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.
Evening Primroses are one of the best things I ever unintentionally introduced to my garden.
Common Name: Evening Primrose
Other Common Names: Evening Star, Sundrop, German Rampion, Hog Weed, King’s Cure-All and, Fever-Plant
Botanical Family: Onagraceae (The Evening Primrose Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Oenothera biennis
Season to Harvest: Summer, Fall and, Winter.
Habitat: Common Evening Primrose is a Biennial non-native plant introduced from Europe that has escaped cultivation and can be found in disturbed sites, along roads, in prairies garden beds, lawns, pastures and prefers sunny arid places with loamy soils but will tolerate a lot of soil conditions. It is sensitive to nitrogen and areas with too much available nitrogen can adversely affect its production of seeds.
Parts to Harvest: You can harvest the leaves, taproot, second-year stalks, and flower buds and, the seeds are edible. I have to mention that some parts when eaten raw may irritate the throat so fully cook where needed and test small portions before you make a meal out of it.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None noted, though do not confuse this plant with other Evening Primroses.
Related Edible Species: O. Biennis, O. Hookeri, O. Lamarckiana, O. Californica, and O. nuttalli.
Description: Evening Primrose is a biennial that has a variable appearance based on its state of maturity. In the first year it forms a rosette and bears alternately arranged lance-shaped leaves. The species I have in the test garden occasionally also has reddish markings on the leaves. In the second year Evening primrose will grow a tall stalk that can be up to three feet tall which bears the flowers for which it is famous. The seed pods that follow are four-sided capsules that split at the tips when ready. A single seed pod can contain hundreds of individual seeds.
Recipe: Evening Primrose leaves can be used sparingly in forage salads but are best when cooked like spinach with other greens that have the same use. Typically cooking evening primrose leaves by themselves as a spinach substitute requires boiling for 15-20 minutes in at least two changes of water to even out the flavor. The taproots of this plant can be dug in the first year of growth during most of the year. Those taproots need to be peeled and boiled in at least two changes of water for an overall time of 20-30 minutes. Once tender the roots can be served with butter and seasonings or you can slice them up and fry them. A candy can be made out of the boiled roots; all you have to do is gently simmer the cooked roots in simple sugar syrup until they are properly candied.
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 8:00 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.
Fresh Produce:
Garlic Bulbs
Soup Kit – Parsnip
Soup Kit – Turnip
Garden Stuff: ($3.00)
Brussel Sprouts - Redarling
Cauliflower – Snow Crown
Cauliflower – Flame Star
Cauliflower – Veronica
Celery - Tango
Cilantro – Vietnamese
Collards – Green Glaze
Kale – Ragged Jack
Kale - Redbor
Hoan Ngoc
Mustard – Japanese Red Giant
Pak Choi – Rose’
Coming Soon:
House Plants (November-ish)
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 (3): Angelonia
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 November 3rd 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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