Eating The Ozarks

I’ve been invited to attend the Smithsonian Folklife festival in DC again this year!!!

Redbuds are blooming here in the Ozarks! The beautiful flowers, young seed pods and seeds are edible raw or cooked. Raw the flowers remind me of a sweet pea, which makes sense since they're in the pea family. Nutritionally, the flowers high in Vitamin C and antioxidants. The seeds are 25% protein, 8% fat and full of their own healthful antioxidants. Mature seeds were often roasted by the Natives. I love to toss the raw flowers into salads, baked goods, freeze them in ice cubes and make naturally bright red jelly. The young soft seeds inside pods and leaves are nice additions to any dish that calls for greens.

Happy foraging friends!

Next month, I’ll be leading a foraging stroll at Finley Farms!

Wild Foraging: Spring Edition - Finley Farms Join Rachael West, founder of Eating the Ozarks and the Foraging Academy, for a guided, easy-paced walk through Finley Farms. Along the way, you’ll learn to identify and forage local…

It always amazes me how resilient Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) is! Snow piled around… existing.

ID: Like many plants in the mint family, it has a distinctly square stem, often tinted purple, with opposite pairs of leaves that can look almost whorled around the stem (compare it to dead nettle). Both the leaves and the flowers are edible.

Unlike some early spring greens that can be bitter, henbit is mild and approachable. It’s great tossed raw into sandwiches, finely diced into salads, sautéed and added to pesto, or even dropped whole stems and all into pickle brine for a quick snack.

To learn more about invasive plants: head to the Foraging Academy dot org where we have free plant pages and mini courses!

I can’t get over the flavor of rose hips! They’re like Tang straight from the woods, with a sweetness that reminds me of orange marmalade after the first hard frosts. Here in the Ozarks, they’re one of our most concentrated natural sources of vitamin C, right up there with pine.

Rose hips are simply the fruit left behind when rose blossoms fade. They can be transformed into jelly, jam, soup, tea, or, my personal favorite, enjoyed right on the trail. If you snack as you hike, be sure to collect the seeds so you’re not unintentionally spreading them.

Important note: The rose hips and leaves shown here come from Multiflora Rose, an invasive species. Harvesting hips for tea is a simple, delicious way to enjoy this plant while preventing further spread.

To enjoy rose hips year-round, we snip entire clusters and dehydrate them. Once dried, they can be crushed and steeped into a bright, tangy tea or ground into a nutrient-rich culinary powder. Fresh hips are excellent for jam and tea as well; just remember to strain out the tiny, hair-covered seeds.

Garlic Mustard is one of our favorite winter greens to forage. The leaves are good for our heart, they help lower cholesterol, may help prevent cancer, and are loaded with nutrition. Garlic mustard is considered quite invasive, this is a plant you can forage freely.

Edible parts: Flowers, leaves, roots and seeds.

Eat it: The leaves are best from early spring until the plant goes into flower, winter leaves are also tasty. Flowers can be tossed into salads raw or blended into a mustard like pesto. The roots can be collected in early spring and again in late fall / winter. The roots taste fry similar to horseradish. I love blending the root with the leaves, and other backyard edibles such as garlic grass, ginger and wood sorrel to create a wild pesto worthy of any sandwich or dish. The seeds can be gathered in the fall. They’re small, but pack quite a punch in homemade stone ground mustard or fermented foods.

Happy foraging friends!

It's finally time to be back in the soil digging Dandelion roots! The entire plant is edible at different times in the season, now is the time for roots (before the plants flower). The root is anti-inflammatory, helps our blood filter excess waste, improves circulation, and is high in absorbable minerals especially iron. One of my favorite ways to use them is to roast the roots, and steep into a wonderful cup of tea. Its flavor is similar to chocolate covered coffee beans.

To roast roots: First chop them, and roast at 225 for 45 min to an hour or so, until they smell similar brownies. *Note if you start with dried root, you only need to roast 10-15 min. Brew as you would coffee.

Happy foraging friends!

The Invasive Plants of North America Certification course is live for the Foraging Academy

Twenty invasive edible plants. Eight lessons each. Clear ID, safe harvesting, kitchen use, and certification for every plant.

Founder price code: FORACADFOUNDER

Link in the comments below ⬇️

Buy One, Gift One is included

Invasive Plants of North America goes live tomorrow! Head to the Foraging Academy website to learn more.

I have something really exciting to share after years of teaching and gathering in the woods, Eating the Ozarks is growing into something bigger! We’re officially launching The Foraging Academy, an online learning space dedicated to helping people reconnect with the land through the food that grows all around us, especially the invasive edible plants that are quietly taking over our landscapes.

The Foraging Academy’s first course, “Invasive Edible Plants in All 48 States,” will guide you through identifying, harvesting, and preparing these resilient plants while helping restore balance to the places we call home.

To celebrate the launch, we’re offering a 33% off discount for a limited time.

Launching Black Friday!