Backyard and Woodsy Dining: Let's Eat Weeds!

“What is a weed for Monsanto is a medical plant or food for rural people.”

-Food activist Vandana Shiva

Knowing which wild plants are edible seems to me a survival skill, knowledge that might be useful in the event of catastrophe. But for some, foraging is an aspect of fine dining.

Old Homestead Meadow - US Forest Service

 
Kristen Rasmussen Vasquez, writing in Food & Nutrition magazine, says it is hardly unusual today when dining out to encounter sautéed fiddlehead ferns or dandelion greens pesto. (My guess is Kristen and I do not cross paths when dining out; I haven’t noticed fiddleheads on the menu at Popeye's) (By the way, I have read that if you don't boil fiddleheads for ten minutes they can produce symptoms similar to food poisoning).

   Believe it or not, some upscale restaurants have foragers on staff. Others catering to weed eaters rely on specialty suppliers.

   Not so long ago foraging was a common activity. “Old people went for wild salads more than they did raising salad,” an Appalachian lady told the folklorists of Foxfire books.

   “The current trend of foraging always makes me chuckle a little because we were always hunting wild foods,” says North Carolina chef Sean Brock in Tupelo Honey Café cookbook.

   And in the North Carolina and Old Salem Cookery book we find that “yarbing” (gathering herbs) was learned by mountain women from their mothers and grandmothers. “However,” noted the author some 60 years ago, “those who really know their herbs are diminishing in number.” That book lists some 150 wild plants that, in those days, could profitably be gathered for market.

   Is there money in “yarbing” today? Some, if you learn what to look for – and, of course, if you know where to look. “In particular, anyone who's lucky enough to live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia or North Carolina is sitting right in the middle of America's herb garden,” according to Mother Earth News. The region reportedly produces almost 80 percent of the annual harvest of edible wild plants. (I’m fairly sure you could extend that at least into West Virginia, known for ginseng hunting and ramps festivals. Ramps are odiferous wild leeks).

   “Yarbing” may be hazardous to your health. We all know of poisonous problems with wild mushrooms but there are other potential mistakes out there -- for example, nightshade with small blue berries that resemble the wild blueberry. (I mean the true small wild blueberry, not the big, juicy commercial fruit that is marketed as “wild” blueberry. That one is commonly nurtured and pesticided by human tenders).

    “Never guess about whether a plant is poisonous,” warns Tom Oder of Mother Nature Network. The guesswork is best left to knowledgeable experts like those at Conscious Cuisine – who will be happy for a price to lead you on weed walks and provide cooking classes.

   Weed walks? Well, you wouldn’t want to go gathering plants in areas heavily treated with pesticides, or industrial waste disposal sites, or along busy exhaust-fumed roads or beside polluted streams.

   A further consideration is legality. The plant or the site may be protected, or you may be trespassing. As the reality TV shows demonstrate, you don’t want to go trespassing on someone’s ginseng patch in backwoods West Virginia. You’re more likely to be serenaded by a shotgun than by a banjo.

   According to The Encyclopedia of Edible Wild Plants of North America, there are about 4,000 North American plants that have been termed edible. Certainly you could get by as a competent forager knowing far fewer. So, other than a costly course that would teach you some basics, how are you to tell one weed from the other?

   There are a number of guidebooks. One recommended by a foraging expert is the Field Guide to North American Edible Wild Plants. It includes 220 plants, of which 20 are poisonous, with range maps and color photographs. Search for it on Amazon and you’ll also turn up a number of alternatives. Some writers have done quite a job of popularizing the subject, for instance Euell Gibbons and Bradford Angier.

   But I would have to ask, why forage at all, or why pay a jacked-up price for a plate of weeds in a fancy restaurant? What is the point? Are you a survivalist in training? Probably not. Well, then, the fact is, farmers and gardeners have for years worked to tame and improve wild edibles for your dining enjoyment. Most wild foods are far less appetizing than their domesticated descendants.