Mallow
Mallow is a soft tasty leaf good in
fresh salads. Use it like lettuce and other leafy greens. You may find the
smaller younger leaves a tad tenderer. Toss in salads, or cook as you would
other tender greens like spinach. The larger leave can be used for stuffing,
like grape leaves. The seed pods are also edible while green and soft before
they harden, later turning woody and brown. I hear they can be cooked like a
vegetable. I’ve harvested and eaten them raw, and want to try steaming,
pickling, fermenting, and preparing like okra.
Mallow Malva Neglecta
Edible parts: All parts of the
mallow plant are edible — the leaves, the stems, the flowers, the seeds,
Marigolds
Their flavor is citrusy. Usually only the
petals are used. No green parts. I also use them for yellow coloring in
various dishes. They’re another flower called the “poor man’s saffron” the
other being the Calendula.
Marsh-marigold
Leaves are edible when cooked; boil 10-60 minutes, until tender.
roots can be cooked and eaten. The variety in Manitoba is Yellow
marsh-marigold. Grows in wet, open areas in montane, subalpine and alpine
regions. Warning: eat in moderation, avoid uncooked young leaves and flowers.
Meadowsweet
Also known as: Maids of the Meadow, Meadow-sweet, Meadows Queen, Meadwort, Queen of
the Meadow
An herbaceous perennial up to 1.2 m
(4 ft.) high with long-stemmed leaves, it has large, dense, umbrella-like heads
of creamy-white flowers that emit a sweet but sickly fragrance from early
summer to early autumn.
You’ll find it: in wet, damp woods and meadows; also in marshes and fens and
alongside streams and ditches.
Leaves: pleasantly aromatic, dark green leaves, each formed of two to five pairs of
tooth-edged leaflets. Leaves have greyish-white undersides
Harvesting the leaves: cut while young and fresh and before eaten by insects.
Using the leaves and flowers: chop up young leaves and use to flavour soups. Dried leaves have been
used to introduce aromatic aromas to wines, as well as to mead. Flowers when
added to beer and wine are claimed to make a stronger and headier brew, and
introduces sweetness when used in cold drinks and fruit salads during summer.
Medicinal Values of Meadowsweet
Young leaves and flowers are occasionally
infused together to make a tea that is claimed to ease the common cold, soothe
inflammatory problems and calm stomach complaints. The plant contains the
chemicals that are used to produce aspirin.
Milk Thistle
Milk
thistle is most commonly sought for its medical properties of preventing and
repairing liver damage. But most parts of the plants are also edible and tasty.
Until recently, it was commonly cultivated in European vegetable gardens.
Leaves can be de-spined for use as salad greens or sautéed like collard greens;
water-soaked stems prepared like asparagus; roots boiled or baked; flower pods
used like artichoke heads.
Miner’s Lettuce
Flowers, Leaves, Root. Leaves can be
eaten raw or cooked. A bland flavor with a mucilaginous texture, it is quite
nice in a salad. The young leaves are best, older leaves can turn bitter
especially in the summer and if the plant is growing in a hot dry position.
Although individual leaves are small, they are produced in abundance and are
easily picked. Stalks and flowers can be eaten raw. A nice addition to the
salad bowl. Bulb also can be eaten raw. Although very small and
labour-intensive to harvest, the boiled and peeled root has the flavor of
chestnuts. Another report says that the plant has a fibrous root system, so
this report seems to be inaccurate.
Mullein
Verbascum Thapsus
Edible parts: Leaves and flowers. The flowers
are fragrant and taste sweet; the leaves are not fragrant and taste slightly
bitter. This plant is best known for a good cup of tea and can be consumed as a
regular beverage. Containing vitamins B2, B5, B12, and D, choline, hesperidin,
para amino benzoic acid, magnesium, and sulfur, but mullein tea is primarily
valued as an effective treatment for coughs and lung disorders.
Mulberries
Mulberry leaves have two types, one spade shape and a 5-fingered
leaf. Both have pointed edges
Musk Mallow
Leaves are edible raw. Young leaves are tenderer and less bitter
than older leaves. Young shoots are edible raw. Leaves are suitable as a soup
thickener. Seeds are edible raw. Seeds have a palatable, nut-like flavour. Flower
buds and flowers are edible. Fruits are edible. Grows in meadows, roadsides,
disturbed sites and gardens.
Mustards
They all have yellow to
white blossoms, sometimes pink, usually a simple cross which is there the
family names Cruciferae comes from. They range from the Mustard that
produces the seed that makes the condiment to the radish in our salad to the
plant that produces what eventually is cleaned and deodorized into Canola oil.
In northern climates they are a spring and summer plant. Wild radish and wild
mustard look similar but have small differences. One is that Mustards grow
tall, radishes like to serpentine. Radish blossoms cluster and have noticeable
veins, mustard blossoms are singular, and the veins are not obvious. The seeds
pods are different as well. Mustard’s pod is smooth, the radish jointed and why
the mustard is called the charlock and the radish the jointed charlock. Their
blossoms are both peppery and mustardy. They work best in cold salads or hot
soups, the latter they can be tossed in just before serving. And of course,
Mustard and radish leaves can be cooked up as greens.
Nasturtiums
The blossoms are peppery.
In fact, the entire plant above ground is edible, even the seeds which can be
pickled and used like capers. Multi-colored, low growing or trailing,
Nasturtiums are often used in kid projects because the seeds are large, they’re
fast to germinate and grow, safe, and edible.
Northern Water Plantain
Bulbous base of plant is
edible raw. Plant has a strong flavour. Plant is best when dried and cooked. Grows
in ponds and marshes. Warning: may cause a skin reaction and be poisonous to
some people, use with caution
Onions
There
are some 400 species in the Allium association if you include Onions,
garlic, chives, shallots, and closely related ramps/leeks, the latter having
wide leaves. Usually the flowers have a stronger flavor than the leafy parts,
and the developing seed head even stronger flavor. Blossoms are usually white
but can also be pink. Onion stems are round, as are chives but smaller. Garlic
leaves are flat. Ramps and leeks have large leaves.
Oxeye Daisy
Young leaves can be eaten raw. Leaves have a strong taste. Spring
shoots are edible raw. Roots are edible raw. Unopened flower buds can be used
for flavouring. Grows in fields, pastured, disturbed areas and roadsides.
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