One of my absolute favorite wild veggies is orache, an herbaceous, annual member of the genus Atriplex that grows in the alkaline soil of Denver, Colorado and surrounding areas. Oraches are salt-loving plants, so in addition to salt playas in landlocked regions, species can also … [Read more...]
Whitetop mustard bud clusters
I’d been meaning to try eating whitetop, aka hoary cress (Cardaria spp., Lepidium draba or related Lepidium sp.)—an invasive plant targeted for eradication in many parts of the West. It saddens me to see whitetop taking over entire fields; I always wonder what plants might grow … [Read more...]
Spring plant tour: Frisco, Colorado
It's been funny weather up here in the high country lately. Where we live at 10,000 feet, it has been snowing fat, clumpy, wet flakes for days. Then yesterday, late morning, I headed to Frisco through pouring rain to survey some trails. At my first stop, it was snowing and … [Read more...]
Ready-made Road Trip Salad
We embarked on a road trip through Colorado, Utah, and Nevada to California’s Eastern Sierra last week. I had a lot of delicious wild greens on hand that I’d collected in Denver immediately prior, and I wanted to eat fresh salad for the duration of our journey through the … [Read more...]
Eating yucca flowers
On Memorial Day last year we were still snowboarding at A-Basin, the snow drifts in the backyard were up to the life-sized metal deer’s neck, and the yuccas down Denver-way waited until late June to bloom. This year, the snow is gone except for a handful of high elevation chutes … [Read more...]
