Books could be written about amaranth alone

 Amaranth, the forgotten food

A book could be written about amaranth, and probably has, if not several.

Amaranth is a seed used like a grain.

A grain, a green, a cultural icon, a religious symbol… amaranth is colorful plant with a colorful history. It’s also nutritious. Amaranth was a staple of pre-Colombian Aztecs, who imbued it with supernatural powers and made it part of their religious ceremonies. They would mix amaranth flour and human blood then shaped the dough into idols that were eaten in their well-known sacrificial ceremonies. Human sacrifices were extremely common among equatorial jungle people around the world. The idea they shared was as decaying plants nourish living plants, decaying flesh, preferably the enemy’s, would nourish the people. Occasionally, however, only a young maiden would assure good crops.  Spanish conquistadors, who saw no religious parallel with their own communion beliefs, thought eliminating amaranth would stop the sacrifices. The blood ceremonies did stop but for more reasons than the outlawing of amaranth. The plant’s use declined and was forgotten except in remote villages where it was still raised for food.

Aztecs farmed with floating mat islands.

Amaranth today is enjoyed many ways. In Mexico and India the seeds are popped and mixed with sugar to make a confection. In Mexico they are roasted for the traditional drink “atole.” Peruvians use the grain to make a beer. Elsewhere it’s used to  treat toothache and fevers or to color maize and quinoa. Women performing native dances often wear the red amaranth flower as rouge. In many countries the leaves are used boiled or fried. In Nepal the seeds are made in to a gruel. Although amaranth seed and flour can be found in health food stores, if you want the greens you have to grow it yourself, or forage for it in season, which fortunately is long.

Note notches in the leaves, often present

It’s a bushy plant growing 3 to 10 feet, depending if it’s wild or cultivated, a vegetable variety or a grain variety. Feral versions are green, sometimes with red stems, spindly and usually no more than two feet, rarely three. Cultivated versions can be all red, or all green, showy or dull. Grain varieties can be six or seven feet tall. The lens-shaped seeds are tiny — eye of a needle size — and can be gold to black. Plants produce on average 50,000 seeds each. If you have a calculator, that’s a line of 1/32-of-an-inch seeds 130 feet long. Amaranth will grow under a variety of conditions and climates. I always have some in my garden every year though I have not intentionally planted it for more than seven years. It reseeds itself, and if it sprouts where it’s convenient for me, I let it grow. While the grain is very nutritional and versatile I use amaranth mostly for a summer green because it is among the few plants that can take Florida’s high heat and humidity. It has no significant pests per se. Its leave are nutritionally on par with spinach, which is a relative. Also if you avoid spinach for health reasons you should avoid amaranth.

Amaranth seed is high in protein, some 16%, contains lysine and methionine, two essential amino acids that are not often found in grain,  and is high in fiber, three times that of wheat. It also has calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, vitamins A, C and E.

Spiny amaranth has edible leaves and might be a medicine and sex aid.

There are some 60 amaranth species, maybe 70 (it depends on who’s counting.)  The botanical genus name, Amaranthus, (am-a-RANTH-us) comes from the Greek word “amarandos, (Αμάραντος) which means non-fading, since its flowers last a long time.  Modern Greeks call it Vlita (VLEE-tah.) I see four kinds of amaranth sporadically here in Florida,  one I’m sure is an imported version from up north, probably A. viridis (VEER-ih-diss, green, often with notches at the end of the leaf. ) Another is A. hybridus. (hib-RID-us or HYE-brid0-us, also called Smooth Amaranth, with trowel-shaped leave if not pointed.)  A third is A. spinosus (spin-OH-sus, spiny.) The leaves and seeds of all three are edible. However, with the latter, the Spiny Amaranth, you have to fight the spines for them. But, the Spiny Amaranth has a very positive side. An article published 23 Aug 2007, in the Journal of Natural Medicines, reported an extract of the plant in rats  “exhibited control of blood glucose… showed significant anti-hyperlipidemic … effects….”  and increased sperm count and weight of their sex organs. That should make the spiny amaranth disappear as a road side weed.

Amaranthus australis (southern amaranth) can easily grow 18 feet or more.

The fourth amaranth was a bit of a mystery for a while.  A new bridge was build over the St. Johns River near Sanford and sod brought in for landscaping. Along with the sod came a big amaranth that I took home and transplanted just to see what it would be. Time revealed it to be Amaranthus australis, also called Hemp Amaranth and Southern Amaranth. Oddly it is the only amaranth I have run into that I can’t find an ethnobotanical reference to. It is native, and huge, 15 feet tall is common. Surely it would have been used if usable. But, search as I may I’ve not come up with much about it. It’s not even mentioned in the 70 year index of the Journal of Economic Botany.  I have read there are no poisonous amaranths but it is curious that such a large and obvious plant has left not usage trail. My friend Andy Firk down in Arcadia, Florida, reports he eats all the time with no problems. It’s absence from ethnobotanical records and foraging books is a mystery to me.

As with most plants used for “greens” young and tender leaves are usually best, take them from the top. Leave the older, larger leaves to collect energy for the plant. If you want to collect the seeds after they form, take a large, non-porous bag, put it over the top of the plant, gently tip the plant to the side, and shake. The seeds will come loose. What bugs you might get is free protein. Then winnow because you’ll get some seed heads and flower debris.

As for cooking the leaves, I use them like mustard greens, boiling them for 10 minutes or so and then season with salt, pepper, and butter, or with some olive oil and vinegar. After boiling, the leaves can be added to various dishes that call for spinach. But do know that if amaranth is fertilized heavily or grows in drought conditions it can hold a lot of nitrates.  If you are going to eat amaranth seeds soak them over night in water to reduce their saponin content.

Here’s an interesting recipe from Salt Spring Seeds.

Tabouli

1 cup pre-soaked amaranth seeds

1 cup parsley, chopped

1/2 cup scallions, chopped

2 tbsp fresh mint

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves, pressed

1/4 cup olives, sliced

lettuce leaves, whole

Simmer amaranth in an equal volume of water for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool. Place all ingredients except lettuce and olives in a mixing bowl and toss together lightly. Chill for an hour or more to allow flavors to blend. Wash and dry lettuce leaves and use them to line a salad bowl.  Put the amaranth “tabouli” on the lettuce and garnish with olives.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Annual growing to three to six feet, is frost tender. Coarse, hairy, stout stems, leaves usually dull green on long stalks, prominent veins, oval to lance shaped, often notched when young; flowers clusters dense, bristly, small and usually green, terminal clusters and out of where leaf meets stem.

TIME OF YEAR: Spring in to summer for the leaves, summer or fall for seeds, depending upon the climate.

ENVIRONMENT: Full sun, rich to poor soil, as long as moisture is available. Found around and in gardens, stops signs, vacant lots, an opportunist. Will not grow in shade. Found throughout most of of the Americas. Has spread around the world. If harvested in fertilized area or in drought the amaranth can be high in nitrogen.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Tender young leaves raw in salads, or cooked like spinach. Seeds eaten raw or ground into flour. There are no poisonous amaranths.

HERB BLURB

Herbalists say a decoction of Amaranth has been used for inflammation of the gums and as a wash for external wounds. Also internally as a treatment for diarrhea and dysentery

Wild Strawberries can be tart to very sweet, photo by All Wallpapers

Fragaria virginiana: Be A Strawberry Sleuth

Fragaria do not like Florida. Only one northern county in the state reports having wild strawberries. But that’s all right. I ate more than my fill growing up in Maine.

Wild Strawberries eeking out a living

In fact, the best strawberry patch was across the dirt road, in a pasture in Pownal, just beyond a huge and well-armed Hawthorn tree.  The strawberries were typical of the wild version, small… but what flavor! I raided that patch annually for some 15 years.

One of my successful moments as a foraging teacher came years later when a native Floridian friend traveling through New Hampshire found  strawberries and identified them on her own. Not bad coming from a state nearly bereft of wild strawberries. Oddly, however, Florida grows literally tons of strawberries and has an annual Strawberry Festival in Plant City that draws hundreds of thousands and big named entertainment.

While growing up, as kids are wont to do, I found the strawberry patch on my own. I simply presumed they were edible. It’s rather surprising kids don’t make more mistakes than they do. Most plant poisonings involve very young children (and young pets.) Julia Morton, a botany professor at the University of Miami and an expert on toxic plants, said young children and young animals will chew on anything regardless of the flavor. Older kids won’t eat things that taste a bit off to them, as many a parent can confirm. Morton also said women are poisoned more often than men because they are curious about plants and will sampled them. Perhaps that’s an echo of their gathering ancestral history. That said men comprise about 66% of my video viewers. The argument is men do more things that bring them into contact with wild plants, such as fishing, hunting, hiking and the like.

Wild Strawberry blossom, note white not yellow

The botanical name for the common strawberry in eastern North America is Fragaria virginiana, frah-GAY-ree-uh vir-jin-ee-AY-nuh. Fragaria is from the Dead Latin word “fragans” meaning sweet-smelling. Virginiana essentially means of North America. The European strawberry is F. vesca (VES-kuh) meaning thin or small. The Greeks call them fraoules (frah-OU-less) where the Dead Latin “fragans” came from.  Beside the usual delicious uses strawberries can settle an upset stomach, the juice from the plant is good for face sores, red eyes and excessive tears. Root decoctions soothe liver problems, staunches menstrual flow, and firms the gums. Nearly every Indian tribe had a medical use for the entire plant. For some 700 years it has also been used as an  ananaphrodisiac, that is, to dull the libido. (Hmmm, I think I’ll skip the strawberry shortcake, thank you.) And a tea can be made from fresh or dry leaves, but not semi-dried leaves.

The “wood strawberry” helped sequence the strawberry’s genome.

Strawberries played a significant role in the lives of American Indians, both as medicine and food. Since strawberries have too much moisture to dry easily for winter use they were consumed in season. The Seneca Indians of the Iroquois Confederacy viewed strawberries as proof of their god’s beneficence and had a Strawberry thanksgiving ceremony. The Dakota called June the “red month” because strawberries were ripe then.

There is a second native strawberry in North America, interestingly called F. chiloensis (kye-loh-EN-sis) meaning “of Chile.” The F. Chiloensis  is larger than the F. virginiana and is found in the western United States and up the west coast.  The two natives were hybridized to make the modern garden strawberry.  (See some unusual recipes below.)

There’s even strawberry wine.

The name “strawberry” comes from “strewn berry” meaning the berries were strewn on the plants. That in time was shortened to strawberry. In the rose family strawberries aren’t really berries or fruit. They are enlarged ends of the plants’ stamen, the male part of the flower. The seeds are on the outer skin of the strawberry rather than inside. There are around 200 seeds per berry. If you find a tasteless strawberry in a northern area it is probably the F. vesco, also called a woods strawberry. In Florida that tasteless strawberry is not a true strawberry but the Indian Strawberry, low on taste but good on nutrition.

Heavy Weight World Champion Joseph Fraizer.

While many states like Florida have a Strawberry Festival  perhaps the most famous strawberry consumption is at Wimbledon, England. There strawberries and cream are eaten between tennis matches. (Your author has been to Wimbledon while an exchange student to the University of London, Whiteland’s College, but preferred Waltney’s Brown Ale to courtside strawberrying.) Lastly, the name of Fraser/Frazier means strawberry… You remember the world heavyweight boxing champ, don’t you? Smoking Joe Strawberry…

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Small plant with five-petaled white flowers, leaves of three, toothed (poison ivy usually does not have fine teeth.)  Blossoms to an inch across, on separate stalks; familiar fruit drooping, small. Ten small green sepals at the base of the fruit. Plant spreads by horizontal runners.

TIME OF YEAR: Late spring, early summer

ENVIRONMENT: Full sun in pastures, fields, moist ground, edges of woods, by sidewalks. Throughout North America. There are no similar looking toxic plants.  (See Indian Strawberry.)

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Numerous, only limited by time and imagination. A trail side nibble, pies, jelly, jam, cakes, drinks, deserts, the list is nearly endless. See recipes below. Strawberry leaf tea is laxative. Do not use wilted leaves. Only fresh or totally dry leaves.

Champagne Sorbet with Berry Medley

*   1 (750 milliliter) bottle champagne

* 1/4 cup white sugar

* 1 pint strawberries

* 1 pint blueberries

* 6 fresh mint leaves (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour champagne into a shallow metal pan or bowl, and stir in the sugar. Cover with plastic wrap, and place in freezer. Freeze for four hours, whisking every 30 minutes. The frozen mixture will be firm and granular.

2. Spoon the sorbet mixture into a blender or food processor, and process until smooth. Return to the metal container, cover, and re-freeze for up to 48 hours.

1. 3.Combine strawberries and blueberries in a small bowl. Spoon berries into the bottom of champagne flutes or wine glasses, and top with sorbet. Garnish with mint sprig if desired.

 Strawberry Roses

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups mascarpone cheese

* 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* 1/2 cup whipped cream

* 16 large strawberries, washed and dried well

* 1/4 cup coarse granulated sugar

* 2 teaspoons lemon zest

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat the mascarpone cheese, confectioners sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream. Spoon cheese mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star tip.

2. Leaving the stem end in tact, cut off the tip of each strawberry, and carefully remove the core using a small, thin knife. Stand strawberries upright (stem end down), and slice through the tip toward the stem. Do not cut completely through. Repeat, slicing a total of four times. Each strawberry will have eight sections. Roll the strawberries in the sugar.

3. Gently open each strawberry and fill each with the cheese mixture, using a circular motion. Arrange strawberry roses on a platter, and sprinkle with lemon zest.

The roses are easier to form if strawberries are at cool room temperature when filling.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

INGREDIENTS

* 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

* 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

* 1/2 cup white sugar

* 1/2 cup olive oil

* 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar

* 1/4 teaspoon paprika

* 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

* 1 tablespoon minced onion

* 10 ounces fresh spinach – rinsed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces

* 1 quart strawberries – cleaned, hulled and sliced

* 1/4 cup almonds, blanched and slivered

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and onion. Cover, and chill for one hour.

2. In a large bowl, combine the spinach, strawberries and almonds. Pour dressing over salad, and toss. Refrigerate 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Bull Thistle in Blossom. Photo by Green Deane

Thistle: Touch me not, but add butter

Thistles, you’re either going to love ’em or hate em. Of course, I think eating them is the sensible compromise.

Thistles, in this case Cirsium horridulum (SIR-see-um hor-id-YOO-lum) are among the hardest to gather of wild foods, Black Walnuts probably being the worst. But, the reward is edible stalks, edible leaves —trimmed of spines — roots and unopened flower bud bottoms. Like many tasty wild plants, the thistle did not make its way into main stream food channel because of the spines and its two-year growth habit.  The first year the plant is just a root and a rosette, the second year it sends up a stem and blossoms.

Note the basal rosette, photo by Green Deane

The first-year root and leaves are edible, but there isn’t much of a root for a while. The leaves are edible but don’t even bother trying to cut off the spines. That’s too labor intense. Just strip the green off the leaf leaving the very edible midrib.  Rub the “wool” off and enjoy, raw or cooked.  All thistles in the genus Cirsium, and the genus Carduus,  are edible. Or said another way, there is no poisonous true thistle, but not all of them are palatable.

In the second year plant the inner core of the flower stalks is quite tasty and not that much work. The leaves are still edible if you strip them of spines as are the bottom of the flower buds, though the bud bottoms aren’t much more than a nibble.  All can be eaten raw, steamed or boiled.  (Or roast whole by a fire and squeeze the cooked core out.)

Of course, one should wear heavy gloves when working with thistles, and some people have contact dermatitis with thistles, so make sure first. Personally, I prefer the stalks of second year plants in spring, when they are a foot or so high. I just use a long-handled shovel to cut them at the base above the rosette. With heavy gloves and a trimmer I hold the plant upside down and cut off the leaves and sundry spines. Carefully peel the stalk of the fibrous coat, which is most of the green you’ll see. Then you can eat it raw or cooked, I prefer cooked. I think the stalk boiled a few minutes and then served with butter, salt and pepper is absolutely delicious, for a green.

The plant also grows fibrous as it ages — why we don’t eat older stalks — and can be used for cordage. Soaking the plant several days in water makes the threads available. Also, the seed fluff when dry is great tinder. And should you be in the wilderness with little but a thistle for protection, know the Seminole Indians made blowgun darts from the plant. That might require a remaking of the common phrase: I’ve got a thistle stuck in the thick of my tongue. The down was used as guide feathers for arrows.

Incidentally, it’s shaving brush-shaped flowers can be purple or yellow. Personally, I have never seen a yellow one. If by some outside chance you have misidentified the prickly Mexican poppy (Argemone mexicana) for the thistle, the poppy has yellowish sap and flowers, white or yellow, with petals. The thistle’s flower is like a shaving brush when in bloom that then turns into a cottony ball of fluff.

Unopened Thistle Bud, photo by Green Deane

The thistle, which is in the sunflower family, is often called an invasive weed even where it is native. What is native? It can be found around the world and throughout North American and Canada, even in the arctic circle and Greenland, just like the mustard plant, chickweed and blackberries. Thistles can be found from valley bottoms to mountain tops. All you need to be is observant, and hungry. The thistle shown here, C. horridulum, grows from from Maine south along the seacoast to Florida, west from South Carolina to Texas.  When I was a boy growing up in southern Maine this thistle grew every year across the road from our house. Now, it so happens that I went to school eight years in one-room school houses. An annual project, as directed by Mrs. Arlene Tryon, was to bring unopened thistle blossoms to school, hang them up, and watch them turn into cotton puffs. The thistle, by the way, is also food for the larva of the  American Painted Lady butterfly, Black Swallowtail, Delaware skipper, Palamedes Swallowtail, Palmetto Skipper), Three-Spotted Skipper, Twin-Spot skipper (What? No One-spotted skipper?) and other butterflies. Goldfinches like the seeds, too.

A tea can also be made from the leaves and the plant was used in ancient times to treat varicose veins, which in Greek is kirsos. After being bastardized by Latin, Kirsos becomes Cirsium. Horridulum means a little spiny, clearly a joke by Andre Michaeux the botanist who named it. (Also, on something almost completely unrelated, it’s a cute linguistic and conceptual hop from kirsos, varicose veins, to kissos, which means ivy.)

Oh, and a parting factoid: Thistle root gives some folks gas. Thought you’d like to know ahead of time.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Biennial or perennial herb, two to five feet high, basal and stem leaves lobed, lower stems leaves can be four to nine inches long, can be woolly in parts, second year stems stopped with shaving-brush flowers, purple or yellow. In some species the branching can be throughout the stalk, in the bull thistle branching occurs only on top. Very spiny, one tough plant. If by chance you have misidentified it with a spiny poppy the poppy has flowers with large petals. If you are in Florida and on the west coast you might see Cirsium nuttallii, which is tall and skinny with many branches.

TIME OF YEAR: Best in spring, first or second year, starting in February in Florida, later in northern climes. In Florida the seasons can be mixed with the plant not taking a break between first and second year growth.

ENVIRONMENT: Sandy open areas, moist or dry, old fields, roadsides, often the only plant still untouched in closely cropped pastures. Some reports say they like wet areas but that certainly is not the case here in Florida.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Raw, boil or steamed hollow inner stalks peeled of green outer fiber; core of unopened flower buds, when cooked squeezed out like artichoke leaves;  stripped midribs raw or cooked. First year roots once large enough to harvest,  The seeds are edible, 12 pounds will produce 3 pounds of edible oil. Suitable for cooking or lamp use.

HERB BLURB

Native American Indians used thistle for neuralgia, over eating, an herbal steam for rheumatism and to shrink hemorrhoids (presumably without the thistles!)

Second year plants have terminal clusters of flowers. Photo by APhotoFlora

Gather Garlic Mustard now for pesto or it may disappear presto… well… maybe not immediately but if one university succeeds Garlic Mustard will become hard to find or extinct in North America.

First-year plants are short with kidney-shaped leaves in a rosette. Photo by Field Botany

It all started on this continent sometime around 1868 when Garlic Mustard, a native of Europe, was found on Long Island, no doubt brought over before then for food and medicine. It’s leaves are rich in vitamin C and A and medicinally was used for treating gangrene and ulcers. Garlic Mustard spread slowly across the country reaching Oregon by 1959. It wasn’t a severe problem until about 40 years ago. Then it began to proliferate alarmingly. It went from taking over an estimated 366 square kilometers a year to 6,400. In the last four decades it’s become a significant pest, a dreaded “invasive.” Why? My guess is deer. The deer population has also dramatically increased in numbers during the same for decades. They prefer to eat native plants rather than Garlic Mustard. However, if you have more deer eating the native plants to the ground it gives prolific Garlic Mustard chance and space to get going. Once it does it drives out other plants including trees.

Second-year plants grow rapidly tall and flower. Photo by Gary Fewless.

Garlic Mustard can produce up to 8,000 seeds per plant. That can translate into 100,000 seeds per square meter which are easily spread around. Germination rate is close to 100% and up to 24,000 seedlings per square meter have been counted. The seeds can remain viable for up to 10 years. Most of the seeds don’t survive but it’s a numbers game and Garlic Mustard is simply out-breeding its competitors. Shade tolerant, the species is found in southern Canada and 34 US states where it’s officially invasive in six. In western Europe is ranges from Italy to Sweden, England to Russia and parts of Asia. Garlic Mustard basically skips the southern United States among other reasons because the seeds need long exposure to cold to reproduce, sometimes as much as one or two winters. However, seeds can germinate right at 32 F giving it a jump over other spring-time plants. Second year plants bolt very quickly.

The larva of this weevile may eventually reduce the Garlic Mustard population.

Regardless of why Garlic Mustard is proliferating it is considered a serious invasive species in North America. But have little fear, the University of Minnesota is coming to the rescue. Starting in the 90s experts began looking for a biological control. Several insect candidates were considered. The university has decided thus far the leading contender is Ceutorhynchus scrobicollis, a weevil of a beetle from Europe. If approved the insect will be released between now and 2016. The goal? Wipe out this foreign invader that also has cyanide in it’s leaves. What? Cyanide? Yep, and those who demonize this wild edible are quick to point that out. So what about the cyanide?

Like many members of the Mustard family the species has long, skinny seed pods. Photo by K. Chayka

It’s not that uncommon in the Brassicaceaes. The cyanide is usually minimal and below that to impact animals or people. However it is enough to be toxic to some fungi, pathogens and insects. It can be a killer if you have six legs. That also might be how it keeps other plants from growing where it grows by killing off necessary soil bacteria and the like. The level of cyanide is not a threat to people. Garlic Mustard did not earn a mention in Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada by Kingbury, for many decades if not still the “bible” on poisonous plants. (See the Herb Blurb below the recipe.)

Like all mustards the flower has six stamens, four long and two shot best seen in the top flower. Photo by Les Mehrhoff

A two-year plant, Garlic Mustard grows rapidly in the spring producing a basal rosette. During its second year it can reach one or two yards high. It is usually the tallest bloom plant in the forest around May. Also called Jack-By-The-Hedge and “Sauce Alone” the leaves taste like garlic and mustard with a slightly bitter aftertaste. The leaves smell of mustard when crushed and stems are often purplish. The first-year rosette has kidney-shaped toothy leaves. They can remain green through the winter. Second-year toothy leaves are more triangle shaped along a tall flowering stem. Seed pods are shiny black when mature. Plants that grow near Garlic Mustard and might be confused for it are Toothworts (Dentaria) Sweet Cicely (Osmorhize claytonii) and early saxifrage (Saxifraga virginica.)

Small brown-black seeds aline in the “silique.” Photo by Steve Baskauf

Botanically the species is Alliaria petiolata. Alliariea is a variation of Allium, the genus for garlic and onions. It is from the Greek word αλέω which means “to avoid” presumably because of the garlic/onion aroma. Petiolata is from Dead Latin: petiolatus “petiolate”, referring to leaf attachment. “Jack” by the way when referring to plants usually means the Devil.

If you do go through a patch of Garlic Mustard clean your shoes and any pants’s cuffs to keep you from taking home this species that can easily take over your yard. Of course, eating the invasive is your civic duty and tasty, too.

Green Deane’s Itemimized Plant Profile: Garlic Mustard

IDENTIFICATION: Alliaria petiolata: Biennial herb with a weak single stems 12 – 36″ high its second year. Leaves: Round, scallop-edged, dark green; first year, rosettes of three or four leaves; second year plants have alternate stem leaves. Leaves and stems smell like onion or garlic when crushed. Flowers: White, small, numerous, four separate petals. One or two flowering stems on second year plants. Seeds: Slender capsules to six inches long with a single row of oblong black seeds, 12 to 19 seeds per pod. White, slender taproot, S-shaped at the top. The root smells like horseradish.

TIME OF YEAR: Growing by March or April. Two-year cycle, low rosette the first year, tall and flowering the second. Grows very rapidly in spring.

ENVIRONMENT: Moist, shaded soil; river floodplains, forests, roadsides, edges of woods, trails edges, forest openings, disturbed areas. Does not tolerate highly-acidic soil and prefers to not grow under conifers. Often found in association with hardwoods.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Garlic Mustard is usually used raw. Second-year shoots before blossoming are choice. British naturalist Richard Mabey says the best use is as a sauce for lamb. Merritt Fernald, the grand botanist of Harvard a century ago, reported it was used like a lettuce leaf but for flavoring in sandwiches, mixed in salads, eaten with salted fish and used as a stuffing in pork. Cornucopia II says the leaves can be finely chopped and added to tossed salads, cooked as a pot herb, or eaten with bread and butter. It is also mixed with mint leaves and made into a sauce for salt-fish, mutton, and as mentioned before, lamb. Ray Mears reports the leaves are good added to nettle soup and the seeds make a very fiery mustard. Pick the leaves just before you want to use them. They wilt quickly.

The following recipe was created by  Paul Wedgwood of Wedgwood the Restaurant, one of Edinburgh’s finest and originally reported by Robin Harford on a British website with a name very close to this one, www.EatWeeds.com.Uk.

Garlic Mustard Vichysoisse

Garlic Mustard Vichysoisse

Ingredients
•    75g butter
•    1 onion, chopped
•    75g three cornered garlic stems
•    800 ml water
•    1 large potato, peeled, diced and rinsed
•    Salt and freshly ground black pepper
•    75g Jack by the hedge/garlic mustard
•    75g goat’s cheese
•    75ml milk for foam
•    Pinch cumin
•    Pinch white pepper
Suggested Instructions
1.    In a heavy bottomed pan add water and potatoes and a good pinch of salt and boil until potatoes are soft. Remove from the heat and set aside.
2.    Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the onion and cook until softened. Pour over the boiled potatoes and water.
3.    Blitz in food processor until smooth. Add water if required to the correct consistency. Pass through a sieve.
4.    Chill in the fridge. Check seasoning.
5.    Blanch jack by the hedge for 10 seconds in salted boiling water and refresh in ice water.
6.    Add jack by the hedge and blitz again until smooth.
7.    Then add the three cornered garlic blitz until smooth, check for seasoning again.
8.    Serve with some crumbled goats cheese, frothed milk, a pinch of cumin, some crispy fried nettle dusted with white pepper and a three corned garlic flower
Prep time: 30 mins.
Cooking time: 10 mins.
Serves: 4

Herb Blurb

J Chem Ecol. 2007 Jan;33(1):85-94.
Cyanide in the chemical arsenal of garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata.
Cipollini D, Gruner B. Source: Department of Biological Sciences, Wright State University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway, Dayton, Ohio 45435, USA. don.cipollini@wright.edu

Abstract

Cyanide production has been reported from over 2500 plant species, including some members of the Brassicaceae. We report that the important invasive plant, Alliaria petiolata, produces levels of cyanide in its tissues that can reach 100 ppm fresh weight (FW), a level considered toxic to many vertebrates. In a comparative study, levels of cyanide in leaves of young first-year plants were 25 times higher than in leaves of young Arabidopsis thaliana plants and over 150 times higher than in leaves of young Brassica kaber, B. rapa, and B. napus. In first-year plants, cyanide levels were highest in young leaves of seedlings and declined with leaf age on individual plants. Leaves of young plants infested with green peach aphids (Myzus persicae) produced just over half as much cyanide as leaves of healthy plants, suggesting that aphid feeding led to loss of cyanide from intact tissues before analysis, or that aphid feeding inhibited cyanide precursor production. In a developmental study, levels of cyanide in the youngest and oldest leaf of young garlic mustard plants were four times lower than in the youngest and oldest leaf of young Sorghum sudanense (cv. Cadan 97) plants, but cyanide levels did not decline in these leaves with plant age as in S. sudanense. Different populations of garlic mustard varied moderately in the constitutive and inducible expression of cyanide in leaves, but no populations studied were acyanogenic. Although cyanide production could result from breakdown products of glucosinolates, no cyanide was detected in vitro from decomposition of sinigrin, the major glucosinolate of garlic mustard. These studies indicate that cyanide produced from an as yet unidentified cyanogenic compound is a part of the battery of chemical defenses expressed by garlic mustard.
PMID:
17146719
[PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]