Of weeds and cannibalism

Vicki at I Love Orange has posted some pictures of garlic mustard with a (correct) exhortation to tear out this invasive weed whenever you see it. And here's an even better idea, from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden: eat it!

Think delicious winter invasive-plant salads, mouth-watering invasive-plant omelets, or perfectly cooked pastas infused with invasive-plant pesto.

Rather like eating the body of one's enemy killed in battle as a way of humiliating the enemy. E-e-e-excellent (rubbing hands together nefariously).

On the other hand, I've been waging a ten-year battle against Bishop's Weed, a rather pretty and very—ahem—vigorous plant which has been trying to take over my entire back yard. Over the years I've tried poisoning it with glyphosate (Round-Up), I've tried smothering it under old shower curtains and several feet of leaf mulch, I've tried picking it and pulling it and digging it up bit by bit, but however fast I worked at its destruction, it could grow even faster.

At some point I discovered that Bishop's Weed, too, is edible, having started cultivated life as a pot herb in England. This didn't surprise me since it has an astringent fragrance which would be not unpleasant under normal circumstances. However, when I steamed some up for dinner, I learned that the hours I had spent crouched in the yard, scrabbling in the dirt to remove every shred of root of this despised plant, had conceived a hatred in me so intense that I couldn't bring myself to eat it, however humiliating it might have been for my enemy.

This story has a happy ending, sort of. After our house was raised and our yard was razed, the Bishop's Weed has been greatly reduced, so that now all I have to do is stay vigilant and keep my trigger finger on the Round-Up, and victory is in sight.

Comments

[Vicki in MIchigan]

"victory is in sight" -- as long as your neighbors don't have any.... :-/

We had a thicket of bishop's weed around our garage, which was considerably decimated when our garage was razed. I should get out there and hoe down what's left. Not that we don't have another thicket of it elsewhere in the yard.

Sigh.

The only remaining blooming garlic mustard is pretty inaccessible. I need to suit up in something thorn resistant and yank it out.

And then hoe down this year's sprouts..........

[Karen]

We sell a little cookbook in the Botanical Gardens gift shop called "From Pest to Pesto" with a signature recipe for making pesto from garlic mustard. Maybe that would be a good birthday present for you!