Eating Wild: Flavorful Field Garlic, Hiding in Plain Site

Flavorful Field Garlic, Hiding in Plain Sight

There’s just something about alliums.

Onions, leeks, shallots, chives, scallions, ramps—the many cultivated and wild plants that fall under the allium umbrella are certainly a delicious bunch. Bringing their trademark bite to dishes when raw and a layered sweetness when caramelized to a rich golden brown, there are few plant categories as useful and versatile as the allium.

I have yet to meet an allium I didn’t enjoy, but in a group where there is no real loser, one particular plant stands above the rest: that staple of cuisine across the globe—garlic.

In the kitchen, few ingredients elevate bland and mundane dishes quite like our friend garlic, and in the garden the joys of growing one’s own garlic are similarly plentiful. Garlic is one of the few crops that is planted in the fall instead of the spring or summer, going in the ground while the rest of your harvest is being picked and stored for the season. Garlic’s promise-filled cloves hide beneath the frozen earth throughout the coldest months, and the plant’s vibrant shoots are often one of the first signs of spring in our cool Northeastern region. Different parts of the garlic plant can be harvested throughout the growing season—the flower stalks, or scapes, in early summer; the not-yet-mature-green garlic later in the summer; the mature heads in the fall—and once properly dried your garlic harvest can be put away for long-term use.

Much like its cultivated counterpart, wild field garlic is quite happy to hibernate all winter long. Field garlic’s small bulbs (as opposed to cultivated garlic’s heads with individual cloves) stay buried in the earth year-round. But unlike our household planted garlic, field garlic showcases its trademark green, grass-like tops even after temperatures drop below freezing and long before cultivated garlic begins to sprout, at times even poking up through freshly fallen snow.

It is those bright green tops that will stand out to you like homing beacons once field garlic gets on your radar. The wild allium loves our Cape Cod climate, and can often be found in abundance on lawns, in fields, along wooded paths—all over the place, basically. When it comes to wild members of the onion-and-garlic family, ramps often get the most press, and that fame has unfortunately led to significant overharvesting in many places. It is a shame that humble field garlic, one of my favorite wild edible plants, receives far less fanfare. Bountiful and quick-spreading, field garlic is so resilient that it can be considered invasive in some spaces. This abundance makes field garlic difficult to overharvest and a far better candidate for foraging than the slow-to-recover ramp.

All foraging requires careful research to ensure positive identification, but field garlic has some key characteristics that will help as you begin to search for this wild plant. Field garlic’s clumps of bright green tops often appear like tall grass from afar, but upon closer inspection the thin, leggy leaves are hollow instead of flat. During the springtime you may see some of the plant’s round, lavender-pink florets tufting at the top of those hollow leaves. Dig up a clump of field garlic and you will find small, white bulbs covered in papery skin and attached to stringy roots. Every part of this wild allium carries with it the pungent scent we are all so familiar with, so if you break a bit off and it doesn’t smell like garlic then you have the wrong plant.

Like its cultivated cousin, field garlic provides us with multiple edible parts, each of which taste garlicky to varying degrees. The colorful flowers are perfect chopped up and thrown into salads or pastas, or keep the blossoms whole and use them as a tasty and beautiful garnish. The hollow leaves can be used in recipes in much the same way as chives due to their similar flavor and texture. Field garlic’s leaves continue growing into the coldest months, and can be harvested for use whenever they are present. To use the bulbs—the most flavorful part of the plant—first cut off the stringy roots. Wash and peel away the papery outsides and then simply chop and use the bulb raw or cooked just as you would cultivated garlic.

So as you bundle up and head outside during these chilly winter months, don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for some still-bright green patches of ground around your yard and along wooded paths. You might be looking at the close relative of one of your favorite ingredients, and the perfect wild plant to add to your growing foraging repertoire.

*NOTE: Always consult with experts and refer to field guides for 100% positive plant identification before consuming any wild plant. As with any new food, integrate wild plants 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.