Cooking with Weed(s)

It's an amazing thing to walk down the street and to pick up a weed or a flower and eat it; it's a skill that I started off knowing little about, but have come to appreciate more and more. This episode of The Perennial Plate explores some of the common edibles that you may see around town or in the woods--and shows you how to cook some of the greens. (Check out the full recipe for day lily ravioli.)

Note: Before eating any wild edible, make sure you know what it is; double-check field guides before you eat.

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Comments

[AG creative]

06:33 PM on 05/02/2011

I smoke weeds, I don't eat them.

[ndem]

09:05 AM on 05/02/2011

beautiful enjoyed it...just came back from the S of France where I made dandelion tea and flowers salads...alos rosehip syrup...and great pasta sauce, wild fenouil, anchovies and tomatoes yum!

[AG creative]

06:34 PM on 05/02/2011

that was beautiful ~ *sniff.

[seajewel]

12:34 AM on 05/02/2011

I thought this was some kind of a joke at first, clip starts off with a shooting, hacking and the scene showing the murder weapon... a bloody knife as if it's a murder mystery movie. As a fellow forager I was completely not ready for that and find it too graphic not to mention cruelty towards animals is not my thing.

[Desiree LeAnn Winans]

12:08 AM on 05/02/2011

PS: young nettles are best. (picked before June 1)

[Desiree LeAnn Winans]

12:06 AM on 05/02/2011

Nettle is totally edible! Don't you know your herbs! Once you cook with them or steep them in boiled water it kills the 'sting'. Very very nutritious plant:)

[Karen Raczewski Monger]

05:20 PM on 05/01/2011

We live in Connecticut and love to go foraging and cook with what we bring home Check out our foraging blog and recipes here:

http://the3foragers.blogspot.com/

[MJinCanada]

11:00 PM on 04/30/2011

I've added purslane to salad and eaten it straight out of the garden -- to my children's chagrin.

Now that I can identify lamb's quarters and wood sorrel too.... Mwahahaha!

BTW, the seeds of the caragana shrub (aka Siberian pea) are also edible.

[BluebirdofUnhappiness]

04:10 PM on 05/01/2011

Purslane is supposely very good for you. I have a fondness for young dandelion greens myself.

[Hardyman1966]

12:47 PM on 04/30/2011

I TOTALLY thought this was about something else...

[stape45]

10:23 AM on 04/30/2011

Weed WILL make you cook!

[chaapai]

01:45 AM on 04/30/2011

be a real progressive website HP and post recipes for cooking with weed!

[Oginikwe]

10:52 PM on 04/29/2011

Two really good guides for this are:
A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Lee Allen Peterson, and
Field Guide to North American Edible Wild Plants by Thomas Elias and Peter Dykeman.

Aside from people confusing Queen Anne's Lace with deadly poisonous Water Hemlock (QAL has a tiny, deep purple flower right in the middle of the umbrel of tiny white flowers and the umbrel often curves in where Water Hemlock umbrels usually curve out), it is also easy to confuse white snakeroot with boneset--snakeroot is toxic while boneset is a wonderful healing herb.

[Kelli Williams]

10:03 AM on 04/30/2011

Another good foraging guide is:
The Forager's Harvest by Samuel Thayer

He lives a foraging lifestyle and has a lot of great advise while remaining cautious.
Thanks for the info!

[ianmcc]

12:19 PM on 04/29/2011

Hm, technically my favorite flower Queen Anne's Lace is a weed, and is also the originating precursor to the modern day carrot in it's roots. I wonder if the carrot root at the bottom of a QAC is edible?

[nevernot]

02:08 PM on 04/29/2011

They are edible, but keep in mind before they flower they appear very similar to hemlock. Be sure, absolutely sure, you've identified it before eating any. Hemlock poisoning hurts like hell.

[ianmcc]

02:30 PM on 04/29/2011

Thanks for the info! Would you also know can it be used in a recipe that uses modern day carrots, or would the potential taste be too different? Anyway, can't wait for summer to come and their two blooming periods (in MI they bloom 2X at the start and toward the end of summer) to find out!

[kapalabhati]

12:18 PM on 05/02/2011

Yes, we called them "wild carrot" at summer camp.

[Kelli Williams]

11:44 AM on 04/29/2011

So Daylilies, what part? The flower? The root? I am very interested in foraging, but it is a lifestyle we have long ago abandoned and many people no longer know what is safe to eat, so when posting such recipes (which I really like) you must be very specific in the plant (binomial nomenclature should ALWAYS be used) and in which part is used. Most nightshade fruits (Solanaceae family) are edible, but not all, while the leaves and roots are very poisonous, so I think this distinction should always be made in any wild food recipe. Otherwise I think this is great! We just have to be careful about information given to the general public, I have studied medicinal and edible plants for a long time, but there are very few I would instruct just anyone to forage for, because one small mistake can be fatal.
Thank, KDW
P.S. Young milkweed shoots look very similar to dogbane which is poisonous in quantity...if it tasted bitter and bad...DO NOT EAT IT!

[Daniel Klein]

08:47 PM on 04/29/2011

Thanks for the comment. I included the Note to encourage people to use a field guide before they eat anything wild.

[zymos]

09:43 PM on 05/02/2011

Actually, people sometimes add a tomato leaf to a pot of tomato sauce with no ill effects.
I wouldn't eat a salad of them, but they aren't THAT toxic...

[NYCFoodie]

11:10 AM on 04/29/2011

This is very cool. Who knew all this bounty was right outside my front door?! Excited to go foraging.

[cabinetmaniac]

08:37 AM on 04/29/2011

Don't eat anything from the side of a road or alley. I would be far less concerned about a little dog pee than the hydrocarbon pollutants coming off the road.

I learned a lot from this site:

http://www.eattheweeds.com/www.EatTheWeeds.Com/EatTheWeeds.com/Archive.html

I found out that I have several edible "weeds" in my yard.

Pretty cool.

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