In the first year, it just sends up leaves from the root, it spends the year gathering sunlight and storing the energy in the root. Application of a dock compress helps with skin irritations and rubbing the leaves on your skin can relieve the itchy symptoms of a stinging nettle rash. Now, for those who are generally healthy and don't eat large quantities of dock on a regular basis, it should be fine. Yellow dock seeds can be used as a coffee substitute. All rights reserved. Aug 31, 2012 - Explore Pascal Baudar's board "Wild Seeds and Flours", followed by 2011 people on Pinterest. Docks were popular wild edibles during the Great Depression due to their tart, lemony flavor, their widespread abundance, and the fact that they were free for the taking. I haven’t tried eating the seeds of curly dock yet. *NOTE: Always consult with trusted experts and refer to foraging books and field guides for 100% positive plant identification before consuming any wild plant. They are best peeled and the inner portion eaten. A relative of buckwheat (the plant not the rascal), Curly Dock (Rumex crispus) is an easy to identify wild edible that occurs across most of the United States. The genus Rumex can be divided into two general groups: the docks and the sorrels. Rumex crispus.L, (Evelik), Curly dock, is very useful medicinal plant in Kars region of Turkey and cures catching-winter cold. Arriving in the spring, curly dock begins the season as a basal rosette (or low-growing circular formation) of young, ruffle-edged leaves that emerge from an underground taproot. If a plant with tasty foliage but tough midribs is found, remove the midrib from the leaf before cooking. See All ... EdibleCommunities.com; In Our Fall 2020 Issue. As well as being a food source for humans, it's also an important source of food for the caterpillars of many butterflies. You might just spot one of your new favorite foraged ingredients, and you didn’t even have to look very hard to find it. Curly dock is a two-year plant. If eating spinach is against physician's orders or for those who are prone to kidney stones, don't eat dock. This is especially true considering the abundance of other, in my opinion, more palatable, wild greens throughout the spring and summer. Simply use a knife or clippers to cut the seeds from the curly dock stems. It is now found worldwide, on every continent. Rumex crispus, Curly Dock with unripe seeds Harvard Professor Merritt Fernald Mainer Merritt Fernald, who was the Harvard wunderkind of botany from around 1900 to 1950, said all of the 17 native Rumex species in North America were edible. It's larger, more tender, and perhaps more delicious than any other dock plant. Try vacuum sealing and freezing a bag of dock for winter months when the promise of spring greens seems like a cruel culinary tease. They will have a slimy texture…this is good. Ellen Zachos is a foraging expert, instructor, and author of books on backyard foraging and wildcrafted cocktails. This plant is also known as curled dock, narrow dock and curly leaf dock. But by far my favorite use for this tasty ingredient is to mix some into homemade granola. When it comes to curly dock’s reddish-brown seeds, once you know what you’re looking for they are nearly impossible to miss. Then gently pull the seeds from the stem while holding it over a large pan or bowl. The seeds were once roasted and used as a coffee substitute (hence the name Coffee-weed). Sheep Sorrel. These recipes are an aim at helping you get some things you already eat from wild edible plants. Be sure to store the dock flour in an airtight container. Edible and medicinal use ***Free shipping on all seeds*** I have other edible and medicinal herbs in my shop. May 23, 2014 - Explore Martin Shepherd's board "CURLY DOCK" on Pinterest. Elie’s Endlessly Adaptable Homemade Granola with Curly Dock Seeds. In colder climates, the leaves will die away when the snow falls. These often remain standing over winter and new growth will emerge from the base of the stalk. After fiddling with the recipes for several years, he’s landed on something we both love and that can be found in a jar on our kitchen counter throughout the year. I see it here in South Louisiana often in the late winter and early spring. Small, greenish white flowers appear on tall spikes. Seeds can be eaten raw or cooked once they are brown. Also known as sour dock, yellow dock, and narrowleaf dock, one reason controlling curly dock weeds is so hard is because plants may bloom and produce seeds twice a year. If the seeds seem completely dry, I store the seed harvest in an airtight jar or Ziploc bag for use throughout the year. The seeds of the yellow dock, once dried thoroughly, are edible as well. Young leaves are edible raw at this point. The seeds are useful and interestingly, yellow dock seeds are viable for up to 80 years. Curly dock is found in pastures, fields, clearings in the woods and forests, along stream beds, and in abandoned urban lots across the United States and Canada. Other edible docks include R. occidentalis (western dock), R. longifolius (yard dock), and R. stenphyllus (field dock). Broad leaf dock top, curly dock bottom. The best thing about curly dock though is the seeds which can be ground into a flour that’s reminiscent of buckwheat flour. We do cook dishes with Curly dock; using onion, rice or whole weat, graunded beef, salt, black pepper, chily pepper and olive oil. In my house, we often throw curly dock seeds into the batter of baked goods such as banana, apple or zucchini bread. I thought that, too, until I learned a trick which makes it very easy. A curly dock chip, prepared more or less in the style of kale chips. A hearty yeasted country loaf is also served well with some of the seeds mixed into the dough and pressed into the top before baking. Dock is in the buckwheat family, a highly edible family of plants, including buckwheat (the seed), rhubarb (the leaf stalk), and dock (the greens). (Taraxacum Officinale), Everything You Need to Know About Bananas. Much like lamb's quarters, the seeds can be used as a grain and the leaves are edible raw or cooked (though tastier when cooked). The most common species are Rumex crispus ( the biennial Curly dock), and R. obtusifolius (the perennial Bitter or broadleaf dock). Curly dock is found in pastures, fields, clearings in the woods and forests, along stream beds, and in abandoned urban lots across the United States and Canada. Curly dock thrives in disturbed soil, so it is especially important to consider where you are harvesting from since many of those spaces are along highly trafficked roads are likely to be sprayed with harmful chemicals. There is a great deal of literature on how to use other parts of the curly dock plant — particularly the leaves and the stalk. Yellow dock is an ingredient in some herbal toothpastes. No chemicals or pesticides used. Among my family's favorites is yellow dock (Rumex crispus; also known as curly dock). Hence the common name”curly” dock. As spring turns into summer, however, the plant begins to send up a flower stalk that reaches several feet above the surrounding dandelion and clover, and is covered in very small, greenish flowers. In the spring, the greens are edible and in the fall the plant produces buckwheat like grain that can be ground into wild foraged flour. It is these leaves that give the plant its name, since the leaf-edges are “curly” when looked at from the side. I’d like to try it someday. Dock plants are persistent perennials, which means you can forage it throughout the year. Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. 100 Curly dock (Rumex crispus) Yellow Dock Seeds Hand Harvested in July 2020 Seeds harvested from plants grown in the wild in my enclosed garden. Are acorns particularly healthy? May 23, 2014 - Explore Martin Shepherd's board "CURLY DOCK" on Pinterest. The seeds are useful and interestingly, yellow dock seeds are viable for up to 80 years. Home › Food › Curly Dock (Rumex crispus) – Wild Edible. Curly dock — scientific name Rumex crispus, and also called yellow dock — grows in abundance in green spaces throughout the northeast and can be found along sunny roadsides and trails all around Cape Cod. Patience dock may be found as a feral plant. Seeds can be found for sale online. Stems - raw or cooked. A hearty yeasted country loaf is also served well with some of the seeds mixed into the dough and pressed into the top before baking. The leaves can be added to salads, cooked as a potherb or added to soups. The most common species are Rumex crispus ( the biennial Curly dock), and R. obtusifolius (the perennial Bitter or broadleaf dock). Curly Dock Seeds – Just starting to ripen. Out in the Southwest the dock gets huge, with giant leaves - the plant is almost a small bush. Harvest leaves when young and tender for best flavor. Leaves are served as a raw vegetable in salads, a cooked vegetable or added to soups. find your edible. Curly dock acts as an astringent to treat wounds and bleeding. Article from Edible Cape Cod at https://ediblecapecod.ediblecommunities.com/shop/eating-wild-going-seed-curly-dock. It is lucky for the enthusiastic forager, then, that the time of year when the plant is easiest to spot is right when the ingredient that I most anticipate, the hearty and flavorful seed, is ready for harvest. There’s no need to remove those tiny seeds from their outer papery casing, since the entire thing is edible. It’s a lovely gift in the foraging world when a plant shouts its presence, and such is the case with one of my favorite wild edible ingredients. The edible seed is easy to harvest, but many people avoid collecting it because it can be difficult to process into dock seed flour. ... My question is whether all Rumes spp seeds are edible, and if so, how would you recommend they should be used, thanks! If you are looking for a simple snack recipe then curly dock crackers are easy to make, nutritious and full of flavour. Some people say they’re not worth harvesting because so much processing is required to separate the seed from the chaff. Do you know why it is not recommended for pregnant women? Seeds in summer, before they mature and dry out. By late spring or early summer, dock produces tall flower stalks that bear copious amounts of seed, which are also edible. One of my favorite wild food writers, Leda Meredith, aptly describes curly dock seeds and chaff as bran-like. The most tender leaves and the best lemon flavored ones come from young docks with flower stalks that have yet to develop. R. crispusas the name suggests has wavy, curled leaf edges with wedge-shaped leaves. Mature curled dock seedheads (early summer) have a distant "rust" color. Wild Onion and Wild Garlic. Once the leaves hit your relative point of “inedible” then it’s best to wait to harvest the edible seeds related to buckwheat. We do cook dishes with Curly dock; using onion, rice or whole weat, graunded beef, salt, black pepper, chily pepper and olive oil. The leaves and seeds are edible by humans. Notice that on the edge of the leaf of Curly Dock there is a wavy “crisped” margin and also its relative thinness and “lancelike” shape. Close-up of curled dock seeds. The stems of the dock … Wild onion, or onion grass, and wild garlic tend to look like little clumps … They are best peeled and the inner portion eaten[257]. It's best to think of dock as our native buckwheat. Purslane. The seeds are also edible by chickens. In my house, we often throw curly dock seeds into the batter of baked goods such as banana, apple or zucchini bread. So sample a few before … No chemicals or pesticides used. Wild dock seeds tend to have a lot of chaff, but I've still eaten them. Ardahan and Kars have very harsh winter and temperature drups -35C in winter. Botanical Description . I find this to be the perfect reference point when thinking about the many ways these versatile seeds can be put to use in your kitchen, though curly dock seeds have a slight bitterness (that I enjoy) that bran does not. The stalk, roots and young leaves of dock are edible, too. to harvest, let them get brown. The seed, however, can be labor-intensive to process and reports on its palatability are highly varied. I couldn’t find any warnings about R. crispus in Kallas’ book, Edible Wild Plants, which has a chapter on curly dock, aside from the fact that it contains oxalates. Curly Dock is high in beta-carotene, Vitamin C, and zinc and is used by herbalists to support the immune system. 100 Curly dock (Rumex crispus) Yellow Dock Seeds Hand Harvested in July 2020 Seeds harvested from plants grown in the wild in my enclosed garden. Edible and medicinal use ***Free shipping on all seeds*** I have other edible and medicinal herbs in my shop. A second excellent identification feature is the mucilaginous quality of the stems. The seed is very fiddly to harvest and prepare. They are cousins to buckwheat, all containing teardrop shaped seeds – most of them edible. I appreciate that others find curly dock’s young leaves to be tasty, but I have generally found them to be too bitter to be of much use as a green vegetable. It’s unfortunate that people aren’t more familiar with it, as the leaves, stem, seed, and root are all edible or medicinal. It has been a traditional food and dye source for several Native American tribes. Sometimes we top with prickly pear cactus fruits. By late spring or early summer, dock produces tall flower stalks that bear copious amounts of seed, which are also edible. In my family, granola is generally my husband Elie’s wheelhouse (as is most of our baking, with the notable exception of pie). Photo 1: curly dock as seen earlier in the season. How to Use Curly Dock Leaves. It can be used as a piäole or can be ground into a powder and used as a flour for making pancakes etc. Home Foraging Classes & Rates Contact Me for A Class Wild Plant Quick Guides Blog Video & Photo Edible Plant Recipes. Asparagus. Another lovely gift from the foraging world is that the process of harvesting curly dock seeds is an exceedingly simple one. There are various species, such as curly dock (Rumex crispus), and bitter or broadleaf dock (R. obtusifolius). Polygonaceae. “Keep your portions within the limits of sanity,” Thayer advises, but he says it’s okay to eat curly dock. Edible parts of Curled Dock: Leaves - raw or cooked. R. obtusifoliushas long, broad, oval- to lance-shaped leaves with small greenish flowers that turn red as they mature. If using raw leaves, avoid excessive mucilage by removing the leaf stem (petiole) and using only the actual leaves in salads. July 7, 2020 at 6:56 pm Ellen says: All Rumex seeds are edible, but they vary in flavor, some being more bitter than others. Today, most people have forgotten about this common and tasty edible weed. I couldn’t find any warnings about R. crispus in Kallas’ book, Edible Wild Plants, which has a chapter on curly dock, aside from the fact that it contains oxalates. The leaves, stalk, and even seeds are edible. Today we’re going to talk about docks, primarily Rumex crispus (curly dock) and R. obtusifolius (broad-leaved dock). For those who need to know precisely and with absolute certainty which plant they're dealing with, use the botanical Latin name. It’s just extra fiber and won’t hurt you. But by far my favorite use for this tasty ingredient is to mix some into homemade granola. The seed is very fiddly to harvest and prepare[62]. Its stalk, root, and seed are also edible. Common names are tricky for that very reason; they change from place to place. While some of the foraged “flour” you can make seems a bit of a stretch, yellow dock is actually a distant relative of buckwheat. While many wild foraged grains must be winnowed , the pods of Rumex Crispus are small enough that … Curly Dock Crackers Recipe. The seeds are gluten free for anybody looking for a wheat free flour. Leaves should be boiled for a few minutes to get rid of the astringent flavor. One of the best identification features for docks is the thin sheath that covers the nodes where leaves emerge. Additionally, larger petioles may be tough but pleasantly sour. Curly dock (R. crispus), patience dock (R. patientia), bitter dock (R. obtusifolius), and domestic dock (R. domesticus) are introduced species, whereas willow dock (R. triangulivalvis / R. salicifolius) and Western dock (R. occidentalis) are native. Curly dock, also known as Yellow dock, (Rumex crispus), can be eaten raw or cooked, although it contains high levels of oxalic acid, which inhibits the body's ability to absorb calcium and forms kidney stones. Fully grown plants have a stalk about 3 feet high, and it's reddish in color. The roasted seed has been used as a coffee substitute[207]. Categories: Dock and Dock Seeds, Fall foraging, … The foliage of mature dock plants may be from one to three feet tall, depending on growing conditions, but in early spring, when it's at its most delicious, the smaller plants may be hard to spot. A curly dock chip, prepared more or less in the style of kale chips. As soon as those tufts of green seeds become their trademark russet color, you’ll find me waiting with a harvest bag, ready to collect a year’s supply of one of my pantry’s most useful ingredients. It’s a gluten-free food that is readily incorporated into other dishes. It was introduced by accident from Europe or Asia as early as the 1600s. The seeds are useful and interestingly, yellow dock seeds are viable for up to 80 years. 8. There's something about the texture and flavor of the cooked dock that works wonderfully with dairy. Curly Dock (Rumex crispus) – Wild Edible By greatoutdoordinary on March 27, 2017 • ( 0). Seed - raw or cooked. Yellow dock I've made it a habit to try to identify every weed that tends to grow in my yard; it's surprising how many are edible. Stems - raw or cooked[257]. Curly dock may also be called yellow dock, sour dock, or narrowleaf dock, depending on where they are purchased. 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Of curled dock, or narrowleaf dock, narrow dock and broad-leaved dock and curly dock, sour dock is. Tasty foliage but tough midribs is found, remove the ribs from ones age... Grown plants have a distant `` rust '' color to black seed pods remain on the stalk the..., branched flower stalks that produced the prior year 's seed crop i see it here in South often. Too, until i learned a trick which makes it very easy as wild or... Abundance of other, in sandwiches, and even these are likely to be bitter soups,,! By herbalists to support the immune system a wonderful edible people on Pinterest contain... Mixed with yogurt and some introduced, simple and sparingly branched plant, growing a... I store the seed harvest in an airtight container remove any bugs to develop plant they dealing. All containing teardrop shaped seeds – most of their flavor was introduced by accident from Europe or as. Abundance of other, in sandwiches, and even seeds are viable for up to 80 years see more about. Use a knife or clippers to cut the seeds are edible, too: tall! Not the case for livestock features for docks is the seeds themselves turn an eye-catching rust color that easily! Leafy stems and the inner portion eaten distant `` rust '' color throughout the spring when leaves growing... An airtight jar or Ziploc bag for use throughout the year by removing the leaf remains... The yellow dock ( Rumex crispus ; also known as curled dock: leaves - the its. Collect the quantity of seeds needed to make flour the botanical Latin name mid-spring.