vitamin C Archives - The Cargo Cult Café

Garlic Mustard, Alliaria petiolata, an invasive species to North America with a hint of garlic. You can find this plant growing in early spring on the side of roads and in open fields. Even though this plant contains trace amounts of cyanide it is a fairly nutritious wild edible, and the cyanide isn’t strong enough to cause harm to humans or animals. The plant contains vitamins A, C, E and some B vitamins. It also contains omega-3 fatty acids and several minerals. The flowers, seeds, leaves, stalk and roots are all edible. Medicinally it’s anti-asthmatic, antiscorbutic, antiseptic, diaphoretic and vermifuge. The plant was also used to make a yellow dye and may be used as an insecticide.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry.

Garlic Mustard Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software. Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Brill, Steve. Wild Edibles Plus. Computer Software. WinterRoot LLC. Version 1.5. 2012. Web. Feb. 15, 2014.

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 138-139

Plants for a Future. M.Bieb Cavara & Grande. Website.

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.

Lamb’s Quarter, Chenopodium album, is one of the most nutritious wild edible you can forage. This European native has been used by many American Indians for it’s spinach-like qualities, and it is also called Wild Spinach but it is much more nutritious. Medicinally, it has been used to expel worms, as a blood medicine, dietary aid, pain remedy, for gas relief and to cure and prevent scurvy.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry!

Lamb’s Quarter Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software. Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Brill, Steve. Wild Edibles Plus. Computer Software. WinterRoot LLC. Version 1.5. 2012. Web. Feb. 15, 2014.

Felter, Harvey Wickes, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D. King’s American Dispensatory, Vol. 1. Cincinnati: The Ohio Valley Company, 1905. pg. 494-495

Foster, Steven and James A. Duke. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America. 2nd. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Print. pg. 245

Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses- A 400 Year History. North Carolina: Herald Publishing. 1975. Print. pg. 42

Herrick, James William. Iroquois Medical Botany. Ph.D. Thesis, New York: State University of New York, Albany 1977. Print. pg. 142

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 154-155

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 422-423

Peterson, Lee Allen. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants; Eastern and Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. Print. pg. 152-153

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.

Garlic Mustard: Edible, Medicinal, Cautions & Other Uses

Garlic Mustard Sources:

Lamb’s Quarter: Edible, Medicinal & Other Uses

Lamb’s Quarter Sources: