Thanks to everyone who joined us on Sunday afternoon for the Garlic Mustard pull!An awesome group of 43 people turned out despite the rainy forecast and pulled a LOT of Garlic Mustard. We saw a few signs of spring too! The trees are starting to bud, there's a lot of bird action going on, and there's green peaking out from underneath all of the leaves on the ground as well.
A few of our volunteers took some Garlic Mustard home to test out some of the recipes we had available on site. I
f you took some home and missed out on the recipes, they can be found on the Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council's website.Not all of us are fabulous chefs, and you don't have to be to help eat away our invasive species! The Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden is partnering with Heartland Restaurant and Lucia's Restaurant and Wine Bar to give the Twin Cities a taste of Garlic Mustard. Throughout the months of April and May, both restaurants are featuring selections on their menus made with Garlic Mustard p
rovided by Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden-- just be sure to call ahead to make sure it's on the menu.For anybody who missed out (or those of you who made it and had so much fun that you can't wait to do it again), there will be another pull on Wednesday May 21st from 6-8pm. For more information or to register please visit Friends of the Mississippi River's events page.
Photos courtesy of Hillary Oppmann.
6 comments:
Exciting to hear that some local restaurants are taking advantage of this (unfortunately) abundant ingredient!
Karen brought some garlic mustard home from the pull and washed it, and we've been adding it to dishes throughout the week. A delicious addition so far in scrambled eggs, and chopped and sauteed with garlic and onions in olive oil and drizzled over pasta! Next I'm thinking of throwing some into a small loaf of bread - I'll post the results if it turns out well!
Wow, from the looks of the amount of bags there you sure had a very successful "pull". It's interesting to read how you are actually able to make use of the garlic mustard. I must admit it doesn't sound very appealing to me, but then I'm not a fan of any kind of mustard.
I heard that chickens LOVE garlic mustard. However, I'm wondering if there is any risk of continuing to spread it by giving it to our bird friends. Does it seed to spread? Is it seeding now? I am garlic mustard ignorant - please help!
Sorry I missed it!! I was on vacation, in Georgia. We drove, and stopped in Mammouth Cave National Park in Kentucky, and there they were, pulling and bagging garlic mustard!! Its really bad there! I also saw Watersheds signs along the roads saying "Keep it clean!" mostly in Tennessee and Kentucky so its not just Minnesota. Theres hope!
Madeline - it should start flowering in a couple weeks and then producing seed. It's very challenging to pull once it's gone to seed without inadvertently spreading all those seeds, so we do all our pulling before they get to that point. The month of May is prime pulling time, and therefore prime chicken feeding time! I'm not sure if the seeds would survive the chicken's digestive system, but like I said, I wouldn't recommend pulling it with seed.
Barb - yeah, it sure does have quite an extensive range, covering most of the eastern half of the U.S! Im glad to hear that there are similar efforts in other states!
Karen - Excellent! If you have any left over, pass some on to me. The chickens will thank you with some tasty eggs.
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