Welcome back to the Lost In the Farmer’s Market Blog. At the current time we have a long-running series that covers useful, edible and medicinal ‘weeds’ that you can commonly find in the southeastern states of the United States. While our survey area is just within Cumberland County North Carolina it’ is possible you can find some of these forage plants in other places. This series was begun to give folks a detailed look into the resources they might not have known were right there in their lawn. Given that the world situation is not that great and there are already shortages of critical grains and fertilizers forage foods may be the most useful answer on a local level. LITFM will keep this series going as long as we keep finding wild resources to photograph and write about. If you have any questions or comments about our articles please leave a comment either here or on our YouTube Channel (The link is at the end of the article). Thank you for reading, and remember just one thing, you can’t eat lawn grass.
This is your basic Cutleaf Evening Primrose, it's roughly rosette forming and a decent looking plant. 
The bright yellow flowers are why this plant is sometimes called 'Sundrops' or 'Suncups'. They bloom in the evening to attract pollinating moths. 
There can be some variation in shape, form or the number of lobes on the leaves. 
Note that the flowers can fade from yellow to a orangey coloration and that the lobes can look lore like giant serrations too. 
Cutleaf Evening Primroses will produce side-shoots and, are very adaptable.
Common Name: Cut-Leaf Evening Primrose
Other Common Names: Members of the species are sometimes called Suncups opr Sundrops.
Botanical Family: Onagraceae (The Evening Primrose Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Oenothera laciniata
Season to Harvest: Spring, Fall and, Winter.
Habitat: Cut-Leaf Evening Primrose can be found in sites with disturbed soil, areas of cultivation like farm fields and pastures as well as in lawns, yards and in fields. It does not seem to mind sandy soils and may act as a colonizer in soils where the topsoil is barely present.
Parts to Harvest: Leaves, Flowers, seed pods, tap root.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None known
Related Edible Species: Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis).
Description: Cut-leaf Evening primrose in the southeast USA is a winter annual/ biennial that bears a fibrous root system and a taproot. The stems are hairy reclining and branched from a central base. Leaves are borne in alternate arrangement with elliptic to lance shaped margins and numerous irregular notches or lobes. The flowers are typically bright yellow with five petals and appear in leaf axils on low stems. This plant is native to the Northeast of the USA but has expanded beyond its original range.
How to Harvest: Leaves can be harvested as needed, though younger leaves have less of a strong peppery flavor. Leaves, flowers and seed pods can be used as a potherb and all bear the same flavor though cooking does reduce the pungency and these parts can be used as a cooked spinach substitute. The taproot has to be boiled to be edible.
Recipe: The most common recipe for this plant is to cook it like a potherb. Basically you pick at least a cup of lightly packed greens, flowers and seed pods and cook it for about ten minutes with whatever other forage potherbs you might have on hand. The taproot of this plant should be peeled (if possible) and then boiled in 2-3 changes of water to make its flavor more palatable. This plant does have the same amount of gamma-linolenic acid as the more well-known Evening Primrose.
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)
Basil – Emerald Tower
Fennel - Black
Parsley – Italian
Parsley – Curled
Sage – Common
Thyme – Common
Cotton – Erlene’s Green Lint
Hibiscus – Luna Pink Swirl
Milkweed – Orange blooming
Tobacco – Flowering “Starmaker Apple Blossom”
Coming Soon:
Purple Heart (Next Week)
Vietnamese Cilantro (Next Week)
Pineapple Sage (Next Week)
Hoan Ngoc
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.
Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville
Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (2): Caladiums, Marshmallow
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 August 4th 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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