Uses for thistle

Late answer to your thistle question Cris. I mostly cut and drop it before it seeds, and it rots down fast. Leaving the roots in helps loosen hard soil too. Never found much use for it beyond that.

Robbie Lattig wrote:Late answer to your thistle question Cris. I mostly cut and drop it before it seeds, and it rots down fast. Leaving the roots in helps loosen hard soil too. Never found much use for it beyond that.

Depends what genus and species of thistle. I like eating the (peeled!) young flowering stalks, before the flower buds are fully formed, of several species of Cirsium. C. vulgare, arvense and helenioides are all good eating, and probably others besides. The taste is a bit sweet, with a hint of artichoke, and if you manage to get rid of all of the fibrous bark the consistency is crunchy and nice. Some of the best wild vegetables for raw eating in my area.

Peeled stalks, that's one I'd never have thought of. Mostly I just fight the creeping sort on the veg patch, so eating it instead might be the better plan. Which of those three tastes best?