Ground elder rice dish
Ground elder is a plant I rarely meet in the wild places I roam and it has never been present in any gardens of the homes I have lived in despite it often being described as a ‘notoriously persistent garden weed’ as in Harrap’s Wild Flowers guide. Winding back to when I started volunteering at Tapeley Gardens, it soon became apparent just how prolific this plant is. What abundance! It grows in dense clumps and, despite being (most probably) introduced by the Romans as a culinary herb, has been the bane of gardeners as far back as the 1600s. Botanist John Gerard observed that ‘once taken roote, it will hardly be gotten out again, spoiling and getting every yeere more ground, to the annoying of better herbes.’ Ground elder could be seen as the gift that keeps on giving (and giving and giving) and adding this plant into your diet is a way to soften the bad reputation it has, to embrace it once more as a delicacy!
What’s in a name?
Ground elder is so named due to its leaves having a passing resemblance to its namesake, the elder tree. ‘Goutweed’ is another widely used common name for ground elder and links back to its historical use for treating, you guessed it, gout! As is often the case with common names, there is an association with folk medicine or ancient practices. This is the case with several more of ground elder’s monikers in relation to its cultivation by monks in the Middle Ages (often being found in the grounds of monasteries) as a medicinal herb for their (probable) partiality for rich food and alcohol consumption, namely Bishop’s elder, Bishop’s goutweed, Bishop’s-weed and Bishop’s wort. The name ‘Herb Gerard’ gives additional insight into ground elder’s reverence as a medicinal herb on two counts. First is the use of ‘Herb’ in the name which is said to be used for those plants with high medicinal value. Secondly, St Gerard of Toul (935 – 944) was the patron saint for those suffering from gout.
As for the binomial name, ‘Aegopodium’ can be broken down into ‘aigos’ meaning goat and ‘pódion’ meaning ‘base’ which further comes from ‘poús’ meaning ‘foot’ (all of Greek origin); Linnaeus referred to ground elder with ‘a likeness from which an image is produced, and from the image a name’. Essentially, it looks like a goat’s foot. Podagraria simply comes from the Ancient Greek ‘podágrā’ meaning a ‘trap for the feet’ which adopted into English via Latin as ‘podagra’ meaning ‘gout’.
In the kitchen
Caution – Ground elder is in the Apiaceae family which contains some deadly toxic plants. Always be sure that you are 100% correct with your plant identification before consuming.
The edible parts of ground elder are the leaves, stems, flowers and rhizomes and all can be eaten raw or cooked. As mentioned above, ground elder was possibly introduced during the Roman period and was cultivated as a pot-herb over the ages, eventually naturalising in the wild landscape.
The leaves and stems can be cooked as a vegetable and are delicious when sautéed gently for 5 – 10 mins with either oil or butter. They can also be added to stir fries, added towards the end, and in soups and stews. The leaves can be used raw in salads. Select the young, fresh greens and roots for a better flavour.
In Scandinavia as in the UK, ground elder is a now naturalised species which was previously cultivated and is considered a wild food; specifically, it is harvested in southern Sweden by a foraging enterprise which supplies the Danish restaurant, noma, where seasonal wild foods feature heavily on the menu. A study on food and herbal folk medicines of the Russlandeutschen (Russian descendants of German migrants who moved to Russia from c. 1763) documented ground elder as an ingredient in Russian sauerkraut which was also revered as a medicine for flu and liver diseases.
Nutritional profiling of ground elder has shown it to contain a high quantity of vitamin C as well as a significant amount of iron, copper, manganese, calcium and potassium.
Ground elder rhizomes.
In the apothecary
As one of ground elder’s common names suggests, it has been historically used to treat gout. In herbal medicine, the leaves are used both internally and externally as either a tea or poultice to treat the condition. Ground elder shows a degree of medicinal versatility and is used for wound healing, diarrhoea, sciatica, rheumatism and inflammation of the kidneys and bladder.
Current research into ground elder has reported it to have anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties for which polyacetylene compounds are chiefly responsible including falcarinol, falcarindiol, falcarinon and falcarinolon. Ethanol extracts of ground elder have shown potent antiviral action, particularly against the influenza A virus, and warrant further research for the development of new medicines for the treatment and prevention of influenza virus. And, of course, gout! Extracts of ground elder have been found to have positive effects on kidney functioning, as a potassium supplement and for the excretion of uric acid as well as inhibiting the creation of uric acid in the body which are all effective in treating gout.
In the library
There is little in the way of folklore surrounding ground elder. It doesn’t appear to be away with the faeries or nestled in a pot in Merlin’s cave. However, it is grounded in more practical terms as mentioned above. See section: ‘What’s in a name?’
Ground elder rice dish
Instructions:
Caution – Ground elder is in the Apiaceae family which contains some deadly toxic plants. Always be sure that you are 100% correct with your plant identification before consuming.
1. Dig up the young, pale rhizomes (with landowners permission!), thoroughly wash and chop into small pieces of around 3cm in length.
2. Gather some fresh leaves (being sure not to over harvest), wash and finely chop.
3. Boil a portion of rice – cooked to your personal preference!
4. While the rice is cooking, stir fry the chopped rhizomes with finely chopped onion and garlic for around 10 minutes.
5. Stir the cooked ingredients through the rice, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the chopped leaves on the top.
You can of course add any other ingredients to jazz up the dish but I like to keep it simple to fully appreciate the subtly spicy and aromatic flavours of ground elder.
Bibliography
Bruton-Seal, J. and Seal, M. (2017) Wayside Medicine. Ludlow, Merlin Unwin Books.
Freer, S. (2003) Linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Harrap, S. (2013) Harrap’s Wild Flowers: A Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland. London, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Jakubczyk, K. et al. (2020) Goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria L.) – botanical characteristics and prohealthy properties, Postepy Hig Med Dosw, 74, pp. 28-35.
Łuczaj, L. et al. (2012) Wild food plant use in 21st century Europe: the disappearance of old traditions and the search for new cuisines involving wild edibles, Acta Soc Bot Pol, 81(4), pp. 359–370.
Mabey, R. (2007) Food for Free. London, HarperCollins Publishers.
Mazurkova, N. et al. (2020) Antiviral activity of Siberian wild and cultivated plants, BIO Web of Conferences, 24, pp. 00051.
Pieroni, A. and Gray, C. (2008) Herbal and Food Folk Medicines of the Russlanddeutschen living in Künzelsau/Taläcker, South-Western Germany, Phytother. Res., 22, pp. 889–901.
Tardío, J., Pardo-De-Santayana, M. and Morales, R. (2006) Ethnobotanical review of wild edible plants in Spain, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 152, pp. 27–71.