Edible Plants and Flowers in Europe
Second only to China when it comes to biodiversity, Europe is home to some of the oldest plant varieties and strains in the world. While most plants are acknowledged as medicinal or health-related when it comes to individual properties, many flowers and plants double as edible foodstuffs. With some basic time and research, you can discover a bounty of food in your own backyard.
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Herbs
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Common herb foodstuffs include varieties of sulfuric vegetables, such as garlic and ginger. Many plants referred to as weeds, such as dandelion and chicory, can be eaten as a sandwich topping or combined in a salad. Found throughout both Western and Eastern Europe, these specific varieties are entirely edible, down the roots, and can be combined with other common plants such as stinging nettle (minus the stings) and foxtail grass. Along with their innate hunger-curing properties, these plants often impart the same health benefits eaten raw as they do when consumed as a tea or infusion: imbibing the blood-purifying properties of dandelion as you eat, for instance.
Flowers
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The easiest to identify--and perhaps most commonly encountered--edible plant varieties are flowers. Most everyday flowers, such as honeysuckle, sunflower (very common in Europe), nasturtiums and jasmine, all show up on restaurant dinner plates as edible garnishes. The rose, natively found in Europe, is often eaten for its vitamin C-inducing qualities. Also, the syringa, a commonly found purple flower native to most Northern and Western European countries, is both edible and flavorful. When determining whether or not a flower is edible, one test method involves chewing on the petal long enough to perceive its taste before spitting it out. Though sometimes unreliable, plants that generally taste bitter in the mouth are inedible or unsafe for eating.
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Trees
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An often overlooked resource when it comes to the palate, trees can be an excellent source of dietary fiber. Artic willows, native to the more Scandinavian reaches of Europe, produce edible shoots and roots that, like rose hips, are high in vitamin C. The Juniper tree, found commonly in England as well as parts of Western Europe, provides edible twigs and fruit, while the berries are a common ingredient in alcohol production. Beech, another common tree species, produces edible nuts throughout Eastern and Southern Europe akin to chestnuts and were often used, like chicory, in making a deep coffee-like drink. Most popular for its nuts is the common filbert tree, known throughout the U.S. as hazelnut.
Safety and Precautions
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As always when dealing with an unfamiliar plant, do your research to determine whether it is considered safe or not for consumption. Avoid all mushrooms, unless you are skilled in fungus detection, as a mushroom that may look similar to an edible species may in fact be highly poisonous. It is always recommended that you carry a plant identification guide with you as you harvest to inform yourself as to the health benefits and properties of unknown plants.
Harvesting Concerns
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As the vast majority of wild, edible plants in Europe are considered weeds, harvesters encounter little problems gathering plants from forested areas or on the side of roads. Be careful, however, when harvesting in public spaces, as the plants may have been sprayed with pesticides.
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