Greater Plantain - edible or not?

[Ratty]

Has anyone any experience of eating Greater Plantain? My backgarden is currently over-run with it and the leaves look like a poor man's spinach. I've 'googled' it and the jury appears to be out over whether the leaves are too bitter or not!

Anyone have anything to add?

Many thanks


Ratty

[Hedgehogpie]

Plantain is edible but it is quite bitter (I've tried it). However, if you're up for an experiment you could try nibbling a leaf & see how you go, as I've known some wild foods to be to be variable in taste/bitterness from plant to plant (this is true of Acorns and Hedge Garlic for example).

As with anything like that it's usually recommended to do several changes of water in order to get anything useful when cooking it and even then having tasted it I'm not sure I'd bother unless I wanted greenstuff to bulk out a soup or stew. I know that thew Saxons used to call it 'Waybread' & that the seeds were cleaned & winnowed then used to make a kind of 'flour' but again that's the sort of experiment that only realy hard core Bushcrafters go in for. If you decide to do a websearch for information about this, remember to watch out for references to the tropical plantain (green banana like fruit) which is also used to make a type of flour (confusing!).

However, I found this snippet on an American website that might interest you:

http://www.caliberdt.com/~bill/~nyerges/plantain.htm

See also: http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Plantago+major

[Ratty]

Thank you hedgehogpie - by the way, how does that taste then?

Ratty

[Hedgehogpie]

Hedgehog Pie? Never tried it!

[Ratty]

Fair enough. I'm vegan but in theory would eat roadkill. Except I've not eaten meat for 20 years so I doubt my body would like me very much!

Ratty

[frozenthunderbolt]

In my experience it is better (less bitter) raw than cooked

[mrsflibble]

You could try blanching the plants by puting flower pots over them for a week or so... but you'd have a garden full of flower pots.

[Hedgehogpie]

That doesn't surprise me, Willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium) is like that. I can happily eat the young raw leaves, but when I tried cooking the new shoots (supposedly like asparagus, as many books mention) the process made them bitter and disgusting.

One I am very fond of though, is Fat Hen (Chenopodium album). I personally find it tasty raw or cooked and I was really pleased to find it growing in the veg plot this year. Alongside that stuff like Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) and Chickweed (Stellaria media) plus the other leafy greens available we have had some great stuff for spring salads.

[Ratty]

I'll stick some pots over the pile of it growing near the compost heap then. Thanks for the tip Mrsflibble, and my garden is full of very random things all the time (OH or I always about to do some 'project') so some pots will probably make it look tidier!

I'll have a go raw first and report back!

Ratty