Culinary weeds they are free and fresh!
By drc726
11 comments
We have had questions on how to get rid of problem weeds recently so here is yet another way!
In medieval times Ground elder was grown as a vegetable cook it like spinach for a strong and different flavour.
Greater plantain seeds make a healthy snack rich in calcium.
Japanese knotweed pie – tastes like rhubarb.
Burdock vinegar has a rich flavour
Burdock and dandelion drink.
Elderberries for wine.
Alliaria officinallis year round salads and a condiment
Purslane for a crunchy salad.
Mallow leaves and flowers in salads.
Yellow dock adds flavour to apple cider vinegar
Nettles were once cultivated for the kitchen, cook young nettle shoots in May/June like spinach, add to porridge, makes a good soup, gnocchi or if you need a laxative use the mature leaves.
Chickweed salad with a wild angelica dressing.
Dandelions pick from the young heart and serve in salads, add to sandwiches or cook like Spinach, or make caffeine free Dandelion coffee.
Sorrel makes good soup.
Pickled Nasturtiums, Marigold flowers in soups and stews and salads, Rose ice cream and rose petal jam, Violets were added to meats and put in desserts or sugared for decoration, Carnations made a soft drink called Sops in Wine. Hogweed in biscuits.
Perhaps we should start a weed swapping shop what could you swap (Do not include medicinal plants) and then will we actually need green grocers?
3 Oct, 2009
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Comments
They used just about everything you could find then Denise! Haven't even heard of some of them.
3 Oct, 2009
Plenty of "food for thought" there Drc.....thank you :)
3 Oct, 2009
I could have made the list miles longer. I do believe Fluff that everything that grows once had a purpose but we have forgotton most of it - progress!
3 Oct, 2009
I've heard some people call Japanese Knotweed 'wild rhubarb'. Now I know why.
My mother always said when she was little she would make sandwiches of Dandelion leaves. My Gran wasn't willing for her to do it .. lol
The sting of nettles is supposed to be good for rhumatism apparently. I know of someone who was made to roll in a patch of them when she was little in order to cure it. She never had it afterwards. I don't know if I would like to do that ... lol
4 Oct, 2009
We have started getting little pansy flowers in the bags of fresh salad leaves you can buy in the shops. They look very pretty on your plate (tasteless though)
5 Oct, 2009
I know what you mean Spindle perhaps they came from all those cleared roundabouts?
5 Oct, 2009
Chickweed and potato souffle was, believe it or not, one of the first things I remember makig the family for a meal when I was a teenager. The family loved it, and used to ask for it. Still have the recipe, may try it again. :-)
5 Oct, 2009
Sounds really tasty David
5 Oct, 2009
It is, really, tastes a bit minty (well, real mint does go well with potatoes, anyway). Must try this again, soon, but chickweed not so readily available now as was in our garden 30 yrs ago, and when we had pet rabbits! :-)
6 Oct, 2009
Greenthumb told me that Rosebay Willowherb makes a lovely veg! The young shoots taste like asparagus! He's right too! Really nice!! Thats my weed problems sorted then, thanks Denise!
8 Oct, 2009
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That's a really interesting blog Drc :)
The way food prices are going, it won't be long before we resort to supplementing our diets with "weeds!" I've got dandelions, nasturtiums, rose petals and a few nettles....should be able to make Sunday lunch out of that lot, lol ;)
3 Oct, 2009