Edible Plant Recipes for Catnip, Chicory and Wild Mint
Metus dictum at tempor commodo
Summer is moving along swiftly here in Wisconsin. Chicory, along the roadsides, is high enough to wave its blue flowers in the slightest warm breeze and wild mint is very noticeable. The well-known catnip–another mint–is also easily recognized by the fragrance it floats on the morning air and, up in the woods, another gift of nature is coming into its own. I got up early today and picked enough for breakfast in just a few minutes. No adjectives that I know will do justice to this fruit: The first blackberries of the year.
Here’s how I find, recognize and prepare these four wild foods:
We are fortunate because chicory has chosen to grow–and grow, and grow–near one fish pond on our homestead. We have two patches, each as large as a small house. These volunteer gardens of almost solid chicory would keep me in “coffee” and greens for the year if I utilized them. Anyone who lives in the settled regions of the United States, however, should be close enough to chicory to be able to gather all they want.
Chicory is found frequently in vacant city lots and along most country roads. The plant can be recognized easily by folks who know dandelion, because the young leaves look like slightly wider and deeper-green dandelion leaves.
In early summer the chicory sends up a sturdy stem. This stem has joints about every three inches from which grow narrow leaves that look like they could belong to another plant. From the junction of the narrow leaves and stem a flower bud will grow. When this flower bud is mature it opens–on some kind of a temperamental schedule–to reveal ragged blue flowers that are about one inch in diameter. In short, if you find a plant with leaves like a dandelion and a tall stalk with blue flowers growing out the center, you can be pretty sure you’ve found chicory.
Chicory Plant Uses and Recipe
Chicory can be used as a green in the spring by trimming the tender leaves before they are as tall as a tea cup. Sort out dead leaves and grass and wash the remaining greens twice. Drop them in boiling water and boil for about two minutes. Remove, drain and discard the water.
Boil the leaves a second time for five minutes. Drain and discard the second water and add a third. Boil for an additional five minutes, drain the water and serve the greens with butter, salt and pepper. This water changing is done because chicory leaves are slightly bitter. If you don’t mind that, you may like them after the second or even the first water.
Image by FOTOLIA/HENRIK LARSSONChicory is known as a coffee substitute the world over and tons of it are used in the south for a coffee adulterate. You can make chicory coffee by digging the plants and cutting off the leaves.
I enjoy chicory all summer by mowing one patch whenever it starts to send up the blossom stalk. I use our lawnmower set very low. When the leaves are up again I cover a space about 4 X 6 feet with black plastic. I hold the edges of the plastic down with pieces of pipe so no sunlight can get to the plants and, about two weeks later, I lift the plastic and harvest a crop of blanched leaves. Usually we get plenty of crickets for fish bait from this set-up also.
The blanched chicory leaves can be used for a salad and served with your favorite dressing or they can be boiled like cabbage.
Sometimes blanched leaves will still have a slightly bitter flavor and they will have to be cooked in two waters to make them bland. A few trial leaves will indicate the proper action to take.
One good recipe for the blanched leaves is braised chicory. Harvest a pint of blanched leaves. Clean very well and wash thoroughly. Put 1/2-inch of water in a saucepan and add the leaves. Salt and add four tablespoons of margarine and the juice of a small lemon. Simmer gently for 45 minutes and serve hot in the juice.
Right now, I would like to dispense with one false notion contained in several edible wild plant books. The writers all say–in words of one kind or another–that chicory leaves can only be eaten in early spring. Chicory leaves are edible all during the growing season. It is merely a matter of boiling them and changing the water a sufficient number of times to reduce the bitterness to a temperament that you find palatable. This can be done until the chicory is perfectly bland.
If you don’t have the time or the inclination to blanch chicory you can use the green leaves for the braised chicory recipe after you have boiled them long enough to reduce the bitterness to your taste. This will probably take about three changes of water with five minutes of boiling between changes.
Chicory is known as a coffee substitute the world over and tons of it are used in the south for a coffee adulterate. You can make chicory coffee by digging the plants and cutting off the leaves. Peel the roots, slice them in thin strips and roast in a 250-degree oven for about four hours. Grind the roasted roots and use one teaspoon of ground root for each cup of water. Boil for about three minutes.
Wild Mint
When you get tired of chicory root coffee, it’s time to look for a two-foot-high plant that will yield the best tea found in the wild: Mint.
Mint grows in open, sunny marshes and fields and is generally easy to find. Plants of the mint family have square stalks. This feature alone makes them very easy to identify. The other quite obvious characteristic is the minty smell of their crushed leaves.
