Daylily Shoots and Goosegrass

What a beautiful morning! The wild plants are popping up like weeds. Oh I forgot, most of these ARE weeds according to the mainstream, and they're not even wild. At least half of the plants that I harvest every spring and summer are not native to North America.

Daylilies are old-fashioned flowers that are common around older houses. You also see their orange flowers on roadsides and in fields, where they might mark an old homesite. Daylilies are more than just decoration, they are edible in all stages of growth. You can plant these in your backyard, say in an abandoned corner, and you'll have an emergency food supply. Not only can you eat the young shoots, but you can also eat the flower buds, the open flowers, and the underground tubers. You'll still find these offered in seed catalogs today.


Here's a picture I took yesterday of young daylily shoots. At this stage they're just perfect for salads

Goosegrass is also known as cleavers and has been called bedstraw in the past. I did find some, but they were too small to mess with for eating. Another week and they'll be ready to start harvesting. Like many spring greens, these are great for cleansing the system after the long inactive winter. They're a good lymphatic cleanser, to help clear out those winter cold and flu leftovers.


Young goosegrass only a couple of inches high

In just the last week, dock has sprouted up in my garden and is ready to harvest. These young shoots are tangy and crisp. Today I'll harvest these and some day lily shoots for a salad. I'll add chickweed and some tiny dandelion leaves that I found here. Sure beats that bagged salad in every way. Nutritionally it has to be about 1000% better for me.


Dock Plant

I found a great blog called Free Man's Table. The author (Wild Man) talks about eating dock like okra. The stems are succulent and slimy. In later stages, dock produces huge amounts of vegetation, but it tends to become more bitter as it gets older. Chop up the whole young plant, and then batter and fry like okra. Dock can also be used to help thicken soups.

I wasn't raised "southern" so okra and dock, or eating anything slimy for that matter, seems strange to me. Dad was the only one who liked okra, but heck, somebody had to eat it with him. Probably the only reason I still eat that stuff is because I used to eat it with my dad. He liked it made into patties with egg and cornmeal, then fried. Okay, I guess I kinda like it that way.

Wild T