Boscobel Restoration
Sunday, May 16

This sprawling estate is a perfect setting for a spring environmental festival by Riverkeeper.org, and it's crawling with wild plants.

Lawns, overgrown areas, fields, and the borders of woods, and woodland trails are great habitats for mid-spring shoots and greens. Some of the species we'll be finding include field garlic, garlic mustard, hedge mustard, poor man's pepper, field peppergrass, violets, Asiatic dayflower, chickweed, and sheep and wood sorrel.

But the most spectacular wild food by far is the cattail, growing in great abundance in the pond. At this time of year, you peel the shoots and eat the hearts. They're great in virtually any kind of recipe that calls for vegetables, and they taste like tender cucumbers. Try making Raw Cattail Soup.

Burdock will be overrunning disturbed habitats. Add razor-thin slices of the roots to soups or rice. And at this time of the year only, you can also cook the immature flower stalks, called cardunes in Italy, which taste like artichoke hearts.

Pokeweed is another seasonal potherb, usually growing in partially shaded habitats. This vegetable is superb boiled in 2 changes of water (it's poisonous raw!) and flavored with tamari soy sauce and garlic, lightly browned in olive oil.

Woodland areas will provide piquant greenbrier shoots as well as sassafras, the original source of root beer.

Springtime wild mushrooms could also be abundant, especially if there's been rain beforehand. We'll be looking for fairy ring mushrooms, wine-cap stropharias, dryad's saddle, and chicken mushrooms.