Wild Edibles...

So apparently, my parents and sisters have a running bet... You see, I enjoy foraging for wild edibles very much. There is something about being able to find your own food and "live off the land" that makes me feel good. What may be weeds to some people are often a yummy meal to me! Anyways, back to the bet... The running bet is that I am going to poison myself to death with my edible weeds! I wonder if they have wagered any money?
Now at this point, I don't consider myself an amateur at foraging. I've made delicious pigweed greens, a delightful purslane potato salad, dandelion fritters and pancakes, pasta with dandelion greens, violet jelly, violet syrup, dandelion jelly, dandelion syrup, all kinds of wild berry wines and jellies, salads with wild greens, etc.

Two weeks ago, we discovered garlic mustard. Garlic mustard is an invasive weed species that has a garlicky taste to the leaves. We made a mean garlic mustard pesto with it! YUM!

Our garlic mustard pesto recipe went something like this:

• A LOT of garlic mustard
• Enough olive oil to make the mixture wet
• Salt and pepper
• a bit of garlic
• Some nutritional yeast

We combined all the ingredients in a food processor until the mixture was wet. It initially did not taste very good, however, after the flavors settled and blended together, it was awesome!!! It was rather tasty on crackers and we've also been using it on pasta. Delicious!

Now tonight my weed eating exploits have turned to the more dangerous side... I decided to try eating pokeweed. Pokeweed is that annoying plant that grows huge everywhere with the big purple berries. I have known for quite some time that people eat this plant, however, it is poisonous and only the young leaves in early spring can be eaten with special preparation. Special preparation meaning you have to boil it 3 times, changing the water each time to get the toxins out. Since I am no amateur at this, I decided I am going to try eating the pokeweed.

I followed the instructions for preparation posted on Wildman Steve Brill's website. http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Pokeweed.html
After boiling it 3 times, I sauteed it in onions, a little balsamic vinegar and added salt and pepper. The result was something that tasted kind of like spinach. It was tasty. Not sure if it was worth all that preparation, but I did enjoy it.