Edible Wild Flowers

Safflower ( Carthamus tinctorius ) 11. You get great yields for little effort.” Before you start harvesting flowers for the kitchen, keep these safety tips in mind: Ensure the flowers you want to eat are edible.

These North American natives are low-maintenance and inexpensive to grow, but knowing which varieties are best for your farm means carefully considering exactly why you want to grow them.

Boil them for seven minutes. In its liquid form, the puree is a perfect topping for ice cream, pancakes, and johnnycakes. Russ Cohen is the rivers advocate for the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game, and the author of the book, Wild Plants I Have...

* Leaves are palmately divided into 5-7 finger-like lobes. Stamens form a prominent central column typical of mallow family members, but with distinctive style branches. * Plants resent root disturbance so the seed is best sown in situ in April.

* Leaves are palmately divided into 5-7 finger-like lobes. Stamens form a prominent central column typical of mallow family members, but with distinctive style branches. * Plants resent root disturbance so the seed is best sown in situ in April.

I do not need domestic carrot seeds or any other vegetable or any other seeds so do not email me unless you can provide Daucus carota ssp. I do not want to correspond with anyone about any product other than this one.

It is native to Europe but is widespread in North America where it is considered a weed. The leaves should be used before the plant starts to flower. When pureed it is said to rival the best spinach purees.

In my temperate zone-6 climate, asparagus has grown best in the basin rather than on the berm. Because asparagus and rhubarb crops include harvesting the stems of the plants where contaminants may accumulate, I recommend that these only be grown in rain...

It is native to Europe but is widespread in North America where it is considered a weed. The leaves should be used before the plant starts to flower. When pureed it is said to rival the best spinach purees.

St. John's Wort ( Hypericum perforatum ) Hans/Pixabay An identifying characteristic of St. John's wort is cross-like shape arrangement of its leaves around the stem of the plant. The Iroquois said that if you placed the roots in your pocket or in your...

Wild garlic and its other allium cousins are free and abundant on land open to foraging—if you know what to look for. How To Harvest As with any other foraging, be sure to leave some plants for future growth.

And I am perhaps a bit overly cautious about trying wild foods unless I am with someone who I trust, who has years of experience. Karen Lanier Now, I wish I could say I have a lot of experience making prickly pear jelly or roasting up nopales (the pads),...

Forage for edibles when it's cold outside? Gaultheria procumbens wplynn/Flickr Wintergreen, also known as teaberry, is one of my favorite woodland party tricks. There are many other birches with similar characteristics, as well.

If I do, I would have to commit to trying to eradicate it, and that's not happening without a total topsoil transplant. Although it's not a vigorously self-seeding plant, ground elder rapidly spreads into clonal patches via networks of underground rhizomes,...

As with redbuds, your imagination is the limit when it comes to its use. I'm always fond of the folk stories attached to plants and am delighted when this sweet plant in the rose family emerges.

For some fun, add milk and chocolate to your bitter brew for a chicory mocha! 4. The root bark, which is best dug up in the fall, is often used medicinally as a treatment for diarrhea, though the leaves can also be harvested throughout the summer for...

An Important Connection Bridges shared this intimate connection with the land with his ancestors—and hopefully his descendants will carry on the tradition. When I interviewed Bridges for a short video I made at Acadia National Park , one of the things...

When I finally started to make progress one year, I went out during late winter to find that some of the neighborhood deer had eaten my cherry trees down to living matchsticks that barely extended an inch above ground.

On my Ohio farm, it requires slightly acidic soil and a dedicated greenhouse bed where it has plenty of room for its tuberous roots. While shatavari is known for its aid to women, ashwagandha has been very helpful for men who struggle with a lack of enthusiasm...

Going at the high speed, I couldn't tell what it was, but I knew that it wasn't a plant I had met before. This would imply to me that there is a bitter aspect to this plant. Going at high speeds, I had guessed that the plant could be in the thistle family.

It is found in both wet and dry grounds and shade and open prairie. What a revelation! I had no idea, but that's one of the fun things about plants: They are constantly giving us a reason to remain humble.

How is that possible? Unfortunately for the hedge apple, it's believed that the animal in question was a type of sloth that died out before humans inhabited North America. Tags hedge apples , horse apples , osage orange , prescription gardener

Gourmet chefs sprinkle yucca blossoms into southwestern salads, along with squash blossoms. If want to enjoy the heavenly perfume of the wild plum flowers, I'd generally rather go out and smell them than eat them.

There will most likely be quite a bit of water content in your roots right now, so be careful. It's what fills us with gardening fever and sets us to work in our greenhouses and windowsills on the first young seedlings.

Ramps have even been added to Slow Food's Ark of Taste because of their value in our cultural heritage and their diminishing presence in the wild. Many of our national parks are initiating restrictions and bans on the harvest of ramps, and that is a good...

It does produce berries, which are also not for eating, though they make a very nice, earthy purple natural dye. Dandelion Heather Hammond/Flickr When we think of dandelions, we tend to recall their brilliant seedheads that most of us remember blowing...

This way, only one-fifth or less is taken from a local population. This time of year brings harvests, celebrations of the bounty, and surplus to share by serving loved ones and strangers alike.