Incorrigible Forageables!

Wild edibles are delicious, nutritious and free! Yay!  But make sure you are positive in identifying them and that you are finding them in healthy soil (in other words, avoid foraging for wild edibles in lead-contaminated urban soil or the like).

Stinging Nettles

Stinging nettles are pretty much a super food and a magical wild edible!  They are a rich source of beta-carotene, vitamin A, C and E, iron, calcium, phosphates and minerals.

The most common benefit I've heard of for using stinging nettle, is to treat allergies, strengthen the immune system and aid in kidney cleansing.

If harvesting, make sure to wear gloves!  Some people, myself included, do not have a severe reaction to stinging nettles.  Either way, the sting is not a pleasant experience.  Most people get welts where the sting gets in contact with their skin and experience a tingling sensation for hours after.  Boiling, blanching and drying nettle leaves neutralizes the sting.

Harvest the young leaves at the top of the plant.  I harvest no more than 2-3 stratum of leaves.

Check out this past post for my recipe for Nettle Tabouli.  Also, this season's Edible Boston has an entire spread of Nettle recipes!

The following are from this website:  http://holisticmedicine-denie.blogspot.com/2011/04/benefits-of-nettle-plant.html

Nettle tea
Nettle tea may be useful in eliminating cold viruses and bacterial infections. Preparation: the tea can be prepared through soaking the fresh or dried leaves in boiled water.  I like to use fresh leaves and then strain them out and use them to cook with (nettle ravioli, pasta with a creamy nettle sauce or nettle pesto here I come!).

Nettle infusion
Washing the scalp with nettle (leaves or roots) infusion and nettle tincture may help thicken and strengthen hair. Preparation: to prepare the infusion: mix 60g of finely crushed nettles with two and a half cups of water. The mixture is boiled, and then covered for 10 minutes. It can be used either hot or cold.

Nettle tincture
Eliminates dandruff and leaves the hair silky, strong and revitalized. Preparation: leave six-seven fresh leaves or two spoons of the dried plant to macerate in half a liter of high-proof alcohol for ten days. The mixture is then used to rub on the hair root.

Nettle juice
Preparation: gather the nettle leaves and stem and put them into a fruit juicer. Filter the paste and keep the juice in the fridge in dark bottles.

Lamb's Quarter

Lamb's quarters (also known as goosefoot, pigweed, or fat hen) are absolutely delicious and grow EVERYWHERE!  You can tell how rich your soil is by how lush your lamb's quarters growing in it are.  Lamb's quarters grow big yummy leaves in nutrient-dense soil.

To me, Lamb's quarters taste like a velvety-textured spinach with a hint of pine nut flavor.  Sound yummy?  It is!  I've made Lamb's Quarter saag (Click HERE for my Dad's delicious saag recipe that I've posted about in the past and just substitute the spinach for Lamb's quarters) and my Desi friends have exclaimed that it tastes even better than spinach!

It is cultivated in parts of Asia and Africa for food, but in most of N. America and Europe it is considered a weed.

Lamb's quarters is high in protein, vitamin A, calcium, phosphorous and potassium.  Like other members of the spinach family and black teas, lamb's quarters is also high in Oxalic acid.  With this in mind, just take care not to eat a consistent diet too high in raw leaves of any of these plants.

Other than that, I'll hope you'll get a chance to try it out.  It's one of my favorites!

Purslane

Purslane is a scrumptious gem of a weed!  It is a succulent, which means that it has fat, water-retaining leaves, stems and roots that burst with flavor.

The other day I used purslane and lamb's quarters in a stir fry for some guests and they loved the new tastes!  Then I added a bunch of chopped purslane stems and leaves to a salad with a bit of oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice and garam masala.  The possibilities are endless and fun to play around with in the kitchen with purslane's unique flavor.

It is rich in vitamin C as well as alpha-linoleic acid a.k.a. a well-known and highly coveted Omega-3 fatty acid.  

Can't wait to try this out the next time I harvest some purslane!  Looks savory!

Japanese Knotweed

I recently went to Herbstalk 2012 in Somerville and learned that you can make Japanese Knotweed tincture that boosts your immune system to help fight against Lyme disease!

Yay, herbstalk!

Japanese Knotweed has a bitter, sour flavor and I don't particularly enjoy it, but some people LOVE it.

Here's the recipe for the tincture to battle Lyme disease and other spirochetal diseases: harvest the root (which is a super pain to dig up) and mix it with a VERY high proof vodka alcohol.

1. five parts Japanese knotweed root to one part HIGH-proof alcohol (vodka, everclear, etc.)
2. let sit one to one and a half months, shaking it up every day or two (up to 6 months is ideal)
3. Sieve out the root pieces

You can use this recipe for humans OR animals!  When using herbs to treat anything, it is best to use as local as possible, so if you have invasive knotweed growing in your backyard and you have safe and healthy soil, then your backyard is the best place to go for your ingredients.

When using the treatment for animals (i.e.: medium sized dogs) the doseage goes as follows: mix 1/2 the vodka with 1/2 veggie glycerin to sweeten the tincture and lessen the burn.  Use 1/2 a dropper 2 times per day.  It is best one hour after feeding but you can also just put it right into your animals food.  

Nancy Anderson, the herbalist who gave me this recipe suggested that for every year of having lyme disease, one treats themselves for 3 months with the tincture.  So if you're using this as a treatment and not preventatively, and you've had lyme disease for 2 years, you should treat yourself for 6 months.

Burdock Root

Burdock is a pretty tenacious plant!  It's the plant that shoots up seed burs that are practically impossible to pull off of your furry dog (especially if her name is Sandy, who has a conniption every time.  So I end up having to just cut her fur instead).

Every part of the plant (leaves, stems and roots) are useful, but it is the root that is most sought after.  It is also the root that is the hardest to access.  Let's just say you want to have some serious digging shovels handy and a strong back to pull the sucker out.

Click here for some pickled Burdock recipes.

This is Sandy.  Can you see how that fur would be a nightmare to deal with when it comes in to contact with Burdock burs?

.

Burn Treatment
The leaves of the burdock may be used for pain management and may help speed up recovery time for burns. It is said to impede bacterial growth by acting as a barrier to moisture.

Kinpira Gobo Recipe
Makes 2-1/2 cups
Preparation Time: 35 minutes

Beginners usually get into trouble when they sauté root (gobo in Japanese) instead of simmering or steaming it because sautéing makes it harder to make the root tender. The trick is to slice the root razor-thin and braise it after sautéing, as in this spicy Japanese side-dish.

• 2 tbs. dark (toasted) sesame oil
• 2 cups root, very thinly sliced
• 2 cups wild or commercial carrots, thinly sliced
• 2 tbs. fresh ginger, thinly-sliced
• 1 clove garlic, peeled but not cut
• 1/2 cup redbud wine, mirin (Japanese rice wine), or white wine
• 1/4 cup whole sesame seeds
• 2 tbs. tamari soy sauce
• 1 tbs. chili paste or 1/2 tbs. cayenne hot pepper, or to taste

Sauté the carrots, ginger, and garlic in sesame oil 10 minutes, stirring often. Remove and discard the garlic as soon as it turns slightly brown. Meanwhile, toast sesame seeds in a frying pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until they pop and become slightly brown and fragrant. Remove the sesame seeds from frying pan and set aside. Add the remaining ingredients to the sautéed vegetables, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer 15 minutes. Add the sesame seeds. Serve hot as an appetizer, a condiment, or a side dish.

Wild Grape Leaves

When harvesting, make sure to gather the young, tender, green leaves.  The older leaves are woody and fibrous.

Here's a fun fact about grape leaves: historically they have been added to pickle jars to keep the pickled items crispy!  Grape leaves produce a lot of tannins which serve this purpose!  Make sure any high-tannin leaf you are using for this is NOT sprayed with any chemicals or pesticides.

Stuffed Wild Grape Leaves - the recipe is time intensive, but you can make them in a huge batch and freeze the rest.  Recipe from  http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/105403/stuffed-wild-grape-leaves/

Yields: 6 servings
Ingredients

• 6 dozen grape leaves rinsed.
• 2 C leftover rice
• 1 lb hamburger
• 1 minced onion
• 6 cloves of garlic minced
• ½ C chopped pecans
• 1 handful plantain chopped (this is a wild green, you could substitute swiss chard or spinach)
• 2 TB lemon juice
• salt
• pepper

Directions

1. Preparing the Leaves. Young leaves are best. Choose leaves that are bright green, and about as large as a woman’s hand.
2. Rinse leaves and then bring a pot of water with 1 tsp salt to boil. Add leaves and boil a few minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.
3. The Stuffing - Brown hamburger with onion and garlic. Drain if needed. Add salt, pepper, and nuts. Cook a few more minutes. Mix with remaining ingredients. Allow to cool.
4. Place the leaf stem side up. Put about 1 TB of stuffing on near the stem end. Fold the sides in and roll tightly, and place in a shallow baking dish.
5. The rolls can simply be brushed with olive oil or baked with about a cup of tomato sauce or water. I prefer them baked with tomato sauce.
6. Bake at 300 F for 50 minutes.

Wild Chamomile

Iced Chamomile Tea

1. Place chamomile in boiling water or pour boiled water over chamomile flowers and leaves.
2. Let steep about 5 minutes
3. Add LOTS of ice
4. add a bit of local honey to taste.

Internal Uses:

• Mild Sedative
• Calms stomach spasms caused by gastritis and colitis
• Helps rid-of or prevent diarrhea and other intestinal related issues
• Helps with liver problems
• Encourages sweating, which helps with lowering a fever
• Relieves headache pain
• Can be beneficial for babies with colic
• Calms or prevents menstruation pains

External Uses:

• Calms red and inflamed skin
• Liquid feed and plant tonic effective against plant diseases
• You can add Chamomile to your shampoo and/or conditioner. It helps add a silky look to your hair while strengthening your roots.
• Dried flowers can be used as an insect repellent
• Stuffy nose: breathe in the steam from boiling Chamomile in water to clear out your sinus system.

http://www.simplysetup.com/simple-living-2/wild-chamomile-finding-identifying-and-using.html