Egyptian Spinach

Note from the Author: This plant has never been covered on the blog before.

 

 

Notice the seed pod in the middle of the picture, this is about as big as they get.

The tiny yellow flowers are pretty, but not present enough to bother with. The pollinators still dig them.

Note the shape of the leaves.

This plant which was not grown optimally is lanky and loose but it's foliage is no less edible.

 

 

Common Name: Egyptian Spinach

 

Other Common Names: Molokhiya, Jute Mallow, Jew’s Mallow, Mallow Leaves, Nalita Jute, Tossa Jute, Mloukheyeh, West African Sorrel

 

Botanical Family: Malvaceae (The Hibiscus Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Corchorus olitorius

 

Description & Habitat:  It is unlikely that you will find this plant in the wilds of North Carolina as it is an introduced species. However it is possible you will find it in yards, old farms and in places where Jute was cultivated for the purposes of making rope. Egyptian Spinach is generally grown as a annual and on average the plant can grow to about five feet tall unless intentionally grown for the purposes of making fiber for ropes at which it can be up to thirteen feet tall. The leaves of this plant are borne in an alternate arrangement and are roughly elliptical in shape with a serrated margin and small thin spurs facing inward towards the stem. The flowers of this plant are tiny and yellow and seem to open sometime in the morning. Seed pods look a bit like a tiny okra pod but they only get an inch or three long and may curve at the tip. Overall this plant essentially looks like a weed despite its numerous useful traits.

 

Special Toxicity Note:  This plant has no toxicity

 

When & What to Harvest: The leaves and young seed pods are edible. Generally the leaves are what you want as they can be used fresh or dried as a tea or a soup thickener. The seeds even when mature are also edible though small.

 

Related Plants: White Jute (C. calsularis), is the other plant that supplies the fibers to make Jute Twine.

 

Recipe:  Normally I post one of my recipes here but I found one that looks so good that I’m sharing a link

https://harmonyvalleyfarm.com/recipes/stewed-egyptian-spinach-with-north-african-spices/

 

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://www.kikkoman.com/en/cookbook/glossary/moroheiya.html

 

Where to get Seed or Bare Root Plants:

https://www.southernexposure.com/products/molokhiya-egyptian-spinach/

 

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 my 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.

 

 

Fresh Produce:

Figs, Magnolia

Peppers, Banana Drop Hybrid

 

Summer Vegetables:

Nightshade Greens, Gbognome

Nightshade Greens, West African Njama

 

Autumn Vegetables:

Collards ‘Green Glaze’

 

Herbs:

Chives

Egyptian Onions

 

Flowers:

Flowering Tobacco

 

Plants Coming Soon:

TBA

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

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 (1): Japanese Aralia

 

Meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is August 30^th at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.

Rhomboid Mercury; Weed or Rockstar?

 Note from the Author: This plant has never been covered on the blog before.

I bet looking at this photo you're probably thinking 'wait I've seen that!' It's pretty common in the southeast and not exactly the worst of the weeds you deal with.

Note the flower calyxes near where the leaf petioles attach to the main stem. That's about as showy as this one gets.

Because this plant drops seeds in threes they tend to come up in clusters as seen here.

 

Common Name: Rhomboid Mercury

 

Other Common Names: Three-Seeded Mercury, Copperleaf, Virginia Three-seed Mercury

 

Botanical Family: Euphorbiaceae (The Poinsettia Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Acalypha rhomboidea

 

Description & Habitat:  This plant is often seen in the urban landscape appearing in potted plants, garden beds and other sites with disturbed soil. It is an annual and tends to come up enmasse in groups  The references to three seeds in its common names are because it’s seeds have a capsule with three lobes each containing a single seed. Rhomboid Mercury is native to North America, and its seeds are eaten by wild birds such as Mourning Doves and Greater Prairie Chickens, Deer are also known to eat this plant. The Rhomboid part of its name comes from the shape of its leaves which are borne in alternate arrangement and have a lanceolate to ovate shape which resembles a rhomboid shape. Its flowers are inconspicuous but the Calyxes around them have a deeply serrated margin making them showier than the flowers despite being the same color green as the rest of the plant. It is noted that in areas where group 2 herbicides have been used regularly this plant due to its resistance can become a problem.

 

Special Toxicity Note:  This is not a plant you want to try and eat, it is mildly poisonous and can cause vomiting and diarrhea.

 

When & What to Harvest: This plant is not edible.

 

Related Plants: Virginia Copper Leaf (Acalypha virginica), Jacob’s Coat/ Copperleaf (A. wilkesiana), the former is a very similar plant common next door in Virginia, the latter is a plant often sold in nurseries and is the colorful cultivated cousin.

 

Recipe:  This plant is not edible.

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://extension.psu.edu/virginia-three-seed-mercury-are-they-a-weed-or-a-wildflower

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/acalypha-rhomboidea/

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/acalypha-wilkesiana/

 

 

Where to get Seed or Bare Root Plants:

Not applicable.

 

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 my 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.

 

 

Fresh Produce:

Figs, Magnolia

Peppers, Banana Drop Hybrid

 

Summer Vegetables:

Nightshade Greens, Gbognome

Nightshade Greens, West African Njama

 

Autumn Vegetables:

Collards ‘Green Glaze’

 

Herbs:

Chives

Egyptian Onions

 

Flowers:

Flowering Tobacco

 

Plants Coming Soon:

TBA

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

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): Nasturtiums, Hyssop Blooper (short outtake vid)

 

Meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is August 23^rd at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.

 

Common Ragweed II

 Note from the Author: I have covered this plant before, on February 9^th 2023.

 

 

With Foliage like that one could mistake this plant for a Cosmos or one of the Marigolds.

This is a exceptional specimen of what this plant looks like when grows uninterrupted.

Note the fuzzy stems and reddish tint to the branches.

Here is another close up of the growing tip, all of this could be harvested for leaf greens.

 

Common Name: Common Ragweed

 

Other Common Names: Annual Ragweed, Low Ragweed.

 

Botanical Family: Asteraceae (The Aster Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Ambrosia artemisiifolia

 

Description & Habitat:  In the Urban environment you will most often find Common Ragweed in areas with recently disturbed soil, along paths, roadsides and it will also appear in neglected garden beds and beside shrub borders. Common Ragweed is an annual plant and is native to North and Central America. Some sources say that it can get 3-6’ tall while others indicate that 2.5-3’ is the upper limit and I attribute this disparity to confusion between the individual species as Giant Ragweed (A. trifida) can certainly get that large. The best two identification features are its finely lobed leaves which almost appear to be tattered like an old thread bare rag. The stems on this plant have an alternate arrangement and are noticeably fuzzy; leaf petioles may also have a reddish coloration. The flowers of this plant are inconspicuous but are borne at stem tips. Annual Ragweed branches profusely and groups of them can form thickets that can choke out other plants that are more endemic to the region. While Common Ragweed is a native species to North America it can produce a lot of seeds which have a 50% germination rate after a year and can persist in the soil for decades. This feature alone has earned Ragweed the ‘Noxious Weed’ classification as well as ‘Invasive Plant’ in some areas. Despite its negative qualities, Common Ragweed is very useful for phytoremediation as it is very good at extracting heavy metals and toxins from the soil.

 

Special Toxicity Note:  None.

 

When & What to Harvest: Based on information from multiple sources Common Ragweed appears to be completely edible, though it might be wise to stick to using younger leaves and tender shoots to avoid any possible bitterness. Most sources agree that the seeds are the best thing to harvest as they have a high amount of crude fat and protein. Given that a plant in the wild can produce anywhere from 3,500 to 62,000 seeds depending on conditions and a cultivated one may be closer to the higher number it is a viable option.

 

Related Plants: Giant Ragweed (A. trifida), Slimleaf Burr Ragweed (A. tenuifolia) for the roots.

 

Recipe:  There are a number of sources out there with suggestions on how to cook Common Ragweed foliage. I did not find any full recipes by the posting deadline for this post however. What I suggest is collecting the foliage and if you intend to use it in a soup or as a potherb, boil it in at least two changes of water to moderate any bitterness and cook off any compounds that might be present. Since this plant can hyper accumulate heavy metals be mindful of where you harvest the foliage in the urban landscape.

 

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ambrosia-artemisiifolia/

 

 

Where to get Seed or Bare Root Plants:

https://roundstoneseed.com/native-wildflowers/4-ragweed.html

 

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 my 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.

 

 

Fresh Produce:

Figs, Celeste

Figs, Chicago Hardy

Figs, Ischia

Peppers, Banana Drop Hybrid

 

Summer Vegetables:

Nightshade Greens, Gbognome

Nightshade Greens, West African Njama

Okra, Baby Bubba

Pepper, Ghost

Pepper, Serrano

Pepper, Hungarian Wax Banana

Pepper, Bull’s Horn

Pepper, Mad Hatter

Pepper, Purple Bell

Potato, Adirondak (Purple skin with blue-purple flesh)

Spinach, Egyptian

 

Herbs:

Basil, Holy

Basil, Sweet Genovese

Chives

Yarrow, Parker’s Gold

 

Flowers:

Flowering Tobacco

Marigolds

 

Plants Coming Soon:

Egyptian Onions

Collards ‘Green Glaze’

Collards ‘Nancy Malone Purple’

Collards ‘Old Timey Blue’

Cabbage-Collards ‘Yellow’

Kale ‘Marrow Stem’

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

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 (1): Njama-Njama

 

Meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is August 9^th at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.