It's A Plaintain Act of Kindness!

 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.

 

This specimen is exactly what I would expect a Broadleaf Plantain to look like.

This Plantain was growing with other colonizing 'weeds' in very shallow poor soil and it's clearly very healthy.

True to form I found this plantain growing in front of a local Mechanic's shop in a dusty dry location where the soil was obviously poor and it probably get stepped on a bit. Plantains are tougher than anyone gives them credit for.

Common Name: Plantain

Other Common Names: Broadleaf Plantain, White Man’s Footprint, Waybread, Greater Plantain.

Botanical Family: Plantaginaceae (The Plantain Family)

Botanical Latin Name: Plantago major

Season to Harvest: Preferably in spring for younger leaves, and summer for seeds and older leaves.

Habitat: Plantain is most frequently found in laws, gardens, open fields and any other area that has been disturbed by humans. It does very well in compacted or disturbed soils and it is thought to be one of the first plants to reach north America after European colonization which has led to one of its common names. Plantains are also notorious for growing in cracks between cement and it can thus survive frequent trampling and will colonize horribly compacted soils. It is effective at soil rehabilitation and its roots can break up hardpan surfaces while anchoring lose soil to prevent erosion.

Parts to Harvest: The leaves and the seeds.

Poisonous Lookalikes: None are known

Related Edible Species: Buckhorn Plantain, (Plantago lanceolata), see prior entry covering this plant.

Description: Plantain is an herbaceous perennial plant that forms a rosette of leaves that is about six to twelve inches in diameter on average. Each of its leaves are roughly oval shaped and can be two to eight inches long and one to three and a half inches in width. There are anywhere from three to five thick veins running though the length of the leave and the petioles are fairly thick. Individual plants in cultivation and excluding their flower stalks tend to get about four to six inches tall, the flower stalks can up to six more inches to the overall plant height. Plantains are wind-pollenated and each plant can produce up to twenty-thousand seeds in a given growing year.

How to Harvest: Pick younger leaves before flower spikes develop this can go on into summer. You can strip right seeds from the flower stalks from late spring through fall. Solder leaves can be used for food but must be cooked. Plantain foliage in general is surprisingly nutritious as the leaves contain calcium and other minerals and about 100 grams of plantain contain the exact same amount of beta-carotene as a large carrot root.

Recipe: Believe it or not the culinary uses of Broadleaf Plantain are exactly identical to that of Buckhorn Plantain. Check out my listing for that to see some detailed basic recipes. With that said here is a recipe for Plantago major specifically.

You can roast plantain leaves by first blanching the leaves and then laying them on a baking or cookie sheet and brushing them with a light coating of oil. Bake them for 5-9 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the leaves are done you can season them with sea salt, black pepper, garlic, powdered onion or cumin to make ‘Plantain Chips’ or you can crumble them up and use them to season other recipes. Likewise you can dry them in the oven without the oil and with no seasoning to dehydrate them for use as the basis for tea later.

 

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.

 

Vegetables: ($3.00)

Peppers – Cayenne

Peppers – Anaheim

Peppers – Bell

Okra – Red Burgundy

Okra – Jing Orange

Tomato – Sungold

Tomato – Chocolate Cherry

Tomato – Glacier

Tomato – Mountain Pride

Tomato – Purple Cherokee

Wonderberry

 

Herbs: ($3.00)

Basil – Emerald Tower

Chervil – French Parsley

Chives – Garlic

Fennel - Black

Parsley – Italian

Parsley – Curled

Sage – Common

Sage – White (VERY limited Item, $9.00)

Tarragon – Mexican

Thyme – Common

 

Flowers: ($3.00)

Amaranth – Early Splendor

Cock’s Comb – Scarlet Prestige

Celosia – First Flame Purple

Castor Bean – Zanzibar

Cotton – Erlene’s Green Lint

Marigolds – Strawberry Blonde

Tobacco – Flowering “Starmaker Apple Blossom”

 

 

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): Madagascar Periwinkle

 

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 July 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.

Twenty-four Carrot Magic!

 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.

 

Go to our Nextdoor Page!

 

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

 

 

The Videos: Look Here

>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.

Have you ever Catchweed Bedstraw? Me neither!

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.

 

Catchweed Bedstraw in urban environments can easily be found near downspouts of large buildings or in areas that don't receive all-day sun. You might find it growing beneath an established shrub too.

This specimen is growing all over a downspout but also though a crack in cement. It also has seed pods and the photo was taken at the end of April, the heat of the concrete may have accelerated it's growth.

 

Common Name: Catchweed Bedstraw

Other Common Names: Sticky Willy (Oh myyyy!), Cleavers, Goosegrass, Bedstraw, Clivers, Hitchikers, Stickyweed, Sticky bob, Sticky bud, Sticky back, Sticky Molly, Robin-run-the-hedge, Sticky Willow, Sticky Jack, Stickeljack, Grip Grass, Sticky Grass, Bobby Buttons, Whippysticks and Velcroplant (yeesh this is starting to sound like an bit from Monty Python!)

Botanical Family: Rubiaceae (The Coffee/Madder/Bedstraw Family)

Botanical Latin Name: Galium aparine

Season to Harvest: Typically you would harvest this plant during the spring or early summer.

Habitat: Catchweed Bedstraw typically has a wide distribution on the sites it prefers and is very well adapted to survival once a population is established. In nature it is typically found on sites with moist soil, in rish woodlands along streams and lakes or other bodies of water. In urban environments it will often be found in vacant lots and fields but also near site with higher moisture levels than the surrounding area such as near downspouts or in shaded areas next to a building where water runoff happens frequently. This plant is considered an annual in cultivation or a winter annual in nature.

Parts to Harvest: Young leaves and seed capsules.

Poisonous Lookalikes: There are no known poisonous lookalikes in the continental USA.

Related Edible Species: Sweet Woodruff (Galium Odoratum) and, Northern Bedstraw (Galium boreale).

Description:  Catchweed Bedstraw is a mat-forming winter annual with prostrate trailing stems. The stems have stiff bristles on them that allow pieces of this plant to catch on clothes, fur of animals or sometimes the skin. The leaves on this plant are whorled with six to eight leaflets per node. The plant’s fruit are a bristly two-sided seed capsule and this plaint mainly reproduces by seed. Catchweed Bedstraw’s flowers are tiny white to greenish in color and borne in clusters of two or three from the leaf axils in early spring to summer. This plant is native to a wide area of Europe, North Africa, and Asia. It is not quite clear if this plant is native to North America however it at the least has naturalized here.

How to Harvest: Pick young greens while they are still tender and have not begun to form too many bristles or too much internal fiber.

Recipes:

For Young Leaves:

Pick the young greens in spring when they are tenderest.  Steam the greens in a strainer or a colander over boiling water for 5-10 minutes or alternately you can boil them in a small amount of water until they are acceptably tender. Serve the greens with salt, pepper and butter, this combines very well with nettle greens.

You can also make a salad of the young greens by using four cups of the cooked and cooled greens and two cups of cooked asparagus that has been cut into 1” lengths, along with 2/3 of a cup of slivered nuts and 1 cup of French dressing. Blend the nuts and greens and then top with the dressing.

 

For Seed Capsules:

Catchweed Bedstraw’s seed capsules are useful also; gather the seed capsules as they turn brown in roughly June or July. These seeds make for a decent coffee substitute you just have to roast them at 150 degrees Fahrenheit until they are dark and crispy but not burnt. To evenly roast them set the seeds out on a flat tray and roast for about an hour. Allow the seeds to cool for about twenty minutes to a half hour and then crush into coarse powder with a pestle and mortar, or a coffee grinder.  It takes about ¾ a cup of this powder to make coffee substitute for 1 quart of water. Given the irregular nature of the ‘coffee grounds’ you should serve this coffee through a strainer or use paper coffee filters in the brewing process if possible.

 

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
Roselle
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.

 

Go to our Nextdoor Page!

 

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

 

 

The Videos: Look Here

>Newest videos (1): - Shallots

 

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.