The Scout's Guide to Wild Edibles. Mike Krebill
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Lambsquarters
RANGE:
Widespread throughout the U.S. and Canada
HABITAT:
Gardens and disturbed soil
POSITIVE ID:
• Lambsquarters is a common bare-soil weed with a distinctive grayish-green appearance towards the center of the growing tips. On magnification, the color comes from tiny beads of whitish wax. These feel like fine cornmeal to the touch, and can be rubbed off.
• Triangular to diamond-shaped leaves alternate up the stem. The stem begins to branch when about a foot tall and can become a bush up to 7′ tall, but typically ranges from 3–5′ tall.
• Reddish streaks may appear on the ridged stem, and there’s a spot of reddish purple in every leaf or stem axil.
• Tiny black seeds are produced in multiple spikes of clustered, rubbery, green, small round cases that turn yellow in September when the seeds are ready to harvest.
The distinctive grayish-green new growth of lambsquarters helps one identify it at a glance. The leaf’s triangular shape resembles a leg of lamb, which is also known as a quarter, hence “lamb’s quarters” or “lambsquarters.” Another common name is goosefoot, due to the shape of the leaf.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Young plants 4–8″ tall can be cooked stems and all. In taller, older plants, stems become too woody, so collect the tender terminal or axillary clusters of leaves and use them as a potherb. The plant mass reduces greatly when cooked. It can be used as a spinach substitute. Lambsquarters may be steamed, boiled, stir fried, incorporated into a quiche or added to a cheese omelet. Some people eat the tender young leaves raw in salads, although I don’t care for them that way. The seeds are edible and can be used to add nutrition to Wild Food Trail Bites, a prize-winning recipe on page 162.
Although it might be easier to notice that the stem is ridged on an older lambsquarters plant where it is more sharply defined and streaked with red or purple, another characteristic is visible here: there’s a spot of reddish purple in the leaf axils.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Leaves and stems: Spring. Seeds: September. When winnowing seeds, watch out for tiny caterpillars.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Lambsquarters will self-sow if it’s allowed to set seed.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
The leaves can be preserved by drying, pressure canning, or blanching and freezing.
Mayapple
RANGE:
Eastern 2/3 of U.S. except for the Dakotas; found in Ontario and Quebec
HABITAT:
Deciduous woodland floors with patches of sunlight
POSITIVE ID:
• Umbrella-like leaves are the hallmark of this 1–2′ - tall woodland perennial. Each plant has one or two of them. Two leaves are necessary for the plant to flower and produce fruit.
• A single white flower grows from the Y-shaped crotch of the stem. Up to 3″ in diameter, with 6–9 waxy petals, it has a smell like the tropical taste of the ripe fruit.
• The single fruit is a berry having the shape and size of a hen’s egg.
• Ripe fruit color ranges from creamy white to yellowish white to lemon yellow.
Ripe mayapples – some have small rotten spots that I cut out before using them to make marmalade.
CAUTION:
The green, unripe fruit is toxic, as are the seeds, leaves, roots and rhizome. Be very careful and avoid all fruit that has even a hint of green.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
The fully ripe berry is the only edible part of this otherwise toxic plant. It can be eaten raw or used in a beverage, cake, or ice cream, but my favorite way to enjoy it is to make the Mayapple Marmalade recipe on page 150.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Mid-summer: mid-July to mid-August. Collect berries when fully ripe (light yellow to lemon yellow with no hint of green). Ripe berries feel slightly soft.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Collecting the fruit does not harm the plant.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Process mayapples within a day of harvesting them. Wash the fruit, cut off the blossom and stem ends, and quarter the fruit. Bring it to a boil in a pot with a cup of water, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to be sure it doesn’t burn. Strain through a food mill. Keep the juice and pulp, and discard the skin and seeds. Vacuum seal and freeze the juice and pulp. Use within six months.
Two mayapple plants with ripe fruit in late July. The fruit is shaped like a hen’s egg, and ranges in size from a small egg to a large egg, with a medium size most commonly found.
Milkweed, Common
RANGE:
Eastern 2/3 of U.S. except Florida; western states: in Montana and Oregon only; present in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec
HABITAT:
Fields, roadsides, fencerows, meadows, prairies
POSITIVE ID:
• Milkweed is a non-woody perennial with broad, rubbery, elliptical leaves along a stem typically 3–5′ tall. The stem does not branch until it reaches the flower clusters.
• Smooth-edged leaves bleed white latex when torn, as does the rest of the plant. The leaf underside has short, woolly hairs.
• Clusters of flower buds and flowers are spherical and 3–4″ in diameter. The flowers are crown-shaped and sweet smelling.
• The seedpods are about 4″ long, light green at first. The surface is covered with rows of soft, rubbery hair-like projections. The pods contain small, circular brown papery seeds and white silken threads. When pods ripen and split open, the threads form parachutes for seed dispersal.
These milkweed pods are too big to use. They would be tough and fibrous.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Young shoots up to 8″ high are tasty boiled, buttered and salted. Steam flower buds like broccoli. Small seedpods under 2″ long are tasty cooked, although given the rubbery hairlike projections, the mouth feel is strange.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Shoots: early spring
Flower buds and flowers: late