If you can't beat me, eat me!

Plant: Ground Elder

Given Name: Aegopodium podagraria

Nicknames: goutweed, bishop's weed, snow on the mountain, herb Gerard

You can't get rid of me.

I'm like that clingy family member who has inexplicably attached herself to you at your family gathering.

You don't quite remember making the decision to talk to her, or to plant me, but now that you've done it, there's no going back. You're stuck with her for the rest of the party and with me, well, if I'm being honest, probably forever.

So you've got to get over the frustration and make the best of a challenging situation.

I don't know about your relative but with me, there are lots of perks. To start with, I'm a plentiful green that adds a celery flavour to raw or cooked dishes.

The ancient Romans appreciated this and brought me to Britain as an potherb. But they were not the only ones to embrace my utility: archeologists in Denmark have found me in pre-Roman and Viking sites, I was a favourite wild green in Siberia and in 18th century Sweden, Linnaeus, “the father of modern taxonomy”, described me as a good spring vegetable. As Linnaeus recognized, I'm tastiest early in the growing season when my leaves are still young, light green and shiny.

Conveniently for you, I'm at my prime when many other food plants aren't yet plentiful.

Sure I like to hog the spotlight by spreading with vigorous underground stems, called rhizomes, and crowding out any other plant competition. But you can use that to your advantage. Plant an edible shrub in my midst: I can't overpower woody competition and I'll keep other weeds and grasses at bay.

Plus my small, lacy, white flowers, that form pretty umbels at the end of knee high stems, attract loads of insects for pollinating the fruit (and my flowers look pretty in the garden or in a bouquet too!).

But don't think for a minute that the shade of a woody plant will defeat me! I'm just as happy in full shade as I am in full sun.

You might see me as a lemon at first but keep in mind that even lemons have uses.

So when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Or in my case, make salad, soup or steamed greens. Yum!

Stay open-minded,

Pragmatic Ground Elder

References:

Aegopodium podagraria (n.d.). NC State Extension. https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/aegopodium-podagraria/

Barstow, S. (2014). Around the World in 80 Plants: An edible perennial vegetable adventure in temperate climates. East Meon: Permanent Publications, pp 231-4.

Cary, J (2007, June 21). Ground Elder Makes a Lovely Cut Flower, Too. Blog: Joanna's Food. http://joannasfood.blogspot.com/2007/06/ground-elder-makes-lovely-cut-flower.html

Crawford, M. (2010). Creating a Forest Garden: Working with nature to grow edible crops. Cambridge: Green Books Ltd., pp 208.

Michael, P. (1986). A Country Harvest. London: Peerage Books, pp 15-17.