Garlic Mustard Hunting
Today I went garlic mustard hunting. I noticed them on my walk last Saturday and had planned to harvest them “tomorrow or Monday” but somehow the days flew by. When I saw them today, some had already flowered or were about to. Garlic mustard is an invasive species in Ontario (see list) that was native to Europe, and they can displace native plants and grow aggressively without contributing much to the native ecosystem.
I filled a small shopping bag full of pulled garlic mustard (from the roots) about 10 minutes into my walk, and that was more than enough for us to eat- yes, they are edible! The flowers can be used as a garnish, and the roots apparently tastes like horseradish. The stem feels very fibrous so I decided to pluck those off and favour the leaves, but I’m guessing if you were making garlic mustard pesto that might be fine. Although I had enough plants for today, I still completed my little walking loop and went to pluck off any flower beads or flower buds I noticed. Some of the leaves were rosette shaped which I learned meant they’re in their first year of life, and leaves that were triangular meant it was in the second year of life and would produce flowers and hundreds of seeds. (This means the plants are considered biennials, they live for two years and spend the first year establishing their root systems and general health of the plant to survive the winter, then in the second year they will reproduce.)
I brought them home and did the first rinse in a bucket and dumped the water in my garden in case there are any bugs there- but I didn’t see any in the water left behind, only some dirt and plant material. I also noticed most leaves were in perfect shape with no bugly nibbles at all. It looks like no one in the neighborhood liked the garlicky flavour and scent that is released when you crushed the leaf.
The whole process of collecting them, including the walk, plus rinsing and removing the tough stem took about 2.5 hours while I listened to Radiolab’s The Ashes on the Lawn and Playing God. The first time I heard Playing God in 2016, which is about medical triage in a time of crisis, it left a lasting impact on me and I wanted to listen to it again now when we are dealing with a pandemic with a shortage of resources again. But it’s a difficult story of who lives and who dies, so I decided I’m going to listen to the podcast while I’m outdoor and doing something somewhat soothing. (Go invasive species hunting for your next active self care time- many squats involved 🍑).
Now these garlic mustard today were not literally from the side of the road, they’re 3m away from where the busses run. Still, I was worried what my mom would think about me bringing home weird plants that I claim are edible. But she said “oh your grandma brings home some 野菜 too sometimes.” (literal translation= wild vegetables) I forgot her and her family didn’t grow up in a total urban environment like I did and had a closer connection to the land unlike me. I’m just starting to figure it out. Her family were relatively recent settlers going back a few hundred years in Taiwan. Now our nuclear family and a few extended families are on this land aka Turtle Island in the recent generations. We also live in urban or suburban areas now. Developing a connection to this land and being courteous new addition instead of being an “invasive species” is an ongoing process.
Sometimes individual actions might not feel very impactful- but for every plant I pull (and eat) I’m preventing hundreds of seeds from being formed! I’m giving the little side ditch that no human neighbour particularly cares about a better chance at being occupied by other native or naturalized plants and feeling the ecosystem.
In the centre of our garden is a giant Norway Maple (considered a tree killer by Trees Canada). Norway Maples doesn’t appear to be on Ontario’s invasive species list, but it is also a bully in the ecosystem. While I appreciate the shade in the heat of the summer, it means nothing can thrive under its shade range and the soil is also in poor condition. Not the Hosta which is a shade plant. Not the native serviceberry tree that the birds and I enjoy. Not even the chives that seeded itself all over my aunt’s garden (from a second floor planter) in a year of neglect when she was pregnant and didn’t have the energy to tend to the garden. This article goes on to explain all the reasons Norway Maple makes “Most Hated Plants” List. They also self-seed easily, although in the urban little garden plots, it might be harder for it to be as prolific and aggressive as the garlic mustard. They were planted to replace the elm trees that we lost to dutch elm disease, so Toronto has lots of them. You could even say some of their characters make them a good choice for the city (tolerant to air pollution and compacted soils).
I live in a townhouse community, so I can’t just cut down and dig out the Norway Maple, and our management office might be hard pressed to put “getting rid of a normal looking tree” on top of their to-do list. So this year I’m trying to appreciate this Norway Maple a little bit (while complaining about the shade covering my south side vegetable container planters already.) Some days I see bees flying around the flowers, so that’s a good thing. It’s also storing more carbon and at a higher rate than a baby native tree. See, because it grows so quickly and has so many leaves that casts all the shade, it is also locking those CO2 into their trunks and branches. That’s pretty important.
Idea that may or may not be novel: can we make paper products out of these norway maples? We can eat the garlic mustard and the asian carp. And I don’t know anything about wood products but from my observation and anecdotal stories of Norway Maple branches falling/cracking maybe they’re not super sturdy as furniture and such. But paper products with shorter fibers might be fine, right? When we are tackling the issue of invasive species, prevention of introduction and prevention of spread is the most important thing to do. But for the removal of them, maybe we can try to find a way to use these materials rather than the current recommendation of garbage bags & incinerate/landfill when we are already trying to walk gentler on this land.
You might be wondering how we ate the garlic mustard. We just cooked it as a simple stir-fry to get a better idea of its taste... With additional garlic. Although the leaves already have a slight garlic scent when crushed, we all know the amount of garlics listed in a recipe is just a suggestion.
What came as a surprise though was how bitter it is 😳. The leaves were tender enough, but it’s on a bitter level with the bitter melons. The aftertaste is like your regular broccoli/kale/gai lan and others in the Brassicaceae (mustards) family. We still have half a bucket of raw leaves left, so tomorrow we will be trying it as a stir-fry with some sugar and soy sauce to balance the bitterness out. I wonder if it was bitter because the plants were bolting (in lettuce, the flowering process and the appearance of the buds made the leaves very bitter to taste). Guess we’ll have to eat some more and taste test the observations? Go science!
