Gourmet Weeds

Welcome to our Ozarks! Whether you're a tourist just passing through, a newbie to the area, or someone who has lived in the Ozarks for a long time, we want to share an aspect of the Ozarks that is near and dear to our hearts. In this folksy narrator-style cookbook, we of Ozark Grannies' Secrets want to share some of our knowledge of forageable foods with you.

So, what will we at Ozark Grannies' Secrets share with you today in the first book in our series? Grab a glass of sweet tea, scooch up to the table, and pay attention to our unique yarns. We want to entertain you with stories and share how you can make larruping good Ozark dishes with forageable greens, fruits, vegetables, and nuts to stretch your food dollars using some of the natural foods available to us here in the Ozarks. These aren't just weeds, they are gourmet weeds!

In this little volume, we are sharing recipes information and delicious recipes about common Ozark plants.

Ozark Forageable Greens including Asparagus, Chickweed, Red Clover, White Clover, Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), Orange Daylily greens, Green Brier, Henbit, Dead Nettle, Lady's Thumb and Knotweed and their many varieties, Smartweed, Lamb's Quarters, Live Forever, Wild Mustard, Stinging Nettle, Perilla Mint, Plantain, Poke Sallet, Common Purslane, Redbud, Reindeer Lichen, Sassafras (sassafras albidum), Dock, curly, Spiderwort, Violet, and Watercress

Ozark Forageable Fruits

Autumn Olive, Blackberry, Black Raspberry, Crab Apple, Common Elderberries, Grapes, Huckleberry, Deerberry, Red Mulberries, Passionflower, Pawpaw, Persimmons, Wild Plums, Black Cherry, and Other Stone Fruit.

Ozark Forageable Vegetables

Ostrich Fern Fiddleheads, Garlic, Morel Mushrooms, "False Morels", Prickly Pear, Common Thistle, Burdock, Cattail, Waterlilies, Jerusalem Artichoke, and even Orange Daylily.

Ozark Forageable Nuts

Acorns from the White Oak family, Hickory Nuts, Hazelnuts, and Black Walnuts.

It's more than a cookbook of natural foods either. There are stories told about the Ozarks by people from the Ozarks told in a way that only a person from the Ozarks could tell them.