Come harvest the Garlic Mustard at Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx , March 3 and April 14th at no charge. The event is 11 am-2 pm, enter the park at 246 st. and Broadway.
Some people will be thinking they are fighting a noxious weed, but we will be harvesting a powerful and delicious plant to make a wonderful tasting, immune system supporting condiment. Besides, fighting any aspect of nature is destructive to every aspect of ourselves. Appreciating the bounty is more like it!
Hurray! And NYC Parks and Recreations begs us to do this 🙂
Garlic mustard Alliaria petiolata
Cultivation and uses
The chopped leaves are used for flavoring in salads and sauces such as pesto, and sometimes the flowers and fruit are included as well. These are best when young, and provide a mild flavour of both garlic and mustard. The seeds are sometimes used to season food directly in France.[5]
Garlic mustard was once used medicinally[6] as a disinfectant or diuretic, and was sometimes used to heal wounds.[5]
Garlic mustard was introduced in North America as a culinary herb in the 1860s and is an invasive species in much of North America. As of 2006, it is listed as a noxious or restricted plant in the US states of Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont, West Virginia and Washington.[7] Like most invasive plants, once it has an introduction into a new location, it persists and spreads into undisturbed plant communities. In many areas of its introduction in Eastern North America, it has become the dominant under-story species in woodland and flood plain environments, where eradication is difficult.[8]
source: Wikipedia
For more info on Volunteer days at the Van Cortlandt Forest Restoration email volunteer@vcpark.org
V I Farms 