Wild Spring Plant Foods: The Foxfire AMericana Library - Foxfire Students (2011)

SPRING WILD PLANT FOODS

Mustards

All of the mustards can be lumped together in terms of edibility, and any of them can be used in any of the recipes. Cultivated collards, turnip greens, and cultivated mustard varieties can escape or naturalize and grow wild in old garden spots. All these members of the mustard family are characterized by having flowers with four crosslike petals, and a smarting taste. All of the mustards contain vitamins A, B, B-2, and C, and minerals very important to health. Leaves of all should be gathered when plants are very young and tender. Their pungent odor will identify the plants at once. Most of them are best if first cooking water is drained off. They are good “blood purifiers” and much-favored spring tonics.

ILLUSTRATION 23 Kenny Runion with wild mustard.

White mustard (Brassica hirta) (family Cruciferae)
(pale mustard, kedlick)

An erect, winter annual, occurring in cultivated fields and low places, white mustard is a native of Europe naturalized in this country. Leaves are rough, hairy, and greatly dissected. Pale yellow flowers are followed by bristly seed pods. Rich in vitamin C and sulfur, young leaves are used in salads, greens, and in sandwiches, and seeds ground up for mustard or mustard sauce.

Black mustard (Brassica nigra)
(warlock)

This is another native of Europe, very weedy in cultivated fields. Leaves are large and very coarse, and strongly flavored. Clusters of four-petaled flowers are bright yellow. Leaves are edible when very young and tender. Seeds, when mature, are ground for prepared mustard. In olden days, black mustard was used in love potions to overcome lassitude in females.

Indian mustard (Brassica juncea)
(Chinese mustard)

This mustard is very similar to white mustard, but the leaves are smooth and covered with a bloom. Flowers are bright yellow. The leaves are edible when young.

Charlock (Brassica kaber)
(field mustard, kedluck, shellick, hevuck, field kale)

An annual weed, charlock grows to two feet high and is naturalized in waste places. Leaves are yellow-green, rough, coarsely toothed, and are very strong smelling. Bright yellow flowers are followed by hairy pods. The leaves are edible and rich in vitamin C.

Greens: parboil greens, drain, and cook again. When you cook mustard, the secret is to add some sugar to a big pot of greens to take out the bitterness. Add chopped onion, salt and pepper, or bits of fatback and grease. Another favorite recipe for mustard is to take three large ham hocks; two chopped medium onions; one quart water; three pounds greens; three tablespoons bacon fat; one teaspoon salt; one-fourth teaspoon red pepper flakes; and freshly ground black pepper. Boil the hocks and onions slowly for over an hour. Chop greens in small pieces; add to ham hocks; add seasonings; cover and simmer one hour until greens are tender. Then serve with cornbread.

Mustard buds: gather buds just before they open. Cook, drain, serve with sauce made of prepared mustard and mayonnaise. (Tastes like broccoli.)

Prepared mustard: grind mature mustard seeds; mix with flour, water, and vinegar. Serve with meat or fish.

Flavoring: add tiny young mustard leaves to sandwiches, or put in deviled eggs.

Mustard flowers: gather newly opened blooms. Cook in boiling water. Remove from heat, add butter or bacon fat.

Mustard-ramp soup: clean and wash leaves. Heat one quart milk, almost to boiling. Meanwhile melt bacon fat in skillet, add chopped ramps, cook until brown. Add salt, pepper, flour, and mustard. Cook five minutes. Add milk and simmer.

Water cress (Nasturtium officinale) (family Cruciferae)

Water cress is a perennial, introduced from Europe and naturalized in cold, limestone-based streams. Stems grow to ten inches and recline weakly. The dark green leaves are small and scalloped and very pungent to taste or smell; they are often used raw in salads to give a spicy, tangy flavor. Small white flowers appear in April and May. The whole plant is rich in iron and vitamins A, B, and C, and is prized for salads, sandwiches, or soups. Raw cress, chopped fine, mixed with mayonnaise and served on whole wheat bread, makes delicious sandwiches.

ILLUSTRATION 24 Dean Beasley with a clump of water cress she has just picked out of a nearby stream for noonday salad.

Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) (family Cruciferae)

ILLUSTRATION 25 Horseradish

Horseradish, native to Europe, is planted in gardens, but it also persists around old house sites, or naturalizes in rich ground. It has large, rather crinkled roots, somewhat like those of dock, but pungently flavored and odorous. Flowers appear in midsummer on high branched stalks. The deep, white, very pungent roots are edible, and supposed to be an excellent spring tonic. They were once used for dyspepsia, rheumatism, scurvy, and hoarseness, made into a tea of one teaspoon ground roots to one cup of boiling water. Eating horseradish is a spur to digestion. It is also supposed to expel kidney stones.

Some people say the young leaves are edible; others say that they are not good to eat. They are extremely pungent and could probably be used only when very young and tender.

Relish: dig roots in early spring. Grate and cover with vinegar. A little salt and pepper may be added, or a touch of sugar. Beets may be added for color. Dill seeds or honey may be added if desired.

Horseradish sauce: three tablespoons butter, one tablespoon flour, one and one-half cups boiling beef stock and horseradish to taste are mixed together until smooth. Serve over meat or fish.

Mix very young leaves with purslane or pigweed. The liquid makes good pot liquor with corn pone.

Food preservation: “It looks quite a bit like mustard, but the roots are as hot as any red pepper you ever saw. You know, we didn’t have a lot of refrigerators to keep things in back then. They’d get it and wash it and slice it up and put it in pickles to keep them from having that mold that comes over the top of them when they set” (Mrs. Selvin Hopper).

Creases (Barbarea verna) (family Cruciferae)
(dry land cress, upland cress, herb barbara, St. Barbara’s cress, bitter cress, poor man’s cabbage, scurvy grass, yellow rocket, rugula)

ILLUSTRATION 26 Jake Waldroop with a clump of young creases from his cornfield.

This cress grows to two feet high in damp ground, along streams, and in old fields. It is a common weed naturalized from Europe. Dark green, divided, basal leaves appear in late fall, and can be gathered all winter. In late spring the plant has a stalk of bright yellow, four-petaled flowers. Seed pods are one inch long, slender and slightly curved.

Winter cress (Barbarea vulgaris) is very similar in appearance, with large, more deeply cut leaves.

This plant was named for St. Barbara’s Day, December 4, for one could gather the green leaves from December on. The leaves are sharp-tasting, very like water cress, and can be cooked or used raw in salads. The Barbareas are sometimes cultivated under the name “upland cress.”

Mrs. Norton told us, “They bloom yeller all over a cornfield, that’s creases. They have the same seed on them as mustard.” The root is a tiny bulb but Ethel Corn says, “That part ain’t fit to eat.”

Greens: pick, wash, and boil in water with piece of fat meat until tender, cooking slowly. Or parboil them. Take out of water and put in frying pan with grease. Fry five minutes with a little salt. Pick more greens than you think you need, as they shrink. Serve with vinegar or dill pickles, or cook and season as you would spinach. When greens are older, cook in two waters, throwing cooking water away. Aunt Arie Carpenter likes to put in a piece of middlin’ meat in the morning to boil. Boil that for at least two hours, or as long as it takes to get it tender. Take the grease off the meat; add it to a pot of water and bring to a boil. Add cleaned creases and boil for thirty minutes. Mustard may be done the same way.

Cress salad: toss together lightly, two cups finely cut creases, one-fourth teaspoon salt, one tablespoon salad oil, one tablespoon salad oil, one tablespoon vinegar, one tablespoon French dressing. Or chop young leaves, mix with sliced radishes, oil, and vinegar.

Sandwiches: add chopped cress leaves and peppergrass seeds to sandwiches.

Fried creases: fry fatback meat in heavy pot, preferably old black dinner pot. Have creases washed. Take meat out, leaving grease in pot. Shake out creases and drop in hot grease, mixing thoroughly with grease. Add just enough water to keep from sticking to pot. Add salt, as desired, and cook about twenty minutes, or until tender. Stir often.

Cooked buds: gather buds of cress. Pour boiling water over buds. Let stand half minute. Drain. Cover with fresh boiling water. Boil three minutes. Drain. Season with salt, pepper, and butter. (Tastes like broccoli.)

Spring cress (Cardamine hirsuta) (family Cruciferae)

Spring cress is found growing in all damp places, with a purplish stem, and many basal, finely cut leaves. The stem is topped with a cluster of very small, white, four-petaled flowers. Seed pods are very slender.

ILLUSTRATION 27 Spring cress

Bitter cress (Cardamine pensylvanica) is very similar, and is found in wet places, often growing in the water.

Bulbous cress (Cardamine bulbosa) also grows in wet places, with long round leaves and white flowers. It grows from a bulb-like root.

The foliage of all the Cardamine cresses can be used in greens or salads, and can be substituted in any recipe using creases. Leaves are especially good raw in salads.

Toothwort (Dentaria diphylla) (family Cruciferae)
(turkey mustard, turkey salad, turkey cress, crinkleroot, pepper-root).

A small plant with creeping stems, toothwort has three-parted leaves veined with white. Stems and underside of leaves may be purple. The white, four-petaled flowers grow in a cluster and are very showy. Both the leaves and the bulbous roots are edible. Turkey mustard grows in rich woodlands, deciduous coves, and along mountain streams.

ILLUSTRATION 28 Turkey mustard

Dentaria laciniata, crowfoot or turkeyfoot, has leaves divided into narrow segments. This grows in colonies in rich woodlands.

Peeled roots or young leaves add flavoring to salads, but a very little goes a long way. “You talk about something strong, it’s strong. It grows on branches and tastes like tame mustard. It can be used as a tonic for old people in the spring,” said Harley Carpenter.

“It’s a right tasty little weed,” said Delia Williams. “It will remind you of mustard quite a bit.”

Greens: pick leaves. Cut up in bite-size pieces and wash thoroughly. Place in bowl, pour hot grease over them, salt and serve. A quart basket of leaves will make two or three servings. If desired, pour a little vinegar over them. Or cut up the leaves and put bacon gravy over them and salt.

Brook lettuce (Saxifraga micranthidifolia) (family Saxifragaceae)
(branch lettuce, St. Peter’s cabbage)

ILLUSTRATION 29 Lawton Brooks with brook lettuce.

Brook lettuce is found in very wet seepage slopes, springheads, on rocks in streams or on stream banks. It has four-to-six-inch dark green, succulent leaves that are irregularly scalloped on the edges and slightly fuzzy. Young leaves are used in salads.

Myrtle Lamb told us, “It is kind of a long-leaf thing, and grows in the wettest damp places, where moss grows. As it gets older, it gets a red cast to it.”

Mrs. Norton said, “It’s kind of sticky when its gets old, so you have to get it when it’s real young.”

Salad: Myrtle Lamb likes to take brook lettuce and cut it like tame lettuce, and put onions in it, and hot grease on it. Then sprinkle salt and pepper over it. Or just pour hot grease over it so that it wilts. It can be eaten like wild mustard or turkey mustard.

Blue violet (Viola papilionacea) (family Violaceae)
(johnny-jump-up)

The blue violet is common in meadows, lawns, and damp, open woodlands. It grows to eight inches tall, with heart-shaped, deep green leaves, and long-stemmed, deep blue flowers. There is a cream-colored form, and the common form with blue and white flowers, called “confederate violet” and naturalized around many home and farm sites.

Violet leaves and flowers are both edible. The blue wood violet (Viola cucullata) is very similar, with darker blue flowers, and found in rich woodlands and wet places along streams. Leaves and flowers of both species can be used in any recipes. Leaves are very rich in vitamins A and C. Many people mentioned mixing them in with other greens such as wild mustards, creases, or lamb’s quarters. Leaves and flowers are also used in tea, and in a medicine supposed to induce sleep, and to “comfort and strengthen the heart.”

ILLUSTRATION 30 Blue violet

Violet flowers have long been used in fancy confections, candied or sugared. In the last century, a gift of candied violets was a “message of love.”

Greens: wash and cut up leaves of blue violets. Cook with a little water twelve minutes. Serve butter over them, or cook with bacon or fatback. Or mix violet leaves with dandelion greens or milkweed shoots and top with bacon and chopped-up hard-boiled eggs. Or mix with lamb’s quarters or pokeweed and cook as above.

Violet salad: add chopped violets to other spring greens for salad, or use alone with vinegar and bacon.

Violet jelly: cook violet flowers with boiling water. Strain, add sugar, pectin, and juice of half a lemon. Simmer until it jells.^*

Sugared violets: cook two cups sugar, one-half cup water, a dash of cream of tartar. Stir until sugar grains. Dip fresh violet blossoms (free from stems) and place on platter to dry.

Violet syrup: cover violet blossoms with water. Let stand two days. Strain. Cook with honey and juice of lemon. Stir well. Bring to boil. Put in jars and seal. Good for colds or coughs.

Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) (family Asclepiadaceae)
(silkweed, cottonweed)

ILLUSTRATION 31 Milkweed

Milkweed is a stout perennial, growing in colonies, to five feet tall. It has large, oval, opposite leaves, and stems and leaves exude a milky juice. It is found in dry fields and on roadsides. Rough pods contain silky-winged seeds. Young shoots are edible when very young, before leaves unfold. Young pods can be used as a substitute for okra, and flowers are cooked into sugar.

In Tennessee and Kentucky, milkweed is considered a tonic, greens “good for what ails you.”

Fried milkweed: cut shoots in small pieces, boil fifteen minutes in salted water. Drain. Fry in small amount of fat. Add in eggs, salt and pepper, and cheese, if desired.

Milkweed soup: shoots—gather shoots while young and tender. Do not gather after July. Wash, cook, drain. Add more water, rice, bacon drippings, salt, pepper, or wild onions. Cook over a slow fire until done. Pods—boil a hambone, add young milkweed pods cut in small pieces, several wild onions or ramps, and a handful of rice. Cook slowly. Add salt and pepper before serving.

Cut milkweed shoots in small pieces. Drain. Serve on toast, topped with hard-boiled egg and bread crumbs. Add onion, if desired. Or add bacon or fatback; or top with cheese sauce.

Milkweed greens: cook one pound very young stalks in water with salt and butter, covered for ten minutes. Drain. Add more butter and chopped wild onions.

Ground Hog Plantain (Prunella vulgaris) (family Laviatae)
(selfheal, square-weed, heal-all)

A common, naturalized plant, found everywhere along paths and in waste places. Stems are square with green leaves, and spikes of purplish flowers. Mrs. Ethel Corn said, “It looks sort of like rabbit plantain, only the leaves are darker green and bunch up more.” She said to put them in and boil them with a piece of hog meat.

ILLUSTRATION 32 Ground hog plantain

Mrs. Norton said, “There is a wild ground hog mustard, they call it, and it grows little and low on the ground, and it’s got a round leaf. It has a bloom comes up, it’s a purple flower. But you have to get it real quick, for if you don’t, it’s gone.” When we asked, she said, “How do you fix it? Just cook it with your wild mustard or anything. We always used the sheep sorrel to make it sour like vinegar. Didn’t have much vinegar then, you know, so they used that.”

Broadleaf Plantain (Plantago major) (family Plantaginaceae)
(dooryard weed, great plantain, Englishman’s foot, devil’s shoestring, hen plant, birdseed, waybread, rabbit plantain)

ILLUSTRATION 33 Broadleaf plantain

Plantain is a very common dooryard weed, a native of Europe, and naturalized in this country. It has large round, basal leaves and a spike of greenish flowers and seeds. The leaves are edible when young, rich in calcium, and make excellent greens, especially when added to mustard.

English plantain, or ribwort (Plantago lanceolata), is known in the mountains as white plantain. Leaves can also be eaten, but leaves of rabbit plantain are preferred.

Plantains are rich in vitamins A and C.

Greens: pick leaves. Pull off stems, parboil fifteen minutes. Drain and rinse. Boil again in fresh water with fat meat until tender. Or fry in a small amount of grease five to ten minutes after boiling and draining. Or, Mrs. Norton suggests, “You take blackberry leaves, wild plantain leaves, and wild mustard, and cook them together and see what you get.”

Salad: cook plantain leaves, chopped fine, in salt water. Add a pinch of sugar. Mix with other greens in salads. Or, “Cut it up and eat it like lettuce. Pour hot grease on it,” says Mrs. Tom McDowell.

Corn salad (Valerianella radiate) (family Valerianaceae)
(lamb’s lettuce)

ILLUSTRATION 34 Corn salad

A common plant of early spring, with opposite, narrow, light green leaves and heads of small white flowers. Valerianella locusta is similar, except leaf edges are wavy, and flowers are a very pale blue. Young leaves are edible “used any way you’d use lettuce.”

Valerian tea, a mild sedative, is made by boiling leaves in water. Let them stand twelve hours to draw, then strain and drink sparingly.

Chicory (Cichorium intybus) (family Compositae)
(succory, blue-sailors, bunk)

ILLUSTRATION 35 Chicory

Chicory is naturalized from Europe and found along roadsides. It has dandelion-like basal leaves, and stems that exude a milky juice. Bright blue flowers open every morning and close again by noon.

Young leaves are eaten like lettuce or endive, and roots are also edible, often added to coffee or used as a coffee substitute. Leaves are extremely high in vitamins A and G and in calcium.

Chicory with mustard sauce: cook young leaves until tender. Cover with a sauce made of one-fourth cup sugar, one-half teaspoon salt, two egg yolks, one cup scalded milk, two tablespoons vinegar, one tablespoon mustard. Blend until thick in a double boiler. Serve over the drained chicory.^*

Panned chicory: melt two tablespoons fat and add chopped chicory greens. Cover and steam for fifteen minutes. Add one tablespoon flour, a small amount of cream, salt and pepper. Let simmer five minutes more.

Chicory coffee: wash and peel roots. Grind and roast in oven. Add to, or use instead of, coffee.

Wild lettuce (Lactuca graminifolia) (family Compositae)

ILLUSTRATION 36 Ral Henslee with wild lettuce.

Wild lettuce is a tall plant, found in open woods, and in damp places. Leaves are dentate, usually a bright blue-green color, and very smooth to the touch. Small, dandelion-like flowers open briefly in bright weather. They may be blue or whitish or pale violet. Lactuca hirsuta and Lactuca canadensis are very similar, differing slightly in leaf shapes, or in flower color, for flowers may be violet, white, or yellow. Tall lettuce (Lactuca floridana) grows to six feet tall, with a hollow, leafy stem, and white or pale blue flowers. Leaves of all species of wild lettuce are edible when young and tender. Every species will emit a milky juice when leaves or stems are broken.

Wild lettuce must be gathered and eaten in the early spring when the plants are young, as the older plants get tough and wormy. Ethel Corn told us, “It grows mostly in poor ground where it ain’t tender. When you get it, it has a flavor like tame lettuce, only it don’t look much like it, and it’s a whole lot better.”

Mrs. Keener said, “It’s slick when it first comes up, the leaves are. And it don’t resemble lettuce at all, but it tastes like it. It’s a little bit tougher. You find it all along fence rows, or anywhere. It comes up in early spring, that’s when you get it; when it grows up tall, it’s too tough.”

Mrs. Norton said, “You break a leaf off and if it’s kinda milky, that’s wild lettuce.”

Salad: cut up greens and wash. Cut green onions in it and pour hot grease over it. Also good with vinegar, oil, and salt. Mrs. Irene Gray says, “It sure did taste good!” Try frying bacon until crisp and crumbly. Add brown sugar and vinegar and pour over chopped wild lettuce leaves. For extra flavor, add chickweed or mustard.

Greens: pick young leaves (before they are eight inches high). Wash, and cook with very little water. Add butter, salt, pepper, and bits of bacon and bacon grease.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) (family Compositae)
(blowball, peasant’s clock, cankerroot, down-head, yellow gowan, witches’ gowan, milk-witch)

Dandelions are common on lawns and in fields and along roadsids Stems grow three to fourteen inches and are hollow. Dark green, dentate basal leaves emit a milky juice as they get old. The golden yellow flowers are one to two inches across. Dandelion is a native of Europe, naturalized all over America.

Edible parts include the young leaves, the flower buds, and the scraped roots. Dandelion greens are very rich in iron and vitamin C. Frederic Klees says a Dutchman has to eat dandelion salad on Maundy Thursday to stay healthy all the year. Some authorities say the roots are inedible, and all traces of root must be cut away when preparing greens for cooking. Gather much more than you think you need, for they cook down. Some cooks add a pinch of soda when cooking Dandelions. Mrs. Norton says, “You can use dandelion in tossed salads, the kind with feathery leaves; it makes what you call a wild salad.”

ILLUSTRATION 37 A clump of dandelion.

Greens: gather when young, wash, and boil about twenty minutes in water with fatback added; or drain and fry in grease. Season with salt and pepper. Or after cooking, drain off water, and heat with small amount of vinegar. Add small chunks of fried salt pork, heat, and eat. Or cook lightly in salted water. Drain. Mix milk, butter, one egg, and vinegar together. Cook to just a boil and pour over greens.

Hot greens on toast: cook greens slightly; drain. Add bits of fried bacon and bacon grease. Serve over toast.

Dandelion bud omelet: gather one cup dandelion buds before flower color shows. Fry buds in dab of butter until they pop. Add four eggs, salt and pepper. Top with raw leaves, finely cut before serving.

Salad: wash and pat dry one-half cup unopened flower buds and one bunch tender leaves. Fry two strips bacon, toss buds in hot bacon grease until they open. Drain. Mix with leaves and bacon; add three tablespoons oil and vinegar. Or wash young dandelion leaves and chop fine. Add salt, vinegar, and olive oil. When mixed, add one tomato cut in pieces, or cooked lima beans. Toss. Or mix chopped dandelion with chopped ramps or wild onion; top with bacon, bacon fat, and vinegar.

Green drink: cook chickweed and dandelion, each alone. Put through a sieve, add cider vinegar, and drink for a tonic.

Coffee substitute: gather dandelion roots. Peel. Roast until dark brown; grind. Use as substitute for real coffee.

Dandelion wine: pour one gallon boiling water over one gallon dandelion flowers. Let stand until blossoms rise (twenty-four to forty-eight hours). Strain into stone jar. Add juices of four lemons and four oranges, and four pounds of sugar, plus one yeast cake. Stir four or five times a day until it stops fermenting. Keep well covered. In two weeks, strain, bottle and cork tightly.

Tall coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata) (family Compositae)
(cochan, coach-ann)

Tall coneflower grows in wet places, with finely dissected, smooth green leaves, and later in the season, tall stems of yellow, daisy-like flower heads with green, cone-shaped centers. This is a close relative of the brown-eyed susan, and the wild ancestor of the garden golden globe.

Leaves are edible when young and tender. Mrs. Ethel Corn told us, “You find it along branch banks. It looks like golden globe flowers, and it will run up when it goes to seed. You have to watch when picking it, for the wild parsnip looks similar to it, only it’s more whitish-leaved than that.”

Mrs. Hershel Keener said, “There’s a plant that grows along this branch called coachie-ann; now I don’t know how you spell it, and it’s got such an odor when it’s cooking. You can boil it just like you do poke, and season it real good, but I don’t like it.”

Greens: pick when tender and parboil until tender. Wash until water is clear, squeeze water out. Put in pan with grease and fry. Or after cooking, chop fine and add salt and margarine and top with chopped boiled eggs.

ILLUSTRATION 38 Kenny Runion with cochan from a neighbor’s cornfield.