This week has been very blessed. After a random road trip with the Yeti from @freedompoint, and a great trade off of quail for rabbits to @papa-pepper, we had a visit from Heather's brother and sister. Its always nice when family stops by to check on our progress and give a hand.
Yesterday we were walking around the creek hunting morels, which we didnt find any, but during our search, we came across one of my favorite wild edibles!
See the bluish green, round grassy stalk there? In the middle of the picture? That little plant packs a pungent flavor that cant be beat.
This little plant here is Wild Garlic. Its native to the Ozarks and grows in abundance alongside wild onion. Its a bluish-green grass that resembles a chive or green onion. When gathering them, you can tell them apart from Wild Onion by the shape of the leaves. Wild Onion has flat leaves, and Garlic has round.
They will also have a very distinctive smell. They will smell like pungent, spicy garlic. All parts of the plant are edible. But the bulbs will have a fibrous outer layer you may want to peel off.
The banks of the creek are covered in them and we all pitched in to get a hand full for Sunday dinner. @papa-pepper gave us a couple extra rabbits to process, so we thought it would be a great treat for the family to try farm raised rabbit . We will braise it in a dutch oven with the garlic bulbs and other goodies and Ill be posting that adventure in food soon!
We had a pretty good haul for dinner. We made sure to take only what we need. We want to make sure that this wild resource will continue to provide for us for years to come. The greens go great finely chopped in a salad, and taste like a garlic flavored green onion. The bulbs can be eaten raw, but their flavor explodes when they are cooked.
I am so excited to learn what other wild edibles i have on the homestead and cant wait to share my discovery with you. Until then, thanks for stopping by and steem on my steemians!
That's going to be an awesome dinner! Let us know how it turns out!
Will do! Ill be taking pics throughout the process today!
We're lucky around here. We've got both wild garlic and wild onion. But, we're jealous of yours. Outside of our garden beds, all we have is "good old Georgia red clay. Lots of stuff grows in it, but its as hard bricks, so everything has a hard time growing to its full potential. Ours never grow nearly as tall as those in your photos and the bulbs are much smaller.
We got really lucky finding the spot we did with a creek. We steadily find ones about the size of cherry tomatoes near the banks. Once you get away from the creek, its all clay and rock so we will be planting in beds like you. Im on the hunt for other edibles, but Im not too sure what else i have, and am in need of someone to give me some lessons on what I have. I know blackberry is here, but not sure what else.