Last summer I force fed myself winter cress—a wild mustard that grows all over the place, eventually flowering into splashes of fantastic fluorescent yellow. Euell Gibbons includes a chapter on winter cress (Barbarea vulgaris, B. verna) in Stalking the Wild Asparagus (1962), … [Read more...]
Don’t Forget the Tumble Mustard
If you’re looking to make use of local wild greens, why not give tumble mustard (Sisymbrium altissimum) a try? Tumble mustard—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 … [Read more...]
Wild Greens & Potato Pie with Kochia
I’m having wild greens and potato pie for breakfast again, as I have for the last two mornings. You wouldn’t think greens mixed into mashed potatoes in a pie crust would be all that exciting, but I am definitely smitten. The inspiration came from Ellen Zachos’ book, Backyard … [Read more...]
Tumbleweed Salad
Just when I think I know everything there is to know about wild mustards, I find another one to eat and then do happy kicks about. This time, I am excited about tumblemustard (Sisymbrium altissimum), which you might know better as tumbleweed, because at maturity when it dries out … [Read more...]
Old Places, New Head Spaces
Yesterday we revisited one of our old, favorite hikes on the shoulder of Pennsylvania Mountain above Fairplay, Colorado. We must have done a variation of that hike—sometimes ducking into the forest on game trails to encounter still-open mine holes and long-abandoned cabins, … [Read more...]
