Julia's Edible Weeds

Comfrey plant in flower

Comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum) is the comfrey we commonly have in New Zealand.  It is a cross between wild comfrey S. officinale from Europe and S. asperum from Russia.

Also known as Knitbone, Boneset, Bruisewort, Slippery root and others it is a must have in the garden in my mind. It is a perennial plant that puts down very deep, thick roots used to bring up minerals from deep down and to break up compact soil.  At this time in July the leaves are dying down for winter and they will rot and nourish the plants around where they grow.  Comfrey is clump forming and doesn’t spread unless the roots are disturbed.
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Wireweed spreading over the asphalt in downtown Tauranga

In downtown Tauranga between the carpark and main street I saw this spreading plant known as  small-leaved wireweed Polygonum arenastrum.  Tourists were taking photos of art items and I was taking photos of weeds!  I marvelled at how it was nicely covering quite a patch, quietly and invisibly doing it’s healing work to cover the earth, although in this case asphalt.  How long would it be before everything was covered again in plants, if we suddenly weren’t there?  Surprisingly fast if you’ve seen the vacant lots in Christchurch that have been colonised by ‘weeds’ since the earthquake.
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 Brrrr it was a frost last night and there’ll be another tonight.  Just what we need to knock back populations of flies and other insects that built up numbers in summer.  It also kills kikuyu which I am pleased about!

Plantain soup, chickweed & mallow pesto and orange and magenta spreen bliss balls at my lastest Chadwick Road workshop

However, there are many greens and wild weeds that are still growing and flourishing in the cooler weather like chickweed, speedwell, onion weed, bitter cress and land cress. So there is no shortage of fresh greens to make into smoothies and salads.  If you’d like to explore the world of edible weeds come along to the next winter weed workshop  Sunday 12th August at my home in Greerton.  To book go to www.juliasedibleweeds.com/workshops

Chinese pumpkin or Danny’s special pumpkin. I got this at the Community Garden crop swap in Bethlehem. I don’t know it’s real name.

Winter is the time to enjoy eating the fruits of our labours during summer and autumn when we grew and preserved food for just this time of year.  Now we can enjoy delicious soups and dishes with our pumpkins, butternuts, kumara, potatoes, frozen green beans, tomato soup and relishes, bottled produce and whatever else you tucked away.  Perhaps you harvested lots of seeds, way more than you can use. Read more

One of the things I do is talk to groups on edible weeds. I’ve spoken to quite a number of gardening groups all over the Bay of Plenty and to other groups like the North Rotorua Probus group, who invited me to

My trug on the edge of Lake Rotorua

speak Monday April 23rd.  I gave a power-point presentation and had wild edible samples. It was all well received.

Since I was over in Rotorua I took the opportunity to go foraging on the shores of the lake in Hannah’s Bay

Entrance to Hannahs Bay, Rotorua

for wild hawthorns Craetagus monogyna. Last year at this time I was in Nelson and harvested them there.  I like to have

a supply to use in teas as a calming drink that helps me sleep and as a tonic for my heart.  For  more information on Hawthorn, see my blog here.

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Galinsoga in flower

This wild edible receives the most comment on my blog from absolute delight to abject hate. I  can understand both sides of the issue, although I happen to love it.  My Dad however, would take the opposite stand calling it ‘Marching soldier’ derived from ‘gallant soldier’ derived from galinsoga parviflora  It’s spreading nature earned it the ‘marching ‘and ‘gallant’ additions to its nick names.

Leafy and upright, this summer annual reaching 75cm, maybe maligned as an invasive weed, yet it’s valued  as a potherb in some parts of the world. I find it a pretty plant, with its pointed and toothed yellowish-green oval leaves. The leaves are in opposite pairs and the leaf margins and stems are hairy. It has clusters of small flowers with yellow centres and five white petals, each three-lobed at the tip. Flowering from October through April, it likes to grow amongst your vegetables and flowers, in cultivated land, and in pasture and waste places, in sun and partial shade. It’s named after an 18th century Spanish physician, and parviflora is Latin for small flowers.

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Pink tassled Hawaiian corn and pink leaved magenta spreen in the background. February 2018

February’s been hot and sunny as well as soggy and wet, but I’ve been grateful for the rain, as I haven’t had to water so much, and my water tanks are full for watering the potted plants when they dry out.  I keep saucers under them to help keep them moist. The hay I used as a mulch over most of the garden proved invaluable in holding in moisture when it was dry and controlling weeds.

I’m so thrilled that from a lawn I’ve produced so much food. I’ve preserved tomatoes and frozen beans, eaten corn, beans Read more

Elderberry shrub

Elder, Sambucus nigra is flowering now, although it is not common north of the Volcanic Plateau in New Zealand.  But it is very common south of the Plateau and in the South Island.  I wanted an elder bush because all parts of it are so healing.   When I saw plants in Northland, I took cuttings and now have a flowering shrub, proving it can grow here in the Bay of Plenty.  It was growing ‘like a weed’ in Canterbury where I’ve just been. We picked and dried the flowers.  I will use it for tea.

It is a deciduous shrub growing up to 6m tall, with large leaves divided into

five to seven leaflets. The creamy white flowers grow in a dense flattish group, and both leaves and flowers have a distinctive smell.  Clusters of drooping black fruits follow the flowers, known as elderberries.
Elder likes to grow on forest margins, regenerating land and waste places. It is native to Africa, West Asia and Europe, where it grows prolifically, my brother in Denmark tells me.
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Community Gallery Teaching room with mural

Every year the Great Barrier Island Community Art Gallery runs a winter lecture series.  I had the good fortune to be invited to run workshops last year and again this year September 2^nd and 3^rd.  I love going to Aotea (Great Barrier).

I flew directly from Tauranga with Sunair, known for tiny planes and changing flight schedules. We set off at 8am to accommodate the person going to Whangarei, who had a

Me and the three seater plane

detour to Great Barrier. On the way, we picked up a man in Whitianga.  I find it exhilarating taking off and landing in those 3 or 4 seater planes and then low flying over the landscape, enabling a birds-eye view of our beautiful countryside and the ocean.

Crossroads Backpackers at the Cross Roads

For two nights’ I stayed in the ‘Crossroads’ Backpackers in Claris. A great turnout of 17 people came to the first edible weed workshop.  We visited the lush Medlands Community gardens, with its’ excellent variety of greens, vegetables and weeds. The whole Island being off grid means everyone has to be self-sufficient on everything like water, power, waste disposal and where they get their food.  Count Down adds freight costs to ordered food. I noticed that the islanders are very aware of and totally reliant on

Foraging in the Medlands Community Gardens

their environment and tuned to the weather.  They want to know what they can eat in their surroundings, in case, as one woman put it, “they are ever cut off and can’t access imported food”.

After the workshops, I stayed with good friends John and Lil in Port Abercrombie. Access is by boat only, hence the reason I wear gumboots. I had a real holiday, internet free and got to knit and read, things I now rarely have time for.  The book “Woman in the Wilderness” by Miriam Lancewood vividly describes her and partner Peters’ experience living only in the mountains and bush of NZ.  The story was a perfect match for the way John and Lil live so remotely on Aotea. I relished the quiet, the sound of the sea rhythmically lapping and lulling me to sleep, the kaka parrots that squawked in the mornings, tui’s and other bird calls.  One evening we heard a very strange sound and I learned the little blue penquins had returned.  They’ve made their nest in the furthest back corner, under the house.  We enjoyed long talks on nature, gardening and how to live when you’re becoming older.  Lil and I had a walk over the hill to a neighbour, who gave us a big bag of huge guavas, (Psidium guajava) which I peeled and stewed.

Native celery & puha growing in sand

Lil and I harvested rock oysters and for the first time I ate some raw.  Lil later made delicious fritters, while I made a salad with water cress (Nasturtium officinale), wild coastal celery (Apium prostratum), and greens from the garden. I laughed at Pete the dog who barks at the

Pete and the dolphins

dolphins cruising up and down the harbour. I also made weed pesto and thistle lemonade, using the appliances when the sun is generating power.

Pea and brassica support & protection

We built a pea support from kanuka sticks, (Kunzea robusta), tall flax stalks woven into the kanuka, tied together with flax fibre.  We sowed the peas and then surrounded them with kanuka brush to ward off slugs and snails and to provide support as they grow. Lil also puts dense brush around the vulnerable brassicas. I was so taken with the kanuka brush I brought some home to put around my peas. I also brought home a mountain pawpaw cutting, hangi hangi or New Zealand privet, Ligustrum lucidum seedlings, a maiden hair fern for my bathroom and the fondest memories to sustain me till my next visit!

Rock oyster fritters and green salad

Regenerating bush once the Kanuka is cut. It was originally Kauri forest, followed by burn off and pasture.

Looking down on Port Abercrombie where I had stayed on the northern end of Aotea

Morning view from my bedroom

 I’m into my fifth week at my new home in Greerton.  I moved July 20th and it is starting to feel more familiar. It does take a while to transition from one place to another.  I do miss the farm hugely.  Luckily this section is large at 840 Square metres, sunny, north facing and flat.

How does one design a new food garden.  Firstly, you have to decide what you want to grow and what you like to eat.  I want to grow lots of vegetables of all kinds and fruit trees.  With that in mind I have divided the garden into the vegetable plot, straight out from the patio and the fruit tree orchard on the side with the hedge.  I had the hedge brought down in height, which it didn’t like, as there is die back and it looks rather uneven along the top!  But, a lot more sunlight reaches the garden in the afternoon now.

Already in the garden: avocado ‘Esther’, meyer lemon and feijoa

The garden had some existing fruit trees e.g. a meyer lemon, feijoa, three grape vines, a tamarillo, a

passionfruit vine, a semi dwarf avocado ‘Esther’, and an apricot.

I also brought trees down from the orchard at the farm.  These included, weeping white mulberry, dwarf almond ‘Garden Prince’, two column apples ‘Polka’, two pears ‘Seckle’ and ‘Winter Nellis’, dwarf feijoa, Grapefruit ‘Golden special’, plum ‘Satsuma’, Thornless jewel boysenberry, Japanese wineberry, elderberry and four blueberries.

I bought more fruit trees through the Tree Crops Association http://www.treecrops.org.nz/ at their annual sale. I hadn’t considered ripening times when I bought trees for the orchard at the farm.  This time I researched varieties that would give me a long harvesting period. I chose an early apple variety called ‘Worcester Permain’, a

Carpet and cardboard covering the lawn with Lulu looking on.

mid-season, ‘Freiburg’ and a late variety ‘Granny Smith’. These are all heritage or heirloom varieties meaning varieties grown that have been passed down through the generations, typically at least 50 years. (Although, many varieties are actually much older than that.) Some experts classify heirlooms as vegetables and fruits introduced before 1951, the time when plant breeders first introduced hybrids or crosses between two species. Heirloom varieties often have better flavour because they are usually not bred for commercial production.

What else have I planted?  A persimmon tree, a peach ‘black boy’, a plum’ Reine Claude de Bavay’, and a mandarin ‘miyagawa’.  And they all fit in the garden!  While they are young they don’t look crowded, but I intend to keep them small like the existing apricot.

I love companion planting so I’ve put daffodils around the fruit trees and they bring instant colour, since some are flowering.  They were dug up from the driveway at the farm.

When I bought this property in 2013 I had two raised vegetable beds made at the back of the house.  I have now discovered these beds don’t get a lot of sun being on the south-east side.  However, I have already planted out the broad bean, kale, lettuce and miner’s lettuce seedlings I grew.  I have peas, fennel and more kale just starting off.

The main garden is in conversion from lawn under cardboard and carpet.  I’m aiming to tame the kikuyu and get its’ runners to come to the surface, so that my gardening buddies and I can remove it.  And I may get chooks to help scratch it for me.

The worst thing about moving is being cut off from greens and weeds that I foraged.  Friends have brought me lots though and you may laugh but I transplanted weeds!! Chicory, hedge mustard, mallow, self-heal, wild lettuce, comfrey, nettle, onion weed and twin cress.  There is very little here.  There is an edible weed workshop coming up in September near Katikati. For more information go here.

I recently attended a Tree Croppers field trip to Puketoki Reserve on Whakamarama Road, Bay of Plenty.  We were treated to a wonderful talk by Colin Hewens who is the spokesman for the team of volunteers who have done an epic job of controlling the rats, stoats and possoms.  We were then further treated to an inspiring talk by Rob McGowan, a local bush medicine (Rongoa) expert and bush conservationist.  He said some things I’d like to share and discuss here.  It was very evident that this patch of bush is in excellent health – the tops of the trees are not eaten out and the undergrowth is thick with abundant seedlings.  This means the rain falling is slowed, spread, soaks into the leaf litter and stored there rather than running straight off causing erosion and filling up the estuary. We learned that the medicinal benefits of the plants are directly related to the health of the bush.

Now you may be wondering what has all this got to do with my love for weeds and their healing benefits.  Well it’s about my concern for our obsession with tidiness and controlling nature through the use of toxic poison.  If we want our environment which we cleared of bush to be healthy for us to live in we need to be learning from nature not fighting it.  For example, I recently drove to Auckland and cannot believe that

Wild flowers on the roadside – King Country

farmers are spraying roundup along boundary fence lines.  These dead brown stripes, expose soil (nature loves to cover soil to protect it from erosion) and put poison in the earth and deplete habitat for all kinds of life and pollinating insects.  The vegetation on roadsides is often the only ‘uncontrolled’ places nature has for wild flowers which insects need to survive.  And don’t they look gorgeous in the photo all along the roadside.  I had to stop and take a photo.

Friends from Holland tell me that the Dutch people have stopped spraying roadsides because of the massive loss of insects and butterflies.  Why are we so slow to follow suite?

We sadly haven’t connected using all these toxins with our own health and just look around how many people are ill. We are exposed to so many more toxins than

Dandelion – Taraxacum officinale

we were decades ago.  I hear you say “What about DDT”. Yes, and now there are even more toxins in the food, air, and water.  My positive note is that the wild plants can help us cope with the build-up of toxins in our bodies.  The bitter weeds like dandelion, hawksbeard, chicory, plantain among others, stimulate the liver to detox our bodies, if eaten regularly, which for me is daily. These plants are right around us almost under our feet if you look for them.  They are like forgotten secrets. I love this poem which is a good summary:

Gerard Manly Hopkins (Born 1844- Died 1889)

“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”

Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Complete Poems

I’ve been making wild edible salads using handfuls of chickweed as the base.  You can then add bitter cress,

Wild winter salad

mizuna, landcress, few dandelion leaves, speedwell, onion weed, nasturtium leaves garnished with red clover flowers, onion weed flowers, violet flowers and oxeye daisy petals.

Salad Dressing Recipe
1 tablespoon tahini, 1/2 tsp of mustard, 1 tsp tamari,
1 tablespoon cider vinegar or a lemon squeezed, 1/2 cup olive oil.   Mix it all together well.