Andrew Doiron was sure the hosta buds would be delicious. But out of precaution, he did not tell his wife what he was eating until she tasted it and liked it. He desperately wanted him back the next night.
Hostas are popular perennials as landscape plants in the state. They are shade tolerant, have colorful leaves, and small flowers, and are just one example of an often overlooked edible plant in the garden.
Doiron grows a variety of vegetables at her garden center in Maine, but she's always looking for something new, different, and even exotic to cook. Hostas is his latest culinary invention.
Hosta sprouts taste like asparagus, Doiron says. But pruning should be done early in the season when the young shoots are still available for consumption.
According to plant experts, if you know where and what to look for, you can enjoy a variety of garden flavors you never thought possible. This allows you to use more parts of the plant or get the most out of what your garden produces during a tough growing season like this one in Maine.
no weed
Weeds are usually every gardener's nightmare. But it can also be a productive food source.
"There are weeds in season, and we often try to grow what we want but don't want to grow and uproot what we don't want but are edible," says food coordinator Robert Dumas. Science and Innovation Cooperative Extension at the University of Maine
Dumas said: But not this year. Weeds such as hemlock, a succulent plant with paddle leaves, must be considered when many crops fail. He says it has a mild taste like spinach and tastes great raw in salads.
Despite being a weed, purslane is often used in landscaping. They are often found on sidewalks and other crowded places. These plants are at risk of exposure to contaminants, so you probably don't want to eat them. But picking and eating them is not a problem if you grow hemlock in an area far from sidewalks, as animal urine, melted ice and other debris can contaminate the plants.
"I only eat foods grown in the garden or in the wild [and] I also tend to cook wild vegetables," says Dumas. "The fenugreek grows next to the lettuce in the garden, so there are no dogs."
Shooting does not mean the end of the product
When the plant germinates, its flower stalks grow rapidly and produce seeds before harvest, the expected end of vegetation. But even if you can't enjoy broccoli, lettuce, and other greens as much as you think, you can still kind of eat them.
Many gardeners interpret midges as a sign that the plant is no longer edible.
Dumas says: Nothing could be further from the truth.
This is good news in a year when severe weather hits many vegetables and crops such as radishes, turnips, broccoli, and cauliflower.
"What we're looking for is a large plant with a radish-like substance that produces a large, edible root," says Dumas. "Sometimes it just doesn't happen and is left aside - but the radishes you don't want are really a gift and you can enjoy them as a consolation prize."
Dumas says horseradish flowers have a nice nutty flavour. Cut cabbage flowers can be added raw to salads or pre-fried in butter or olive oil.
Pick this flower and eat it
Flowers aren't just impressive. Borage, nasturtium, marigolds, daylilies, and marigolds are also edible. From adding to salads to cooking, the flowers have many uses that you may not have been aware of.
During a recent demonstration in front of a 4-H group in Orono, Dumas said he made his "flower power" pizza out of thinly sliced edible flowers, basil and pumpkin.
"The kids love it," he said. "It tastes great and is sprinkled with a variety of colors."
Doiron also uses its flowers in jams, jellies, and liqueurs.
For example, she says that in the spring, she soaks bunches of lilacs in lemon juice for two or three days to make a strawberry-flavored soft drink, and enjoys it cold. He also uses the flowers to make a jelly that he says tastes a bit like grape jelly.
Hosta flowers can also be used to make jellies.
"The result is very tasty and very sweet, like honey," said Doiron. In fact they call it 'poor man's honey'.
Then there are the seeds
Dumas says the seeds of almost any plant in your garden are edible.
Nasturtium seeds can be ground into a 10% brine solution to make a spice such as capers. The herb seeds can be added to snacks or salads for added flavour.
Day lilies are nearing full bloom and are now producing green seed pods. If you eat the peel raw, Dumas said, it becomes soft and delicious.
According to Dumas, coriander is the best.
"Just because you don't get big, bushy cilantro plants doesn't mean you don't get food," he says. "The seed is a green coriander, and it can be one of the tastiest plants to grow."
The taste is an intense blend of citrus and flowers, and the seeds can be eaten directly from the plant. Green cilantro leaves are a great addition to rice, lentils, beans, and roasted or grilled vegetables. Crush the seeds with a flat knife and add them to whatever you want to cook.
It is not commercially available, so the only way to obtain it is to grow it yourself.
The thin thread
Also, don't cut the stems of some plants. While cabbage stalks are too woody to enjoy, they do have edible stems that are surprisingly tasty. Dumas said he recently made a delicious dish of pumpkin sprigs, something he hadn't thought of before.
"It works with a type of pumpkin that has a smooth, hairless stem," Dumas says. "He boils the soft stems in salt water and uses them as a rigatoni paste, then tosses them in a sauce of grated Parmesan and black pepper—it's absolutely amazing."
Given the large amount of genetic variation and cross-pollination among pumpkin plants in Maine, Dumas said he wouldn't be surprised if smooth-stemmed pumpkins suddenly appeared in gardens there.
"Once you know which part of the plant or parts of the plant are OK to eat, you really expand your options," says Dumas. "Plus, it gives you a better edge."
