Herb Gerard and me

The crop of bishop's weed is coming in. I think it is going to be a good year!

One goal of mine, among many, is to become a good bishop's weed cook. Looking back on my efforts a couple of years ago I am impressed by the idea of red lentil soup with bishop's weed. See, this is why I keep a Web log. Otherwise such details might be forgotten.

This evening bishop's weed stands in for spinach in Deborah Madison's mushroom and spinach stew. This is just a simple dish you throw together with a lot of butter, which of course is the secret to its deliciousness. Piously, this being Holy Week, I cut back on the butter somewhat. But it is still yummy.

To my shock, the latest issue of Eating Well sings the praises of the bishop's weed. It says to discard stems. When they are this small though it does not seem to matter. The tiny stems add a kind of texture. Harvesting the bishop's weed is very easy otherwise. You just wade into the field and grab huge handfuls! Then next day you have a fresh crop of young tender bishop's weed leaves. And the problem with this is what?

I am sort of collecting different names for bishop's weed such as Giersch (the German name), snow on the mountain, ground elder, and goutweed (because it is good for many ailments including gout). Today I found one I do not recall seeing before, Herb Gerard.

That is like a name! "Hi, I'm Herb Gerard, and you're sure looking good this evening."

Merriam-Webster offers the loveliest explanation.

translation of Medieval Latin or New Latin herba (Sancti) Gerardi, after Gerardus (St. Gerard) †1120 founder of the Knights of St. John

I was married at beautiful St. Gerard's Church.

I should start calling this beautiful plant Herb Gerard.

In the weeds

There is a bright side to all this rain and that is that it is good for my garden.

That is my garden pictured above! Beautiful isn't it?

Remember my, ahem, half-assed garden from 2012? That did not work out that well because, I think, we did not get enough sun that year. The tomato plants coughed up no tomatoes as I remember. This is how infrequently I get my act together even for a half-assed garden. I remember the details.

This year I planted some tomatoes in Tidy Cat pots. But I also planted lettuce in window box containers I bought cheap at Valu Home Center, and Swiss chard in these Israeli pots, also scored cheap at Valu. I have inherited my mother's love for Valu. The pots are great because they stack neatly so I can store them easily in between loser garden attempts. And the idea behind the containers is that you can set them amidst the bishop's weed.

The other day I planted arugula and mesclun. I am investing in the bad weather! Should the sun prove scarce and my tomatoes disappoint me, there will be greens. By the way in the planter pictured above, among the bishop's weed, I believe that is Mustard Spinach coming up in the bottom planter. What is Mustard Spinach, you ask? I do not know either. But it looks as if we will find out.

Lettuce just wait a few more days.

Ha, ha! That is a Leonard Pennario pun and I used it yesterday on Facebook to great acclaim. Great art never grows old. Lettuce remember him as we harvest our crops.

Thank you, bad weather!

Eating this invasive

I was honored the other day to hear from the wise gourmand behind "Urban Plants," the Web log devoted to weeds.

The "Urban Plants" authority commented personally on my eating o' the bishop's weed, known in German as Giersch, pictured below.

It is wonderful to be able to eat your weeds especially when working on a book about America's greatest concert pianist keeps you too busy to pull them up and discard them. And hearing from the "Urban Plants" mastermind inspired me.

This week is all about bishop's weed! We had hippie week, remember? So this week is weed week.

Last night we started out small. Bishop's weed stood in for cilantro in Puerto Rican Cabbage Salad. I have seen bishop's weed described as a kind of cross between parsley and cilantro. That recipe, by the way, is one of my favorite cole slaws. It has practically zero calories. And it is really easy and good. Looking it up online just now I am not surprised to see other people have rated it five stars.

I grew more ambitious, weed-wise, with a Turkish red lentil soup. In this soup the bishop's weed stood in for spinach! That is a funny recipe, by the way. It starts out calling for, ahem, organic spinach. But nowhere in the directions does it mention the spinach. So I just tossed it in there. I mean, I tossed the bishop's weed in there.

This morning I enjoyed my red lentil and bishop's weed soup for breakfast. Meanwhile I am trying to think what to make next. Perhaps a bishop's weed frittata. Thank you, Urban Plants, for the inspiration!

If you have time it is fun to check out the Urban Plants web log. The post I read on Giersch was part of an apparent series on Urban Plants of Berlin. Other posts I love include "Aggressive Orchids in Kaua'i, Hawai'i" and  "The Giant Thistle of Neuruppin, Germany."

Urban Plants wrote to me: "Hope you enjoy eating this invasive!"

I do indeed!