Garlic Mustard – Wild Food.
Most of us know that eating plants from the Brassicaceae family is good for us. Eating wild plants increases nutrient diversity in our diets and saves our pocketbook. We don’t always get to enjoy wild plants as much as we might like. When we want to eat the wild in the form of garlic mustard we can dig in with gusto. It is both delicious and invasive. By adding it to dinner we both enjoy its garlicky goodness, and as a result of our harvest, simultaneously protect vulnerable plant species. Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolate) is a threat to many Ontario wildflowers. American ginseng, dropping trillium, wake robin, wild hyacinth, trout lily, sugar maples, and red ash are some of the plants negatively impacted by garlic mustard populations.
Gangster Garlic Mustard.
Garlic mustard is a thug. It was introduced to North America in the 1800s as an edible plant. Since, it has spread across both the United States and Canada. It is prevalent across southern and eastern Ontario. A biennial, during the first-year garlic mustard is a basal rosette of leaves, roundish in shape with a quilted appearance. The leaf stems have purple tinge to them. In the 2nd year the leaves are more triangular, alternate, and roughly toothed. The plant sends up a flower stalk. The flowers are small and white with 4 petals. Garlic mustard thrives in full sun to shade. It prefers moist rich soil but can tolerate most conditions. A survivor – the plant can thrive just about anywhere.
Flowering garlic mustard
Garlic mustard has no predators. Animals do not eat this plant.
It is a prolific self-seeder. A single plant can produce up to 8000 seeds.
Seeds can be viable for up to 5 years.
Mycorrhizal Networks.
There can be a symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi. The fungi make themselves at home in and around the plant roots. These fungi form filaments that reach out into the soil as extensions of the root system. The fungi are far superior at absorbing water and nutrients than the roots are. Via photosynthesis the plant makes sugars. Each half of the partnership has something the other half needs. They swap. The fungi feed off the sugars and the plant relies on the fungi for nutrients/water that it would not otherwise have access to. Garlic mustard survives not just by taking up space another plant could use. It releases anti-fungal compounds into the soil that disrupts these mycorrhizal networks. This makes it harder for other plants to compete.
Imagine a neighbourhood. A street lined with houses. Not only do I move into a single house; I also ensure no one else can move into the houses on either side of my house. Or across the street.
Garlic Mustard as a Medicinal.
There is not a lot of info about garlic mustard as a plant for healing. The plant is almost a hybrid of the phytochemicals of both the brassicas and alliums. The seeds make an extract that is a potent antioxidant. In the book Invasive Plant Medicine author Timothy Lee Scott lists garlic mustard’s medicinal properties as “anti-asthmatic, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiscorbutic, antiseptic, deobstruent, diaphoretic, sternutatory, vermifuge, and vulnerary.” If we extrapolate from the known medicinal qualities of glucosinolates (antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral) we can imagine that garlic mustard, as a result, would be effective as an antimicrobial. Garlic mustard contains allyl-sulfide. This compound is common in garlic and is known to be anti-cancer. Deep knowledge about plant families can help us to understand a plant about which there is little information.
Garlic Mustard as Food.
All parts of the plant are edible. The roots are pungent and spicy – similar to horseradish. The leaves are somewhat bitter with a garlic taste. The stems of the plant can be steamed and eaten much like garlic scapes. The seeds are spicy and can be used to make a wild mustard.
The leaves of garlic mustard contain cyanide. Before you recoil in horror, remember that most members of this family (broccoli, cabbage, kale) also contain cyanide. Blanching the leaves before eating will reduce the cyanide content. The concentration of cyanide is higher in the younger leaves and diminishes through the season. Like many wild greens the leaves are excellent sources of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and also of potassium, calcium, magnesium, selenium, copper, iron, and manganese.
The work that Gather Victoria is doing on incorporating wild plants into culinary exploits is a real inspiration to me. This is their recipe for garlic mustard oil.
Ideally, harvest 2nd year plants before the flower buds open. Pull up the whole plant after you harvest what you want. To harvest roots, wait until fall when the flower stalk has died back. The plants should not be composted as the seeds can survive in the compost. 
*before harvesting any wild plant make certain that you have correctly identified it. Do you know the local lookalikes? I use Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide, but I never rely on a single source.
