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| Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) add color and succulence to a spring salad |
California
native plants make wonderful additions to the home garden. They add color and fragrance. They provide habitat for birds, insects and
other creatures. And they can supply us
with food. Beginning in late winter, California
native plants provide a range of leafy greens that can be used raw or
cooked. You might want to consider planting
some for their food value alone.
Growing
your own food has lots to recommend it. It’s
fun and good exercise for the whole family.
You can pick foods at the ‘peak of freshness’ and control their growing
conditions (for example, use of pesticides).
And you can grow the foods you like – including heirloom varieties that
are particularly flavorful. California
native plants have flavors that are uniquely their own. Use them in cooking and your friends and
family will marvel!
California
native plants produce a wide variety of edible products including fruits,
seeds, edible roots and leafy greens. It’s extremely important to know which plants
are edible – and which will make you sick or even worse. One advantage of growing native food plants is
that you know you are using an edible
plant rather than a toxic look-alike.
It’s
also important to know which parts are edible, when to pick and how to prepare
them. That’s where Mother Nature’s
California Gourmet series comes in. Our
first postings covered picking and cooking with elderberries (August
2012). We’ll continue to discuss native
edibles as food plants ripen in Mother Nature’s Backyard.
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| Miner's Lettuce leaves are sometimes ready to pick in January or February |
Annual
greens should be harvested before the plant begins to flower. Many plants change dramatically when they
reach the flowering stage, producing chemicals
to deter insects and others from eating them.
This often translates into bitter-tasting greens. So pick greens before flowering and wash
them as you would any leafy green vegetable. Then use them raw in salads, sandwiches,
tacos, etc. You can use the mild native
greens in any recipe that calls for uncooked spinach or lettuce. Taste them before you use them. If they are too mild for your taste, pair
them with more flavorful greens or seasonings. We’ll suggest some recipes next
month (March 2013).
Some
native greens, particularly the later-blooming annuals (like Red Maids - Calandrinia ciliata) and the perennials
are a bit more flavorful. Many people
describe them as piquant, in the same
way that arugula is tart/sour/spicy.
There’s a good reason why native greens like the Docks (Rumex species), native Oxalis, native Limonium, Heucheras (alum
roots) and other leafy greens have strong flavors. Most produce oxalic acid – the same chemical
that makes rhubarb taste like rhubarb.
Some of the stonger-tasting native greens owe their unique flavor to
another group of chemicals – the tannins.
Plants that make these two types of chemicals taste better – and are
better for you – if cooked before they are eaten.
When
using the stronger-flavored greens, taste a bit of the leaf before using. If it’s quite tart or bitter you may want to cook
it in several changes of water before using in a recipe. This will do two things: 1) break down some
the bitter chemicals (through cooking/heat) and 2) remove some of the water-soluble
chemicals in the change of water. Once
again, it’s important to pick young leaves and stems prior to flowering as levels
of these chemicals are lower in the young greens. If the leaves are milder tasting you can
just steam, sauté, microwave or bake the greens and use in recipes featuring
cooked greens.
If
you have gout, rheumatoid arthritis or are prone to kidney stones you should take
care to not consume much of the oxalic acid-containing greens (as well as cooked
rhubarb and uncooked spinach, beet greens, chard and other foods high in oxalic
acid). Oxalic acid breaks down during cooking, so it
doesn’t cause a problem for many of us.
But if you have gout, arthritis or
have had kidney stones (or these conditions run in your family) heed this
caution and limit your intake.
It’s always prudent to eat a balanced diet and
not eat too much of a single type of food.
This is true for common garden
fruits and vegetables as well as the natives. When trying a new food, start out by eating a
small amount to see if it agrees with you.
That’s just being sensible when
eating something new.
We’ll
post some great recipes for raw and cooked greens next month (March 2013). To learn more about California native edible
greens see:
Handouts (4 per pg) : http://www.slideshare.net/cvadheim/edible-greens-feb2013notes
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