Goosegrass (Cleavers)

[Toadflax]

I was clearing up the garden yesterday and found quite a few new winter rosettes of what I've always called goosegrass (I'd never heard the name cleavers until recently) so it seemed a good opportunity to try another wild food.

I just took off the top 2-3" of the thin stems, gave them a good wash, melted a bit of butter in a saucepan and gently steamed them in the water that clung to the stems for about 15 minutes and in my opinion they were...

...satisfactory. I certainly felt that they were edible, a bit bitter for my liking but not horrendously so. I do seem to be averse to bitter things (I don't really like bitter beer) and I do tend to have a sweet tooth. As an aside, I took part in a tasting study at work recently (can you believe that I was paid to eat smarties? ) and while I don't think I'm a 'supertaster', the researcher suggested that my taste might lean a bit in that direction, so I have usually found wild greens to be bitter and not really to my liking.

Even though I had only taken very thin stems, they were still a bit chewy (Gordon Hillman describes the winter stems as wiry). I'd be interested to try the summer stems, though from yesterday's experience I'd certainly only be going for the shoot tips, and maybe chop them small before cooking. I also think that if they were masked in a dish with other ingredients (e.g. mixed in an omelette or noodles) they wouldn't appear so strongly flavoured.

It would be interesting to know its nutritional value. I found this site http://www.edibleplants.com/wepnut_frames.htm, but goosegrass isn't in the list.

Some other interesting facts I found whilst looking for its nutritional value:

• you can evidently roast the small spherical seeds to make a coffee substitute
• the stems have evidently been used as a rough sieve for milk - this sounds like a good bushcrafty thing, e.g. for straining something like sea buckthorn juice
• it evidently contains milk curdling enzymes, so it can be used as a source of vegetable rennet

Geoff

 

[xylaria]

i don't recall eating goosegrass at this time of year. I have made a wonton soup with them, and ear fungus. I have had them toasted on a fire. they are alright. Never tried eating the seeds but I will try

Sorrel is the best wild green this time of time year IMO. Winter cress and chickweed is quite good aswell and out at the moment. Most wild greens are bitter, and best not eaten in on their own but chopped with other foods. Some wild greens though like bistort are very bland and mixed up in a saled with dandilion leaves which have a very bitter taste, but together like a good lettice. There is a lot mixing stuff up for individual tastes. Wild greens feel like they have a very high mineral and vitamin content. I often feel like I have had enough after very little.

 

[locum76]

theres some good purslane down by the river at the moment...

 

[Toddy]

Lucky man
I like the greenstuffs and cleavers/ goose grass/ sticky willie/ is kind of always around somewhere.
The seeds dry hard and black, fastened onto wires they made the original black headed pins.
The greens are awfully useful stuff; try them fresh in Spring on buttered brown bread, that and a mug of soup makes a good meal. At this time of year I reckon only the leaves are fit for eating so strip them off and poach gently and serve like cabbage or spinach. They're better if you can find some bitter cress to add in with them (it's not really bitter, it's more *nippy*) but don't poach that until the very end, more like rinse them in the hot water and then strain. The roots make good crowdie but it's inclined ot stain it so you really need to add herbs to disguise.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Mang]

Spooky that this post appears now since I was reading about Cleavers as a foodstuff recently. Is it me or do the majority of UK greens seems to be on the bitter scale somewhere? If Cleavers aren't too bitter then I look forward to trying them.

I seem to remember that the coffee substitute was called Arabain Coffee. I've never tried the Oak coffee but from what I hear it can't be any worse!

 

[Toadflax]

The main reason for trying Goosegrass at this time of the year was opportunistic foraging - i.e. weeding the garden. It looked so fresh and tender that it seemes worthwhile trying it - I'm now going to wait until the Spring to try some of the new shoots.

However, we do have quite a lot of wavy bittercress that I left in when I did the weeding. My wife sees this as me not doing the weeding properly. I see it as a crop of wild greens. When I first tried bittercress earlier this year, it was the one wild green that I have tried that I actually liked. It tasted and smelled like the cress that you buy from the shops. I had a big bunch of it in a corned beef sandwich (obviously no good for Toddy ) but very nice for me.


Geoff

 

[Toddy]

I do quite a bit of opportunistic foraging myself I like that one, it sounds so much less laborious, and kind of happily implies potential

You can have the corned beef but the cress is good with a nice bit of stilton or mixed in with the salad on a veggie burger roll

It's one of the first Spring greens, comes up like the Ladies Smock but it's leaves don't get bigger, just more of them, and really rich in vitamin C. We might not be able to grow oranges in the UK but we certainly have no shortage of good vitamin rich plants.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[locum76]

whatever you do don't eat sticky willies uncooked, they stick to your throat.

 

[Mang]

it was the one wild green that I have tried that I actually liked.

I like young Hawthorn leaves in Spring-Can they be cooked as a veg because eaten raw there's no edge to them.

 

[Nagual]

I tried goosegrass earlier in the year and had mixed results. I tried it raw, which generally isn't a wise thing as the small hairs can make swallowing a tad tricky, but with plently of chewing it wasn't a problem.

First one I tried was really nice, a sort of apple peel or perhaps pear flavour. The second I tried wasn't as nice, quite bitter. The third was somewhere in between. All in all I think they are definately a good item to have on your list of foods.

Peace.

 

[woodwylde]

I poached mine, then mixed with some cream cheese. Lovely

 

[Pignut]

Young nettle leaf and Cleaver leaf mixed and lightly fried in butter or steamed are a good green to go with wild meat (You could always add a small wild garlic leaf)

yum yum!

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Kinda late in the year for this now. Early on when the shoots are tender, young and soft, I pinch some off to add to wild leaf salads and they're good.

Wouldn't bother once they get leggy and start to seed though.

 

[firecrest]

we always called them umberella plants as children. I think many plants just have different local names. We used to call lords and ladies "red hot pokers" to, which I think is more appropriate.

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Common names can be so variable:

"Catchweed Bedstraw, Sticky Willy/Willie, Goose Grass, Cleavers Cling Rascal, Gripgrass, Catchweed, Sweethearts, Clinging Jenny, Beggar Lice, Stick-a-Back, Hayriff, Goosegrass, Robin-Run-the-Hedge, and Gentleman's Tormentors".

That's why I'm such a pedant about also using the latin names for stuff.