Just another Friday soap-box about a gardening-in-the-Delaware-Valley detail. If you have garlic mustard growing in your garden, this would be a good weekend to pull it. Now that we’ve had just a touch of rain, it should come out of the soil with ease. Why now? You don’t want this invasive thug to produce seeds and overwhelm your garden.
http://www.invasiveplants.net/plants/garlicmustard.htm
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=alpe4
Now that you’ve pulled it, what to do? Compost or consume? (I’ve never tried this, but it sounds kind of interesting.)
From: http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Garlic%20Mustard.html
Many plants become more bitter as they mature. But garlic mustard ís arrowhead-shaped stem leaves are more pungent and less bitter in the spring, than the basal leaves were in the cold. They even carry overtones of sweetness. they’re easy to strip off, so you can collect bagfuls in short order, along with the terminal clusters of tiny, four-petaled, tasty, white flowers.
Garlic mustard is great raw in salads, mixed with more mild greens. It’s also good steamed, simmered, or sauted. In Europe, they use it in sauces. Cook no longer than five minutes, or the leaves will become mushy.
Sometimes you’ll find garlic mustard with exceptionally large leaves. These may have large, whitish, fleshy taproots, which taste like horseradish. They’re good from late fall to early spring, before the flower stalks appear. Use them like horseradish, grated into vinegar, as a condiment.
