This is a healthy vegan version of my favorite dandelion soup. Called manest, it is an Italian soup traditionally made with bitter greens, vegetables, sausage, and cheese. I learned it from my father-in-law's late wife Carol, whose grandparents gathered dandelion greens in … [Read more...]
Ellen Zachos’ ‘Backyard Foraging’
Did you know that hosta—the large-leaved and oft variegated landscaping plant that the deer love so much—is edible? I had no idea until I picked up Ellen Zachos’ book, Backyard Foraging: 65 Familiar Plants You Didn’t Know You Could Eat (Storey Publishing, 2013). Go figure. The … [Read more...]
Mint madness
There’s nothing like accompanying your boyfriend to a work meeting expecting to sit idly by and instead being invited to forage the back yard. “I’ll weed your garden while I wait,” I offered to his new web client, glancing hungrily at the carpet of young goosefoot (Chenopodium … [Read more...]
New England Foraging Adventure – Part III
If I don’t get the rest of this New England story out soon I’ll be permanently stopped up in the blog-hole, though perhaps it’s something a large dose of chickweed (Stellaria sp.) could solve. I already wrote about chickweed in Part I of this series, I know, but I just read an … [Read more...]
New England Foraging Adventure – Part I
“There’s a reason why the pre-Columbian population of Colorado was low,” wild plants author Sam Thayer once wrote me, referring to the relative lack of edible wild plants in this semi-arid land compared to lusher parts of the country. How dare he? I recall thinking—though truth … [Read more...]
