any place you want a bit of garlic, pepper and onion. To read more click here.

Anise Hyssop

The native Anise Hyssop aka Giant Blue Hyssop, is a flower that’s hard to miss. It’s tall, in the mint family with anise scented leaves and blossoms though some say its aroma reminds them of root beer. Anise Hyssop has long been used to make tea and lend ambiance to potpourris. Native Americans used it medicinally for coughs, fever, wounds and diarrhea. The flowers are edible. They’re a garnish, great in salads and are often used in Oriental-style entrees. Botanically it is Agastache foeniculum and is found basically in the northern two thirds of North America, think Kentucky latitude north.

Black Locust

No accounting of edible flowers would be inclusive without mentioning the Black Locust, Robinia pseudoacacia. Just about the entire tree is useful in some way including the flowers. Fragrant, they are made into fritters in America, Europe and Asia. For a tree native to the Southeastern US it gets around. The white flowers are also made into tea. Incidentally, the pink flowers of the Robinia neomexicana are also edible. The Black Locust is sometimes called the False Acacia, which is what its species name means in Dead Latin. Planted in France, it is the source of that country’s Acacia Monofloral Honey even though it is not an Acacia. In fact the Black Locus actually produces more honey than the Honey Locust.

The evergreen Gardenia

Is there a flower garden in America without a Gardenia in it? They are so common they are called the Common Gardenia, Gardenia jasminoides. In bastardized Greek via Dead Latin — all Latin is dead whereas Greek is still alive — -oides (OY-deezs) means “look like” or “similar to.” In this case jasminoides means like the Jasmine and indeed Gardenia blossoms are also used to make Jasmine tea. It seems a little like bait and switch but since the pallet doesn’t know the difference your Jasmine tea may be flavored with Jasmine or Gardenia. As for the Gardenia flowers they are eaten raw, pickled or preserved in honey. The fruits are also edible and used as yellow coloring for other fruits.

Fragrant Water Lily

One of the more difficult things about the Nymphaea odorata is what common name to call it. Fragrant Water Lilly and American White Water Lilly seem to be in the running. We’ll go with Fragrant Water Lilly, and it is! Actually the unopened flower buds can be collected and boiled as a vegetable. Once opened the raw blossom can be used as a garnish or nibble. Whether the plant’s rhizome is useful is something of a debate. Some think our local yellow native Nymphaea mexicana can be used the same way.

Wild Strawberry

There’s a real good reason why almost no one knows this next flower is edible. And that’s because nearly everyone eats the fruit! Strawberries are prime food. Botanically Fragaria ananassa, or if wild, Fragaria virginiana, Strawberry blossoms are edible raw though most folks wait for the fruit. Of course, you can be different and toss the flowers on salads just to surprise folks. The leaves are edible as well but are on the astringent side. As with many cultivated crops harvest carefully because as a commercial crop they are often doused with this or that chemical to keep them living and looking well until they get to market. The cultivated blossoms are pink, the wild white.

Marsh Mallow

Yes, at one time marshmallow, the white, sweet sticky stuff you buy in a jar and mix with peanut butter to make a Fluffernutter, was made from the Marsh Mallow. The commercial product, however, is much different than the original. A native of Europe it has been naturalized in eastern North America for centuries. It was brought here mainly as a medicinal plant, and has many uses still.  Nearly the entire plant has something to offer. In this article we only focus on the flowers. They can be eaten raw or cooked. When cooked they are on the viscous side. Grayish, velvety leaves helps you identify this mallow from its scores of kin.

Maypop

Maypops are edible, and they look great on the plate. As for flavor… well, the entire plant smells like an old gym shoe, the flowers less so. Let’s call it an acquired taste. They are really too insubstantial to cook. In fact, most of the plant above ground is useful. The leaves can be cooked as a green, and the water they were cooked in as a sedative. The green fruit can be sliced and cooked like a green tomato, and the yellow ripe fruit pulp and seeds can be eaten out of hand or made into a refreshing, tart drink.

Milkweed Blossom

When I was a kid  back in the Dark Ages I was always covered with Milkweed sap, or Asclepias syriaca juice, and it was sticky! The plants grew everywhere and at the time were taller than me. I was always picking blossoms, snapping shoots, tearing apart green pods and later throwing the fluff everywhere. The spongy, cellular structure of the pod was fascinating, and the final seeds parachutes so silky. I can still remember seeing butterflies on the Milkweed blossoms. They knew something I did not. There is sweet nectar in the blossoms… kind of. Milkweed blossoms are an acquired taste and to really get the nectar out they have to be long boiled. However, you can eat the blossoms raw if you like the flavor.

Hollyhock Blossoms

Hollyhocks look great on a plate, and their taste is bland for those who want strong colors rather than flavors. They have also been used to color wine in the distant past when such things were not regulated. The leaves are also edible raw and it’s still a cultivated vegetable in Egypt (the root has starch.)  Besides plating and salads you can also make a refreshing tea from the Hollyhock. Botanically it is Alcea rosea and related to the Marsh Mallow above. There now many colors to choose from.

See Edible Flowers Part Nine.