Pennycress, which is part of the mustard family, has young leaves that can be eaten fresh in salads or cooked in soups, and apparently in the fall the seeds can also be harvested and eaten.
I was really hoping to find something wild and edible near the house (above 11,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies) in addition to the strawberries, which, like other berries, are only available in the fall.
After getting out Cattail Bob Seebeck's outstanding guide, Best-Tasting Wild Plants of Colorado, last week from the Fairplay library (which I also love, by the way), I identified a plant I thought might be pennycress.
I've been watching that plant, waiting for the seed pods to form, while mulling over the pictures in the guide. Once the seed pods came out it was unmistakable. Today Gregg double checked my hypotenuse and cross referenced the guide to decide that yup, it's pennycress.
At that point the only thing to do was to eat it!
The leaves tasted just like any other edible green, with a slight garlic or pepper flavor. We started with just a little taste--one or two small leaves each. If we aren't sick by tomorrow, we'll get down to the feasting!
So for those of you planning a visit to the house sometime soon, (complications aside, of course), expect to be eating pennycress leaves.
[UPDATE - 5.11.11: According to the Canada Biodiversity Information Facility, pennycress contains glucosinolates known to poison cattle when consumed in significant quantities, for which reason they classify pennycress as toxic. I spoke with a friend who is studying plant toxicity in veterinary school, and she explained that "significant quantities" refers to something like 2-3 days of nonstop grazing. There is, in fact, a long list of wild edible plants (and some commercial plants) known to be toxic to ruminants when consumed in quantity. The moral of the story for humans is that we shouldn't eat as much of these plants as a cow could eat over the course of 2-3 days. Try to go a little easier on yourself than that.]
Post updated 5.11.11 with "UPDATE" added.
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