Garlic Mustard Wild Edible Identification Uses & Nutrition Pg 2
Garlic Mustard
Uses :
The herb is used as a good source of vitamins A and C.The herbs medicinal purposes include being used as a disinfectant, a diuretic, and sometimes being used to treat gangrene and ulcers. The herb was also planted as a form of erosion control.The chopped leaves are used for flavoring in salads and sauces such as pesto, and sometimes the flowers and fruit are included as well. These are best when young, and provide a mild flavour of both garlic and mustard. The seeds are sometimes used to season food directly in France. Garlic mustard was once used medicinally as a disinfectant or diuretic, and was sometimes used to heal wounds.
Garlic mustard is an invasive non-native biennial herb that spreads by seed. Although edible for people, it is not eaten by local wildlife or insects. It is difficult to control once it has reached a site; it can cross-pollinate or self-pollinate, it has a high seed production rate, it out competes native vegetation and it can establish in a relatively stable forest understory. It can grow in dense shade or sunny sites. The fact that it is self fertile means that one plant can occupy a site and produce a seed bank. Plant stands can produce more than 62,000 seeds per square meter to quickly out compete local flora, changing the structure of plant communities on the forest floor. Garlic mustard is also allelopathic, producing chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants and mychorrizal fungi needed for healthy tree growth and tree seedling survival.
Garlic mustard is a Class A noxious weed with a limited distribution in Washington, and eradication is required state-wide. This species is also on the Washington quarantine list (known as the prohibited plants list) (external link) and it is prohibited to transport, buy, sell, offer for sale, or to distribute plants or plant parts, seeds in packets, blends or "wildflower mixes" of this species, into or within the state of Washington.
METHOD OF PREPARATION:
Garlic Mustard is usually used raw. Second-year shoots before blossoming are choice. British naturalist Richard Mabey says the best use is as a sauce for lamb. Merritt Fernald, the grand botanist of Harvard a century ago, reported it was used like a lettuce leaf but for flavoring in sandwiches, mixed in salads, eaten with salted fish and used as a stuffing in pork. Cornucopia II says the leaves can be finely chopped and added to tossed salads, cooked as a pot herb, or eaten with bread and butter. It is also mixed with mint leaves and made into a sauce for salt-fish, mutton, and as mentioned before, lamb. Ray Mears reports the leaves are good added to nettle soup and the seeds make a very fiery mustard. Pick the leaves just before you want to use them. They wilt quickly.
Watch the video about Garlic Mustard: Garlic Mustard A Tasty & Healthy Wild Edible
Written by guest author Jen
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Troy Reid |
