Wild Edible Plants of Texas

I’ve been experimenting with a lot of recipes for my book including a wild tart recipe that includes wild greens, wild onions and fresh eggs. In this picture, I’ve featured some wild dock (Rumex spp.), wild onions (Allium spp.) wild spinach (Chenopodium spp.) and eggs from my chickens. These simple ingredients can be combined to make some of the most delicious and nutritious dishes ever. One of my tart recipes was featured in Edible Austin and was also included in the book, Edible: A Celebration of Local Foods. If you end up trying this recipe, be creative – adding different kinds of cheese or greens will make the tart uniquely your own.

In the spirit of garbling (an old-fashioned term used by herbalist to describe the stripping of leaves from branches), I enlisted Garner, Joe Henry and Kaleb (our neighbor) as my little garblers. I had saved several branches of yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) to dry the leaves for tea. Once dried, we removed the leaves and stored in a jar. The dried leaves make a lovely tea and actually contain caffeine to give you a boost like their well-known cousin, yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis).

Vitis mustangensis

They’re perfect right now (at least here in Central Texas)! The smaller ones have soft seeds and can be used to make a variety of dishes. These are not for eating raw though! Use them in your pies, pickles, jams and other dishes where you might need a cooked down, tart addition. When cooked, they taste a little bit like rhubarb.

Chickweed, Flower

Check out Renee’s sweet and thorough article on eating weeds. We spent a morning foraging in her Central Austin yard and found all sorts of yummy things to eat. Her article and my recent talk at the Zilker Garden Festival reminded me that I should mention a few things to keep in mind, especially if you’re new to foraging:

• Keep foraging simple – try your yard first, or your neighborhood park. You’ll probably find more on a walk around your yard than you will on a hike in the greenbelt.
• If you don’t like the taste of something at first, try it again. And again if possible.  Sometimes we have to acquire a taste for wild foods before we incorporate them into our diet. Think about all the things you consume now that you had to acquire a taste for: coffee? beer? collard greens? olive oil? Henbit and spiderwort might fall into this category as well.
• Don’t be afraid to taste something; sometimes the taste will help you identify the plant. If it turns out tasting nasty or bitter, you can always spit it out and it won’t kill you – you’re more likely to be harmed by food you eat in a restaurant than by a little nibble of a plant in the wild. And of course if it tastes sour-tart and lemony (Oxalis spp.) or like onions (Allium spp.) or like cucumbers (Parietaria spp.), then you’re on to something. Properly identify it, then harvest and eat it!

I meant to post this picture earlier in the season but you can still find all of these wild greens for your salads. From the top left, moving clockwise to the center:

Mallow (Malva neglecta)

Spiderwort (Tradescantia spp.)

Wood Sorrel (Oxalis spp.)

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale)

Redbud Flowers (Cercis canadensis var. canadensis)

And don’t forget the chickweed! Toss them all together, sprinkle on your favorite dressing and you will have a totally wild salad!

Cercis canadensis var. canadensis

Yes, you can eat them. The redbud flowers are sweet, pea-flavored and gorgeous sprinkled on salads, soups or sandwiches.