Ethnobotanists and clinical herbalists Hayden Stebbins and Geraldine Lavin led an enthusiastic intergenerational group of folks on a walk about campus September 16. They taught about commonly found plants and their nutritional and medicinal properties as participants gathered edible plants along the way.  Surprising to some was that some of the most useful and edible plants were often the ones most scorned by gardeners and groundskeepers — garlic mustard and creeping ground elder, to name two.  At the conclusion of their walk, folks gathered in Edgehill to prepare a feast with their harvest.  We look forward to having Hayden and Geraldine return for another scavenger hunt in spring when the fiddleheads appear!

Here is one of the recipes the folks prepared:

Wild Pesto

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fresh herbs: Garlic Mustard, Sorrel, Wild Cress, Basil, Parsley, etc.
• 2 large garlic cloves or wild Allium (Onion genus)
• ¼ cup nuts or seeds: sunflower and pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, acorns, etc.
• ½ cup olive oil
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions: Combine all ingredients, except seeds and nuts, in a food processor and blend. Add seeds and nuts last to maintain texture.