Garlic Mustard Flower Stalks Taste Great!

Garlic mustard stalks

In the spring, the second year growth of the garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) really takes off. First a few clusters of basal rosettes appear, meaning a bunch of leaves growing on stems from the ground. Then very soon afterwards, a flower stalk will shoot up. It is topped by a cluster of unopened flowers that look like a small broccoli flowerette, and there are a few triangular leaves growing on the stalk. Before the stalk gets too tall, about 5-8 inches high, we pick them in bunches and cook them as a wonderful green side vegetable with dinner, dressed with butter and salt.

We ordered a great reference book by John Kallas, in Oregon, called Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate. He has lots of information about leafy greens in the wild, but we disagree with him regarding the bitterness of garlic mustard. In our experiences here in southeast Connecticut, the flower stalks are not bitter at all, and we give them a gentle 3 minute boil to wilt the leaves and stem. The triangular leaves that grow on the flower stalk later in the season, even when the seed pods are present, taste much better to us than the kidney-shaped leaves that grow from the basal rosette all year long. We make a pesto from the tough basal leaves, where the peppery taste is stronger. We even like the green seed pods lightly boiled and served with butter and salt.

We have also managed to make a great mustard condiment from the hard, black seeds. The taste is very fiery, like a horseradish, while the color is a dark brown like dijon. Robert ground them in a coffee mill, and mixed the ground seeds with vinegar, salt, water and honey to make a strong mustard.

Garlic mustard seed Mustard

Foraging Report 4/24/2011 and Ramps Rant

Cleaned nettles

The 3 Foragers spent Friday, Earth Day 2011, driving around a few small towns here in southeast Connecticut looking for some of nature's bounty. We stopped in Columbia and picked 2, 5-gallon buckets of stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) to dry for tea and cooked most of it to keep in the freezer for use later in the year. Robert also started a 5 gallon bucket of nettle beer.

Evening Primrose roots

Robert dug up a bunch of evening primrose roots (Oenothera biennis), and we scrubbed and boiled them. I don't think they taste great on their own, they have a slightly acrid aftertaste, but I am thinking they would cook up well in a soup, or sautéed like homefries. He grabbed young roots, so they were not too stringy or tough.

Garlic mustard flower stalks

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is sending it's flower stalks up at a fast rate. We snap off the stalks at about 5 inches and just boil them for a few minutes to wilt them, then toss them with some butter and salt for an awesome green side dish with dinner.

Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) is also growing fast, and we have tried a cold soup that was surprisingly good, and I have a jelly recipe in the works.

Ramps leaves

We also went ramps (Allium tricoccum) picking at 2 large patches. While driving and hiking between Norwich and Glastonbury, we passed at least 15 patches that we had not noticed before. I read that New York Times article this week about ramps and their supposed decimation due to overpopularity and overharvest to feed foodies in NYC. I think it is a pile of alarmist rubbish, and I am personally insulted that someone would accuse the 3 of us of overharvesting ramps, and proceed to tell us how we should be doing it. Some guy digging up 20,000 pounds of plants with roots attached versus the 3 of us gathering the greens only in the spring is not even comparable. I thought I had stated several times that in the spring, we only pick the green leaves, and don't even come close to gathering 10% of a patch. You would be hard pressed to even see where we took some leaves, we gather so little. It is during the spring that the bulbs are using their energy to grow leaves and make new bulbs, so the onion bulbs are small, not worth digging. In the late autumn we dig the bulbs, and then only what the 3 of us will use and eat. We made more pesto, some onion-beer soup, potato salad, and ramps bagels with Friday's harvest.

Ramps Recipe - Ramps Pesto



Ramps Pesto

This pesto is quite tasty and pungent. Robert like to spread it thickly on a slice of bread, I like it over hot pasta. The ramps greens can be quickly blanched and shocked in ice water before processing to soften the garlic burn, but we find it is fine used raw. We then freeze 4 oz. portions in small plastic cups to use all year.

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

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

Ramps Recipe - Chinese Style Pancakes

Ramps pancakes with dipping sauce

I ran across a similar recipe on one of my favorite food-based websites originally for Chinese style scallion pancakes. I simply substituted chopped ramps stalks and greens for the scallions. Robert says they taste like MORE. This is as good as wild food can be. The method might sound like a lot of work, but trust me, it took me longer to type up the instructions that it takes to roll and fry the pancakes.

Roll out dough, coat with sesame oil

Roll up dough

Twist up the rolled dough into a snail, pinch end

Squish it flat, then roll it out again

Add another coat of sesame oil

Sprinkle on the thinly sliced ramps leaves

Roll it up again, twist into another snail, pinch the end, then squish it flat again

Roll the pancake out a final time

Fry it up in a cast iron pan until browned on both sides

Ramps Pancakes--Chinese Style    makes 4 pancakes, about 6 servings

2 c. all purpose flour
1 c. boiling water
toasted sesame oil
2 c. chopped ramps stalks and greens

1. Place flour into a food processor. With processor running, pour in 3/4 c. boiling water. Process 15 seconds, until a ball forms around the blade. You may need to add up to 1/4 c. more water to form the dough.
2. Transfer the dough to a bowl to rest 30 minutess at room temperature, or overnight in the refrigerator.
3. Divide the dough into 4 portions and on a lightly floured surface, roll one into a circle about 8" in diameter. Brush a thin coat of sesame oil over the dough circle, and roll up the circle like a jelly roll.
4. Twist the roll into a snail shape, and flatten the snail with the palm of your hand. Roll it out again into another 8" circle and brush again with sesame oil. Spread 1/2 c. chopped ramps over the surface of the pancake. Roll again like a jelly roll, and again into a snail. Flatten the snail the final time, and roll into a 7" round circle.
5. Repeat for the remaining dough to end up with 4 flat pancakes.
6. Heat some oil in a sauté pan until very hot. Place one pancake in the hot oil. Swirl the pan around and cook the pancake about 2 minutes, keeping the pancake moving so that it will not stick. Flip over with tongs, and cook the other side an additional 2 minutes, until both sides are blistered and golden brown. Cool the pancake on paper towels to absorb extra oil. Cut each pancake into 6 wedges. Repeat with remaining 3 pancakes. Serve with soy-based dipping sauce and/or sour cream.

Dipping Sauce

2 T soy sauce
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 T finely chopped ramps greens
1/2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
2 tsp. sugar

1. Mix all ingredients together, let sauce sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Japanese Knotweed Recipe - Knotweed Tapioca



Japanese knotweed tapioca

Japanese knotweed
stalk and leaves

Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum or Fallopia japonica) is often labelled as an aggressive alien invader since it is difficult to eradicate once established. It prefers disturbed areas, roadsides, banks of streams, and edges of dirt roads and fields. One way people try to remove knotweed is with herbicides and poison, so avoid limp, brown stalks with dead leaves near roadways and trails. A good place to search for some is along the trail at the Thompson Dam in Connecticut, where we also have two Japanese Knotweed letterboxes (and a bonus!) hidden.

Japanese
knotweed wine

Knotweed grows in dense patches, up to 6 feet high by summer's end. It is the shoots we look for in early spring, picked before they are 12" tall, otherwise they become stringy and woody. The stalks are jointed and hollow, and the leaves are a rounded triangle shape, with a straight base. The plant produces sprays of white flowers late in summer, and winged seeds that spread on the wind easily. Knotweed is a perennial, so a patch will always return to the same place every year. The taste of the green flesh is a cross between rhubarb and a green apple, tart and lip puckering. Gillian loves to chomp on these right on the trail, raw.

Harvested shoots

The flavor and texture is so similar to rhubarb, we use it in recipes like chopped rhubarb. We have made coffee cakes, shortbread bars, tea breads and pie with Japanese knotweed. We also made a small batch of wine last year, which came out very dry, with a vegetal finish. I have a rhubarb cookbook that I skim for ideas, and this tapioca turned out very nicely, gobbled up by Gillian and Robert. Click here for a short video of Russ Cohen talking about Japanese knotweed. We have some more recipes for Knotweed Jelly, Cold Knotweed Soup, Knotweed Wine, and Knotweed Dessert Bars.

Japanese Knotweed Tapioca Pudding

3 T. quick cooking tapioca

1 c. sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 c. water

2 c. chopped Japanese knotweed stalks

1. Place all ingredients in a saucepan and let sit 5 minutes.

2. Bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly.

3. Chill. Serve with a squirt of lemon or lime juice.

Foraging Report 04/13/2011





Japanese knotweed peeking up!

It may be raining, but at least it is not snowing! The temperatures are rising to a point where we cannot collect maple sap for much longer. We froze a gallon to use in winemaking later this year. We pulled out our half gallon of Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) wine and gave it a try since it has aged for about a year. It has lost some of it's odd viscosity, but retains it's vegetal aroma and taste, not my favorite. We did see the tips of the knotweed peeking up last week, so we'll be picking stalks soon, before they grow too tall. We like to pick them when they are about 6 inches tall, before the leaves unfurl. At that point, they have not developed their woodiness, and Gillian will eat them raw. I cook them in coffee cakes or muffins, as a fruity bar topping, and we are going to try a rhubarb-like jam recipe or two.





Chickweed salad and dressing

Spring greens are up, including dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), chickweed (Stellaria media), violet greens (Viola species), orpine (Sedum purpureum), and nettles (Urtica dioica). Robert washed an enormous bowl of chickweed and made a yogurt-chickweed dressing for a salad of mixed foraged greens. We also used the dressing a dip for fresh baguette and whole wheat bread chunks. The ramps (Allium tricoccum) are still just peeking up, about 2 inches now, with unfurling leaves. Robert picked just a few at a new location and is infusing them into some olive oil. The last few leaves got cooked into last night's dinner. Nettles are growing, I think a few sunny days will give them a boost and send us out into the field with full sized paper grocery bags for gathering soon. Dandelion greens have also been picked, washed, blanched, and frozen for future use, while the blanching water is saved and Robert drinks it like a tea.





Trout lily leaves,
stems, and unpeeled bulbs

A new edible for us this spring is trout lily (Erythronium americanum). We came across a large expanse of them just peeking us in some wooded areas next to a river. The leaves are mottled purple and green, fleshy, lance shaped and low to the ground. They grow in pairs or singly. Later in the season, yellow flowers appear, but all parts will die back before the end of June while the bulb focuses it's energy on spreading underground and storing sugars. We tried the bulbs of the early spring shoots. They are fairly deep in the ground, about 5 inches, and easily broken off of the stem and lost. Each is small, about the size of a chickpea, and covered in 2 loose brown skins that we peel off before eating the bulb. The taste is sweet and super crunchy, like a water chestnut. We all tried a few, but they are difficult to dig in quantity. Robert also tried the long, white leaf stem, and we have read the entire leaf is edible but have not tried it yet. It takes a long time for a large colony to propagate, so it is important to not overharvest the bulbs. We hope to give these a few more tastes before the season is over, but next time we have to remember to bring a shovel for digging, instead of our hands.

Ramps 2011



Ramps patch



Young ramps shoots

Both Robert and I have a background in commercial foodservice, it's where we met. I have not worked in a restaurant for 6 years now, but I love to read food blogs and food-based websites for inspiration, information, recipes, and to hear about trends. Last year I remember reading several articles on how foraging was the new trend, even better than farmer's markets and CSAs. During this time of year, on many websites, the talk is all about ramps (Allium tricoccum). From forager bloggers planting ramps to Rachel Ray twittering to Serious Eats with recipes, ramps have quite a showing every spring. Even we have featured ramps on our blog here, and have a ramps letterbox.

Ramps bulbs

The cold spring has delayed our hunt, but they are starting to peek up at several sites we visit. Robert has been photographing them for 2 years now, but still has to get a photo of the short lived flowers in early summer. The weather looks like it will be wet and warmer this week, so we expect to gear up for gathering this weekend. We will thinly slice most of the greens into a chiffonade, and pack them into plastic containers for the freezer. Robert already infused some ramps leaves in oil. He also loves to make ramps pesto for the freezer, and we will dehydrate some greens for tea and cooking. I love to put the chopped leaves in flaky biscuits, and I ran across a fantastic recipe for Chinese-style scallion pancakes that I am going to make with the chopped stems in place of scallions. I also find they work well in brothy soups, stirred into mashed potatoes, and anywhere you can use onions in a recipe.

Ramps seeds