8 Unusual Edible Plants to Grow in Your Garden, and How to Eat Them
- MARNI growingrootstogether@gmail.com
- 15 hours ago
- 6 min read
As an edible gardener and grower, I love finding new plants to grow and enjoy in the garden and on my plate. Customers are often shocked to learn that many of the flowers I grow are edible, and that you can grow perennial plants that look great in an ornamental garden that are also edible, such as salad burnet and hostas.
But these plants aren’t new. Humans used to eat a huge variety of plants that were only seasonally available and included many things that we have removed from our diet and forgotten about due to various reasons – but mostly due to our industrialized food system. To get food to the masses food needs to be easily grown, harvested and shipped. So crops that don’t hold up well to shipping long distances have been bred to ripen slower or altogether eliminated.
And since our diets have been reduced to just what is easy and cheap to grow in mass quantities and easy to put into multiple products, think corn, our tastebuds have lost diversity. We are accustomed to super sweet corn and bagged lettuce that has no flavor. And with increased sugar content and decreased flavor, comes less nutrients. Marketers use the term "superfood" to sell foods that are packed with nutrients. What if all your food was super, and what if you could grow it in your garden and eat it every day?
Below are some of my favorite "super" garden foods that I grow in my home garden and offer for sale in the Growing Roots Together nursery. Check out my online store for current availability!
COMMON SENSE DISCLAIMER:
PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE CONSUMING ANY PLANT!
1) Burnet/Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor)
Burnet is a rose family perennial with soft fern-like leaves and petite, unusual pinkish-red flowers. This mini-shrub does well at a sunny garden edges. The leaves have a refreshing cucumber-esque flavor and are eaten fresh added to salads and other side dishes. And this powerhouse salad herb is loaded with protein! 1
Dried leaves of salad burnet also make a wonderful tea that also has medicinal qualities.
2) Cornsalad/maché (Valeriana locusta)
How about eating a salad green that is in the honeysuckle family? How about growing and harvesting a salad green throughout the fall and winter?
Cornsalad or mache as it is called in Europe where it is a "wild" edible that is foraged. Like other wild edibles that have not had the nutrients bred out of them in exchange for storability, corn salad has as much as three times more vitamin C as lettuce. 2
If allowed to flower and set seed, cornsalad will naturalize in your garden and return each year on it's own. Corn salad should be grown in a dense mat for ease of harvest. Sheer the tops of the plants to harvest. Plants will regrow for multiple harvests before flowering.
3) Red Malabar spinach (Basella alba)
Although not a true spinach, Malabar spinach is a member of the basil family and is a delicious summer green that thrives in the heat, when spinach and lettuces are all spent. Malabar spinach is a vine, growing happily and producing an abundance of dark green leaves, loaded with calcium, vitamin A, and 20 grams of protein! 3
To harvest Malabar spinach, remove lower biggest leaves leaving the upper-most leaves and growing tip to continue to grow.
To enjoy your harvest: I like to add Malabar spinach to cooked dishes. Unlike normal spinach it holds it’s shape and texture and doesn’t become mushy. Stack the leaves and cut in strips or bite size pieces. Great sauteed with other veg, added to soups or stews or as a stand alone side dish with sauteed garlic. Try it with stewed lentils, lots of garlic, and a squeeze of lemon as a garnish.
4) Orach/Mountain Spinach (Atriplex hortensis)
Orach is a "wild" edible plant from the Mediterranean, that is such a welcome spring treat in the garden. I welcome it's return each year with no work on my part. Orach comes in red or green varieties and both are a delicious salad green loaded with nutrients and micro vitamins that store-bought lettuce or spinach can't even begin to compare to. 2
Orache thrives in the cool weather of spring and by late May begins to flower and set seed. It prefers a sunny spot, but I've grown it with success in part sun. Harvest often to discourage flowering by pinching the tops to encourage branching (like basil) and taking the largest leaves from the bottom of the plant.
When the plant flowers, let the seed heads dry fully before removing some to save for next season - or simply let them fall to the ground and you will have a giant patch of wild Mountain Spinach in the spring!
5) Sculpit or Stridolo (Silene vulgaris): Aka Bladder campion, Stridoli or silene in Italy
I have grown this unique perennial vegetable for the past three years and eagerly await its return each year in early spring, when not much else in the garden is ready. This herb is well known and revered in Italy, where it is cooked into egg dishes and risottos or used fresh in salads. The new, tender growth before the plant flowers is the best for culinary use. The flavor is like a mild, herbal arugula.
6) Purple Tree Collards (Brassica spp)
A perennial collard/kale that grows year-round and has a striking purple tinge in the fall and winter? Yes, please and thank you! Tree collards can get 4-5 feet tall and enjoy full sun. Like kale and collards the leaves get sweeter tasting after a frost. But you can enjoy this tasty and plentiful green all year long! Middle photo below shows how to cut the leaves, first removing and chopping the stems. Saute the stems until medium soft and then add the chopped greens and some broth and cover to steam.
7) Hosta (Hosta spp.)
Yes, you can eat your Hostas! They are in the asparagus family and are enjoyed much the same way.
Some hostas taste better than others and the dainty specialty hostas won't provide much food. Also, be sure that your hosta is mature and has enough energy to sustain some grazing. Don't harvest new shoots from young plants that have not had a chance to get established. This is a great post about preferred species for edibility and also some precautions about pets (I had no idea hostas were poisonous to pets... my chickens decimated mine in my backyard and I guess that was for the best!
To harvest and enjoy: Harvest the new leaves before they unfurl completely, generally in the early spring. Wash and dry. Use is similar to asparagus. Sauté them in olive oil until crispy. Add garlic and any other herbs, salt and pepper to taste. Maybe some shaved parmesan if you're fancy.
8) And of course... Edible Flowers
Not all flowers are created equal – some have super powers and super flavors! Here are just a few of some of my favorites:
Calendula is one of my favorite garden allies, wonderful for pollinators and interplanting, medicinal value, plus edible flower petals. Plus they self-seed and come back stronger each year. A large calendula patch is a blessing and gives you enough to harvest some flowers to dry and extract for use in creams and salves.
Viola or johnny jump ups are another easy edible: eadd the vibrant petals to salads or as garnish to any dish
Nasturtium leaves and petals are delicious for fresh eating and have a spicy flavor. Try using the leaves as the wrap to make a spicy little fresh roll.
There are so many other edible flowers that I need to write another post about them... stay tuned!
And, just for laughs…
Not really a vegetable but definitely a strange edible plant, and one to have a little fun with!
Spilanthes also known as Toothache plant or Buzz buttons is such an unusual plant and although it is edible it is used more for it’s medicinal value. The flowers of spilanthes have a numbing effect so was historically used for toothaches or painful mouth issues. It is still great used in this way and also as a fun ingredient in cocktails and deserts that will surprise and delight your friends and guests.
You can find all of these unusual edibles and other vegetables, herbs, and fruiting plants at the Growing Roots Together nursery, generally available from spring through summer.
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