Were George and Martha the country’s first invasivores? Did George Washington eat weeds? Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetemeats, a beautifully annotated volume of family recipes, suggests that the first First Lady had a few on the menu at Mt. Vernon. For two hundred years, it was assumed that Martha’s book was [...]
Land
Blue Plate Special: Curly Dock
Stare out across the empty lots and fields on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, and you will see scattered clumps of dark green leaves towering above the grass. In spring the…
EAT ME!
Purslane
George Washington ate weeds. That is, he ate what he thought of as garden vegetables: Martha’s Booke of Cookery and Book of Sweetmeats, includes a handwritten recipe for Pickled Purslane. The manuscript…
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Japanese Knotweed
It’s the 1880s. Frederick Law Olmstead, who, in his thirties, co-designed a little patch of ground in New York called Central Park, in his forties sells Boston on the Emerald Necklace, a whole new…
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Common Carp
For a bottom-feeder, what is the good life? The common carp isn’t very demanding: any body of water that’s sluggish and murky will do. One catching sewage or…
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Marine
Northern Snakehead
His sister was ailing, and the man in Maryland remembered that, back home in Hong Kong, there was a fish that was considered a delicacy and a restorative. He would make a fish soup…
EAT ME!
Dandelion
You look out over your lawn and curse. The dandelion is back again, doing what it does best: invading. And yet it’s so common now that you may be surprised to learn it’s not a native species––it’s one of the 2,000…
EAT ME!
Lionfish
Some say it started in 1992 in Miami when Hurricane Andrew smashed an aquarium tank. Don’t blame the weather, others say; in the mid-nineties, disappointed yet softhearted hobbyists…
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Nutria
Nutria, also known as coypu and river rat, is native to temperate and subtropical South America. It has been introduced to Europe, Asia, and Africa, mainly for fur farming. These voracious. . .
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Plants
Green Iguana
These days, a January cold snap in Miami means nights when it rains iguanas. Down from sea grapes and buttonwood trees large, green, tree-dwelling invaders fall–––because they’re…
EAT ME!
Green Crab
Since the green crab was first recorded off southern Massachusetts in 1817, it has been hard to ignore. A few minutes of rock-flipping in Maine can turn up dozens of them, brandishing their claws as they retreat…
EAT ME!
Common Periwinkle
The common periwinkle, which first appeared in New England in the 1860s, is now found along the coast wherever there’s hard substrate–rocks, riprap, broken concrete, or docks–from Labrador to…
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Troublesome Weeds
Although many Americans grow greens for spring and summer salads, there are numerous exotic species–relished in their native lands but abundantly ignored here–that require…
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Another Category
Wild Boar
Did the domestic ancestors of today’s feral pigs streak off De Soto’s ship into the Florida scrub of their own accord in 1539? Or did they have to be urged to go find something to eat? All you need to…
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Asian Carp
They can swim up the Mississippi River. They can fly over a fishing boat, ten feet in the air, hitting fishermen with the force of a bowling ball. They won’t take bait from hook, and they’re bony––what’s to like…
EAT ME!
Kudzu
Kudzu was first brought to the U.S. by Japan, which promoted it as an ornamental and as a forage crop at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. By 1900, its fragrant grape-scented purple flowers…
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“They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
