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Mini Artichokes for FREE Foraging the Bull Thistle
>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=mc94xMKtZYc
In this episode of the Northwest Forager we'll head out to the farm to forage flowers of the Bull Thistle aka Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare). As a relative of the Artichoke, I have long wondered how similar in flavor would be this spiny cousin. What do you think they'll taste like? • Thank you for your watching. • Please consider supporting me on Patreon - / thenorthwestforager • The Northwest Forager's Pocket Guide to Wild Edible Plants available on Etsy - etsy.com/shop/thenorthwestforager • Purchase the book Edible Wild Plants, Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate by John Kallas: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/142... • For more information on wild edible plants of the pacific northwest, please visit: • https://thenorthwestforager.com/ • Description: • It is a tall biennial or short-lived monocarpic thistle, forming a rosette of leaves and a taproot up to 70 cm long in the first year, and a flowering stem 1–1.5 m tall in the second (rarely third or fourth) year. The stem is winged, with numerous longitudinal spine-tipped wings along its full length. The leaves are stoutly spined, grey-green, deeply lobed; the basal leaves up to 15–25 cm long, with smaller leaves on the upper part of the flower stem; the leaf lobes are spear-shaped (from which the English name derives). The inflorescence is 2.5–5 cm diameter, pink-purple, with all the florets of similar form (no division into disc and ray florets). The seeds are 5 mm long, with a downy pappus, which assists in wind dispersal. As in other species of Cirsium (but unlike species in the related genus Carduus), the pappus hairs are feathery with fine side hairs. • Ecology: • Spear thistle is often a ruderal species, colonizing bare disturbed ground, but also persists well on heavily grazed land as it is unpalatable to most grazing animals. Nitrogen-rich soils help increase its proliferation. The flowers are a rich nectar source used by numerous pollinating insects, including honey bees, wool-carder bees, and many butterflies. The seeds are eaten by goldfinches, linnets and greenfinches. The seeds are dispersed by wind, mud, water, and possibly also by ants; they do not show significant long-term dormancy, most germinating soon after dispersal and only a few lasting up to four years in the soil seed bank. Seed is also often spread by human activity such as hay bales.
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