I love my Old West town for many reasons, and one of them is rhubarb (Rheum spp.). It is one of the few food plants that can be cultivated here up high where I live, due to our extremely short growing season and cold nights. I’m hardly the first to discover this, for the rhubarb … [Read more...]
Narrow dock in mushroom sauce
There are many species of edible dock (Rumex spp.), all of which are related to buckwheat and rhubarb. As a group they generally have dark green leaves that are somewhat thick, and papery sheaths wrapping the base of their leaves and flower stems. Docks produce clustered seed … [Read more...]
Wild tarragon in the weeds
I am in love. Wild tarragon. It is the same species as the cultivated herb, but grows wild as a native species throughout much of the U.S. and Canada. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it sooner. Wild tarragon is concentrated in the western United States—south to New Mexico and … [Read more...]
A tale of four daisies
My class and I were invited to forage some edible noxious weeds on a public trail in Breckenridge, Colorado a couple years ago. We saw no signs of herbicide spray there, and I had seen none in past years at that spot, so a couple of us took home nice bags of budding ox-eye … [Read more...]
You’re my candytuft
I am occasionally guilty of paging through plant books to find humorous epithets for my better half. For example, he has been called "bristly hawksbeard," "spiny cocklebur," "Western sticktight," and "Mexican sprangletop." Today, however, he took a page out of my book and … [Read more...]
