WILD EDIBLES AROUND THE HOMESTEAD

Today I'd like to show you interesting things I've come across as I've been out and about on the homestead. I've been coming across pretty plants, scary plants, helpful and harmful pests, and an overall variety of wonder. This post will focus on a few of the wild edibles I have been enjoying. Most have died off now, or bolted, because we haven't really had much of a spring and these are the first to show up when the winter fades away.

This is a pretty, supposedly edible, invasive called Henbit. It doesn't smell very good, but it gives a nice purple glow over the ground where it spreads very fast and easy. It's hard to control. As you can see it has many tiny flowers which means it makes many tiny seeds.

This is Chickweed. I'm not sure if this is an invasive here in Missouri, but it's a delicious edible. I pick the leaves and throw them in salads, as they have a spinach like flavor. It grows and spreads quickly as a ground cover. Although, it does not like the heat so will die off quickly. I like letting it grow for 3 reasons. The rabbits enjoy eating this more than the salad greens we intentionally grow, it tastes good, and it works as a good early spring through early summer ground cover.

Here is a close up of the itty bitty chickweed flowers. I've basically decided to let it grow wild as a groundcover since it crowds out the less ideal wild plants. If you can imagine, It self seeds so easily.

This is Purslane. It is also considered an invasive weed by many. It is quite tasty, though. A shame people dislike so many plants that are no maintenance food sources. It also has a spinach like flavor, but with a bit of a meaty, juicy, and crispy type of a texture. Very delicious in salads.

Wild purple garlic which grows in our orchard. I'll be doing other posts on this, as I transplanted some of it this year. This is when it was beginning to wake up after winter. I would use the word spring, but we didn't seem to have one this year.

Young common white yarrow growing through the fallen fall silver maple leaves. These dainty feather like leaves are edible. I put them in salads. I really enjoy the texture of them. They have a slightly black pepper like flavor. A little goes a long way. I'm letting the few patches around the property grow as much as possible so hopefully I can seed save this year.