weedy Oxalis and Romulea as food sources

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:50:36 PST
It is interesting to learn from Christiaan that there is a good use 
for Oxalis pes-caprae leaves. I think I remember in a native plant 
class hearing that you could use our local Oxalis oregana leaves in 
cooking too, but only the new leaves as the amount of Oxalic acid 
intensified as they aged. I used to grow sorrel in my Stockton garden 
and it was great added to leek and potato soup to give it an 
interesting flavor and color. Since Oxalis pes-caprae is such a 
terrible weed in coastal California, do we need to encourage people 
to go out and harvest it and sell it for cooking? It reminds me that 
years ago Will Ashburner from Australia told us on another list that 
they he ate Romulea rosea (another very weedy species from South 
Africa that is rampant in Australia) as a child. When we last visited 
Australia, it didn't look like this as a food source caught on.

 From the past: "As school children we used to spend time eating R. 
rosea during playtime.  In winter when the soil was moist you can 
pull up the corms.  They had a  piquant sharp nutty flavour almost 
chilli hot, the pink flowers were also very tasty, pollen the 
dominant flavour and then in late spring we would eat the seed pods, 
which we called Plum puddings."

I wonder if Allium triquetrum is used in cooking. Perhaps some dish 
could be created that used all three.

Mary Sue


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