Dandelion Recipe - Dandelion Flower Pasta

One of the earliest flowers to bloom in the fickle spring weather would be our common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), often the scourge of picky lawn groomers. The blooms are appreciated by our pollinators, and the entire plant is edible by foragers. 

The unopened flower buds can be collected and pickled as a large caper-like condiment, or lightly boiled and eaten as a vegetable. 

The recognizable yellow flower heads are composed of many ray florets packed together that look like flower petals, backed by green bracts. Each flower grows on one unbranched, hollow stem that is sparsely covered by hairs and will exude a white, milky latex when cut, but there may be many flower stems growing from each plant.

 As they  go to seed, they transform into the white pom-pom seed head, with each seed (achene) connected to a silky tuft that helps the seeds disperse on the winds.

The leaves of the dandelion grow in a basal rosette, and each leaf is deeply toothed and can appear incredibly variable in shape. The midrib of the leaf is slightly juicy, and the leaves will also exude a milky latex when cut. We collect the leaves before the plant produces its flower stems or under shady conditions before they become too bitter, and either eat them raw or add them to any dish that calls for leafy greens. Dandelion greens contain abundant vitamins and minerals, especially vitamins A, C, and K, and are good sources of calcium, potassium, iron, and manganese.

 

Dandelions are perennial, growing from a long, thin skinned taproot that can be up to 24" long and difficult to dig up in one piece. Robert likes to roast the taproots in the oven until very dark and dry, filling the house with aromas of coffee and dark chocolate, before grinding the roasted roots into a bitter coffee-substitute. 

In the early spring, we dig the taproots and collect them with the newly emerged greens still attached. We cut off the greens, but leave about an inch or less of the juicy midribs attached to the tops of the trimmed taproots. Once that section of the dandelion is soaked in some cold water, it "blooms" open, and with the light purple color on the lower midribs, they can look like an underwater creature, earning them the nickname "land squid". They then can be boiled or roasted as a wonderful vegetable to be used in recipes or as a side dish.

This recipe uses the yellow ray florets of the flower, removing most of the green bracts as possible by pinching and twisting the flower head. This process should be done soon after picking the flowers, or they will close up! We also use the sweet, yellow flowers in a honey-challah bread, in a wonderful jelly, while brewing herbal beers, and in peasant wines. We also prefer to use a scale and weigh the ingredients to make a consistent product.

 Dandelion Flower Pasta                 makes about 4 servings, one pound of pasta

US measurements:
10.6 oz. semolina flour
1/2 tsp. salt
0.7 oz dandelion flowers
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 c. water 

International measurements:
300 g semolina flour
3 g salt
20 g dandelion flowers
20 g oil
120 g water

1. In a bowl, combine the semolina flour with the salt.
2. In a high speed blender, combine the dandelion flowers, oil and water, and blend until smooth and no pieces remain. Pour into the semolina flour, and mix until a dough forms.
3. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, allow it to rest for 5 minutes, then knead it further for 5 minutes.
4. Wrap the dough in plastic or cover with a damp towel, and allow it to rest at least 30 minutes. It can be refrigerated for a day or so if tightly wrapped.
5. Cut the dough ball into quarters, and use a pasta roller to roll it out into flat sheets, starting at level 1 and rolling it down to level 5 thickness, re-folding and rolling it again if it is falling apart. The more you work it, the smoother it becomes. We like the fettuccine size cut for this firm dough. 
6. Dry the pasta and store, or cook in plenty of salted, boiling water, about 2-3 minutes, until al dente. Toss with butter or a sauce, and serve.

Invasive Bamboo Identified

I like to keep a current list of the invasive plants of Connecticut on hand, and on the copy I printed out, I highlight the edible ones. Just doing our part to reduce the invasive plants by eating them! We eat garlic mustard, Japanese knotweed, Rugosa roses, autumn olives, wineberry, sheep sorrel, dandelions, black locust blossoms, and now we found a few local sources for yellow groove bamboo.

Older stalks and some of the still-sheathed stalks from this year

Observe the yellow groove on the stalk

Yellow groove bamboo (Phyllostachys aureosulcata) is a grass that is often sold as an ornamental, promoted as good for privacy hedges. While not on the invasive list, it is a plant that is monitored by the CT Invasive Plants Council, and homeowners who plant it are subject to rules about letting it escape property boundaries and fines for not containing their bamboo groves. Yellow groove bamboo is very aggressive and spreads easily through underground rhizomes, and we have seen it growing up through the pavement. Yellow grove bamboo is a cold hearty variety, living through the winters here in Connecticut just fine. I see it listed as invasive in neighboring New York, as well as into the southern states where it grows in temperate to sub-tropical climates. As another invasive plant, we would never recommend planting yellow groove bamboo on your own property, or spreading it in any wild areas due to its destructive nature.

Bamboo shoots are mostly water, and are a low-calorie, high-fiber vegetable popular in Asia. They are eaten raw, boiled, pickled, canned, roasted and grilled. Not all species of bamboo are edible, some are rather bitter and others may contain a cyanogenic glycoside, (taxiphyllin), which can change to hydrogen cyanide in your gut. This toxin breaks down in water, so just to be safe, we boil our bamboo shoots.

 In Connecticut, the stalks grow up to 20-30 feet tall, and many of the leaves will drop in our cold winters.  Each stalk has cross walls, and the stalk is hollow, making it light. The leaf branches alternate on the stalk, and on the side of the stalk where a leaf stem emerges, there is a distinct yellow groove in the segment of stalk between the cross walls. Robert and Gillian like to collect sections of the stalks to make drinking cups and vases for flowers, and to carry small things around. The dry, mature stalks can be used as building materials for trellises in gardens, or for plant stakes.

The shoots are easily separated from the protective sheath

New shoots start emerging in May, and we can harvest them for about 3 weeks by chopping the top 1-2 feet off of the rapidly growing stalks, or finding the newly emerging shoots between the mature stalks. The shoots have a sheath covering them when they first emerge, and it is striped yellow, green, and a bit of purple. This leafy sheath should be removed, and we slice the shoot lengthwise first before sliding a thumb under the chambered shoot and the sheath; it should come apart quite easily. We then boil the split shoots for about 15-20 minutes in water with added rice or rice bran, which is the traditional Japanese way to prepare takenoko. Tossed with some soy sauce and ginger, or lemon juice and olive oil, they make a fantastic cold salad, or delicious cooked vegetable.

Cut and cleaned shoots, ready to boil and eat

Gillian using the saw to cut some bamboo lengths for playing

Milkweed Shoots vs. Dogbane shoots

Milkweed shoots ready to cook and enjoy

Milkweed shoots are not for absolute beginner foragers, and milkweed is a good plant to observe for a full year in all of its life stages before trying to consume it. A few people may have a bad reaction to milkweed in their diet as well, so taking it slow at first with tasting is a good idea. Spring shoots of milkweed are the only parts that can really be confused with another inedible and mildly toxic plant--branching dogbane. Both of these plants grow in the same habitat of open fields and roadsides, so some close observation, guidance, and experience is needed to safely forage this springtime edible.

Dogbane vs. Milkweed closeups of the stalks

 Common milkweed shoots, Asclepias syriaca, have a thick, lightly fuzzy stalk with opposite leaves that are oval shaped and fuzzy as well. They are at a good size for collection before the leaves have uncurled too much, about 5-8 inches tall. All parts of milkweed will ooze a white, milky latex when cut. Branching dogbane shoots, Apocynum cannabinum, are more slender than milkweed shoots, have a slightly red tinge, and are smooth, but also have opposite, oval shaped leaves that are slightly fuzzy. Dogbane also exudes a milky latex when cut. It is very important to look for the fine hairs on the specimen to properly identify milkweed vs. dogbane, we use a small jeweler's loupe, but a magnifying glass works just as well.

Dogbane vs. Milkweed shoots

While dogbane has practical uses in making cording, it is not an edible shoot, and contains cardiac glycosides, toxins that affect the heart. It is terribly bitter to taste, a warning sign in any plant that a human or animal may try to consume. Later in its life cycle, dogbane will produce multiple branches from the main stalk, differentiating it from milkweed which does not branch often. The flowers of milkweed and dogbane are also very different, and no confusion between the two plants happens at such a late stage. Dogbane is sometimes planted in flower gardens and is a common weed that is native to North America, so it doesn't need to be removed or eradicated, just properly identified when hunting for milkweed shoots in the spring as food.

Milkweed flowers

Wild Cranberries Identified

Wild large cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon) are native North American plants found in eastern Canada, the Northeastern New England states, the upper Midwestern states, and south to North Carolina. They grow in wet, acidic soils, often in bogs and and swampy spots, in pine barrens, and along coastal areas. Historically they were eaten by Native Americans, who called them sassamanash. Currently, cranberries are a major commercial crop for several regions, including Massachusetts and New Jersey as well as several Canadian provinces.

Our small patch grows near a boggy area in a mixed forest, in a small field area that floods seasonally in the spring with rainwater. It took us two seasons to observe the growing cycle of the wild cranberry, and we got to see the habitat in many different stages, from totally flooded to completely dry.

The first time we found the cranberry plants, I was a little surprised by their small stature. I was expecting something more like a blueberry, but these plants are very small, trailing shrubs, growing close to the ground. They create roots at their leaf nodes, and many stems are connected by underground rhizomes, creating dense mats of vine-like growth. The slightly woody stems are slender and hairless, branching rarely, and growing about 12" tall. The leaves are leathery and evergreen, 1/2" ovals with blunt tips, and are pale green on the undersides.

Flowers appear in the late spring, after some of the flood waters of spring rains have drained slowly from the acidic soil in the small field. We visited several times this spring to try to photograph the flowers, but it was very flooded in the area this year, and we had a hard time finding the small flowers, which are pollinated by bees. They have four reflexed, light pink petals with a golden-beige stamen that points downward. Many of the flowers we found were actually blooming underwater, since the water had not receded yet, and I wonder if that contributed to the smaller harvest we made this season. Gillian didn't mind exploring the flooded field, poking along the edges of the woods looking for immature berries or flowers. This field also has lots of native sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina) growing in it, and is surrounded by white pines, indicating the sandy, acidic soil composition.

The fruit starts growing through the summer and ripens in the autumn. Large wild cranberries grow from a wiry, short stem along the leaf axils. The fruit seems almost comically large in comparison to the stem of the plants, but the fruit are also incredibly light since they are hollow. One to three berries grow from each woody stem, and they are fairly easy to pick. Cranberries ripen from pink to red, and are acidic and tart tasting. Inside are several very small, light brown seeds sprinkled throughout the partially hollow interior, along with the pinkish-white flesh that is spongy and light. We pick a few buckets, rinse them off, and freeze most of the cranberries to use all year long. The size of the berries are comparable to commercial cranberries, and they can be used in all the same ways: cranberry sauce, in muffins and pancakes, dehydrated, in pies, and juiced with a bit of apples for sweetness. Cranberries are high in pectin and vitamin C, plus beta carotene and anthocyanins, and can contribute to healthy kidney and urinary tract functions. The berries can persist through frost, and we found some of last year's berries in the very early spring that survived the winter. They are crisp when fresh, and soften once they have been frozen.

Trout Lily Identified

Leaves, stems, corms in their papery sheath

There are several spring ephemeral plants we look forward to harvesting after a long, dreary winter and our bodies are craving something green and fresh. Hairy bittercress leaves are one, trout lilies are another. Commonly called trout lilies, fawn lilies, or dog's-tooth violets, (Erythronium americanum) are only visible for a brief period in the early spring, poking up leaves in late March or April, and disappearing again by late June. The mottled leaves are said to look like spots on a trout, and the underground corm is shaped like a dog's canine tooth, hence the common names. The plants take advantage of the abundant moisture of the winter snow melt and spring rains, and the abundant sunshine before many deciduous trees leaf out and shade the forest floor before becoming dormant for the remainder of the year.

Leaves, underside and top

Trout lilies are small plants with one or two 3"-7" lance-shaped leaves growing from the underground corm, or small bulb. Each leaf tapers at the ends, and is a dull green mottled with greyish-purple spots that often fade as spring advances. A single flower is produced on a 4"-8" stem growing directly from the base of the plant. The flower has six backward curving petals and protruding stamens, and the whole flower often appears to be pointing downwards. There are 23 species of Erythronium lilies native to North America, and our local trout lily has a yellow flower, but other species can have pink or white flowers. Erythronium lilies are abundant in eastern woodlands, the Rocky Mountains, wetter parts of the Great Plains and Pacific states.

Trout lily flower

Some guidebooks claim the entire trout lily plants is edible, but we usually only eat the underground corm. The raw leaves have a mildly bitter taste that none of us like, and we have not tried to eat the yellow flowers. We sparingly dig the tiny corms once or twice a year if we come across a healthy patch of trout lilies while out in the woods already. We don't remove many corms, because that kills the plant, and they are slow to reproduce and are losing habitat in Connecticut quickly to houses and lawns. The corm is very small, between 1/8"-1/2" long, elongated, and covered in a light brown papery skin that we remove before eating. The taste of the corm in the earliest parts of the spring are very sweet, since they are full of natural sugars that the plant needs to produce leaves and its flower. As the season progresses, the corm will become more firm and starchy, but still tasty. It has a firm crunch and is flavored like sweet corn or sweet peas. Because of the small size of the corm, it is difficult to dig in quantity. You might want to add some peeled corms to a veggie stir fry like water chestnuts, or add them raw to a spring greens salad, but we like them best fresh from the ground while hiking along a trail.

End of season lilies, flower has died back, leaves are dying

Can I Eat Those Onions in My Yard?

Green life among the brown debris

Now that spring has finally arrived, things are starting to green up. Looking at most lawns, you just see brown grass, but many lawns, roadsides, and open fields will be filled with clusters of tall, thin leaves of field garlic. The leaves are thin and hollow, looking just like chives. If you pick some and give them a smell, it has a strong onion odor. Some of the larger, tougher leaves have ridges that run along the length of the leaf that you can see and feel like corduroy  If you dig under the clump, you'll find some small, white bulbs, often with smaller cloves on the sides. Eventually, at the top of the strongest leaf stalks, a small cluster of bubils will form, along with small, purplish-pink flowers.

The field garlic we find most often is Allium vineale, originally from Europe. All parts of the field garlic are edible when young, the leaves will be most tender when smaller, and the bulbs taste best before the plant makes flowers later in spring. Even the small, pretty flowers can be added as an edible flower to salads. We snip the clusters of leaves with scissors and use them raw like chives in cottage cheese or breads, and add them to soups for onion flavor. The bulbs are too small to cook with like an onion, and some people find their stronger flavor undesirable  I suppose you could clean them and crush them like garlic bulbs, but we like to just sprinkle them with salt and olive oil, and toss them on the grill until they are tender and lightly charred.

Grilled onions, great on sandwiches

Many who care for their lawns find the field garlic to be a nuisance and will apply weed killers and try to dig up the clumps of bulbs. Field garlic spreads by itself easily by the underground bulbs and by the falling bubils after the plant flowers. 

If you are eating your yard onions, make sure no pesticides or herbicides have been applied to the lawn. Avoid gathering your yard onions from the edge of the road due to car fumes and salt contamination. If you have a dog, it is best to get your field garlic from somewhere else. Otherwise, enjoy one of spring's first green vegetables while you wait for the season to progress and the ramps come out!

Cleaned and ready to be used

Wild Edibles in Hawaii - Screwpine Keys and Passionfruit

 

After a year of saving our dimes and dollars, we made another trip to the paradise of Hawaii, this time to the Big Island. The island is quite large, so we spent our time doing a lot of driving through the distinct climates: between tropical forests, coastal beaches, active volcanoes, and barren high altitude dormant volcanic mountains. We encountered many of the wild edibles that we found on Maui and Kauai, such as coconuts, starfruit and noni, breadfruit, and guavas. Most of our daily fruit bounty was picked up at the many local farmer's markets, where the assortment of tropical fruit was dizzying, and the prices were insanely low. We sampled many new fruits, made lots of fresh smoothies, and ate very well on vacation. We even stopped at every roadside honor stand, buying macadamia nuts, tiny limes and giant grapefruits. The availability of fresh fruit on the island is wonderful, as we re-tried many favorites and managed to buy and forage a few new wild edibles.

While on the southwestern coast, we stopped at the Amy B H Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Captain Cook. This garden is a wonderful resource to learn about the Hawaiian people and the plants they grew and used. There are 200 endemic, indigenous, and plants introduced by the Polynesians featured in 15 acres of gardens, most of them labeled and described in detail in the guidebook that you borrow from the front desk. Many of the plants in the garden had multiple uses as building material, food, and traditional medicine and had spiritual significance. It was at these gardens we were first introduced to the edibility of screwpine keys.

Screwpine fruit

Pulp eaten away,
 showing the fibers

Ripe screwpine "keys"

The screwpine (Pandanus tectorius) is called hala in Hawaiian, and is likely indigenous, arriving from Pacific islands over ocean currents.It was a very important plant to the Hawaians, the spiny leaves being used for weaving and thatching, and the "keys" of the fruit for paint brushes, as food, and for a medicinal mouthwash to treat thrush. The tree is palm-like, with the leaves arranged in a spiral around the stem, and having many prop-roots at the base of the trunk. They are often found at the coast along beaches, but also along the edges of steep cliffs. The female trees bear large fruits that look a bit like pineapples or pine cones, with seeds that break off in many segments. As the fruit ripens from green to yellow to red, the "keys" fall to the ground. Each key has a bit of starchy, edible pulp attached to some very tough fibers, and the flavors ranged from sweet to mildly sweet, to potato-like. The fibers left behind once you used your tooth to scrape off the pulp were used as paintbrushes by Hawaiians, and it is easy to see why. The screwpine key was a new wild edible for us, and one we would eat again.

Cliff dwelling screwpine tree

Assorted lilikoi

Passionfruit (Passiflora species), known as lilikoi, grow very well on the Hawaiian islands, and there are several species available for purchase in the farmer's markets. They ranged from light yellow and large, to dark purple and smaller. Previously we had found an invasive type, the banana poka (Passiflora mollissima), on Maui. The banana poka is also invasive on the Big Island, and the vines can be found growing at higher elevations among the cloud forests of Kona. While down in the Puna district at the coast, we came across a smaller, bright yellow variety of passionfruit growing among the coconut trees. It was very delicious, with bright orange pulp. At one of the cottages we stayed at, there were passionfruit vines in the trees and we gathered the fresh, ripe fruit every evening when we returned.  Passionfruits make beautiful and elaborate flowers, and grow on twining vines using curling tendrils. They are often found first in the wild by spotting the fallen fruit on the ground, and very often growing on roadsides by spotting the crushed fruit on the ground. Passionfruit are definitely one of our favorite wild foods to be found on Hawaii.

Lilikoi pulp