Garlic Mustard (Jack-By-The-Hedges)
In The Kitchen
All of my wild food books praise this plant as a useful and versatile green vegetable.
I'm sorry to say that this is an opinion I cannot at this time endorse - I didn't find this one pleasant at all (scroll down for more)
Cooking
I picked a big handful of tender tops (seen here in my basket with St George's Mushrooms)
I rinsed them, then chopped them and threw them into a hot pan in which bacon had previously been fried
I covered this with a lid and allowed the leaves to steam and wilt.
Cooked, they look pretty appetising - here they are alongside the quiche I made with the mushrooms...
However...
As a vegetable, I'm afraid this one gets the thumbs down - texture wasn't bad, but the taste was horribly, inedibly bitter - not nice at all. Shame, because it's an easy plant to identify and gather, but there you go.
Footnote
I have since been told that the growing conditions in which the plant is found can have a significant effect on the flavour, and that specimens growing in the dryish nutrient-starved conditions under a hedge may be the most bitter.
Maybe I'll have to give it another try - so just to be fair - it gets added back to my list (at the bottom).
20 April 2008 - I was out in search of morels (returning home with none, although I did find a small patch of St George's Mushrooms). I spotted lots of Garlic Mustard along the road and field edges, so I thought it was maybe time to give this a try.
What is Garlic Mustard?
Alliaria petiolata - Some of the common names are a bit misleading, as this plant isn't at all closely related to garlic - it's in the same family as radishes and cabbage (Cruciferae)
Despite being unrelated, the plant really does smell quite strikingly of garlic when crushed.
Other common names for this plant are Hedge Mustard, Sauce-All-Alone and Poor Man's Mustard
Picking Garlic Mustard
The plant is very common by roadside hedges, although this probably isn't the best place to pick it, due to contaminants from vehicle exhaust and general road grime - but it can also be found at field edges and in open woodland.
Perhaps there are other reasons to be discerning about where to pick this plant - see the footnote to the right
It's probably best picked at or before the time where the first cluster of flowers appears - after that, it quickly becomes tough and wiry.
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garlic_mustard
