I mentioned 2 weeks ago that this series will end soon (at least for the winter), and RonV had some suggestions for continuing:
Doing a series on regional foraging. Like, desert plants. Plants of the southeast. Delta and bayou plants of the gulf states. Tundra plants. That sort of thing.
You could even get into wild meats, fish, insects, etc.
Maybe guest diarists?
I love these ideas. Unfortunately, my expertise is limited to northeastern plants, so I can't expand this series on my own. I'd need volunteers to discuss plants (or animals) from different habitats. (Above: Honey Locusts by wide eyed lib)
So what do you want? Would you like to see the series continue over the winter with guest diarists? If so, what topics interest you? I'd love to learn more about west coast and desert plants, and there are hundreds of medicinal plants that I've never covered.
Beyond that, please let me know if you'd be interested in writing a diary or 2 and what topics you'd like to cover.
Covered: black mustard & hawthorn
In the meantime, I probably have enough material for 3 more diaries. So dress in layers, brush up on the basics of foraging and grab your gear so we can examine a few more Fall plants.
The mustard family, Brassicaceae, is one of the most successful plant families on earth. Among its 330 genera and approximately 3,700 species are plants that are very familiar to almost everyone: cabbage, cauliflower, radish, turnip, Brussels sprout and rapeseed (source of canola oil). Once you know what you're looking for, mustard plants are relatively easy to identify because their terminal flowers have 4 petals in the shape of a cross and are usually yellow (or less often white, pink or purple), and their seeds generally form in small seedpods. In addition, they are usually annuals, begin life as basal rosettes, and have alternate, lobed leaves that often clasp the stem. (Right: Cuckooflower by wide eyed lib. Also known as lady's smock and Cardamine pratensis, cuckooflower is a Spring ephemeral mustard with a delicious spicy kick. It's found as far north as Greenland and as far south as Virginia.)
While the specifics of the Brassicaceae family (how many species, which species belong in which genus, which species is this, etc.) are difficult for even scientists to sort out, no plant in the mustard family is poisonous. As long as you're certain you're looking at a mustard plant, you can give it a try. As you might guess from the name and the familiar plants in the family, mustards tend to be pungent-- with a musty bitterness like cabbage, a sharpness like table mustard or both. This series has already covered some members of this family such as garlic mustard, winter cress and watercress, as well as poor man's pepper and the other pepper grasses. But until I visited Norwich Meadows Farm last week, perhaps the most famous wild member of the mustard family, black mustard (Brassica nigra), had eluded me. Nonetheless, I recognized it the instant I saw it. It probably helped that I'd been looking for it for a long time. (Left: Black Mustard by wide eyed lib)
Black mustard is a non-native annual that begins as a basal rosette but can grow as tall as 4 feet. Its basal leaves are irregularly lobed and toothed, while the leaves on the flower stalk are narrower, wavy and unlobed. Beginning in early Summer, black mustard displays terminal clusters of 4 petaled, showy, yellow flowers. The flower buds open from the bottom up, and as they fall off, long narrow seed pods that point upwards appear in their place.
Black mustard is found in all Southern Canadian provinces and nearly every state. (The Plants database claims Alaska, Wyoming, Arkansas, South Carolina and Georgia are excluded, but I'd bet that they're incorrect in excluding those southern states.) It's fond of sunny, disturbed ground, which explains its presence between hedgerows on a farm. (Right: Black Mustard Leaf by wide eyed lib. Also note the flower buds on the left and the seed pods on the lower right.)
All parts of black mustard are edible with a spicy wallop. Try the leaves, flowers and flower buds in salads paired with milder greens or in soups and sauces as a seasoning. The seeds (along with those from several other species, including white mustard, Sinapis alba) are famously used in the condiment called yellow or American mustard found on grocery shelves. To make your own mustard, extract the seeds from their pods and grind them with a small amount of vinegar (cider vinegar is nice), season with salt and add water to thin. You can lightly crush the seeds and add them to a jar of vinegar to create a vinegary mustard that's delicious on all kinds of greens. The whole seeds can also be used in curries, although they'll be considerably smaller than those sold in Indian markets.
I don't have specific nutritional information on black mustard, but all members of the mustard family are very nutritious, providing good amounts of calcium, potassium and various B vitamins. Medicinally, black mustard seeds can be ground and applied to the skin to improve circulation and act as an antiseptic. (But be careful-- some people may develop a rash.) Internally, small amounts stimulate the digestive system and act as a diuretic and tonic. Larger amounts can be used to induce vomiting. Inhaling the vapors of crushed mustard seeds helps open sinus passages, relieve colds and dispel headaches. Mustard oil has been said to stimulate hair growth. (Above left: Black Mustard Flowers by wide eyed lib)
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Like their relatives in the Malus genus (better known as apples), hawthorns (the approximately 200 native and introduced species in the Crataegus genus) are short and shrubby trees that look increasingly gnarled as they age and bear roundish, red fruit. Unlike apple trees, hawthorn trees often have long, vicious thorns. (I previewed hawthorns here and featured a picture of their thorns.) Their alternate leaves come in a wide variety of shapes, from pointed, toothed ovals to lobed, toothed leaves resembling maple leaves. All species flower in Spring, with clusters of white or pinkish-white 5 petaled flowers. They look much like apple blossoms but have a rank smell to attract flies, their primary pollinators. The green, unripe fruit (referred to a berry, despite the fact that it's a pome) appears shortly thereafter and typically takes all Summer and most of Fall to turn red (or rarely yellow) and ripen. Ripe fruits are generally between 1/2 inch and an inch in diameter, although I've seen both larger and smaller examples. Despite spending a fair amount of time trying to distinguish between hawthorn species, they're all hawthorns to me. They can all be hawthorns to you, too, since they're found throughout the U.S. and Canada. (Right: Hawthorn Flowers by wide eyed lib)
Although I can usually distinguish between hawthorn berries and apples from a distance, it's a bit difficult to put the differences into words. Hawthorn berries tend to be a bit more oblong than apples. They are also a bit duller and sometimes a bit redder than apples, with a uniformity of color that apples rarely have. Finally, hawthorn berries are more likely to grow in clumps with fruit stems radiating from a single point than apples are. (Just to make things confusing many species of smaller apples also grow in similar clumps. However, those smaller species of apples tend to lose the five-parted crowns on their blossom ends while the smaller hawthorn species tend to retain theirs.) If you're in doubt about whether you've got a hawthorn berry or an apple, simply slice the fruit along its equator. Viewed in cross section, apples have 5 seeds that are each contained in a transparent case. The five cases with their seeds form a star shape. Hawthorns lack both the transparent cases and the perfect radial symmetry of the seeds. Each hawthorn berry contains between 1 and 5 seeds. (Left: Hawthorn Bark by wide eyed lib)
Hawthorn berries taste something like mealy, slightly musty apples. However, while I can happily nibble on super-sour unripe apples, unripe hawthorn berries are dreadfully bitter. I always wait until they're a little soft to the touch before sampling them. Color, unfortunately, is not a good indicator of ripeness. Different trees have different flavored fruit and some require sweetening before they are palatable, so you may have to try a few different trees and experiment with cooking a few before you find one you like. But always cut into the first hawthorn berry you sample from a given tree. The berries are often infested with insect larvae, and if one berry has them, chances are every berry on that tree will be afflicted. (Below right: Hawthorn Leaf by wide eyed lib. Note the difference between the leaf in this photo and those pictured with the hawthorn flowers above.)
Hawthorn berries can be used any way that apples can, although in most cases you'll want to add a little extra sweetener. The fruits are generally too small to bother coring them individually, so it's best to roast, boil or steam them and then put the cooked fruit into a food mill. I like them mixed with apples in apple sauce and apple pie. I also like them in quick breads. Wherever you use them, they add a layer of flavor that you just can't get from apples alone. In addition to the fruit, you can eat the leaf buds before they fully uncurl according to Steve Brill. He recommends cooking them for 10-20 minutes and says they taste like lima beans, but I've never tried them. The leaves can also be used to make herbal tea, and the seeds can be roasted, ground and used as a coffee substitute. Finally, the flowers are also edible, and can be used in jellies and desserts. (Perhaps cooking them removes the smell, but I've never been tempted to find out.) Because of its powerful medicinal actions, hawthorn should not be eaten in large amounts. (See below for more on this.) On the non-cooking side, Native Americans also used the thorns as fishing hooks and awls, and I've seen suggestions that in a pinch the thorns can be used to open cans because they'll pierce metal. (Left: Hawthorn Berries by wide eyed lib)
Hawthorn berries are a good source of Vitamin C and various B vitamins, as well as choline, inositol, PABA, flavonoids and bioflavonoids. Medicinally, hawthorn contains substances that act upon blood vessels to slightly dilate them. This lowers blood pressure. In addition, they strengthen the heart by increasing enzyme activity. Consequently, it's been used to treat everything from high and low blood pressure to angina and irregular heartbeat. Scientific research has borne this out. Some doctors use hawthorn extract in conjunction with digitalis to treat heart disease. Because it is so powerful and the heart is a rather important organ, please use caution when using hawthorn medicinally. As always, it's best to get advice from a doctor or experienced herbalist before taking hawthorn medicinally, especially in extract form.
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Thanks for reading and happy Halloween! See you next week.
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If you're interested in foraging and missed the earlier diaries in the series, you can click here for the previous 31 installments. As always, please feel free to post photos in the comments and I'll do my best to help identify what you've found. (And if you find any errors, let me know.)
Here are some helpful foraging resources:
"Wildman" Steve Brill's site covers many edibles and includes nice drawings.
"Green" Deane Jordan's site is quite comprehensive and has color photos and stories about many plants.
Green Deane's foraging how-to clips on youtube each cover a single plant in reassuring detail.
Linda Runyon's site features only a few plants but has great deals on her dvd, wild cards and books (check out the package deals in particular).
Steve Brill's book, Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places is my primary foraging guide. (Read reviews here, but if you're feeling generous, please buy from Steve's website.)
Linda Runyon's book The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide contains especially detailed information about nutritional content and how to store and preserve wild foods.
Samuel Thayer’s book The Forager's Harvest is perhaps the finest resource out there for the 32 plants covered. The color photos and detailed harvest and preparation information are top-notch.
Steve Brill also offers guided foraging tours in NYC-area parks. Details and contact info are on his website.
Don Wiss’s website is a treasure trove featuring hundreds of photos of common northeastern edibles.
Finally, the USDA plants database is a great place to look up info on all sorts of plants.
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