Eating Invasive Species

Garlic mustard leaves, flowers, roots and seeds made into a few tasty foods

I have been reading and participating in a discussion regarding trading edible wild plants across state lines on a Yahoo Group. The most troubling aspect of this chat involves another Connecticut resident who wishes to trade for edibles, and that person wants to trade 3 of Connecticut's worst invasives: garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius), and autumn olives (Elaeagnus umbellata). While all of the plants are edible, they are all listed  as "illegal to move, sell, purchase, transplant, cultivate or distribute" on the October 2012 Connecticut Invasive Plant List, produced by the Connecticut Invasive Plants Council. Our take on many of these invasives (eat them!) is less serious than other groups, who wish to cut, pull, poison or eradicate many of the plants on the invasive list, but we are no less frustrated by the ignorance of some who wish to spread these plants to new areas. Our contribution may be as simple as volunteering at public educational events, or putting together a small brochure on eating the most common and tasty weeds, along with a few recipes.

Wineberries, invasive

Wineberry Bavarian dessert, delicious!

We recently became volunteers with the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group, and attended a meeting with other concerned citizens, DEEP employees, CT DOT employees, master gardeners, and land conservation managers.  One of the most encouraging actions taken by the group will be a publication of a list of native species of plants to grow in Connecticut, some of which are edible. At the meeting we picked up a small publication put out by the Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District, a non-profit group. It only includes 10 invasive plants, not all edible, with plant information and identification, plus suggestions to manage the invasive plant, and the native plant alternatives. I also have a 75 page guide to Invasive Plants in Massachusetts published by he Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife that I refer to for resources. One of the most extensive publications we own on invasive plants is Invasive Plants: Guide to the Identification and the Impacts and Control of Common North American Species by Sylvan Ramsey Kaufman and Wallace Kaufman. Along with the list of Connecticut invasive plants, I hope we are using these resources to forage and educate responsibly., and can be part of a solution, as opposed to contributing to a great ecological problem.

Autumn olives, a prolific invader

Goat cheese and autumn olive dip and dressing, eat those weeds!

Autumn Olive Recipe - Autumn Olive Ketchup

Autumn olives (Elaeagnus umbellata) are an abundant, invasive berry here in the Northeast. It turns out they are highly nutritious, containing lots of lycopene, which is a strong antioxidant good for joint health, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer treatment. Lycopene is a phytochemical, and it is in the red pigment of many foods like tomatoes, watermelons, and pink grapefruits. Autumn olives contain fantastic amounts of lycopene, some studies stating 17 times the amount of raw tomatoes. Here is a quick read from the USDA and Utah State University on their lycopene findings.

We use the ripe berries of the autumn olive bush in many recipes like jelly and dressing, they make great fruit leather and wine, and the ripe berries freeze well. The berries are tart and astringent straight from the bush, but the flavor improves with the advancing of the autumn season and with a frost. While we had a rather poor harvest in 2012 probably due to a dry summer, we did manage to find enough to experiment with. We have a recipe for ketchup using the red pulp of the autumn olive berries. I don't add any preservatives, so this is a small batch that should be kept in the refrigerator for a few weeks.

This recipe is available in our book, due Spring 2016.

http://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/book/?GCOI=60239108626260&

 

Autumn Olive Recipe - Goat Cheese and Autumn Olive Dressing/Dip

Autumn Olives (Elaeagnus umbellata) are an invasive and abundant berry in the southern New England area, and spreading west and south rapidly. Originally from Asia, they were promoted and planted as recently as the 1980's as bird cover and food, and erosion prevention shrubs. Now it is known that they are aggressive invaders, spread easily by the abundance of berries and seeds produced, the speed of maturity of a bush,  and by their their ability to negatively alter the soil that they grow in by fixing nitrogen and making it difficult for other plants to grow. Autumn olive bushes often create entire fields of nothing but autumn olives.

While they are an ecological pest, they do produce a tasty, nutritious, and abundant berry in the late summer and autumn season. We have been eating and incorporating this berry into our diet for years, adding them raw to oatmeal, made into jams and jellies, and dried into fruit leather. The berries freeze really well by spreading them on a cookie sheet and freezing them, then bagging the frozen berries in plastic baggies. By adding them to recipes we would already have eaten, we are using them as a staple food in our diet, as opposed to a survival-only food. We are attempting to eat as seasonally as we can, and these tart, red berries work nicely into many recipes that we cook in the autumn.

We often have cooked autumn olive puree on hand in the fridge to add to recipes, and it is made by cooking about 8 cups of fresh berries with 1/2 cup of water over medium heat for 5 minutes, until all of the berries have softened or burst open. Then I run the puree through a food mill to remove the seeds. When this puree sits in the fridge for a few days, it will separate into two layers, which I just whisk together before using the puree.

This recipe is for a thick, creamy dressing or dip. We served it with some toasted croutons, vegetables, and oven roasted yucca fries as a dip, but it would also nicely dress a green salad filled with walnuts and diced apples. When making the dressing, it thickens in the refrigerator after being chilled.

Goat Cheese and Autumn Olive Dressing                    makes about 2 cups

2 oz. fresh goat cheese
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 c. autumn olive puree
1/2 tsp sea salt
ground white pepper to taste
1 Tbsp chopped fresh tarragon (optional)

1. In a food processor or blender, combine the goat cheese, vinegar, and maple syrup and pulse.
2. With the food processor or blender running, add the olive oil and autumn olive puree, blending briefly until smooth.
3. Pour into a bowl, and whisk in the salt, pepper, and optional chopped tarragon. Chill about 20 minutes before serving with raw veggies for dipping, or dressed on a salad.

Autumn Olive Recipe - Autumn Olive Jelly

There are several sources online for a red, pulpy autumn olive jam (Elaeagnus umbellata). We make this jam,   but it does not keep for very long, separating into pockets of  whitish goo and red pulp after a few months.

One of the characteristics of the autumn olive berry we have noticed is that if you run them through the food mill raw, the resulting juice will separate into two distinct layers: one opaque, red and pulpy, and one translucent, light pink, and tart. If you first cook the berries, then run them through the food mill, the pulp will be less likely to separate from the juice. However, even using the cooked berry pulp results in a separated jam after some time. The red pulp of the berry contains the lycopene, but the translucent juice is what adds the puckery element to the flavor. We decided to make a less-nutritious, but clear, tart jelly from the juice alone by milling the berries raw and hanging the resulting juice in a jelly bag to further clarify the juice. The result is a tart and jewel-like jelly, filled with just a few speckles of red pulp. The resulting leftover, thick  lycopene-rich pulp that is separated from the juice is used like tomato paste in dressings or sauces, or we add it to the previously removed seeds to make wine. Considering the abundance of this invasive berry, even just discarding the pulp is a possibility.

Autumn Olive Jelly                makes 6 pints

16 c. raw autumn olives
2 1/2 c. sugar
1 box (1.75 oz) Sure*Jell low sugar pectin

1. Run the raw autumn olives through a food mill to remove the seeds and small stems, passing it through at least twice.
2. Hang the resulting juice and pulp in a jelly bag for an hour. You need to have 4 1/2 cups of the light pink, clear juice. Discard the pulp in the jelly bag.
3. Mix 1/4 c.of the sugar with the pectin in a small bowl, and then whisk it into the juice in a large pot.
4. Bring the juice to a rolling boil, and add the rest of the sugar all at once, stirring.
5. Bring the jelly back up to a rolling boil, and boil 1 minute. Remove from the heat, skim the foam from the top, and ladle into hot, sterilized jars. Process 15 minutes in boiling water. Cool.

Photo Collage - Black Locust

Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is native to the Appalachian Mountain area, and is considered an invasive tree in other places. It grows quickly, and often in clusters, crowding out native vegetation and aggressively invading fields.  The bark of older Black Locust trees is grey and deeply furrowed. The tree can grow up to 100 feet tall, and the trunk is usually crooked. The wood is very strong and rot resistant, often used in posts. The leaves are compound with 7 to 21 oval, smooth edged leaflets. On smaller trees, a pair of thorns grow at the leaf axils. For about only one week in mid-spring, the white flower clusters droop from the trees, making the entire tree appear white. Each flower in the cluster has a yellow spot on its top petal, and the flowers look like pea blossoms. They are crispy when picked, and can be refrigerated or even frozen for later use. They are most fragrant right before opening, or within a day or so. If the blossoms are browned or falling to the ground, it is too late to pick them. The roots of the trees alter the nitrogen content of the soil. Most parts of the tree are toxic, causing digestive system problems. In late summer the tree produces flat, green seedpods that looks like beans containing flat seeds. It is only the flowers that we gather and consume.



The best way to eat the blossoms is raw from the tree, and the taste of the raw flowers is sweet like fresh peas.  Use them in a salad, or stir them into hot oatmeal. We remove the flowers from the brownish-green cluster stem and add them to pancakes and doughnut batter, or add them to an egg custard. Robert makes a sweet drink with the flowers steeped in water, honey, and lemon juice. Last year we made a peasant wine with the blossoms, and it is fantastic--floral, mostly dry, and wonderfully clarified. We have also made some black locust flower jelly and some flower-scented sugar. Robert also made a black locust blossom syrup, which we mix with seltzer for a bubbly non-alcoholic cocktail. The blossoms attract lots of bees and ants, and the trees will seem to "hum" with activity as you walk past one in mid-spring.