MAY 15, 2010, 11:00 AM
Urban Forager | A Purse With Herbal Remedies By AVA CHIN
Photographs by Ava Chin for The New York Times The aerial seeds of shepherd’s purse. A few weeks ago, Louisa Shafia, a chef and author of “Lucid Food,” contacted me after encountering a middle-age Chinese couple foraging for an unidentified green in a desolate area of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. When I met up with her a few days later, I took one look at the plant’s heart-shape seedpods, basal rosette formation and white, four- petal flowers and knew it was shepherd’s purse.
I recently ran across whole patches of delicate-looking shepherd’s purse at the College of Staten Island, where I teach alongside footpaths. Like most plants in the city, it is in flower early this year. While the tiny white flowers probably didn’t garner any prizes during Wildflower Week, the plant as a whole is a bit of a curiosity — edible and medicinal, with its aerial parts reminiscent of a Calder mobile.
Shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) is a member of the mustard family, making it related to broccoli, cabbage and watercress. Though native to Europe, it is found across the United States, and is considered invasive in California, Maryland, and Virginia.
The first time the plant was brought to my attention, I loved the whimsical, sculptural quality of its flower stalk, but had trouble identifying it by the rosette base alone — at times it can be mistaken for young dandelion greens, if one is not paying attention. Unlike dandelion leaves, which are serrated and pointing back toward its center, shepherd’s purse leaves are deeply lobed and directed horizontally. If you ever having trouble identifying it, wait until the plant flowers and has gone to seed (i.e., now).
The seeds have long stalks, are shaped like a heart and flattened like someone had pressed it between the pages of a book. The plant supposedly got its name because its seed pouches resemble the bags medieval shepherds carried, but having grown up in Queens, I will have to trust the common name and leave the history of pastoral fashion to other experts.
Flower stalk and seed pouches in the wilds of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
From a culinary standpoint, it’s a little late in the season to make much use of the edible leaves (before the plant flowers is considered best), which are bit like cabbage in taste and texture when steamed or blanched. The seeds, which taste a bit peppery on the tongue,
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