(bright upbeat music) (upbeat music) - So we are sitting here next to a plant, truly, that is great to forage all 12 months of the year for different parts.

This is curly dock and you can see right now that it's going to seed.

But interestingly, during the fall, they also produce a second showing of their greens, which are edible.

So in the fall, you can forage for the curly dock greens and also the seed and also the yellow tap root.

During the fall to early winter, depending on ground freezing can be dug and the root would be utilized medicinally.

During the spring, when curly dock, the greens, are just starting to emerge, those can be harvested and utilized as you would any other green.

The stems, when young, are also edible and apparently they are very good.

I've never had the stems, I have had the greens.

They are kind of a lemony, sort of citrusy flavor, very good component in salads.

Also, I like to boil them down, you can use them in like cream soups, any way that you would use a green.

And then with these seeds, you can harvest those and then you can grind those up into dock flour, basically.

And that can be used in different cooking dishes.

So the curly dock, super fun plant, very easy to identify this time of year, right, because these what are normally kind of green flowers have gone now to seed.

And so they always stand out pretty well, too, in the winter, snow on the ground.

Pretty easy to identify but make sure when you harvest anything from the wild, whether it be fungus or fruit or plant, make sure on your ID.

And one thing I do wanna point out, I have a dog and two cats and curly dock is actually toxic to them.

And so if you do have pets, just research also the things that you are foraging to make sure that if your animals do come in contact with it, it's not going to harm them.

But this is the curly dock, a fun plant and one to harvest all 12 months out of the year.

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