Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Goosegrass Harvest

Here is a picture of my final goosegrass harvest. I also snipped some wild onion tops, and the tender upper portions of nettles. There were many dandelions in flower, so I got about a cup of those.

Nettles, Goosegrass and Dandelion Flowers

I ended up making a sauté from these greens. Next time, I would just leave out the goosegrass because it is coarse and flavorless at this point. The dandelion flowers lost their yellow color, but were mild and good in this sauté.

Again, I'm relying on past pictures. It is raining now and has been for awhile. I just don't get the urge to pick wet plants during the rainy spells. I harvested this about a month ago. The goosegrass has gone to seed now.

If you want goosegrass for its medicinal properties (lymphatic cleanser) the best way to do it is to harvest the goosegrass as it's flowering and make a tincture.

You can do this by watering down vodka and covering a packed jar of herb with the mixture. Shake it every day or so and strain it out after about two weeks. Tinctures can stay good for a couple of years.

Oh, here's a picture of some wild edibles that my sister saved for me while working in her garden. There's a nice poke sprout and a lamb's quarter plant.

Pokeweed and Lambsquarter

Lamb's quarter is another wild plant that is very nutritious. It is an especially rich source of vitamins A and C. I boiled this young poke with some dandelion greens in one change of water. Then I added the lambs quarter and some other greens. We had THESE greens with cornbread.

It sure seems like all this stuff turns into greens of one kind or another. I'll just have to be more creative in my cooking.

2 comments:

Stephanie Appleton said...

Haven't tried goosegrass or lambs quarter. Our poke is just about done, starting to bloom. It is a bit early I'm guessing b/c it has been so dry and hot here. I did get a few quarts frozen though!

Wild T said...

Stephanie, lambsquarter is good and mild. It's a little, er, grainy when it's raw. Dusty almost. I've been mostly ignoring it this year (bad!).

I've tried a lot of goosegrass at this point. Haven't found a good way to have it! It just doesn't have much flavor. You're supposed to be able to roast the seeds for a coffee substitute. Someday maybe I'll get around to trying it!

Good for you on the poke. We had some to eat but I didn't put any up (sigh).