If you’re looking to make use of local wild greens, why not give tumblemustard a try? Tumblemustard (Sisymbrium altissimum)—a non-native species from the Middle East thought to have been introduced to North America years ago via contaminated crop seed—is found throughout much of … [Read more...]
Let us appreciate wild lettuce
Foraging prickly lettuce is an art, and one I look forward to each spring, ever since the day I graduated from beat-up, bitter rosettes to the tender carpets of young lettuce greens found in fields and old agricultural places on the plains. An introduced Eurasian species, … [Read more...]
Denver mustard mania
I’m just back from a two-day spring foray in Denver, where I visited old places with old friends and new places with new friends, along with a few solo missions—looking for wild edible plants, of course. How nice it is to see spring springing up down low (around 5,000 feet), … [Read more...]
Prickly pear cactus pads
Apparently I’m not the only one to have gone about prickly pear cactus the wrong way the first time around. Allow me to relive that fateful day two years ago on a Malibu, California hillside where I endeavored to pick a plump prickly fruit bare-handed only to suffer the instant … [Read more...]