Welcome back to an entirely new year of LITFM! We took a long hiatus to get our YouTube channel's second season completed and now this blog is back in action. So to get things rolling and at the request of some folks who visit the Farmer's market, I am posting a new series covering forage foods. Given the current geopolitical situation some of this information may come in handy in the not-to-distant future.
Sow Thistle is completely undaunted by mere concrete, this one busts through and note that it still has that neat purple-green color. I have yet to find one that is plain green anywhere in the area.
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| It seems to be a common feature in our area that these plants are purplish-green when small. By the way, the white flowers are from a mouse-ear chickweed essentially photobombing this picture, that edible weed will be covered later. |
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| This Sow Thistle is in bloom, note the purple tinge to it's leaves which seems to common in our area. |
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| This specimen was about two feet tall and growing in partial shade, note how prickly it's older leaves are and that they do clasp the stem. |
Common Name: Sow Thistle (Note: Sow in this case is not pronounced like it rhymes with 'go', it's pronounced like you would in reference to a Female pig or rhyming with 'Cow')
Other Common Names: Field Milk Thistle, Field Sowthistle, Perennial Sow-Thistle, Corn Sow Thistle, Dindle, Gutweed, Swine Thistle, Tree Sow Thistle.
Botanical Family: Asteraceae (The Aster Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Sonchus arvensis
Season to Harvest: Spring.
Habitat: As the above pictures indicate you can find Sow Thistle almost anywhere, but it is more likely to find it along roadsides, in fields, railroad right of ways, gravel banks, gravel driveways and in spots where soil has been disturbed. I have also personally found it in surprising density beside buildings and in the city it is one of the plants that will grow through cracks in cement.
Parts to Harvest: Young leaves with a minimum of spines are preferred; the flowers also can be eaten and brewed into something resembling Dandelion Wine. The thicker roots of this plant can be roasted and ground up to make a coffee substitute.
Poisonous Look-alikes: None in the Continental USA.
Related Edible Species: Spiny Sowthistle (Sonchus asper), Annual Sowthistle (Sonchus arvensis). All three plants are effectively interchangeable as forage food. They look a lot alike also.
Description: I should note; the true thistles, aka Plume Thistles are Cirsium sp. And while both the Sow Thistles and the true Thistles are both in the aster family, their uses do differ. Sow Thistle (S. arvensis) is a perennial herb that can grow to a height of about three feet and can be identified by its prickly leaves and its deep vertical and spreading coarse roots that help it survive conditions that are unfavorable. The leaves are borne alternately and can range from 4” to 14” long. The older leaves are often deeply lobed along the margins while upper leaves closer to the flower stalk are often less lobed and less spiny. Leaves to have a clasping base where they meet the stem. Flowers are produced in loosely branched flower stalks and are bright yellow and thus resemble a Dandelion in appearance.
How to Harvest: As a warning, Sow Thistle can hyper-accumulate nitrates and some specimens can be toxic because of this there are several things you can do to prevent nitrate poisoning while harvesting this plant.
1. Do not harvest sow thistle after a drought ending rain.
2. Avoid any Sow Thistles that have exceptionally dark green foliage.
3. Do not harvest Sow Thistle if it in a dormant state and shows no signs of active growth.
Ideally aside from the nitrate problems you want to harvest from a patch of these plants when they are only a few inches tall as they become increasingly bitter and hard to handle as the foliage ages.
Recipe: If you find that the foliage is not too bitter the first thing you want to do is wash it and remove the spines. The resulting greens can be mixed with other less ‘flavorful’ greens in a forage salad. If you want to use Sow Thistle greens as a pot herb you can boil a cup of the greens in a cup of water for 3-4 minutes then drain and add fresh cup of water and boil until tender. The resulting greens can be served with butter and be seasoned to taste.
With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.
Special Stuff:
Okinawa Spinach - $5.00
Cuban Oregano, Large leaf - $4.00
Garden Stuff: ($3.00)
Tomato - Glacier
Tomato - Sungold
Elephant Garlic
Softneck Garlic
Lettuce – Parris Island Romaine
Lettuce – Cherokee Red
Lettuce – Five Star Lettuce Mix
Beets – Bull’s Blood
Mustard – Red Giant
Kale – Dinosaur
Kale – Redbor
Kale – Ragged Jack
Coming Soon:
Abutilon ‘Orange Hot Lava’
How to stay in Contact with Us!
Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.
https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar
Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:
The Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/curacaovexxor/videos
>Newest videos (-): -New Content Coming soon.
Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClairs General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on April 7th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. This upcoming meeting is the big yearly seed swap which is back after almost two years of covid madness. You don’t have to bring seeds to join in so come on down and let’s fill up LeClairs! We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.
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