Greetings and Salutations to all you intrepid gardeners out there, welcome back to another installment of the Forage Foods series on Lost In The Farmer’s Market. As you might already know the current Geo-Political situation coupled with inflation and supply shortages has prompted a series on foods you can forage for just in case things go sideways. Even if they don’t, forage foods may have added nutritional benefits and may also have medicinal benefits that can help you out.
This specimen is reaching for the sky and honestly even up against a old building it still looks nice. 
Some White Clover is in this shot but the tiny yellow blossoms of Small Hop Clover are pretty. 
From most lawn care websites you would think Small Hop Clover was this terrible villain, and yet it's actually a dainty nitrogen fixing member of the Pea family just out there living it's best life.
Common Name: Small Hop Clover
Other Common Names: Lesser Trefoil, Sucking Clover, Little Hop Clover and Lesser Hop Trefoil.
Botanical Family: Fabaceae (The Pea Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Trifolium dubium
Season to Harvest: The early to middle of spring is ideal.
Habitat: Small Hop Clover is found in lawns, fields, sites with disturbed soil, pastures, open woodlands, and along roadsides. In urban settings this plant may appear in shady areas beside buildings where rain runoff may otherwise pool.
Parts to Harvest: The flowers leaves and seeds.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None specifically.
Related Edible Species: Large Hop Clover (Trifolium campestre), Black Medick (Medicago lupulina).
Description: Small Hop Clover is a true member of the Clover family and is a prostrate freely-branching winter annual with hairy reddish colored stems. This plant bears leaves with three leaflets and is accepted as the primary plant representing the Traditional Irish Shamrock. This plant’s leaflets do have noticeable veins. The flowers of Small Hop Clover are in clusters of three to fifteen small flowers that are bright yellow. Patches of Small Hop Clover can be up to a foot wide and up to five inches tall.
How to Harvest: Leaves and flowers can be picked normally.
Recipe: Unfortunately I was unable to locate any kind of real recipe for Small hop clover however many sources suggest that the flowers and leaves can be used as part of a forage salad, or as a cooked green if mixed in with other forage greens. Additionally it is clearly stated that you can make a tea out of the flowers and foliage and I would guess that this means something like a ounce or two of Small Hop Clover per cup of hot water. It is also indicated that the seeds can be harvested in autumn and eaten as is or roasted. Grinding the seeds into flour is a noted option, but given the size of the flowers it must take a lot of seed to make anything meaningful.
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.
Garden Stuff: ($3.00)
Okra – Red BurgundyOkra – Jing Orange
Basil – Emerald Tower
Chervil – French Parsley
Chives
Fennel - Black
Parsley – Italian
Parsley – Curled
Sage – Common
Sage – White (VERY limited Item, $9.00)
Tarragon – Mexican
Thyme – Common
Amaranth – Early Splendor
Cock’s Comb – Scarlet Prestige
Celosia – First Flame Purple
Castor Bean – Zanzibar
Cotton – Erlene’s Green Lint
Marigolds – Strawberry Blonde
Tobacco – Flowering “Starmaker Apple Blossom”
Coming Soon:
More TBA!
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.
Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (1): - Snow Peas
Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClair’s General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on July 7th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.
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