The Northwest Forager™

Wild Food of the Pacific Northwest.

Menu Skip to content
  • Foraging Books
    • Pocket Guide to Wild Edible Plants
  • YouTube
  • Etsy
    • Shop Etsy Store
  • Community Q&A
    • Plant Identification
    • Foraging Recipes
  • Foraging Workshops
  • About Us

Tag: How do you cook Thistle? Can you eat Thistle? Are Thistle flowers edible?

August 16, 2017August 16, 2017Henry Holly

Bull Thistle – The mini Artichoke

  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Etsy
  • Patreon

Article Archive

Follow The Northwest Forager™ on WordPress.com

Learn More!

Foraging a Hearty Winter Meal.

Maple blossom experiment A. I'm experimenting with Maple Blossoms. There's something sweet and something savory in the works. These were taken from the big leaf maple which are currently super abundant. If you haven't tried them yet, go ahead and snap one off and pop it in your mouth. If the bract still has unopened buds then it will be fresh enough to try. You'll find they are reminiscent of a floral broccoli. I'll share more pics of my experiment 🤓 Scotch thistle taproot steamed till soft, seasoned with salt and field onion, garnished with wild chervil and purple dead nettle. How did it taste? Choice! The flavor and texture was just like a mild tasting artichoke heart. Creamy, savory and a tad sweet 😋👌 This now ranks higher than bull thistle for my preference. Such a delicious "survival" food. It's too bad it's noxious because I'm tempted to grow it 😉 Meet the Scotch thistle (Onopordum acanthium) the wooly cousin of the Bull thistle. Scotch thistle is very well adapted to the arid climate of the high desert and have a strong presence east of the cascades in Oregon. They have enormous taproots that allow them to pull moisture deep below the surface. I broke this one off which easily could have been 2 feet long. The root is edible but this will be my first time trying it. The seed is very high in oil which once upon a time was used for lanterns and cooking. Unfortunately these are a noxious weed, fortunately that means it's free game eating them up. The last two pics is a comparison with Scotch and Bull thistle.
Advertisements

Popular Post

  • Lilac Wine - How to make
    Lilac Wine - How to make
  • Vancouver, B.C.
    Vancouver, B.C.
  • How to video: Wild lemonade style tea
    How to video: Wild lemonade style tea
  • Winter Solstice 2014
    Winter Solstice 2014
  • Foraging Fiddleheads from the Lady Fern.
    Foraging Fiddleheads from the Lady Fern.

The current hosting fees for this site is approx. $114 annually.

Donate Button with Credit Cards
Please consider a small donation via PayPal. Thank You!

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

My favorite foraging books available for Sale!

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com
  • Follow Following
    • The Northwest Forager™
      • Join 215 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Northwest Forager™
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar