I just eat on my first risky salad of the year . It was a miniature salad , just enough to get a sense of taste of the wild plants that are sharing their flowers with us this leap . My mini salad admit a handful of dandelion and violet putting green , along with a few blossom of each . I scatter on top a few tinyredbudand untamed plum efflorescence . amalgamate with spinach greens and a light vegetable oil - and - vinegar fertilisation , the salad offered the sweet of fresh flavors .
Which Wildflowers Can You Eat?
As I ventured out to a local nature conserve , the wildflowers in bloom were less intimate . With some help from intimate naturalists , I am learning to identify and apprise the diversity of leaping flowers that have been growing of course for many century . I wondered which of these raging , native plant were offer up edible flower to our root and could be enjoyed ( in temperance ) today . In modern times , the hunting and gathering we humans do for food is more about researching than forage . I ’ve realise that rather than list what ’s edible and what ’s not , it ’s more significant to teach the way to cipher this out for yourself .
Recognize What You Know
Learning to eat wildflower usually pop with recognition . In a new site , we instinctively look for what is similar to something we ’ve already encountered . The first plant on the trail was Virginia bluebells ( Mertensia virginica ) . Bluebells are in the borage family , and tailwort is a success for many reasonableness in thepermaculture world . Because I ’ve eaten a tailwort flower before , I wondered if bluebell flowers are comestible , too .
Hunt For Knowledge
This mental process is generally what I go through when determining if a wildflower is edible :
None of my sources get laid for sure if tulip gentian flowers are edible , but Cherokee and Iroquois people utilize other part of the plant medicinally for tuberculosis , to remedy poisoning and for venereal diseases . Only one manipulate blog I found say the heyday are comestible raw , so in my script , that ’s not enough information to go on .
Tried & True
Part of the challenge for me is learn flora in an environs that is very different than where I grew up . I live in the Southeast now , but I am more intimate with southwesterly plant life . On a recent visit to a botanical garden , I acknowledge one of my best-loved goody : a yucca blossom ( Yucca glauca spp . ) . The bloom petals hold a moist , crunchy relief on a hot summer day . I ’ve snacked on them while hiking , exact only one petal from a works . Gourmet chef scatter yucca bloom into southwest salad , along with squash flower .
Yucca belongs in the Asparagaceae family , which includes our leap garden favorite : Asparagus officinales . One of the beneficial thing about memorise plant in a new place is rule their associations . Wild edible asparagus is an example of an escaped cultivar , and I can see the resemblance to the budding stalk of yucca in its tender , yummy shoot .
Harvest Sparingly
My baseless outflow salad at home was small-scale for two cause : I did n’t take much , and I did n’t require much . I did n’t call for much because the strong compounds in leap plant are powerfully flavored and my digestive organisation is not yet attuned to their power . I did n’t take much because there are so many reasons to leave the flowers untouched .
Enthralled with watching the officious little bee foraging alongside me , and break to discover many unidentified insects , I recognized that athirst pollinators call for all the solid food they can get . Also , I want to see the bloom bear yield and/or seed , which wo n’t happen if I eat every blooming thing — a lesson to remember in our consumer - driven culture . If want to enjoy the celestial essence of the uncivilized plum tree flower , I ’d in general rather go out and reek them than eat them . Plus , just see the vibrant floral arrangements filling treetop canopy and spreading primer covers brightens up my daylight . I can love them from a distance and I can taste them intimately ; it ’s a nice path to connect with my surroundings , tasting bound wild flower as I ponder what will bear fruit .
