Garlic mustard: a goldmine of food and medicine
Garlic Mustard: Although known as “invasive,” this plant can be eaten whole and has tremendous nutritional value. Plus, the garlic flavor is the perfect addition to any recipe that calls for mustard!
Below are excerpts Beyond the war on invasive species by Tao Orion i The wild wisdom of weeds By Catherine Blair. They have been adapted for exploit on the Internet.
Garlic mustard: what is it?
Classification: Alliaria petiolata
Geographical location: Northeast, Midwest and Southeast Canada
Description: Garlic mustard is a biennial herb growing from a lean, white taproot. In the first year, the plants appear as a rosette of green leaves close to the ground, and the following spring they develop into mature flowering plants. Plants in the second year reach a height of 30 to 100 cm.
The leaves are stalked, triangular or heart-shaped, with a coarsely serrated edge. The flowers are gathered in button-like clusters, and each has four white petals arranged in a cross.
The history of garlic mustard: peeling back the layers
Garlic mustard comes from the Brassicaceae family, a botanical family many of whose members are renowned for their vitamin, mineral and antioxidant profiles. Garlic mustard is considered a favorite edible plant in Europe, where it originates.
Many types of pollinators visit garlic mustard flowersand although it is vilified as an invasive species in the northeastern United States, its presence, like all other invasive species, carries with it an crucial ecological story.
The story of searching for food
Before the arrival of European immigrants, native peoples of the eastern United States grew edible and medicinal plants such as elderberry, goldenseal, and ginseng in the understory of open, covered hardwood trees, including sugar maple, shag hickory, and black walnut.
Stands of these and other plants were managed by fire, as well as cultivation by digging, seed saving and vegetative propagation.
Directing and managing ecosystem succession through perennial polycultures was (and in some places still is) a feature of many indigenous societies that were historically described as “hunter-gatherers.”
Historic Forest Gardens
From the Amazon rainforests to the deserts, savannas, and jungles of Indonesia, Africa, Australia, and Central America, to the prairies and deciduous forests of North America, humans cultivated crops, and although they looked vastly different from European and continental Asian versions of agriculture, these practices structured and modified ecosystems in crucial ways.
Species now known to be native in the Americas and elsewhere are relics of historic forest gardens.
The wilderness ideology of leaving nature alone (in some places) that pervades American land exploit philosophy means that many ecosystems now lack the kind of management that made them so historically diverse and ample.
The lack of consistent cultivation and management of native species means that there are ecological niches available for invasionbecause the process of succession is inevitable, and succession involves invasion – regardless of whether the incoming species are native or not.
Managing Garlic Mustard
Garlic mustard confuses many land managers because it attacks forests considered “virgin” that have not been logged or otherwise cleared.
It seems that with its ample growth it displaces native vegetation.
But what’s really going on in this case is the lack of cultivation of native species.
Ginseng and bittersweet require not only a reasonable harvest, but also reproduction and good growth.
Elderberries need adequate lightweight to set ample fruit, and hickory and walnut trees are more productive when they have room to grow lateral branches undisturbed.
Ensuring optimal conditions
One of the best ways to deal with garlic mustard and similar species? Focus on providing optimal conditions for native understory plants.
In this way, you can get a crop of garlic mustard, which is quite tasty and nutritious.
With a constant harvest for several years, garlic mustard will be less vigorous, and hopefully the understory and other species you focus on growing will begin to flourish again.
Thanks to this, the ecological functions that garlic mustard currently performs (food for pollinators, powerful soil-protecting understory) will be preserved as the ecosystem shifts towards a more diverse species profile.
You may find that you prefer to keep some garlic mustard as a well-managed part of your prospering perennial edible woodland garden. Garlic sauerkraut anyone?
Garlic mustard: a goldmine of food and medicine
Garlic mustard, which grows as a cover crop in many parts of the country, is a food and medicinal goldmine. We are blessed when a plant like garlic mustard appears in abundance.
Some may feel threatened by its prolific growth and fear it will get out of control, but we can also choose to relax and trust nature and the natural succession that has been happening in wild places around the world for millennia.
All mustards are edible, and garlic mustard has a special biting, garlic-like flavor, perfect for adding to many recipes. All parts of mustard have valuable properties that aid stimulate blood circulation.
And when our body has good fluid exchange and flow, communication between our organs, tissues and cellular matrix is increased. This action promotes optimal health through greater efficiency of tissue regeneration and effective elimination of metabolic products.
Using garlic mustard in food
Mustard leaves can be added to green juices to add flavor. Harvested, dried and mixed with salt, the vegetables are perfect for seasoning dishes.
Nourishing spice powder not only tastes delicious, but it provides our bodies with a rainbow of minerals that cannot be easily found in conventionally grown foods. Garlic mustard herbs are luxurious in vitamin A and vitamin C, as well as trace minerals, chlorophyll and enzymes.
The roots taste like horseradish and can be pickled or used in soups as a root vegetable. Ground seeds make a wonderful mustard sauce, and dried vegetables can be used to make a wasabi-like paste.
When we introduce wild vegetables, roots, flowers and seeds into our daily diet through salads, soups, juices and spices, we benefit from greater integrity in health and well-being.
There is a fundamental integrity that comes from wildly harvesting food from wild places on earth. Garlic mustard grows in nature’s garden. We didn’t plant it, weed it or even water it. All we have to do is ask for permission, take what we need and say thank you.