Edible Wild Status Report

Last Saturday I finally grabbed my camera and went out into the backyard to see what edible wild plant images I could capture to get this party started. Since it's also useful to know when you can find this stuff, here are some observations about what's on the scene right now in southern New Hampshire.

First, we're sort of post-peak for the violet and dandilion plants I found in the backyard. There are seeded dandilion flowers already, so the time to make wine would have been about a month ago. The same goes for candied violets, which are a classic English item I've experimented with. I'll post a separate entry on candying flowers in the future.

There's a chokecherry tree in my backyard (or, rather, black cherry according to Elias & Dykeman, but that's just a variation of chokecherry). I didn't photograph it yet because the berries aren't anywhere near ripe, they're just starting to show tiny green fruits.

There are a few lamb's quarter plants about the yard. Lamb's quarter isn't as interesting as the virtuoso dandelion, daylily, or cattail, since basically you just eat the leaves, but it's easily recognized and widespread. I'll cook some up soon, and post a recipe and picture.

I also noticed some variety of mint growing in the area where I'd cleared out a lot of out of control raspberry plants the year before. Mint isn't really a "wild" plant per se, but it's utterly tenacious once it gets a foothold, so if it's ever been planted in the vicinity (probably the previous owners of our house had done so) it'll establish itself with a vengeance. Just look for the tell-tale square stem of the mint family, break a leaf, smell it, and you'll be able to tell if it's a mint. This one's probably catmint, I think. The taste of different mint varieties varies greatly, so always be ready to try them if you come across them.



So other than the daylilies I myself have planted, that's about it for the yard off the top of my head. A little further afield right now, I've been noticing a lot of curly dock (Rumex crispus) on the side of the road next to exit ramps in the Nashua and Manchester areas. Curly dock is one of my favorites, both for it's cool latin name, and for the delicious lemony flavor of its leaves, but you do NOT want to be harvesting curly dock or any other wild edible growing right next to the highway. I'm going to have to find some good vacant lots or abandoned fields for that, as well as a good harvesting location for cattail and reed grass. No doubt the woods are full of wintergreen right now (definitely the leaves, at least), but I haven't been to such a habitat recently. It's on my to-do list!

I've started a gallery for plant pictures, the link's just there to your left. More to come!