Our life living off the land in our log cabin, breathing fresh mountain air, and getting back to basics.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Sow Thistle - A Wonderful Wild Edible

Do you ever dine on wild edibles?  We enjoy researching all with wild goodies nature has to offer...I've mentioned one of our favorite wild edibles is dandelion.  Yesterday we tried sow thistle, and it was quite good!  The best part was Mountain Man harvested, cleaned and cooked it!

This is a young sow thistle, they grow wild all over the open areas around our woods and cabin. The blooms look very much like a dandelion flower...it's not time for the blooms yet and we were so anxious to try it that this one will never have flowers, it served as our greens for dinner!

You can eat the stems and leaves, and even the flower buds.  One of the good things about living far from town is we can be sure these sow thistles (weeds to most people) have not been sprayed with any kind of pesticide.

After harvesting, you wash and cut (we kept the stems long for this picture so yo could see how it looks, but cut them into smaller pieces for cooking).

Boil them in water for 5 minutes.  The next time, we are going to try eating them without boiling...I'm not a lover of boiled veggies of any kind...and maybe grill or pan fry them.

Look at the lovely deep green color!  Johny added a little extra virgin olive oil, a squeeze of fresh lemon, and salt.  They were quite good...mild with just a hint of bitterness, the stems were a little crunchy, and the leaves had the texture of spinach or chard.  It was a perfect accompaniment to our pork chops, which I grilled and then served with the fresh pineapple sage chopped into apple sauce as a condiment...YUM!

If you've never tried eating any wild edibles, I highly recommend it.  Nature provides so many interesting things to supplement our diets.  If you do decide to try it, make sure you research what is edible and how to harvest/clean/cook it.

You know what they say, one persons yard weed is another persons nutrition, LOL!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

9 comments:

Christine said...

Hi Lise, just dropping in to hello and check out what's happening on your blog!

Lise said...

Mamabug, so happy to see you again!!! I hope you are well and your granddaughter is bringing you great joy and wonder! I've missed your blog...

A Colorful World said...

I enjoy learning about foraging...I'm a poke sallet eater from way back! :-) So many resources warn against eating poke leaves but they are actually fine as long as they are harvested in the early spring and the first and second water is leeched off....to do otherwise is to invite diarrhea, but that's about it. It's delicious, and tastes a lot like spinach. I loved learning about this new wild veggie. Thanks so much.

Osage Bluff Quilter said...

Looks yummy! I'm pretty sure those grow here in mid-Missouri.

Dad/Pepere said...

Yummy! Hugs!

Sanderella said...

What a great post, and I love the saying...one person's weed is another person's nutrition! Cute. I will try!

Participating in the bloghop, and stopped by to visit, will check back later.

I sure do envy your lifestyle...lovely and beautiful picture!!

sandy of www.sandysanderellasmusings.blogspot.com

Susie Swanson said...

Thanks for posting this. I've known they were edible but have I've never tried them..xo

Lise said...

LOL Marie, we've eaten poke too, though when Johny made it, it had too much butter for me. We shall try it again, and you can be sure we will be boiling and leeched a couple times! Poke sallat is good, but sow thistle is better (to me!).

Try it Patti, I made stir fry with it today, sooo good!

Hugs back dad!

Susie, you may want to try them, good stuff!

Lise said...

Thank you Sandy, and thanks for stopping by.