Wild Food Guide — 'A'

Welcome to the Celtnet guide to wild foods. As this recipe site has grown it has become obvious that to allow people to replicate some of the more ancient recipes on this site (especially from the Ancient, Roman and Medieval periods it is necessary to list modern alternatives but also to produce a guide so that the curious can find the original (often wild) ingredients for themselves. These pages are an attempt at bringing all these potentially useful and often forgotten wild foods together into one place. To use this guide simply click on the first letter of your term above or below. Alternativey why not just browse through the terms. You may well find something that surprises you!

This is the description page for Field Mustard (Brassica rapa) and includes a description as well as an image, if available and a selection of recipes from this site that relates to the wild foodstuff: Field Mustard.

Field or Wild Mustard, Brassica rapa var campestris, (also known as Yellow Mustard, Wild Turnip, Wild Kale, Bird Rape, Navew, Cale) is the annual or biennial ancestor of modern Turnip, Rutabaga, some kales and rapeseed (canola). It hybridizes readily with many other barssicas and as such is agriculturally considered a weed. It is not a true 'mustard' in that mustard seeds are produced from the related species Brassica nigra (black mustard). However, in late winter or early spring, mustard greens present one of the most valuable wild foods. Substantial, highly nutritious, deliciously hot-flavored, they are top-notch added to salads, cooked, or juiced. Such keen concentration of flavor and nutrients makes an eminently healthy, even shocking, addition to the diet. The seeds can also be harvested for use as a flavoring, or can be sprouted. Thus wild mustard is a very useful addition to the store of wild foods available to us. It can also be cultivated and makes an useful pot herb and can be substituted in any recipe calling for 'mustard greens'.

Salad of Wild Mustard Greens and Avacado
Wild Mustard Greens and Butternut Squash Quiche
Wild Mustard Greens with Ham Hocks
Wild Mustard Greens with Bacon and Shallots
Spring Salad with Wild Mushroom Potato Cakes
Wild Mustard Greens with Sausage and Bean Soup Wild Greens with Ham, Orange and Mint
Salted Mustard Greens
Pork and Wild Mustard Greens Wontons