Allium, I think I'm in love

Allium triquetrum
Cn: three-cornered leek, wild onion.

Allium triquetrum is rampant in my South Berkeley backyard. Known locally as The Berkeley Backyard Onion, A. triquetrum thrives in well-drained moist soils, and can often be found in the shade of disturbed ground. A. triquetrum is a perennial from Southern Europe, and grows via bulbs. This means if you have it in your yard, you can have onion for years and years to come! Lucky you!

A. triquetrum's flowers are companulate, pendant, and white. Inflorescences are in umbels, and each flower petal has a distinct green midvein. The leaves are triangular in cross-section, thus giving A. triquetrum its common name, three-cornerned leek. The garlicy aroma is unmistakable.

Upon inquiring about its edibility, Orlando admitted that back in his hippie days, he made a point to eat it. Huh. Maybe I will too.

I traipsed into my backyard and found some wild onion in the shade. Apparently the leaves can be used like green onion leaves and the bulbs can be prepared like garlic. I decided to keep dinner simple: a two egg scramble with a little jack cheese, salt & pepper. Oh, and a dash of almond milk. Then I added A. triquetrum bulbs (diced) and lots of chopped leaves to the mix. Upon completion, I even placed fresh flowers atop the scramble.

My foodie housemate, Alex, eagerly tasted some of my AlliYUM scramble, and said it was good--mild, with a peppery taste. We munched on the fresh leaves and flowers, and decided overall they were very mild in flavor, and incredibly palatable. I quickly decided I am never buying onions as long as this weed is around!

I have one downside for this weed, however. Like other alliums, you may want to brush your teeth after eating. Probably not a weed to eat before a date!

The Artisinal Weed?

Welcome to Eat This Weed! This blog is an independent project for my Weeds in The Urban Landscape class, taught by Bay Area weed expert, Richard Orlando, at Merritt College in Oakland. But this blog is much more than a class assignment, however. It is a result of my feverish interest in weeds, stemming from the titilating course. I now have a passion not only for building a positive reputation for commonly despised plants, but an incessant curiosity about--and desire to--make local edible weeds taste delicious.

As interest in urban farming and local foraging spreads like....Oxalis pes-caprae (Bermuda Buttercup), Bay Area city folks are indubitably becoming more connected to their foodsheds. My attempt here is to push edible weeds into a category of desirable, forageable edible plants. Notice how I say "attempt"; I have to admit, besides a little Stellaria media (Chickweed) now and again, I am a Bay Area weed eating novice. So, it is possible that the weeds turn out to be pretty gross, no matter how they are prepared. However, I am an optimist. And for plants that are often highly nutritious, ubiquitous, and unwanted by others, I am pretty determined to find a way to make them delectable!

Ultimately, this blog aims to be ripe with weed identification, history, nutrition and photos of the process. But I suppose more than anything else this blog is less technical and more about me trekking around the cityscape, harvesting plants that everyone overlooks, and trying to cook them into something tasty. Finally, I will be testing the prepared weed dishes on my friends, so the taste reviews will not simply represent my own subjectivity. Come join me on a Bay Area weed eating adventure! Hopefully I won't be spitting them out all over my kitchen.