non-native | Wild Food Girl

Eating chicory greens

May 17, 2016 By Erica M. Davis 4 Comments

The other day, after years frequenting the same rushing creek in southeast Denver, I finally figured out a way across. On the other side, I found chicory. Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is a non-native plant that’s widely naturalized across the U.S. You probably know it from its … [Read more...]

Seaweeding the Eastern Shoreline

October 10, 2014 By Erica M. Davis 1 Comment

My parents shot me quizzical looks last summer when I announced my plan to gather seaweed in Long Island Sound, off the Connecticut coast. Not only would I collect, but also dry the seaweed at their house so I could take it back to Colorado with me for cooking experiments. I … [Read more...]

Fruiting Forward

September 16, 2014 By Erica M. Davis 1 Comment

We went for wild plums in the cold, misty morning, gathering them with fingers freezing and lethargic, my feet squishing in icy, wet boots. It was worth enduring the thorny thicket, the musky scent of catnip tall around us, to come home with 20 lbs or so of plums, without making … [Read more...]

Wild Greens & Potato Pie with Kochia

May 24, 2014 By Erica M. Davis 1 Comment

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...]

Venison meatloaf with sock berry glaze

November 27, 2012 By Erica M. Davis 2 Comments

Call me a “bitter-plant apologist,” but I’m pretty pleased with myself for this, my first foray into cooking with Viburnum opulus, the highbush cranberry that is the escaped ornamental cousin of the much-celebrated native species. Says Sam Thayer in my go-to guide, The … [Read more...]

2 days ago

I took myself on a solo road trip to Nevada last week, and I’m so happy I did! I have been studying pinyon pines, primarily our local two-needle pinyon (Pinus edulis), but I wanted to check out the singleleaf pinyons (P. monophylla) of the Great Basin too. They are having a mast year there, so the trees and ground were covered with pinyon nuts of many colors, shapes, and sizes. Even better, when I pulled into the campground I met a nice Navajo couple up from Arizona to do the same, so we camped and harvested pinyons together for a couple days.

It is a Navajo belief that if you shake the trees, early winter will come—so we just gathered from the ground, talking and telling stories to pass the time. I am embarrassed to say it took some work to keep up with my new 65 and 70-year-old friends, who could go for 6 hours straight. But I learned so much—how they winnowed out the blanks, and roasted and salted pinyon nuts to perfection, not to mention other things like how various other plants are used for medicine, food, and utility, and how to make ash bread and fry bread and nixtamalize corn with juniper ash.

I am counting my blessings for such a wonderful and unexpected experience with new friends—and of course, all the pinyones I’m stuffing my face with right now. ... See MoreSee Less

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1 week ago

Here is a neat plant I found for the first time on my cross-country trip last week—purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata). I first read about this plant in Kelly Kindscher’s book, Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie. Then Sam Thayer chose it to grace the cover of his latest book, Incredible Wild Edibles (2017), and of course included a very useful account.

This relative of common mallow (Malva neglecta) is also low-growing with leaves that are similarly structured, but more deeply lobed. It is also known as “prairie winecups” for its pretty flowers, which I was glad to find too.The green parts and flowers are edible, as is the taproot. Sadly, I didn’t find a place to dig any purple poppy mallow on my trip. The first place I found it had only a couple specimens, and this native perennial should only be dug where there is a healthy population, preferable one that needs thinning, Sam writes. The second spot had a decent-sized population in the mowed grass along an Arby’s parking lot, but I didn’t think Arby’s would love it if I dug up their lawn. So, next time!

Sam shows eastern Colorado as the starting point (headed east) for this Great Plains species, but I didn’t find any in Colorado. The two populations I found were in central Nebraska. These are often cultivated as landscaping plants too. ... See MoreSee Less

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2 weeks ago

Hello fellow pine nut hunters! I’m curious to hear how your season has been going. Here where I gather in Colorado, in spring it was looking to be a great year, as our local Colorado or New Mexico pinyon (Pinus edulis) were well-crusted in fat, green cones. Then, seemingly owing to the lack of rain in late summer, a lot them “browned out,” the cones turning brown, shrinking, and in some cases dropping prematurely.

Still, a good grove remains where I’ve been collecting green cones over the last month—a harvest method used by tribes to the west in singleleaf pinyon (P. monophylla) country. These I laid to dry in flat boxes, and they have been opening up in the last couple weeks, to release seeds both viable and empty, as to be expected.

Yesterday, after a weeklong trip I returned to the pinyon-juniper to find that the cones on the trees were opening—but all were empty of viable nuts, and I couldn’t find any good ones on the ground either. To me this says, due to the lean year surrounding my particular grove: 1) the woodland animals are getting them as soon as they open if not before, and 2) it may not be a good year for tree-shaking or collecting from the ground (in that location). I walked a ways through the woodland and couldn’t find one candidate I wanted to lay my tarp under.

So I’m curious: Does this sound like your pinyon grove too? What are your observations? Thanks! ... See MoreSee Less

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