Finally! After a long winter of pining out the window at my new backyard, I was finally able to eat something produced there! Mind you, this wasn’t anything that I cultivated… garlic mustard is a highly invasive weed that needs to be pulled, roots and all, from your garden. And, at the prompting of my good friend Raina, I decided to not just throw it away, but make something edible with it. With her help, I pulled hundreds of plants and de-stemmed them.

Then I just basically followed a recipe for basil pesto, subbing the garlic mustard for basil. I put all of the ingredients into my food processor and presto! PESTO. Delicious, garlicky pesto, with a pretty spicy kick!

I poured it into a pint sized ball jar and stuck it in the fridge. I then turned around to see the herb basket… still pretty much full of leaves. Realizing I didn’t have anymore ingredients, I called a couple of friends, seeing if they wanted to come over to utilize the rest of our harvest. No one was able, so the rest of the basket was tossed into the food processor and then pressed into an ice cube tray for later use, possibly in sauces or soups.

For those of you that would like to give this a whirl, below are the ingredients and proportions that I used. But first, be very, very sure that what you’re pulling is indeed garlic mustard. This is always super important when wildcrafting! Although, unlike a lot of other edibles, feel free to pull these plants to your heart’s content.

Hopefully I’ve inspired you to try a little of your own wildcrafting!

- Sarah

Basic Recipe

• 3-4 cups fresh garlic mustard weed
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
• 1/2 cup Italian cheese (Parmesan, Romano, etc.)
• 2-4 cloves of garlic (depending on taste)