Julia's Edible Weeds

Three cornered leek or onion weed

You know onion weed is there if you walk through a patch or mow it as it lets off a strong smell of garlic or onions.  It’s flourishing now in September in NZ and my little patch of it  has just sent up beautiful bell shaped flowers (that look similar to snowflakes (most people call them snowdrops), but snowflake leaves do not smell of garlic) hang in clusters and each of the five petals of each flower has a green stripe.  The grass like leaves and flower stalks 20-50 cm tall are triangular in a cross section. The latin name Allium means garlic and triquetrum means three-angled of the stems.

Onion weed is a perennial that grows from small bulbs 1cm in diameter.  It can grow into extensive colonies that are hard to remove because the leaves are fleshy and easily break when they are pulled.  It is also hard to get all the small bulbs out.  When I lived in Palmerston North it grew en masse under my walnut tree.  Even I at that time (not appreciating weeds then) considered it a terrible weed because there was so much and it is so hard to remove.

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Cleavers also known as biddy-bid, goosegrass or sticky willie is flourishing at this time of year in August and September in New Zealand. It is a scrambling, weak-stemmed annual considered a nuisance because it can smother other plants. The rough, scratchy stems and leaves cling to neighbouring plants by hook-like stiff hairs. The seedpods are densely covered in hooked bristles which stick to your cat’s and dog’s fur, your clothes or in sheep’s wool.  This is their means of spreading to new places.

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Horehound plant

Down in the Manawatu on our dairy farm grew a few clumps of this crinkly grey leafed plant in the sandy soil of our orchard.  I always wondered about it and was delighted when I discovered it is a healing plant. In Tauranga it grows on the pasture slopes of Mauao or Mount Maunganui.

Horehound Marrubium vulgare (from Hebrew meaning ‘bitter juice’) stands upright to 60cm and is a bushy  perennial.  The grey leaves have soft downy hairs on new growth and underneath giving it a woolly look. The small white flowers are in dense clusters at regular intervals around the square stem and the whole plant has a

Horehound with the downy hairs

pungent medicinal smell. It is in the lavender family of plants.  The sepals that surround dried flowers are prickly to touch and the same flower parts can stick to sheep’s wool and clothes.

Horehound is attractive to bees, a good companion to tomatoes and is said to repel flies.

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John & Lauras’ house set in gardens & eucalyptus trees

At the end of April this year 2019 I visited my brother John and his family in Camden, Sydney.  The last time I visited them (they’ve been here many times) they were in Oakdale, so I hadn’t been to this home on a semi-rural property.  The house is nestled in among tall gum trees in a large landscaped garden with many ornamental shrubs, all heavily mulched to retain moisture in this drought prone area.

Egret on the back of Diamond the cow

Everywhere I heard birds. I felt like I was in an aviary.  From kookaburras at dawn to noisy minors to grass parrots, wrens, pied currawongs, king parrots and crows the bird life was loud and amazing.  John has four cows and I was thrilled to see white egrets hanging around them and willy wagtails use the cows to attract flies and sit on them. The shy white egrets also like to sit on the cows’ backs.

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Flat leaf parsley that has self sown and become a ‘weed’

Why an article about parsley you may be asking, surely it’s a herb not a weed?  In a garden I look after parsley has become a ‘weed’ in a shrub border and I’ve been told to pull the plants out.  However, I sneakily leave some to munch while gardening and I think it is decorative.  So does the Botanic Gardens in Manurewa, Auckland who have used it to edge borders.

The only separation between a ‘weed’ and a garden plant is a judgement, so any plant can become a weed if the person doesn’t like or want it. Of course nature doesn’t play by those rules and open, fertile ground is seen as up for grabs by opportunistic plants, in this case parsley.

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Mugwort clump on shore of Lake Rotorua

Wild mugwort on shore of Lake Rotorua

I love this wild, imposing 2m plant that grows in a group with spreading rhizomes.  It is perennial with narrow, pointed leaves dull green on the top and lighter grey green underneath, evocative of the light of the silvery moon.  The reddish brown flowers are small, and actually look like buds that don’t open to anything showy. The above ground parts die down in winter.

There are two main varieties of mugwort similar in their properties. Artemisia vulgaris grows in Europe and  A. verlotiorum growing here in NZ is the variety originating from South China. I had this belief that ‘mugwort’ was a derogatory name to somehow lessen the plants’ values. Turns out it is an old English word meaning ‘midge-plant’ said to repel midges with its pungent aroma [1] reminiscent of chrysanthemums and sage.

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Sweet fennel plants with seed heads and flower heads

Wild fennel: Foeniculum vulgare, Sweet fennel: Foeniculum vulgare var.  dulce
Bronze fennel: Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’

Everyone knows fennel – it grows on roadsides and waste places, reaches 2m tall has feathery leaves and smells of aniseed.  Some believe it poisonous, but actually it is very edible and delicious grown in a clean environment.

Right now in NZ in March the plants are flowering and attract many pollinating insects, ladybirds and flies – keeping them outside. It is a tall, perennial plant with pale yellow flowers in showy, festive umbels that look like umbrella ribs spreading from a central point.  The flowers are followed by grey-brown seeds.  I harvest them as they ripen.
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Happy New Year Everyone!! This is my first post for 2019.

Japanenese wineberry or wild raspberry with fruit

Japanese Wineberry or Wild Raspberry –Rubus phoenicolasius.  Those of you who live in

Japanese wineberry young shoot showing silvery underside of leaf

the countryside may know and perhaps curse  this rambunctious plant called Japanese wineberry or wild raspberry.  Its protecting the land but also an opportunist with its vicious thorny stems, but it has sweet, delicious fruit.   Rubus means bramble and phoenicolasius means with purple hairs, Latin names that describe this vigorous, aggressive, scrambling, suckering perennial bramble in the rose family. Dense bristly-hairy, reddish, woody stems root when they touch the ground, enabling them to march across their chosen scrub gullies, or forest/bush and margins, along roadsides or even in a garden (Blackberries are closely related). The leaves are in threes on a stem with a big oval one at the tip and two smaller ones below all being green on top with silvery white undersides. The flowers are

white like mini roses.

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Gotu kola plant in a pot

Gotu Kola Centella asiatica is a weedy, creeping, perennial herb in the carrot or Apiaceae family.  Also known as Pennyweed or Pennywort it has kidney-shaped leaves with indented edges up to 5 cm across, that grow on tall stems.  These stems also spread and root at the nodes. The flowers are white to pink and arise from nodes at ground level, so it can be hard to see them hidden under the leaves.

The plant prefers warmth, shade and moisture and is native to Australia and tropical Asia, although now appears worldwide.
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My garden is full of flowers, giving me the idea to turn them into a slice.

Ingredients pressed into the slice pan

Oat and flower petal slice

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup diced flower petals (I forgot to dice them up)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

  Scented geranium, Heartease pansy, Red clover, Buckshorn plantain (slender leaves, long seed heads)

• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
• 1-2 tsp of lemon zest
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (save a few sprinkles for garnish)
• Tbsp of Icing Sugar (optional – used to dust the finished bars)

INSTRUCTIONS

• Melt coconut oil, honey, salt, vanilla extract, cardamom and zest together in a saucepan.
• When liquid mixture melts turn the heat down to low, add the oats and coconut and stir to coat.
• Continue warming on low heat for just a couple minutes to allow the ingredients to soften
• Line the pan with baking paper leaving the sides of the paper hanging over the sides of the dish.
• Once your oat mixture has cooled, fold in your shredded flower petals (I forgot to do this). Stir until
  

  Petals of Stock (Maroon red), Calendula (orange), Herb Robert (pink), Scented geranium (pink), Mizuna (yellow), Oxeye daisy (white), Red clover (slender pink)

  flowers are distributed throughout the mixture.

• Now press your oat mixture into the pan as evenly and firmly as you can. ( I like to use the back of a spatula). If you want balls now is the time to roll them, making sure you squeeze and compress them tightly together.
• Place your bar mixture or balls in refrigerator and allow to cool completely- at least two hours, but best overnight.
• For bars, remove the oat mixture from baking paper and
  

  Petals folded into mixture

  with a sharp knife cut into approximately a dozen small bars.

• Sprinkle with shredded coconut, a wee bit of lemon zest.  Store in the fridge in an airtight container for about 2 weeks.