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.
Note the foliage and hairy stems, these help in identification. 
Note the pretty white umbel flowers, this should not be the only identifying feature you use. You cannot verify the carrot for sure until you dig up that root.
Common Name: Queen Anne’s Lace
Other Common Names: Wild Carrot
Botanical Family: Apiaceae (The Carrot Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Daucus carota
Season to Harvest: Mid to late spring.
Habitat: Wild carrots are typically found by roadsides, in vacant lots and
Parts to Harvest: Flower heads, seeds, and the tap root and leaves if harvested early enough in the season.
Poisonous Lookalikes: Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum), Fool’s Parsley (Aethysa cynapium). Both plants can be distinguished from a Wild carrot by the aroma the root gives off when damaged. Wild Carrot will always smell like a carrot, the two lookalikes will stink pretty bad.
Related Edible Species: The Domesticated Carrot (Daucus carota) is the most closely related species short of the Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa).
Description: The Wild Carrot is a somewhat narrowly shamed upright biennial with a pale fleshy taproot shamed like a carrot. In the first year of growth this plant forms a rosette of finely divided leaves which appears lacy, hence the name. The Mature second year plants will have hollow stems and a noticeable carrot-like odor when the foliage is crushed. Tiny white flowers are borne in dense white flat or, concave clusters at the end of long flowering stems. Wild carrots will have a red flower in the dead center of their flowering clusters.
How to Harvest: First year roots can be harvested by gentle digging and will need to be scrubbed clean with something like a soft bristled tooth brush to get most of the grit and or dirt out of the nooks and crannies. The individual leaves and flower heads can be harvested as needed.
Recipe: While a number of means and ways to cook carrots in one form or another exist, the flower of a wild carrot can be lightly battered and fried as a calorie fortified food. The root can be used as one would use a normal carrot, but I do suggest using them in pickling. Additionally as with domesticated carrots the leaves can be used as a salad green which adds a peppery-carroty flavor.
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)
Tomato – Sungold
Tomato – Chocolate Cherry
Tomato – Glacier
Tomato – Mountain Pride
Tomato – Purple Cherokee
Peppers – Cayenne
Peppers – Anaheim
Peppers – Bell
Okra – Red Burgundy
Okra – Jing Orange
Basil – Rutgers DMR Devotion
Sage – White (VERY limited Item, $9.00)
Marigolds – Strawberry Blonde
Amaranth – Early Splendor
Cock’s Comb – Scarlet
Castor Bean – Zanzibar
Marshmallow
Wonderberry
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:
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>Newest videos (1): - Catnip
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 June 2nd 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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