Wild Plants and Seeds That Are Edible

If you watch carefully on your hikes and outings, and take an identification book along, it won't take long before you have mastered many new plants. Here is a brief list of a few of the more easily identifiable and widespread wild plants:

MUSTARD SEED - easily recognized by their odor and looks. They grow abundantly and have brilliant yellow flowers. The flowers are four petaled and the plants have little seed pods containing the mustard seeds. Grinding these seeds and adding vinegar and water produces table mustard. The young early spring mustard greens are good as a first harvest green vegetable.


QUEEN ANNE'S LACE - using the seeds will add a carroty flavor to stew.


WILD CHICORY - makes a nice cooked vegetable and can be added to a salad. The roots are sometimes roasted and then ground and used as a coffee substitute.


DANDELION - are good in early spring. The boiled roots are also edible.


WILD JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES - slice these and eat them raw, or steam a peel and serve them as you would a potato.


CATTAIL STALKS - have a delicious heart near the center of the stalk close to the plant.


BULL THISTLE - Harvest the young leaves, young stems and roots and use them fresh in a salad, or as a cooked vegetable. The pithy young stems areexcellent peeled and eaten raw or cooked. The raw or cooked roots of first-year plants (those without stems) make a good survival food.
During the time you are learning which plants are safe for you to eat, emphasize to your children not to ever eat wild things without your permission. There are many houseplants, garden plants, and bulbs, which are highly toxic, particularly to children. Now is a good time to teach them caution.
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