Category Archives: Edible Native Plants

Backyard Gooseberries are Saucy Little Things

The gooseberries in our backyard try to get our attention with their tart little green offerings every year in the mid- to waning days of spring, but mostly they end up being overlooked as contributors to our partly wild larder.  … Continue reading

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Spring Rerun: Kimchi from your backyard to you

Spring is sprung and we have cup plant and lamb’s quarters in our backyard, with goldenglow within an easy hike (soon to join our other natives around the house).  In honor of this wealth of native edible greens, we are … Continue reading

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Butterflies and Beer: Get Ready for Spicebush Season

Spicebush is leafing out!  Normally it would be blooming by now, like this: But it seems that the hard winter and long spring have slowed it down like everything else, since ours aren’t blooming just yet. At any rate, you … Continue reading

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Backyard Food of the Gods

Still catching up on backyard native plants articles, and the latest is this unseasonal look at the American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), whose Latin name is often said to mean “Food of the Gods”. Some disagree: “…Linnaeus called the persimmon tree … Continue reading

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Pawpaws, Mastodons and Zebras

Snowed in today and dreaming of warmer times.  A good time, it seems to me, to play more catch-up on the backlog of articles on the native plants we have in our yard.  This time it’s  Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)!  What … Continue reading

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The Return of the Stinker

Hard to believe but stuff’s coming up!  Not just the ubiquitous daffodils that pop up just in time to tease us about a yet-distant spring, but other stuff.  Like Wild Leeks.  Yeah, smelly old Allium tricoccum. What is this plant … Continue reading

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Where have all the berries gone?

This is what the fruiting head of Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) often looks like after the berries have matured.  What berries, you say?  Ask the birds that ate them all, especially the robins that love to gorge on them and leave … Continue reading

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No Free Lunch: Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)

Have you got milkweeds around?  If not, why not?  Have you ever noticed how many insects they attract?  Finally, have you ever noticed some of these insects dangling lifelessly from the milkweed’s flowers?  Ever wonder why?  (I hadn’t, until recently….) … Continue reading

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February Flora!

February 23, and we have non-native crocuses blooming and native wild leeks peeking up in our backyard.  Talk about your winter wonderland… Note: the leeks link has a couple recipes.  It’s Nadia’s article in the newsletter of the Hawthorn Chapter … Continue reading

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Flapjacks and Sumacs

We had pancakes for breakfast this morning, watching out our dining room window as a small hawk—kestrel, I think—tried to catch its own breakfast in our backyard.  And on our pancakes was what?  Pure maple syrup from Vermont?  Nope.  That … Continue reading

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