If you live where mesquite trees do — and that’s much of the Southwest from California to Texas — you can make a fantastic mesquite bean syrup very easily with a slow cooker. Here’s how to do it.
odd plants
How to Eat Cholla Buds
Cholla buds are edible, believe it or not. Here’s how to harvest, prepare, store and eat the buds from the cholla cactus, which live in the American Southwest.
How to Eat Manzanita Berries
Manzanita berries are ripening all over California right now, but few know that they are not only edible, but are well worth your time to collect. The secret? Grind the dry, apple-like berries to make a sort of manzanita sugar.
Contemplating Hopniss, the American Groundnut
Apios americana, the hopniss or potato bean or American groundnut. It’s a plant that has fascinated me for some years, so much so that I began growing it in my garden in 2011. Since then I think I have a handle on growing, harvesting and eating these native American tubers.
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Maybe It’s a Tuber: Crosnes
I have a thing for odd garden vegetables, especially roots and tubers. Meet Stachys Affinis, the crosnes or Chinese artichoke. Looks like a grub, tastes like water chestnut. Cool.
Cooking Blue Camas
Blue Camas, camassia quamash, has been a staple of the Northwest Indians for centuries, but few modern cooks have experimented with this edible bulb. Here are the results of my experiments.
Blue Camas and Other Edible Bulbs
Last week I found lots of wild edible bulbs in the High Sierra, notably blue camas. But eating bulbs has twin problems: Poisonous look-alikes, and the fact that their flowers are achingly beautiful.
My Wild Garden
This year my garden will be different. This year, instead of cabbages and tomatoes and melons, I will be growing orach and yampa and ramps. Gardening meets wildcrafting.