Harvesting, Using and Preserving Wild Mustard

Mustard, Wild, Tender And Tough

If you can’t find a wild mustard growing near you, you must be living in the middle of a desert ‘cause they even grow in the arctic circle. In fact, it’s among the few plants in Greenland and is even found near the magnetic north pole.

A native of Eurasia and cultivated for some 5,000 years, the Mustard — Brassica et alia, previously Sinapis et alia, or as the botanists write, spp. — came to North America in the 1700s and is as wide-spread and varied as possible. It usually blossoms in winter here in Florida and over Christmas I saw a patch in full bloom in a backyard, feeding honeybees. I would have brought some home for supper but couldn’t find the homeowner for permission to harvest. But that’s okay, there’s an orange grove near me that is starting to sprout mustards, so…

The word “mustard” comes from the dead Latin phrase “mustrum ardens” because the Romans put the peppery “burning” seed in wine must. Why? They watered down their wine. Perhaps mustard added flavor. Maybe they liked their wine peppery. Brassica is Latin for cabbage and Sinapis (sin-NAP-is) is Greek meaning mustard. In other words, it was correctly named in Greek but is now incorrectly named in Latin. That’s botanical progress. Modern Greeks call it sinapi. ( I think Latin is preferred over Greek because it is a dead language. One doesn’t have to learn to speak Latin to be considered a scholar of said…. which is kind of like being a celibate sex expert. )

While the table condiment mustard does indeed come from the mustard seed, the leaves, flowers, seed pods and roots are also edible. Mustards are in the same large family with cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, turnips, kale, kohlrabi, wasabi, and others. The only problem is there are so many wild mustards its hard to tell which one you might have. They are all edible, but some are a little more edible than others. What that means is mustard greens I used to pick in Maine were fairly tender, and not strong when cooked. The mustard greens I pick here in Florida are much tougher and spicier. They have to be chopped up more and cooked longer, but they still are delicious if a bit toothy. The point is you have to experiment a little to find your preference with your particular mustard.

Young leaves can use used raw in salads, or cooked as a potherb. As the plant ages, it becomes strong and sometimes the leaves are too bitter to eat. Tender young seeds pods can be added to salads, but are peppery. If you are so inclined, you can make mustard out of the seeds, just grind them up and mix with vinegar, salt optional. Each plant can produces 2,000 to 3,500 seeds a season and the seeds can remain dormant underground for years.

Flower buds are also tasty when boiled. One nice touch is to add raw mustard flowers to your favorite vinegar to give it a little personalized pick-me-up — like the Roman wine, after all vinegar is just tarted up wine. The ratio is about half a cup of blossoms per pint of vinegar. Oh, the shape of the blossoms — like a Maltese cross — gave name to their family, Cruciferae, or cross-like. That’s the positive side of mustard, here is the negative side:

Mustards leaves are usually cooked
Many agricultural departments classify wild mustard as poisonous because if cattle eat too much of it they can get quite ill with stomach irritations — and they have more than one stomach to irritate. Humans aren’t the herbivores cattle are and we don’t tend to eat as much mustard, still some caution is advised. Many are allergic to mustard so if you’ve never eaten any, it is best to try only a little at first. Mustard is a bane to dairy cows because it can flavor the milk making it unsellable.

Mustard, also know as charlock, is also at the heart of an academic controversy representing trillions of dollars. Canola is a mustard seed oil, from the rape plant, a mustard species. The word Canola comes from “Canadian Oil Seed, Low-Acid” which was its experimental name. Canola is currently very popular and presented as a healthy oil. Some experts would disagree, at the forefront, Dr. Mary Enig, PhD., an oil expert who often champions coconut oil. Here is one place to read one side of the story: The Great Con-ola.

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