A Profile of Winter Weeds

     Welcome to the 2024 edition of the LITFM blog.  This blog is the text-based complement to my weekly posts on Nextdoor.com and the gardening channel on YouTube. In 2023, this blog took on a more formal instructional tone with jokes dispersed within to serve as a hub for conveying information that might not work in a video or weekly update format. The subject matter here is always the wide variety of plant-based foods that you can find growing around you in nature or as some call it ‘Forage Foods’. This ties in with local bartering, and indirectly now we will be including mycology. The primary reason for the change in the blog’s tone and topic came about due to the events of the pandemic, the resulting economic turmoil and other factors. The reality is that we are surrounded with perfectly edible plants that can fill at least some of the void in our dietary needs. There is no reason not to be educated in what is and is not safe and how to prepare it into a nutritious meal. With that said I also realized that in my own way by keeping this blog running I might be butting heads with a billion-dollar pesticide/herbicide/fertilizer industry at times. It has always been in the interest of that industry to label certain things ‘weeds’ so they can sell you product that as time goes by we find out is worse for your health than the weeds are. Coupled with an Agricultural-Education system that peddles the myths of the industry and the old myth that if you can afford a nice lawn you must have wealth we have a population that has been fooled for a long time. So, here we are in 2024, and the forage foods series will continue. I hope all of you who read this blog find the information useful or at least thought provoking. The ‘weeds’ I am listing a certainly found in Zone 8A in North Carolina and should certainly be easy to find in the Southeast regions of America.  Thank you for sticking with LITFM and stay tuned for a year of forage foods.

 

    In today’s blog post I’m going to do something a bit different.  Think of it as a recap of sorts because spring is nearby and I know the uptick in questions about a certain batch of weeds is coming. Today I will be briefly covering a number of edible weeds that I have photographed in the field over the last two weeks and each will get a little write-up so you know the differences between them and what they can be used for. Next week this blog will be back on schedule covering the next forage weed ‘Common Evening Primrose’.

 

 

 

 

This is Field Sorrel, (Rumex acetosella), it is also known as Sheep's Sorrel or Red Sorrel. This is the wild equivalent to the French Sorrel you may see in the produce aisle at the supermarket. It's foliage can be quite tart especially if you wait too long to harvest it.

Here is a Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), this plant as most know is fully edible, all parts but the foliage can be a bit bitter.

At a glance you might assume this is Wild lettuce or a Dandelion, but no it is Common Milk Thistle (Sonchus oleraceus). It's not the same as the other Milk Thistle and it is sometimes called 'common sowthistle' despite the sow thistle being another related plant also. The leaves are edible and prepared like cooked spinach.

This is Chickweed (Stellaria media) that has not been harvested, note how the stems are red and there are some long stems. At this point the stems might be a bit fibrous but the plant overall is edible.

A better example of the Chickweed (Stellaria media) when it's fully tender. Chickweed in pots responds well to fertilizer and can be trimmed so that it keeps producing tender foliage packed with nutrients. If you let it grow long enough when you harvest it it may give you a little gift as is seen in the next picture.

This is the seed of Chickweed (Stellaria media), and a good reason to make sure your harvest buckets are made of light colored plastic. This seed in the wild will lay dormant until cool temperatures return in fall. But now that I have it's seed I can let this dry and sow it in ideal locations then actually cultivate this winter annual.

This one looks like it could be a bunch of things. Wild lettuce, maybe a Cat's Ear Dandelion? This is Carolina Desert Chicory (Pyrrhopappus caralinianus) a native member of the aster family and a relative to dandelions, Chicory and Wild lettuce.

This is also Carolina Desert Chicory (Pyrrhopappus caralinianus), the leaves can vary a bit but if it looks like someone boiled a dandelion and dumped the leaves out in your lawn then it's probably 'CDC'. This plant grows very flat to the ground allowing it to survive the ravages of lawn mowers. It has to be pulled up to be defeated.

So, what can you do with Carolina Desert Chicory? The leaves and root are both edible though the flavor is not for everyone. Good thing the flat easily cleaned leaves go good in a salad where dressing and other greens can moderate the flavor impact.

Annual Bluegrass  (Poa annua), this is usually the first grass to green up in the late winter and spring. It is commonly found in fast-greening contractor grass mixes and also in grass patch blends. This is the only non-aster, non-sorrel here and it's here because it appears with the other winter weeds and often is gone by summer. It is  not known to be edible for humans, but your livestock will probably go for it and since it's not known to have any level of toxicity there is that.

 

Not the best picture in history but this plant has persisted in a crack between building and cement for years and that's impressive. This plant is commonly called Saltbush (Baccharis halimifolia) because when it's flowers fade and it's seeds are ready it looks like the entire plant is crusted in salt.

Here is a close up of the flew leaves this specimen has, note the margins and their overall elliptical shape. The plant isn't edible and it seeds are known to be toxic but its foliage is used in some parts of Louisiana to treat kidney ailments and to reduce fevers.

Ok, finally a plant that I get a lot of inquiries about year-round. This is Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola). It is the wild edible cousin to the lettuce you buy at the store. It is named because parts of the leaves can have little prickly bits but you can remove those with a knife as they are fleshy. This plant has latex sap and is often a hose to Aphids so wash your harvest thoroughly. Note the color differences in the leaves.

This is another Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola), it is probably younger than the one in the first photo. The leaves you want to harvest are the younger softer ones near the top.

This plant is one you've probably seen all over right now. This forage weed's name is Little Western Bittercress (Cardamine oligosperma), and it is is in the Cabbage family. You want to eat the foliage when young but older foliage can be cooked to improve it's edibility. It does have exploding seedpods so be wary of that.

This is another cool-season annual I get a lot of questions about. It is called Henbit (Lamium amplexcaule) and it is in the mint family.  All of the foliage is edible raw or cooked and it's slightly minty in flavor.

A specimen of Henbit (Lamium amplexcaule) like this could be pulled up and cultivated if you desire as this plant generally doesn't have a deep root system.

Oh Myyy! It's another species of wild lettuce! This one is commonly called Hairy Lettuce (Lactuca hirsuta), it is no less edible than the other I listed but this is the one that can get four to six feet tall in a growing season. If you cook the leaves the light 'hairs' go away.

 

Just when you thought you'd seen enough Dandelions, there is this plant. This is a Wild Dandelion (Hypochaeris radicata) which looks very similar to the Cat's Ear Dandelion. It has the same uses and grows in a similar fashion at a similar speed. All parts of the plant are edible for people but it may pose some issues for horses. Another common name for this perennial is 'flatweed'.

Telegraph Weed (Heterotheca grandiflora), this plant is known for it's tall flower stalks that look somewhat like telegraph poles from back in the day. It has two types of seeds ones with a silky parachute like a dandelion and others that just fall off the plant allowing it double the reproduction potential. Due to compounds in this plant it may have medicinal properties.

What's this, a dandelion? Nope! This is Tall Blue Lettuce (Lactuca biennis) and as that name suggests it is a biennial. It is just as edible as the other lettuces listed here today, it is also a host to aphids so wash what you harvest thoroughly.

Folks often mistake this for wild lettuce or dandelions but, it is Spiny Sowthistle (Sonchus asper). The young leaves are agreeable in salads but it is suggested that you should bruise the leaves and try to wash out as much of the milky sap as is possible. the stems can be peeled and eaten raw like celery or cooked.

This is quite a specimen, it is a Smooth Cat's Ear Dandelion (Hypochaeris glabra) which has developed a neat reddish color. This may be due to cold exposure, or a  protection against bright sunlight or a as a result of someone trying a failing to kill it with herbicide.

This is what a Smooth Cat's Ear Dandelion (Hypochaeris glabra) normally looks like. It's not spiny though it's just got tiny fluffy hairs despite being called 'smooth'. The smooth part comes from it looking pretty glossy. You can eat all parts of a Cat's Ear Dandelion and I hear it's a bit easier to make dandelion wine from it's blossoms because they're more numerous. It is a perennial and can have a pretty good sized taproot.

 

 

 

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 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 Food:

Garlic Bulbs

Soup Kits – Parsnip

Soup Kits – Turnip

 

 

House Plants 

 

>All house plants are on sale!<

 

Arrowhead Plant ‘Regina Red’

Haworthia ‘Chocolate’

Hoan Ngoc

 

 

Coming Soon:

More stuff 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.

 

Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville

 

Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:

The Videos: Look Here

>Newest videos (0): [new videos are in production]

 

Meetings are 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 March 7^th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.

 

 

Thistle be the end of me

 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.

 

 

Horrible Thistle has got to be the most Metal Wild plant I've ever seen. Thorns on thorns on thorns, it's the epitome of thorn-ception. This thing is set to defend itself against anything short of strong herbicide or a nuclear bomb.

I encountered this lone but quite epic specimen on Maracco Drive which is a service road for I95 in Fayetteville.

Even the flower's calyxes are seriously well defended.

 

Common Name: Horrible Thistle

 Other Common Names: Yellow Thistle, Bristle Thistle, Horrid Thistle, Purple Thistle, Spiny Thistle, Bull Thistle.

 Botanical Family: Asteraceae (The Daisy Family)

Botanical Latin Name: Cirsium horridulum var. vittatum (sometimes also Cardulus spinosissimus)

Season to Harvest: Spring and early summer in both the first and second years of growth.

Habitat: This thistle is often found on the edges of salt marshes but may often be found in pastures, in sites with soil disturbance and along roadsides.

Parts to Harvest: All thistles in the genus Cirsium are edible; however it takes special methods to extract the edible parts. What you want in the first year is young soft leaves, young less-spiny stems and the roots and flower stalk in the second year.

Poisonous Lookalikes: Sometimes Horse Nettle (Solanum carolinense) is mistaken for this plant at a glance; however, close inspection will easily reveal the difference. Horse Nettle is a nightshade and its five-petaled flowers and bright yellow stamen are a dead giveaway. Additionally Horse Nettle has softly fuzzy leaves and comparatively few spines, it’s fruits are green and look like tiny immature tomatoes and ripen to a yellow-orange color. Horse nettle is poisonous, all parts contain solanine and it is most potent in the autumn.

Related Edible Species: Cirsium horridulum var. horridulum is known to have a rage from Maine to Guatemala, C. h. var. megacanthum is known to have a range from the Florida Panhandle into Texas and Oklahoma.

Description: Horrible Thistle is a tall branching annual or sometimes biennial with large purple-red colored flower heads and very spiny clasping leaves. In a given season it can grow up to five and half feet tall and its leaves can be up to two feet long. Rarely the flowers can be yellow, but this is very uncommon and may be due to environmental conditions or a nutrient situation. This plant does have a large taproot and its fleshy side roots can produce new shoots allowing this plant to colonize areas and asexually reproduce itself to a limited extent.

How to Harvest: Let me start by saying harvesting anything from this plant is an exercise in difficulty, a mature specimen will be absolutely covered in spines. Ironically the Latin specific epithet ‘Horridulum’ basically means ‘somewhat rough’. Yeah it’s somewhat rough if you are into sadomasochistic activates.  Someone even went so far as to suggest this plant was clearly Chuck Norris’s preferred toilet paper because it’s the only plant that put up a respectable fight.  Jokes aside, harvesting from this plant is all about timing and making sure to wear protective equipment. Unlike other Thistles, Horrible Thistle is not a perennial which means you have at most two years to get whatever you are going to get out of the plant and in reality you probably will only get one year out of it. The key to harvesting really is the timing. Extracting soft new leaves is best done in the spring as the plant comes out of dormancy or well after a new plant has germinated. Getting at young stems is much the same but it may take longer because you need them to be a bit bigger. What you want to do is use a knife or some pruning snips to remove all the spines present on the leaves. The stems will need to be peeled or, you can use a knife to remove the skin and with it the spines to get at the edible core. This is the same process used to get to the edible core of the flower stalk. The fleshy roots can be harvested, peeled and also used in cooking as a root vegetable.

Recipe: Once you’ve gotten the spines off the turning things into food part is pretty easy, the de-spined leaves and stems can be used raw in a forage salad but may be somewhat bitter. You can boil the greens and stems for about fifteen minutes with at least one change of water to remove any bitterness that may be present. This cooked mix of stems and leaves can be served as a side dish for a larger meal.  You can also slice the roots into shapes like french-fries and fry them until golden brown. Fried Thistle roots should be served salted and with butter and seasonings. For a long-term food solution the roots can be boiled for several hours until they are mush and the you allow them to dry out and grind them into a flour substitute.

 

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 – Paul Robeson

Tomato – Purple Cherokee

Tomato – Black Krim

Peppers – Carolina Reaper (limited item)

Peppers – Trinidad Scorpion (limited item)

Peppers – Ghost

Peppers – Cayenne

Peppers – Anaheim

Peppers – Bell

Okra – Red Burgundy

Okra – Jing Orange

Okra – Baby Bubba

Basil – Rutgers DMR Devotion

Castor Bean – Zanzibar

Roselle

Marshmallow

Ground Cherries

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.

 

Go to our Nextdoor Page!

 

Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:

 

 

The Videos: Look Here

>Newest videos (1): Hoan Ngok

 

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 May 19^th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.