Foraging Sow Thistle, It’s Nutritional Value and Cooking It Up 😊

[@ruthsmith2367]

SO SORRY GUYS. I watched the video and noticed I had made a big mistake. Did you spot it? On reading out the nutritional value, some of the nutrients had 0 mg. The plant is still nutritional and a free food so get foraging, even if iit’s in your own garden like me 😀 The Sow Thistle gets its name from when in the olden days they fed the leaves to pigs (Sows) when they had piglets to produce more milk apparently. Hens, rabbits and tortoises also like it to. For us humans we could: Eat the young leaves raw in salads, sandwiches, on a burger bun or in a BLT or added to smoothies and cooked in anything like pasta, in pesto, Salsa Verdi, omelets, on top of pizza, in gnocchi, in a creamy mushroom sauce, ravioli or quiche, in soups,, stews all the usual suspects. The Maori in New Zealand call it Puha and use the white substance to make chewing gum and cook a dish called ‘Boil up’ with the plant. Gardeners like it and use it as a ‘sacrificial’ plant as the aphids like it and may keep them away from what you are growing to eat. What you could also do is collect the seed heads when ready put them in a tray with soil and grow them like micro greens if you are not confident in picking wild edibles. The mature plant is easy to identify. Wild Lettuce can look similar but if you flip the leaf over, the main vein in the leaf is smooth in Sow Thistle and in Wild Lettuce it has spines. Here are some videos you could watch, but there is loads of information out there to be had kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXa3qGV-h9t7fbs kzbin.info/www/bejne/eYi0ZaF9p8Z0mqs

[@CremeBrulee543]

Common sow thistle is growing in our garden! Can’t wait to confirm and eat some

[@ruthsmith2367]

Lovely, best watch other people’s videos to though, I’m just learning. Best be 100% sure what you are eating 😊 Fry it up with whatever your having then pop your cooked pasta in or put on top of rice. Thanks for watching and commenting by the way ❤️

[@bruceaskin9645]

the Lord provides

[@ruthsmith2367]

Hi Bruce, Yes he does indeed ❤️ I bet you have some around you to. That was dreadful about Tonga wasn’t it. Things are heating up, stay safe my friend ❤️

[@cherylcarter6426]

This is great! The rabbits and chickens love this as well.

[@ruthsmith2367]

That’s marvellous, it’s an early winter green for you and your animals 😊. If you cut it at the base Cheryl it will grow back same spot, so don’t pull up if you want to keep it 😊

[@gullgstableggt2946]

This is a forest self growing plant... nice to know about its nutrisional importence.. Here in pakistan it grows road sides and lakeside areas .. Thanks for sharing

[@ruthsmith2367]

Hi thanks for watching. I got some of the nutritional information wrong that I was reading. When I looked back at the video some were 0mg and I shouldn’t have read them out, but still a great plant and free food that grows nearly all over the world. I would love to know if you have used it or are going to and what recipes, that would be fab 😊

[@creamofcardstv]

Oh no, I weeded mine out :( I should have cooked it. I'll certainly keep my eyes open for that in the future though.

[@ruthsmith2367]

Hi there 🙋🏻‍♀️ Thanks for watching, I found out if you snip it with some scissors at the base it grows back again. The gift that just keeps giving 😀

[@rosehippyguy3402]

I LOVE it. Wish I could edit 🙄. Great video Ruth. I love food from the wild👊💜👊

[@ruthsmith2367]

I’ve got them popping up all over, free salad 😊 I use the iMove app. It’s a blue tab with a white star in the middle and like a picture of an old camera. Really easy to use, if I can do it anyone can. Download and I can talk you through it over email if you like, next time you do a vid or just video anything for an experiment and I will try and tell you what you can do 😊

[@walkwithhim5258]

I thought sow thistle has spikes around the leaf…

[@ruthsmith2367]

Hi there 🙋🏻‍♀️ Yes there is a prickly Sow Thistle called Sonchus Asper which is still edible I believe, never tried it though, best do your homework if you want to try. As you can see this Sow Thistle has no prickles on the leaves, I have seen the one you mean though in the garden. I think I have one in my pots in need to weed out. I may do a video on it when it stops raining 🤣 Thanks for watching by the way ❤️

[@PatrickWilson-hy5yf]

Yeah prickly puha is nice too​@@ruthsmith2367

[@HayzRylee]

Correct and yes both are nutritious and delicious. Check out "puha boil up" videos, in New Zealand we eat them both quite often with pork and vegetables.

[@cherylcarter6426]

Dandelions have low growing leaves and red on the base of them. They have a single stalk with a single flower.

[@ruthsmith2367]

Hi Cheryl 🙋🏻‍♀️ Yes dandelions are a lot smaller and only one flower and stalk, I didn’t know about the red bit though. Not tried them yet have you Cheryl 😀

[@cherylcarter6426]

@@ruthsmith2367 I grow them. There is red on the base of the stems, but there are different types of dandelion. People mistake cat’s ears for dandelion.

[@shoestringhomestead3323]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏😃

[@ruthsmith2367]

😘😘😘

[@cherylcarter6426]

Have you got a page on Facebook?

[@ruthsmith2367]

Me, no 😊 I just use the groups for foraging, cooking, buying and selling 😀

[@cherylcarter6426]

@@ruthsmith2367 Sergei Botenko has good KZbin videos.