Eating Wild: Burdock Stalks
An Overlooked Part of a Famously Prickly Plant
As someone who works with elementary-age students, I have found that there are few more distracting plants to pass by on a nature walk than burdock. Kids, understandably, love collecting the trademark burs – with their tiny and innumerable hooks that will adhere to nearly any surface – before testing out that impressive stickiness on themselves and one another. As a person with an adventurous dog, I’m more than familiar with the special kind of frustration associated with watching my furry friend run through a stand of burdock plants in late fall, only to spend the next several hours finding and pulling those spiky little balls from her matted belly and tail.
The bur, my friends, can be a real bummer.
But on the other side of the coin, if you think the many ways plants have adapted to spread their seeds far and wide is a constant wonder, then burs are nothing short of a marvel. Designed to stick to passers-by and travel long distances in order to germinate in new spots, the burs we encounter in nature are so impressive that they were actually the inspiration for Velcro in the 1940s. The now ubiquitous fastener was thought up by Swiss inventor George de Mestral after he closely examined the innovative way bur-bearing plants used tiny hooks to attach their seeds to all sorts of surfaces.
While burdock isn’t the only species that goes to seed by forming the spiky seed balls so popular with children and regularly transported by dogs, it is the local plant that broadcasts this connection right out of the gate with its name. In our Northeastern home, burdock (Latin name Arctium) is one of the more common bur-producing plants that we encounter. The hardy burdock falls under the same Asteraceae family I’ve written about frequently here and is the cousin of familiar wild-growing plants like the dandelion, sunchoke, and ox-eye daisy, as well as cultivated plants including lettuce and artichoke. Native to Europe and Asia and brought to the United States in the 1600s, burdock proved to be highly invasive and can now be found far and wide, due in large part to how effective burs are at traveling to new places.
So how does one consume this plant, which is most famous for its inedible spiky seed balls? Though burdock is not always thought of as a common edible plant in the United States, there are several parts of burdock that are used both for food and medicinally around the world. The root, also called gobo, is a popular vegetable in Japan, and is also widely consumed as a medicinal herb and tea to aid digestion and for other ailments. The leaf stalks of the burdock plant offer another plant part that can be harvested, peeled, and cooked for use, and are quite tasty. Though I often aspire to make use of the root in my own cooking, the truth is that I am often unmotivated to do the sometimes difficult digging required to collect this subterranean forageable, and while abundant, the amount of work it takes to peel enough leaf stalks to produce a useful amount of food can be a real endeavor. So while I value both of these ingredients as part of my larger foraging repertoire, it is the immature flower stalks, which are bountiful, easy to spot, simple to harvest, and easy to freeze for later use, that I most frequently take advantage of each year.
When describing the flavor of burdock stalks with those who have never tried them before, it is the aforementioned related plant, the artichoke, that I most frequently reference. Peeled, chopped, and boiled or steamed, the tender stalks of the burdock plant have a flavor that is reminiscent of cooked artichoke hearts. The texture, on the other hand, is more similar to a slightly fibrous root vegetable than the uniformly soft inside of the artichoke flower.
When it comes to identifying burdock in the wild, the plant itself is eye-catching and fairly easy to spot, especially if you are familiar with the physical characteristics of a completely unrelated but similar looking plant that many of us grow in our gardens – rhubarb. When I go on nature walks with students and point burdock out to them they nearly always guess that the plant they are looking at is the tart-stemmed rhubarb they help harvest from cultivated garden beds. (I have also had phone apps falsely identify photos of burdock as rhubarb, which is one of the many reasons one should only engage in foraging with the use of several trusted resources.) The burdock plant bears similar large, heart-shaped leaves to rhubarb, with both presenting in a rosette formation, and with the leaves of both plants growing on long stalks. But while rhubarb leaves are brighter in color and hairless, with stalks that have a reddish hue, burdock leaves are a softer green, the leaves and leaf stalks are both fuzzy, and the leaf stalks have a purplish hue. Burdock leaves, and the plants in general, can get huge, with leaves measuring upwards of two feet long at times and the plants reaching waist-high or taller.
Burdock can be found all across the Northeastern United States, growing – as so many common wild edible plants do – in disturbed soil like that along trails, paths, roadsides, and other areas that have some human impact. This makes it a plant that one must consider thoughtfully before harvesting, as it is likely to be found in areas sprayed with pesticides or where there is harmful roadside runoff. The invasive nature of the burdock plant, along with how abundant it tends to be, means you don’t need to be worried about overharvesting when you do find a spot that you think is free from chemicals or contamination.
The best time to find and harvest burdock flower stalks is in the spring or early summer, when those thick central stalks are less than a foot tall and only bear smallish leaves at the tops. If you have found a patch of burdock and see either buds, flowers (which are bright purple and have the spiky firework look to them of an artichoke flower), or burs growing at the top of the central stalks, then you are too late to harvest the stalk itself, but make a note of the location for the following spring. If you found your burdock patch early enough, take a sharp knife and cut the stalks off near the base. If they are difficult to cut through, they are likely too tall and mature, and will be tough once cooked, but if they cut off easily they will cook up tender. After harvesting a bundle of the stalks, pull off any leaves attached to the top or sides. Then use your sharp knife or a vegetable peeler to peel off the outer skin. While it takes a bit of time, peeling burdock is no more challenging than peeling the skin off any fruit or vegetable. And being widespread makes burdock a great plant to add to your wild edible harvest season, since – no matter where in the Northeast you find yourself – burdock is likely to be found just around the corner.
Peeled burdock flower stalks can be steamed or boiled until easily pierced by a fork, and then eaten as a tasty side dish with garlic and butter. They can also be smashed up once soft and fried into patties, either with or without a bit of batter mixed in or coating the outside. Making fried patties is my favorite thing to do with any leftover cooked burdock I had for dinner as part of breakfast the next morning. If you harvest a lot of burdock stalks at once and hope to store them for use later in the year, simply boil the peeled and chopped pieces for a few minutes before cooling them down, pressing out any excess water, and freezing them in airtight bags. The defrosted burdock stalk pieces can then be thrown into a mixed root vegetable soup, vegetable pot pie, or any number of dishes featuring boiled or steamed vegetables.
Burdock flower stalks are one of those wild edible foods that I never hesitate to serve to friends, since they have a mild and crowd-pleasing flavor and can be integrated into so many savory recipes easily and unobtrusively. And when you invariably come across a wide swath of the plant in the spring, return to that same spot in the fall and marvel at the burs that give the plant its name. While the prickly seed balls can certainly be a nuisance when encountered at the wrong moment, they are also, as generations of children have discovered over and over again, pretty fun to stick to stuff.
*NOTE: Always consult with trusted experts and refer to foraging books and field guides for 100% positive plant identification before consuming any wild plant. As with harvesting any wild plant, and particularly ones that grow in commonly sprayed areas, take particular care to collect from spaces you know to be chemical-free. Never pick any wild plant from protected spaces. Integrate new foods into your diet in small quantities to gauge any dietary sensitivities, and consult with a doctor if you have any questions or concerns about specific health issues or medication interactions.
Becca Miller lives in the Adirondack Mountains and works as a professional farm-to-classroom educator, writer, and photographer. A former Cape Codder in residence but always a Cape Codder at heart, Becca spent her time living on the Cape running a CSA program where she taught members how to use harvest items in new and creative ways. Becca is a Certified Master Food Preserver and a Leave No Trace Trainer, and her writing has been featured in Edible Capital District, Edible Vermont, and Adirondac magazines, along with Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard blog and Mother Earth Living’s Food Matters blog. Find Becca’s writing at beccamillerwriting.weebly.com.
