Burdock

I have a hillside covered in burdock. I tried drying root pieces in my dehydrator but they molded- so obviously they weren’t dry enough. Since it’s there, and I can’t get rid of even a little of it no matter how much I’d like to regain some of that space, I’d love some ideas on uses and preservation techniques. Thanks!!

We used to harvest and sell quite a bit of burdock, at local food markets.
First year root too small. Second year root good to use. Third year and older roots, not much good at all.

Burdock isn't all that hard to get rid of. Keep cutting it back, and never let it go to seed. Eventually it will run out of steam and stop regrowing/reproducing.
It's especially important to cut to the ground before first frost, then it won't have sap to store in the winter for spring regrowth. Most plants are like that.

Thanks for the advice! I’ll see what I can do with it.

Jim Fry wrote:First year root too small. Second year root good to use. Third year and older roots, not much good at all.

I thought burdock was a classical biannual, and that the first-year root was the only one worth bothering with?

I've heard of people grating and fermenting burdock roots. That would take care of the "inulin problem" (aka flatulence). Been wanting to try it, but we hardly have any burdock around here, sadly. Also, if you want to use the roots, it's an advantage if the site is easy to dig. The only good population I found close to here is on severely compact soil, so digging is a pain and I never got a whole root out, just broken pieces...

You can also use the leaves and seeds for making something medicinal and as food.

Here are some threads that might be of interest to you or others:

https://permies.com/t/154307/Burdock-mild-Bitter-Food-Health

https://permies.com/t/8004/Burdock-Realy-Good

https://permies.com/t/5824/burdock

i learned to cook the root in Japan, there is the classic stir-fried with carrots/dashi/sugar (kinpira gobo) or on its own with red or black pepper, I'm actually going to cook up some for dinner today, in pressure in dashi, then smashed a bit with some ground sesame (tataki gobo)- it's probably the easiest way to cook it that I know, and its delectable.
I've had it pickled and fermented and frankly i think I'd rather just eat it cooked.

I also grow it and the rabbits love the leaves, if you want to get rid of your population of it it seems like letting animals graze (or chopping it and giving it to grazers) will work pretty well. I know here people make tea with the leaves but I'm not sure exactly why, i think some of the links mentioned earlier have more about that.

I eat the leaves and the petioles (leaf stalks). I harvest them together, the whole leaf & stalk.
Then I cook them separately, because the process and results are pretty different. (I generally sauté &or braise my veg.)
The leaves are pretty bitter but less than dandelion and I like them.
If you don't like them as a vegetable, they can be dried for tea. They are tonic to the liver and digestive system, and very mildly laxative.
Or just compost them, as you'll have too much.
The stalks I chunk and cook until they're soft enough. Some people peel them, but I'm too lazy.
They have that nice sweet/bitter thistle taste. Less bitter than cardoons. Can be used similarly.
I have read that the flower stalk before the flower buds appear is edible and sweeter than the petioles. I have not tried it. In my area, burdock isn't a weed, so I don't have flower stalks to try.
I certainly use the root when I have it (usually I buy it in the store). I love it, but the leaves and stalks are easier. I guess for a late autumn/winter/early spring harvest the young roots are the good part. Which is to say the available part. As well as the useful part for storage.
I bet you could discourage the plants pretty seriously by harvesting the leaves and the flower stalks repeatedly, without having to dig up the roots. And the roots left in the soil would aerate and stabilize your hillside.
I love the roots pickled in nuka (rice bran). I bet they're good as a miso pickle, or even just a brine pickle too. I have bought burdock nukazuke commercially but not made them myself.
I imagine the leaves would make a good digestive bitter macerated in alcohol maybe with some spices and sugar. But that wouldn't use up much.

I enjoy using the leaf stalk as an ingredient in stir fry. I pick them when not too small and not too old. Just right. I have peeled and not peeled. Just scrub a bit to clean in the channel. They take on the flavor of the stir fry and have a nice crunch.

I have some that have been coming back every year for three years. They don't get to flower, since they are not in an area where I water and they are surrounded by other wild flowers. I read somewhere that they will keep coming back until they can flower, and then they expire, though I haven't had that experience. I did have two plants that flowered in the front of the house, and they were monstrous. Maybe six feet wide and more than six feet tall. I dug them up after they went to seed since I didn't want to commit that space to burdock in the front of the house. Also, the apricot tree died that year, and I will always wonder if the burdock had something to do with it. The tree was only in the ground a couple years at my home, so it could have been anything, since they do have disease issues. I bought it at the nearby permaculture nursery, so I had hoped it would do better. If allowing the burdock to live so close to the tree was a mistake, then I accept full responsibility. Definitely will not plant burdock near fruit trees in the future.

I can't imagine burdock doing any harm to fruit trees.
I wanted to say, the leaves are tough so today I pressure cooked quite a while them before putting them in a cream sauce.

Ellen Lewis wrote:I can't imagine burdock doing any harm to fruit trees.

Thank you, Ellen. I won't feel like I did something terrible to the apricot tree. Probably just got hit with a disease that it couldn't bounce back from. I put in a plum tree a few feet away and it seems to be doing well. Hopefully will see flowers next year.

I APOLOGIZE
Don't count on using burdock leaves as your new vegetable.
They never got tender this time, stayed fibrous even after long pressure cooking. And were so bitter I had to turn the cream sauce into a cheese sauce.
I know I ate them before, but maybe it was earlier in the year.
I hope I haven't led you astray.

Ellen Lewis wrote:I love the roots pickled in nuka (rice bran). I bet they're good as a miso pickle...

I've had gobo as nukazuke, misozuke, and kasuzuke -- they're all very good. This thread makes me wonder about pickling the leaf-stalks.