Garlic Mustard Greens emerging from the ground.

Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is an invasive plant, brought to America in the 1860’s as a culinary herb. It spreads like wildfire and often will displace native mustards and cresses. Many parks hold days where people can come volunteer to pull out garlic mustard so it doesn’t take over other native plants. This is one weed no one will mind you pulling!

Now is a great time to use garlic mustard: the leaves are tasty and not too bitter, as the weather warms the leaves get more bitter and lose their spicy garlic mustard flavor.

washing the garlic mustard in a colander

To make the condiment, harvest the entire plant, and wash the roots well. The roots are white and have a horseradish-like smell. They will taste spicy.

Garlic mustard roots

I chopped the roots:

Chopped Garlic Mustard Roots

I blended the roots in a food processor with a bit of salt, a couple teaspoons of water and about 1 tsp apple cider vinegar and blended until it looked like horseradish: (It stung my eyes! Pretty spicy…)

Blended in a food processor with a little water, salt and apple cider vinegar

Here it is, in a jar:

According to Chinese Medicine, the spicy or pungent taste of horseradish and garlic mustard enters the Lung meridian, and is known to clear the sinuses and help the body get rid of respiratory infections. (For more on Traditional Chinese Medicine and health, visit our sister website Birch Center for Health.)

Here in Pittsburgh, wild edibles are just emerging from the ground. Today we also found nettles! What is popping up where you live? We’d love to hear from you!

Thanks!
Melissa Sokulski, acupuncturist, herbalist
Food Under Foot

Walking around some Pittsburgh parks today after a beautiful stretch of warm days…and we indeed see signs of spring!

We saw some garlic mustard rosettes bursting from the ground:

Garlic Mustard

Garlic Mustard is an invasive plant, brought to America as a culinary herb in the 1860’s. In Pittsburgh, many parks have volunteer days spent pulling this invasive herb out. By all means pull it up from your garden…but don’t be so quick to throw it in the compost! This is a delicious plant and early spring is when its flavor is at its best.

The leaves become bitter as the weather gets hot, so they are best collected in early spring and summer. Leaves can be collected either from the ground rosettes (pictured above) or from the stalk. Garlic Mustard leaves become more triangular when the plant bolts, and the leaves come up the flower stalk of this small four-petaled flower (unlike dandelion, whose leaves stay on the ground as the flower stalk is sent up).

Flowers and chopped leaves can be added to salads for a nice pungent garlic flavor.

Now is the time to collect the roots, when no flower stalks are present. These are very spicy and taste like horseradish. The root can be chopped and steeped in apple cider vinegar for a spicy condiment.

garlic mustard roots: spicy like horseradish

In the fall the seeds, which have a mustard flavor, can be collected and eaten.

I love to make pesto using the garlic mustard leaves:

Raw Garlic Mustard Pesto

1 1/2 cups garlic mustard leaves
1 1/2 cups spinach leaves
juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon (to taste)
1 clove garlic (or more to taste)
1/2 cup pine nuts or walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
salt or tamari to taste

Blend above ingredients in food processor or blender and enjoy.

Here is a copy of my article on Garlic Mustard, published last year in Natural News.

Enjoy the spring!!

Melissa Sokulski, herbalist, acupuncturist
Food Under Foot
Birch Center

We had a great time going on a wild edibles walk with students of Pittsburgh’s SCA (Student Conservation Association.)
We knew we wouldn’t find any along the south side river trail, so we brought along some beautiful sky-blue chicory, which is in bloom all along the roadsides and all over the city these days.
We sampled herbal tea which had chicory in it, and discussed it’s use as a coffee substitute (drying and roasting the roots.)

(You can read more about chicory in my article in Natural News here.)

We did have some great finds along the south side trail that day, including:

• Dandelion
  
  

  dandelion leaf rosette

• Burdock
• Garlic Mustard
• Purslane - delicious succulent plant, high in omega fatty acids
  
  

  Purslane - High in Omega Fatty Acids

• Lamb’s Quarters - delicious “wild spinach” (please sign up for our newsletter (top right) for lots more info about lambs quarters!)
• Japanese Knotweed
• Mugwort
• Staghorn Sumac (which we all sampled the sumac lemonade we had made for them, see previous post.)
  
  

  Staghorn Sumac - we soaked the red clusters in water for a lemony drink

• Poisonous Crown Vetch - the variety Penngift was made in Pennsylvania, to plant along the highway to prevent soil erosion…with limited results. The soil continues to erode, and while cows and other ruminant can safely eat the plant, which is high in nitroglyceride, it is poisonous to horses and other non-ruminants. It spreads very easily as well.
• Wild Carrot - which, though edible, we do not eat because of it’s similar appearance to the very deadly Water Hemlock and Poison Hemlock
  
  

  Queen Anne's Lace/Wild Carrot

• Mullein - an herb which benefits the lungs, and often smoked by Native Americans for that purpose
  
  

  First Year Mullein basal rosette

• St. John’s Wort - an herb used to treat depression
  
  

  St. John's Wort

Here are some pictures of what the kids and adults of the SCA:

walking and talking with folks of the SCA

Pittsburgh Student Conservation Association

Finding Garlic Mustard Under The Trees

Reviewing what we'd identified

If you’d like more information about scheduling a wild edible walk for your group, please visit our wild event page. Or you can call Melissa at (412) 381-0116, or email to Melissa@FoodUnderFoot.com.

Thanks!
~ Melissa Sokulski, Herbalist
Food Under Foot

Wild Greens Crisps

I was vegging on the couch after a long day out and about.  Longing for a nosh, my mind went to Potato Chips –  a habit from years of a commercialized diet.  Luckily I had purged my home of such processed temptations.   I began to shake… withdrawals from Western Junk food.   I was jonesing for a Crunchy-Crispy snack.   I needed a fix.

Luckily I remembered the Wild Edible Recipe Melissa gave me to put into the Newsletter.   The recipe uses Wild Greens to make a Crisp that has so much flavor and zip that it makes the Potato Chip look like a “Couch-Potato” Chip.

It more that satisfies, it nourishes and inspires.   It is Healthy, organic version of a Chip using Wild Herbs and Edible Greens found foraging.   When made with a dehydrator, it is a delicious Raw Food alternative to the potato chip.  You’ll never go back.

The chip is a mix of foraged Wild Edible Greens,  coated with sauce made of Lemon, Garlic, Chili powder and other spices, then dehydrated into a Crisp.  It’s a Raw Food Chip!

I won’t repeat the full details here.  They are available to the members of the Food Under Foot Family.   You can join the family for Free, by subscribing to the Newsletter. When you join you get this recipe and dozens of others AND the 5-part Wild Edible Series eBook which contains wild edible recipes (including raw food recipes), Wild Edible Plant identification information, instructions on making Wild Herb Medicinal Tinctures and Salves and much more!   All this and the Newsletter are FREE.

You’ve enjoyed the Food Under Foot website — you’re going to LOVE the Newsletter and eBook, which goes into greater detail on Wild Plant identification and Edible Plant and Wild Herb education.   The price can’t be beat — it’s Free.   It’s simple — Just put your First name and Email in the Green and Blue box at the TOP-RIGHT of the page and you are on your way — just check your email.

Hope to see you there.   Please join, you’ll get the 5-Part Series and the Crisp Recipe.

Experiment with the recipe, using different greens and seasonings and report your findings here.   COMMENT on this post to share your successful adventures with this recipe.

Take care,

Jason