Category: Urban Foraging

The northeast got a good amount of snow this winter, and its finally…finally melting.  These “early little greens” as I think of them, are some of the first things you can forage in the year.  Even though its still regularly dropping below freezing these tough little plants still grow.

Here are the ones I have been seeing around my neighborhood.

Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella):

Tenacious, some might even claim weedy, this tough little plant is very hard to kill.  It spreads via rhizomes, and makes lots of seeds.  Its smooth, slightly thick, but not quite succulent leaves have a very distinctive spear head shape.  Like other plants with the common name sorrel its got a very sour taste and makes a lovely addition to sandwiches, salads, and is used in french cooking. You will pay an arm and a leg for it at the grocery store, and it grows in giant patches all over the place free for the taking.  If you get some in your garden you might never be rid of it. I love the taste and texture and encourage everyone to try it.  There are not a lot of look-a-likes and you can tell them apart because of their very distinctive leaf shape. Later in the spring they erupt into beautiful patches of little red flowers, you can still eat the leaves then, but I think they are best now when the world is just thawing after winter.

Garlic Mustard(Alliaria petiolata):

These invasive plants are a scourge in the north east forests of North America.  They spread like a plague, pushing out and destroying habitat for spring ephemeral plants.  They leaf out first, they grow fast, and they shade out and push out native plants.  But you can do your part by eating them.  You literally can not harvest enough.  In fact after you are done harvesting what you want to eat, continue to pull them up by the roots until you can’t find anymore to kill, then come back in a week and pull up any new seedlings you find, then come back next year and do the same.  Killing them should be on your to-do list every time you leave your house.

The plant is on a two year cycle, its first year storing up energy, and the second year spreading millions of seeds.  First year plants will often over winter with one or two little juicy leaves, or pop them up early in the spring.  You can tell them apart from other early greens by their deeply indented leaf veins and the pungent garlicky/mustardy smell when you crush the leaves.  They taste like a mix of garlic and mustard, and will often be too strong later in the year, but right when the snow thaws they are tender and delicious.  Later in the summer you can collect the seed pods to make a strong mustard.  Use early leaves in pesto, salads, cook them into things you would cook spinach into, use them in sandwiches, or anything else you would need a pungent green.  Later in the summer you can find them because of their little white four petal flowers which is a great time to pull them up as you look for other things.

Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta):

One of the very first plants to come up in the spring, you will find them everywhere.  They grow in little rosettes and are best when they first emerge before they go to seed.  They have a strong flavor, a peppery pungent arugula like green that many people crave after a season of snow and darkness.  Get them before they send up their tiny little flower stalks as they get tough once they go to flower. Once the flower are done they have tiny, explosive, seed pods.  Touch them and watch as they fling tiny seeds all over the place.  Some people don’t like the hairy texture, a quick blanch in boiling water can reduce that a little.  They are great in sandwiches, salads, pesto’s and any bread/soup/etc that uses greens.

Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica):

It’s pretty easy to tell stinging nettles from other plants, if you touch them and they sting you…you found stinging nettles. Covered with tiny glass like hairs that are full of acid and histamine, you might not think these very angry plants would be good to eat, but there is a reason they are so armored.  Nettles are some of the most delicious and nutritious plants on the planet and without a coating of nasty spikes everything in the world would be eating them.  A better, tastier spinach, they really are delicious.  So how do you eat this agro-plant?  The stingers are de-fanged by a quick dunk into some boiling water, or by being smushed/smashed/rolled/kneaded.  Grab them confidently to avoid stings (or so people claim) or just wear gloves.

Nettle soup is so good you will gladly brave the danger of the leaves in order to have it every spring.  You can taste the healthy goodness as you eat it.  The wood nettle is even more aggressive with its string, and I think they taste even better.  Patches come back in the same spot every year, so if you find a good patch mark your map to come back.  You can eat them until they go to flower, then you should stop.  You can however eat the seeds which are very good.  Nettles need a lot of nutrients in the soil, so you will often find them growing near compost piles or in rich woodland where the sun gets in.  Sometimes you find them by bumping into them, but don’t worry the sting will only last an hour or two and then you might even begin to crave the sting.  Some people even say getting stung by a nettle can make their arthritis feel better for a while.