Julia's Edible Weeds Newsletter September 2018

Dear reader,

Doesn't spring feel exhilerating! I came home from nearly three weeks in the South Island to an explosion of growth in my garden. I dropped my bags and my parents and I went straight to see everything in the garden. The dominant feature being the tall two varieties of broad-beans with pink (scented) and white flowers and forming pods. Puha Sonchus oleraceus is flowering on tall plants and I've seen the gold finches come every day to eat the seeds. The Hedge mustard Sisybrium officinale and Nipplewort Lapsana communis are also going up to flower. I've even seen tiny seedlings of Magenta spreen Chenopodium giganteum, a sign things are warming up. So I got to this week and sowed my spring seeds of courgette, capsicum, cucumber, melon, as well as herbs Sweet marjoram Origanum majorana, Motherwort Leonurus cardiaca and flowers of Zinnia Zinnia elegans - because I love the bright flowers and turns out they can be eaten, but I prefer their prettiness to look at.

In Nelson September 16th a large group of eager edible weed enthusiasts met at the lush and productive Brook Community garden. I couldn't have done it without the local support of Sally Rees of Natural Nosh and my lovely friend Jasmin for hosting me. Huge thanks to both of you!

More about my South Island trip below.

Next workshops:
Sunday 30th September 289 Chadwick Road, Tauranga 10-2pm To book go here

Saturday 17th November Matakana Community garden, Matakana 10-1pm To book go here

Correctly identify Snowflakes from Onion weed

Snowflakes Leucojum aestivum can be confused with onion weed but we can use our sense of smell to correctly identify them. Snowflakes come up in late winter and flower early spring. They have the same colour leaves but lack the distinct ridge down the middle of the leaf that onion weed or three-cornered leek has. The flowers are a more hoop peticoat shape with green dots compared with the more elongated flowers of onion weed that have green stripes. They do not smell pleasant to eat.

Onion weed or three-cornered leek Allium triquetrum leaves appear in late autumn and have a distinct onion smell when crushed. Flowering happens in spring. There are good reasons to eat it in salads, soups, scrambled eggs or stir fry and even in your smoothie:

• contains sulphur (which gives it the onion flavour)

• helps reduce blood cholesterol levels

• acts as a digestive system tonic

• stimulates the circulatory system

• antimicrobial

• contains chlorophyll, fibre, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals

• take advantage of this winter green that comes to help protect us from colds and flu

Kaikoura coastal trip

My dear friend Vanya from Broadlands, near Christchurch took me on an exploratory trip up the coast to Kaikoura. I hadn't been there in decades and I was staggered at the scale of damage from the earthquake, but even more impressive is the epic repair of the roads, tunnels and rail taking place. Giant girders support massive wire fences to hold up future falling rocks. This article from Stuff is a gripping report of the long hours and sacrifices the men made to get the road open by last December. But the work is not finished and will take years to complete.

We were very lucky on the day we traveled the ferries weren't operating, hence only a handful of trucks on the road. Once in Kaikoura we had a picnic and then explored the coast. I was thrilled to find all manner of edible weeds growing on the shoreline along with pink snap dragons Antirrhinum majus. There were Tree mallows Mallow species, a large patch of Cleavers Gallium aparine, Silverbeet Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris, Wild carrot Daucus carota, Plantain, Plantago lanceolata, Clover Trifolium repens, and the non edible ubiquitous milk weed or spurge Euphorbia peplus. Vanya applied it to a mole she is working on removing.

When we came upon the seals they were sleeping in a wild silver beet bed with tall mallows all around.

Tree mallows and a seal.

Vanya holding the milkweed ready to apply.

Here Vanya is applying the milk weed's latex juice to her mole. She is careful to apply it exactly on the area to be treated and not the area around. The sensitive surrounding skin can be burned by Euphorbia so be exact in your application. A study in Australia shows how effective this treatment is. See it here.

Miner's lettuce and Cleavers

In the above photo are Cleavers Gallium aparine growing upwards and Miner's lettuce Claytonia perfoliata. Vanya has huge patches of Miner's lettuce which she eats all winter. It is so succulent and tender and highly nutritious being rich in Vitamin C among other nutrients. It is just starting to flower and once it sets seeds the whole plant can be taken out and placed where you want it to grow next winter. Vanya is so passionate about people eating healthy food she cuts bags of it to take to friends.

Now is a great time to assist your body to spring clean. You can do this using Cleavers since it has these excellent healing qualities

• LYMPHATIC HEALER: Cleanses and tones the lymph, relieves swollen glands.

• DIURETIC: Flushing and decongesting to the kidneys and urinary system, treats cystitis and water retention.

• BLOOD CLEANSER: Purifies and detoxifies the blood.

• SKIN HEALER: Astringent and Antiseptic, treats irritation, inflammation, wounds and burns.
One way to take it is to grab a big handful and soak it in cold water overnight. I then used this soak water (along with mallow soak water for it's soothing mucilaginous qualities) in a smoothie I made for the workshop at the Brook Community garden in Nelson.

Kakano project Christchurch

While in Christchurch I had the privilege to meet Jade Temepura and Christa who run the Kākano café and cookery school. They have a series of raised beds (see below) and are fans of wild edibles incorporating them into their edible treats.
Jade is famous for her Hand over a hundy program to get families into growing their own food. Here is a link to Jade's Ted Ex talk on this amazing intiative.
Jade is currently hosting He Kānono Organic gardening show on Māori Television

Stock flower Pesto

I just found out that night scented stock or evening stock Matthiola longipetala are edible and tasty. It seems a sacrilege eat them, but on the other hand I had the idea of creating pink flecked pesto. You can just see the flecks in the photo. Here is the recipe.

large double handful of ‘weeds’ for example:
young leafy tops of chickweed, cleavers, speedwell, violet, dandelion, nettle, nipplewort and mallow, parsley, mint, puha or miners lettuce (whatever you have)
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup cashews or almonds
2-3 T approx. olive oil
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup of night-scented stock flowers

Method
Process the garlic, then add the nuts and process again.
Add the greens, salt and zest and process. Then add the lemon juice and oil. Add whole flowers to decorate and enjoy!

To finish here is a picture of my spring garden. I was given the pink flowering broadbeans from my friend Sharon. She says "The crimson flowering broad beans are called Hughey. Apparently they were nurtured back from ‘close to extinction’ by Tapanui nurseryman Denis Hughes from Blue Mountain Nursery". They are scented which is an added bonus.

I had so much I wanted to share thanks for making it to the end.

Till next time - good health, happiness and love from
Julia