Posts Tagged ‘weed identification’

7 Aug

Hippie’s Been Had: Sunberries

Posted by rakhi in Experiments, Food, Plant Identification. Tagged: , , , , .

I’d like to think that This Hippie was not born yesterday. I do a lot of obsessive research about plants, food, and gardening to make sure that I understand what’s going on. But then things like this happen to invite speculation that, perhaps, I am just a chump. In fairness, I tend to have the same compulsions that many edible gardeners have – to find new exciting plants to grow and new delicious food to eat. And so, last spring when I was in one of my favorite shops, Eggplant Urban Farm Supply, perusing the seeds, and ran into this mystery seed pack labeled “Sunberry” I immediately became intrigued and bought a pack for planting this year. And plant I did.

Cultivated sunberry plants in my front-yard edible garden.

After taking a look-see at these plants, I noticed that they looked suspiciously like a weed growing in my boulevard:

Boulevard (“Wild”) Sunberry Plant. Please notice that it is much more mature than the plants that I cultivated.

And wouldn’t you know it. They are the same damn plant. Although not indicated on the “Sunberry” seed pack, I found out from this book that “Sunberry” is merely a name given to the plant Black Nightshade to distract from its relation to Deadly Nightshade, which is highly poisonous. And black nightshade is a ubiquitous weed that grows prolifically in the Midwest including, for example, the uncultivated section of my boulevard. It’s related to many of the most delicious cultivated garden vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes.

The sepal of the deadly nightshade berry extends beyond the fruit. So, for the Love of God, don’t eat it. attribution.

After making sure the Boulevard plant (white flowers; bug-eaten leaves; berry clusters; sepal is smaller than the berry) was not deadly nightshade (purple flowers; generally uneaten leaves; single berries; sepal is bigger than the berry; smells of death), I tasted this unexpected treat, and promptly pulled out two of the three plants taking up space in my community garden plot. In flavor it’s very similar to ground cherry, which I don’t get very excited about – at least when compared to tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. And, since it’s in the same family as those other vegetables, it’s competing for the same nutrients as the tomato plants sitting next to it.  I did keep one plant because maybe it will make a unique salsa or something. We’ll see. The one remaining black nightshade plant in my plot is, by far, outperforming all of my tomato, pepper and eggplant plants. So at the very least it is sucking up nutrients which will make lovely compost for a future garden bed.

10 Jul

My Most Harvestable Edible

Posted by rakhi in Gardening, Plant Identification, Weeds. Tagged: , , , , .

It’s entirely possible that the reason why I’m posting so much about weeds right now is because, quite frankly, weeds are the most harvest-able edible in my garden. Take my community garden plot harvest from Sunday in the photo above, for example. On the left you have a single okra pod, a miniature sweet pepper, a gypsy pepper, and various delightful radishes. On the right you have purslane (pig weed). A succulent weed.

So cute.

Back when my front yard garden was merely *shudder* a yard, I used to have oodles of purslane growing everywhere because my yard was dry. Because purslane grows particularly deep roots to get moisture, it was able to flourish where other plants dare not take root. Now that my front yard is an oasis, the purslane is nowhere to be found, and other weeds have taken its place.

I am pleased that this year purslane has made a strong showing in my community garden plot, which is sandy and dry. This magical little weed is so fascinating – not to mention really, really healthy to eat. Purslane is eaten all over the world and has the highest levels of omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy green (in fact, it has the same amount as lake trout!), has six times the Vitamin E of spinach, and 7 times more beta carotene than carrots. I did put some of the purslane in my salad the other night, and it tasted exactly like a delicious salad green.

Wikipedia even mentions that purslane can be a good companion plant to help the roots of other plants reach moisture.

The foodies among us will be pleased the epicurious has a number of purslane recipes that might be worth a gander. Also, the Sierra Club just posted some awesome “Wild Greens” recipes including dandelion currant pasta, purslane salad, nettles pizza, and lambsquarter crostini!

2 Jul

Weed Identification and Use: Burdock

Posted by rakhi in A Happy Accident, Experiments, Plant Identification. Tagged: , , , , .

A few days ago I was perusing the vegetation at Mississippi Market and I ran into this:

Burdock Root

Which immediately made me picture this weed in my boulevard:

Burdock plant – commonly mistaken for rhubarb if not further inspected.

The Mississippi Market display, above, combined with my uncanny deductive abilities led me to believe that the roots of burdock can be eaten. So, naturally, I’ve done some research and found that not only is burdock the plant that led to the invention of Velcro, but it has a long history of being eaten throughout the world, and is currently still popular in Asia (if you’ve ever seen “gobo” on your sushi, menu, that would be it!).

Burdock is a type of thistle and, as such, is related to the artichoke. Because it’s a biennial plant, the first year it builds up the root system and the second year it produces flowers and seed. It looks like the ideal time to harvest the roots is at the end of the first year, when the plant has built up the root system, although some say you can harvest the roots from when the plant is 2-4 months old to right before the flower stalks appear the second year.  Prepared the root by scouring the dirt off the outside (not peeling, because this greatly reduces the nutritional value) and cooking it however you want: stir-fry, boil, roast, deep-fry. Some recommend par-boiling first to help with tenderness and reduce bitterness.

The immature flower stalks can be pealed and eaten raw or cooked, which apparently tastes like artichoke. I think that’s what I’ll be doing with this plant since it’s in its second year – and, yes, it has taken me that long to research it. Bite me.

Burdock has also been used medicinally for centuries for tons of hippie-stuff  like supporting liver function to cleanse the blood, and it has largely overlapping medicinal value with curly dock, which I wrote about here.

Anyone out there have experience eating or using burdock? Tell me about it!

14 Jun

Weed Identification: Curled Dock

Posted by rakhi in Experiments, Gardening, Weeds. Tagged: , .

Curled dock leaves and flowers

I’ve been trying to identify this weed in my lawn for over a year – although I use the term “weed” to mean that I didn’t plant it. Last year the plant was much, much smaller, and looked a lot like my baby maximilian sunflower plant that I have in the backyard. Given my reluctance to destroy mystery plants, I let it live and today, dear readers, I finally found a weed identification tool from our neighbors to the East (some of whom may, given the current political climate, flee and become our neighbors to the North :) ).

I really like the green flowers, and it looks like later in the summer the seed heads will turn red. In Minnesota, curled dock is on the noxious weed list. Which is particularly interesting to me because they’re apparently edible and nutritious and related to sorrel and buckwheat. I’m thinking the plant seems a bit mature to eat the leaves, so I might give the seeds a go after a little more research.

Curled dock flowers

11 Jun

Agricultural Economy Collapses; Hippie Lets out a Maniacal Laugh

Posted by rakhi in Experiments, Gardening, Weeds. Tagged: , , , , .

I have trouble pulling weeds out of my lawn. The problem is that I feel the need to identify and learn about the plant before I pull it because, otherwise, who knows what glorious being I am killing off. It could be amazing! I could be losing out! And last year, my fears came to fruition when I pulled out a rogue peony plant, gifted to me by none other than St. Paul Free Compost Site. While I tried to save the peony, it has not made an appearance this year. Lesson learned.

One weed that grows like…well…a weed…in my garden beds is this little fella:

It took no time to identify as lambs quarters at all, because UMN Extension has this Weed Seedling Photo Collection that showed me exactly what it looks like. They looked so hardy and veggie-like that my first thought was that they were some of my seeds sprouting up.  Little did I know that humans have a long history of eating that stuff.  Not only the leaves have been eaten, but also its seeds are used like a grain and it is a pseudo-cereal like quinoa.  This website talks about eating lambs quarters.

It definitely became time to rid my perennial bed of the little invaders, so I figured that instead of composting them, I would eat them. And so, my dear readers, I did.

I cut them at ground level so as not to disturb the soil, washed them, pulled off the leaves, and sauteed them in olive oil with lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil. Although I read that they would taste exactly like spinach, I didn’t believe it, but sure enough. It tasted like spinach. It also made a great side dish to grilled trout and french bread.

I struggle with this. Here I am, annoyed with my leafy greens for being slower than I would like, bolting too quickly, and not getting big enough, and this ridiculously healthy “weed” is coming up all around me. For free, and for no work at all. All food should be this easy.

Lambs quarters with garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt.

Preparing the lambs quarters.

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