Applewood forks, some suitable for pipe making.

Apple was wood we chose and shaped together

Time edits your memories. It sands off the rough edges that were once painfully sharp. It makes some moments clearer by evaporating the fog of being involved. Time throws most of your past into some hard-to-open memory dump. There it hides without an access code until something triggers it which happened recently to me because of the approaching Fathers’ Day.

When you’re young what you know is so terribly important because you don’t know much. Your small amount of knowledge is very precious. That tends to get overwritten with adult life. Other things become more important taking up space and time. When one reaches the other end of life those childhood memories, faded and ignored for so long, often return sometimes with an echo of sadness, sometimes with a sweetness long forgotten. Writing about Linden Tree blossoms recently brought back a memory from those early days, an era when we did not have a TV or a phone. Computers were experimental and the size of houses. They wouldn’t be common for half a century. For entertainment we played cards on Saturday night, usually Sixty-Three while enjoying burnt popcorn dressed up with oleo washed down with flat soda.

Vasilios Tsapatsaris, 31

I had two fathers, one who sired and one who raised.  The sire, Vasilios Tsapatsaris, died young, only 33, when I was six. It’s odd now being more than twice as old as he lived, as if I’ve ended up being the mature adult for both of us. He never got a chance to live to the age of contemplation, to out-live the insults and errors of ones youth. He didn’t live long enough to know what kind of man he was or could be. Nor did he live to see his son or daughter grown. For most of my life he has been a long, low gravestone in a Greek cemetery far away, far more a mystery than a man.

And then there is he who raised me, my stepfather, “Dad.” He’s a mystery, too. Quiet. A gentle giant. A heavy-weight boxer had he chosen that career but did not. He preferred to fix watches and clocks. But, dad could lift a motor out of a car by hand and not grunt. I saw him do it once. I also remember a time when I was a freshman in high school. I weighed 135 pounds and was arguing with my mother. It was getting heated and loud. Dad came over and with just his left hand — he was right-handed — lifted me off the floor… that got my attention. With my legs dangling in mid-air he calmly told me not to ever argue with my mother again. Message received. I lived with him and my mother for some 18 years but I never knew him well. Yet his influence was strong. His presence guiding. I’m not sure we ever discussed anything of significance but we did things together. Neither of us liked team sports but on April 8th, 1974 we watched Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth’s homerun record. It was good for him, me and Hank. Another thing we did together involved the Linden Tree, or Basswood as we called it.

We’d pick just the right apple branch

Dad smoked a pipe so we made pipes. We didn’t make pipes because we had to, or because the store-bought ones were bad. We made pipes because we could and it was enjoyable and the evenings long especially in the winter. First we’d go out into the local fields and wood lots and look over several wild apple trees. They weren’t crab apples but apples trees from tossed away cores and opportunistic seeds. Every apple seed is totally different than the parent. One never knows what apple tree awaits in a seed. We examined the progeny closely.

Applewood was the briar of choice in that it is a sweet wood. We’d find a large branch to whittle the bowl out of. It also had to have an intersecting smaller branch at just the right angle to receive the stem. This selection of wood was then roughly carved, and done so rather quickly, in a matter of a couple of hours. When it was a rough pipe shape into simmering water it went. Boiling the carved block drove any sap out so the bowl wouldn’t crack as it dried or when hot tobacco coals were in it.

Coppiced basswood provided the stem

After several hours of simmering, the wood was allowed to cool.  Next the drilling began, creating the bowl and then the delicate task of drilling the much smaller intersecting stem holder. Once drilled and the holes met into the simmering water it went again to make sure all the sap was gone. Later the bowl was carefully shaped and sanded until smooth and presentable. Final polishing was done by rubbing the bowl on the side of your nose. The oil on your nose makes the polished wood shiny. Now it was time to make a stem.

For the stem we would find a basswood that had been coppiced, that is, the tree was cut down and sprouts had sprung. There one finds not only some of the best edible parts of the basswood in spring but also young stems with soft centers. We’d find some the right size, take them home, remove the bark, size them to the stem hole and then with a wire ream out the core. With a bit of sanding and a twist the pipe was complete, ready to be stoked with Dad’s old standby tobacco, Prince Albert… in a can.. which later would hold earthworms for fishing.  We made some corncob pipes, simple, much easier, but they never commanded the pride of an applewood pipe. And when chewing wore the stem down another was easily made. I still have one of those bowls we made, a concrete connection do Dad. 

Pipe Maker and dad, Robert H. Jordan, age 33

We lost Dad about 13 years ago, near father’s day. He was 86. A man with a wry sense of humor, he told me not long before he died that he didn’t feel any different in his eighties than he did when he was in his twenties.

“That,” he said, “proved what a pathetic young man I was.”

Somehow I doubt that.

Contemporary Hunter-Gatherer

An Australian study tells us that modern day hunter gatherers get 64% of their energy from things that move, 36% from plants, basically two thirds flesh, one third non-flesh. The creatures we eat are usually nutritionally dense. This does not hold true for plants. While plants can provide important minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and necessary trace elements most of them don’t pack a caloric punch. Many if not most plants take more energy to collect, prepare and consume then we get back in calories. Dandelion greens could be a classic example.

Dandelion Greens

We have to find the dandelion greens, pick them, clean them, and in a true survival situation find the fuel to cook them, something to cook them in and good water to cook them in. That takes a lot of energy and time. For that dandelion leaves offer us little, and while the root is edible it is quite bitter. Conversely, a starchy root that is edible raw, such as sea kale, Crambe maritima, would be a prime edible. It has a large root, particularly at the end of the growing season and is edible raw. It’s easy to find, easy to dig up. That’s energy positive. It’s a caloric staple. Unfortunately it does not grow in warmer climates but Bull Thistle does and is easy to find. They populate pastures. Sea Kale populates European shores and can be found on the California and Oregon coasts.

Blossoming Sea Kale

In a survival situation (frankly life in general) if you are not taking in more calories then you are expending to get food you are inching towards starvation. This is why we don’t climb a pine tree to get a teaspoon of pine nuts tasty and edible as they are. When one needs to forage caloric staples become the prime food focus right after animals.

After a recent class in West Palm Beach I was asked to compile a list of local caloric staples. It’s not quite as easy as one might think. In the south end of the state there are edible coconuts. On the north end no coconuts but some almost two-season bull thistles. In between there’s quite a smattering of calorie positive wild food. This list is not meant to be definitive and not necessarily in caloric order though generally it is.

Winged Yam must be cooked.

If I had to pick one local wild plant to top the list it would be the Winged Yam (Dioscorea alata.) It is the yam you buy in the grocery store just gone wild. Under cultivation they grow long and tubular and often over 100 pounds. Left on their own in untilled soil they get lumpy and usually weigh between five and 20 pounds. Easy to identify, the root is usually just a few inches below the surface thus it takes very few calories to dig them up. Not edible raw they do need to be cooked, boiled or roasted. But one would use them just like one would potatoes. Said another way every Winged Yam you see in the wild, on average, is like finding a 10-pound bag of potatoes. Also, it is slightly watery hence another name, the water yam. But that liquid serves a purpose. If you cut a root in half the water seals the uncooked half, preserving it. My video is here. 

Milkweed Vine fruit tastes like potatoes and zucchini.

Next on the local menu is Milkweed Vine (Morrenia odorata). Resembling a chayote (Sechium edule)  it has more vitamin C than the oranges it climbs over as a vine. Indeed, that is why Florida has spent millions of dollars to eliminate it, unsuccessfully. Nearly all of the plant above ground is edible but prized is the fruit. It should be picked when about the size of a tennis ball then boiled or roasted for about 40 minutes. The flavor is a cross between a zucchini and a potato. More to the point unless hit by a hard frost or a bad freeze the vine produces continually.  Abundant, continuous production, nutritious and tasty. The fruit of the Milkweed Vine is a significant caloric staple. I have a video  about it besides the article above.

Groundnuts also have to be cooked.

Third on my list would certainly be ground nuts, Apios americana, of which I also have two videos. Found nearly everywhere there is water east of the Rockies some people eat hundreds of pounds of them a year. Like the Bull Thistle ground nuts are nearly impossible to misidentify. The above- ground pea vine has leaflets of three, five, or seven, usually five sometimes nine. In the fall it has maroon pea-like flowers and puts on pods with edible seeds (cooked.) The nuts, actually tubers, are about the size of hens’ eggs, lumpy and brown, but they are arranged like a string of pearls. Lump then root, lump then root. They can fork and they do like to grow amongst other roots. But they are fairly easy to harvest and a full of calories and nutrition, and up to 26% protein. They must be cooked first, however. The greatest problem with ground nuts is they like to grow in the same locations as poison ivy so one has to be careful in their collection. And while they naturally elect to grow in damp spots they will readily grow in your normal vegetable garden. Video I here.  Video II is here. 

American lotus seeds are delicious cooked.

Fourth and highly seasonal is American lotus. There are two caloric staples with the American lotus, another plant that is nearly impossible to misidentify: The seeds and the roots. While the roots are edible like the lotus roots one finds in Asian markets, they are buried deep in the muck usually under several feet of water. Should the lake drain, they would be a staple worth going after, or if you have a backhoe. You could also cultivate them in shallow ponds. Otherwise we are interested in the seeds. When the seeds are ready to harvest literally thousands of shower-nozzle seed head can be gathered if you have something like a canoe and a knife. One person collects the other paddles. The seeds are like an elongated marble. They can be boiled like peanuts or roasted or dried et cetera. They do have a small green center (a tiny lotus plant) that is bitter and usually removed before eating the rest of the seed. Their flavor is very compelling, real food. Their video is here. 

Bull Thistle roots is edible raw or cooked.

Fifth place would be the Bull Thistle, of which I have two videos as well. Like the yam it will have a larger root near the end of the season (or first year in northern climates) or at the very beginning of the second season before it uses the energy stored in the root to reproduce. The plant is nearly impossible to misidentify and all the members of the genus (Cirsium) are edible. The root is edible raw or cooked. As mentioned above the best place to find them are in pastures. Usually pastures are not polluted and about the only two plants uneaten are pawpaws, an occasional yucca, and bull thistles. Above ground parts are edible as well but require more work where as the root is fairly easy to dig up. It is calorie positive. Video I, and, Video II.

Cooked spurge nettle roots peels easily.

The Spurge Nettle should be added to the round up as well.  Cnidoscolus stimulosus has a totally undeserved reputation for having roots buried very deep. In my several decades of foraging for them the root has always been within a foot below the surface. Here’s the problem: First, the root is brittle. Next it takes on a similar coloring of the ground it’s in. Third the root has a tap root that does go deep. So what happens is most folks actually throw the root away in the first few shovels of dirt then follow the tap root to great and unproductive depths because the root is buried under the dirt they have piled up. Boiled, peeled, and the center string removed, the al dente root tastes like pasta. My video is here. 

Coconuts are nutritious but take a lot of work.

As this is Florida I would be remiss if I did not add coconuts to the list. The ones at the southern end of the state are indeed edible. But, like all coconuts they are a bit of work to get at. They are a source of food, water, transfusion liquid, fat, sugar and fiber. About the only down side to the coconut, besides a pain to open, is too much of the liquid is laxative. But coconuts bring up a problem that is associated with the next caloric staples, they take energy to get. In this case, climbing a coconut tree (make a pair of rope handcuff except to go around your feet, holding them together. That is how you use your feet to climb a coconut palm.) Again, like many of the caloric staples, the coconut is nearly impossible to misidentify.

Cattails produce more starch than any other plant.

Nothing produces more starch per acre under cultivation than cattails, more than 6,000 pounds. They are also nearly impossible to misidentify and can be found mostly east of the Rockies. Cattails have been called the supermarket of the swamp but I think that is excessive because their starch requires some work to get. First, you are likely to get wet getting the roots (actually rhizomes) and the roots are usually in some very smelly swamp muck. Personally I roast the roots which is getting the most (good tasting) caloric bang for the work buck. The starch can be crushed out of the roots and settled off with water but that takes time and energy best suited to a village setting, ample time, and many hands. More so unlike the items above cattail starch is much like flour, nearly tasteless unless cooked some way. The video is here. 

Yellow Spatter Dock pods are full of edible seeds.

Yellow spatter dock seeds were a staple of the Klamath Indians of the Pacific Northwest. Despite glowing reports on the internet the root is not edible. However the properly prepared seeds are very tasty. Improperly prepared they are foul. I have warned you. Have patients with the seeds. Like American Lotus seeds, it is easy for one person in a canoe to collect a huge amount of seed pods at one time. You then put the seed pods in fresh water and let them rot for three weeks. Two weeks is not enough. You need at least three weeks of rotting to turn the bitter seeds sweet. Sometimes you can find some seeds that aren’t too bitter and can be cooked fresh but usually they are far better after the enzymes caused by the rotting have a chance to work their magic. If  you cut a pod open you can see the kernels line up on either side looking like little yellow seed corn. Incidentally, dry and whole they pop like popcorn, only not as big. Sometimes they are not too bitter and can be cooked as is. And while several traditional foraging books say the root is edible it is not. Don’t believe me? Go get a root and cook it any way you choose (I’ve tried them all.) If you eat it be prepared to throw up. The video is here. 

Processing acorns takes time.

There is no doubt that acorns are good food, once leached of their tannins. As I mention in the article Wild Flours it’s all about energy in and energy out. Whether acorns are calorie positive is a good debate. I suspect so but not by much. The reason is time. Collecting acorns goes fairly quickly, sorting out the potential good ones from the bad is easy. Drying them for a day or two in the sun requires little effort (though wildlife might try to steal a few.) What takes the time is shelling them. Putting them in the sun a few days helps but shelling is time consuming by hand (a good job for kids.) A mechanical nut sheller turns a job that takes hours into minutes and is worth the investment if you have a lot of acorns you can harvest. At this writing the shellers, which can be used on other nuts, run about $150. Once shelled the acorns need to be ground and then leached of their tannins. That can take a lot of time and energy depending on whether you are near fresh water or not. The bottom line is under good conditions acorns are calorie positive, under bad conditions a waste of time. Acorns were my fiftieth video. 

Pine cambium is bland in flavor, edible raw or cooked.

For local and international consumption one has to mention pine cambium.  As long as it is a member of the Pinus genus the white inner back is edible and very nutritious. A pound of pine cambium is like nine cups of  milk. Not bad, and the flavor is not piney. The cambium can be eaten raw, dried, powdered and added to bread and soups, fried or boiled. Boiling is the least desired means of cooking and brings out the worst in pine cambium. Video here. 

Wild Rice is a staple in many northern climates.

I would add wild rice to the list, and it is easily harvested, but not that much of it grows locally. It does grow here and there along the St. Johns but I’ve never found enough to harvest beyond a sample. In other areas it was a staple of Native Americans and is a sought-after gourmet food today. Like the Nuphar and Lotus seed pods, a person with a canoe can collect a lot of wild rice if he can find it. The usual method is to use one stick to bend the rice over the canoe and used the other stick to knock it off. You can then return to the same site a few days later and harvest again as not all the rice ripens at the same time. Wild rice also offers only a short window for harvesting, ten to fourteen days usually. It, too, requires some processing.  If it is going to be one of your caloric staples you have to watch it very closely.

Barnyard Grass needs a lot of pounding to winnow.

Also in the grass realm is Barnyard Grass, (Echinochloa crus-galli.) Barnyard grass isn’t difficult to identify. It usually grows in very damp spots and has lower stems that are red/purple. It was a staple for many Indian tribes but is difficult to dehusk. The seeds require a lot of  pounding before winnowing. On the positive side the plant can produce a crop in as little as 42 days. The key to the successful collection of Barnyard Grass involves finding a good size colony which should come into season all at the same time. One good place to find them is drying up holes in lakes low in water. Eastern Gamagrass can also be used.

Saw palmetto berries, strong flavored but nutritious.

One could add to the list Queen Palm Fruit (essentially mainline sugar like sugar cane) Pindo Palm fruit,  (video) with sugar and pectin, and Crowfoot Grass seeds (Dactyloctenium aegyptium) small, but fragile and easy to collect.  Add a palm grub or two and you have a balanced meal. And do I dare add Saw Palmetto berries, Serenoa repens? They do taste like vomit but are very nutritious, and the seed oil is good for cooking. Video here.  Cabbage Palm fruit is also reported as a staple of local indigenous tribes but they are a lot of work. Personally I think they ate the paint-thin pulp off the fruit then sprouted them then used them. Video here. 

Bunya Bunya seeds. Photo by Green Deane

PS: I wrote this original article about a decade ago. If I had one more possible stable to add it would be the seeds of the Bunya Bunya. The tree is an ornamental along the gulf coast and up the west coast of United States. When the “cones” are on the ground the seeds are edible (same with the Norfolk Pine.) The seeds are starchy, some times easy to get at and other times not. They are a good source of calories but not that common. Article here, video here. 

Helmet-like petals lend to the plant's botanical name

Lamiastrum is in the eye of the beholder.

If you want a ground cover that will grow in dry, shady places, Lamiastrum is exactly what you’re looking for. But it also likes sunny, watered places and is nearly impossible to eradicate after it escapes the dry, shady place you put it in. Formal gardeners love it or hate it with few opinions in-between. Foragers just eat it.

Lamiastrum galeobdolon

In the greater mint family, Lamiastrum galeobdolon (lam-ee-AS-trum ga-lee-OB-do-lon) is a native of southern Eurasia though it is particularly common in Great Britain. In the rest of the world it is commonly found in gardens, landscaping and is naturalized in a few states in North American. Among the places it has escaped cultivation in the United States are Washington, near Seattle where it is an official noxious pest, Northern California, northeast Minnesota, Michigan (including the University of Michigan Herbaium) Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York City, particularly Long Island, Massachusetts and Virginia (Fairfax County.) And to clarify, it is common in England, might be seen in southern Scotland, is found in Wales, and also north and east Ireland. It is also naturalized in New Zealand and Australia. Lower British Columbia is being invaded by L. galeobdolon variation florentium.

In fact let me list where it is native: Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Albania, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, England, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherland, Poland, Switzerland, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuanias, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, France and Spain.

Lamiastrum galeobdolon Variegatum

Also called the Yellow Archangle and Silver Nettle Vine, it’s been botanically bounced around. It used to be Lamium galeobdolon, making it a genus kin of Henbit, Lamium amplexicaule. Later it was Galeobdolon luteum. Now it is Lamiastrum galeobdolon, which means … this will not make much sense… Resembles a Lamium covered with a helmet with a fly’s sting… ya gotta love botanists and their attempts at Dead Latin descriptions. It is called “resembles a Lamium” because it looks like a Lamium or one of the Dead Nettle crowd. The helmet part probably refers to the upper flower petal. Where the fly’s sting came from no one knows though one should note “dead nettles” don’t sting. Maybe the red on the flower’s other petal looks like blood from a fly bite.

Herman's Pride

Depending on who’s writing there are one or two species or more, two or three subspecies or more, or two or three cultivars or more, and that might be relics of all the name changing, botanical egos and the ornamental trade. Herman’s Pride and Variegatum are variations of L. galeobdolon. There are scattered references to Lamiastrum montanum which is called in some places a subspecies of Lamiastrum galeobdolon or in others a species unto itself. It’s a tempest in an herb pot. At any rate, species or subspecies both Lamiastrum galeobdolon and Lamiastrum montanum have a flower spike with whorls of flowers. If it has eight blossoms it is the Galeobdolon. If up to 20 flowers the Montanum… for today at least… There is also a spattering of references to L. florentium, L. flavidum, and L. argentatum which all might be variations of L. galeobdolon. This may be overkill but L. Florentium is considered a variety of L. argentatum which is considered a subspecies of L. galeobdolon. Apparently Florentium and Variegatum are the same species. That is also the one inundating Seattle.

Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp. argentatum

Herman’s Pride likes to clump and has green and silver variegations in the leaves very early in the season. Variegatum is similar to Herman’s Pride but the leaves are completely silver with deep green veins. Appearing to have a metallic finish, the leaves reflect sunlight and sparkle in the shade. Variegatum’s leaves are smaller, more narrow and pointed compared to other forms. While the Lamiastums resemble Lamiums they grow taller and faster and take more sun than the very seasonal Lamiums. Other than the Herman’s Pride variety they also create what appears to be a indefinitely spreading, vining mat, rooting where ever they touch the ground. There are many color variations.

Among several interesting aspect about the genus is deer don’t like to eat it, it can withstand a heavy frost, is extremely invasive, and can produce about 800 seeds per plant. While vegetative reproduction is the most common means ants are attracted to certain oils in the seeds and can carry them more than 200 feet from any seed bearing plant. For seeds to germinate they need to be moist and cool for six months, one reason why they grow well in England and why Seattle is Lamiastrum Ground Zero in the United States. (In Washington it is found in King, Kitsap, Sau Juan and Thurston counties as in the Mount. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest.)

Italy reports in 1985 from Centro CNR Per lo Studio della Chimica delle Sostanze Organiche Naturali c/o Dipartimento di Chimica, Universitá La Sapienza: The aerial parts of Lamiastrum galeobdolon subsp. flavidum two known iridoid glucosides, harpagide and 8-O-acetylharpagide, were isolated, together with a new iridoid diglucoside, 10-deoxymelittoside.

What’s an iridoid? It’s a bitter substance some plants produce to keep from being eaten. I said Lamiastrum was edible, not great. That said, like many close relatives in the mint family the Golden Dead Nettle is used as a green when young. Shoots and leaves are eaten boiled or sauteed in butter.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Golden Dead Nettle

IDENTIFICATION: Lamiastrum galeobdolon — Semi-evergreen perennial, evergreen in southern climates. Stems are erect, hairy, square like the mints,  and mat forming. Leaves are opposite, pointed, ovate to heart-shaped, one to three inches long and coarsely serrated; silvery with green veins and covered with short, fine hairs. They have a pungent odor when crushed… not exactly pleasant. Basal leaves lave long petioles. Flowers are yellow with brown spots and with a hairy ring inside, blossoms are 2-lipped, hooded, 3/4 in. long and in whorls in leaf axils; flowering June to July.

TIME OF YEAR: In northern climes shoots and leaves appear in spring, non-edible blossoms in June to July. In southern climates young leaves and shoots can be available year round.

ENVIRONEMENT: The Golden Dead Nettle is not fussy. It can grow in dry shady places or sunny watered spots. It thrives best in moist soil with partial shade.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Young shoots and leaves, boiled or sauteed.

Sea Kale in seashore gravel

Sea kale is nearly the perfect primitive food. It’s difficult to imagine it not being on primitive man’s menu.

Sea Kale in Blossom, note four-petals per flower.

We know from middens that seafood was very popular with ancient peoples. Archaeologists think early man stayed on the shore because there is so much food there. Some coastal Indians of Alaska have a saying which in modern terms means: When the tide is out the dinner table is set. And while humans were foraging for clams, crabs, fish and other seashore edibles there was sea kale. The root is very nutritious and edible raw or cooked though more calories are available when cooked. The leaves are also nutritious and make a salad  ingredient or pot herb. The plant, which lives about a dozen years, makes an extensive root system with a lot of small roots that are easy to dig up. The root tastes good raw or cooked, has more starch than potatoes and some protein as well. The roots also travel well. Eat it today, or tomorrow, or a few days from now. It’s the original take out food.

Sea kale is mentioned in some of the earliest references to food. The Romans preserved it in barrels for sea voyages. Its high vitamin C content prevented scurvy.  Sea kale was cultivated in Europe from at least the 1600s until around WWII. Even Thomas Jefferson raised some in 1809. It’s been having a comeback of late in European restaurants. As for ways to eat it, Cornucopia II says on page 58:

Sea Kale roots and young shoots.

“The blanched leafstalks are eaten raw in salads, boiled, baked, braised or otherwise prepared as asparagus. When properly cooked they retain their firmness and have a very agreeable flavor, somewhat like that of hazelnuts, with a very slight bitterness. The leaves can be boiled until soft, minced, seasoned with garlic, and served as spinachy. Plants can be forced indoors for winter use. “ There is one cultivar, Lily White. Other common names are blue seakale, sea-colewort, scurvy grass, and halmyrides.

Blossoms give way to seed pods

There are also two other species, Crambe orinetalis and Crambe tataric. C. orientalis has a very thick root that is used as a substitute for horseradish. Young flower stalks can be prepared like broccoli. The seeds have an edible oil. C. tatarica’s young leaves are are blanched and eaten raw or cooked. Its root is thick and sweet and is eaten raw in salads or cooked, often seasoned with oil, vinegar and salt.

In the cabbage clan, botanically sea kale is Crambe maritima (KRAM-bee mare-rah-TEE-mah.)  Crambe is from the Greek “Krambe” meaning cabbage or crucifer. Maritima means oceanside. While the plant can tolerate salt and grows happily on the beach it can be raised in regular gardens. In the common garden it takes about 100 days to reach maturity.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Sea Kale

IDENTIFICATION: Crambe maritima, a perennial to about three feet tall and wide, leaves fleshy, smooth with purple veins, deeply lobes, wavy edges, hardy to zone 5 or colder, not frost tender, can be a summer crop down to about zone 8,  flowers from June to August, self-fertile.

TIME OF YEAR: Any time it is found. In the garden it’s slow to grow. While it can be eaten the first season it is best left alone until the third season. It will produce for about 10 years.

ENVIRONMENT: Found growing on the shore, coastal sands, in rocks, on cliffs, often near on the drift line. While most common in Europe it is naturalized on the coasts of California and Oregon and in many ornamental gardens.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Many. The entire plant is edible raw or cooked, roots, shoots, stems, leaves, flower buds, pods. Young shoots are harvested when four or five inches long, crisp, and tender before leaves start to expand. Do not confuse sea kale with sea-kale cabbage, which is a different vegetable altogether.

Here’s a 37-second video showing Sea Kale. There’s no words or music but turn down your volume because of wind noises.