For nearly thirty years, the ground elder was one of my three worst enemy in the garden and I always removed them as soon as I spotted them. The shape of the leaves is a bit like those of anemone and it always grow right next to anemone. How clever the plants are! It is their survival instinct. I was very annoyed as it made my life difficult to wipe them out.
However, I found recently from the Instagram post that this is a medicinal herb which tastes like my favourite Japanese herb, Mitsuba!! I tried it and it DOES! How could I not knew it. Not only it is edible, it is a medicinal function from Middle Ages to cure gout, sciatica, rheumatism, haemorrhoids, inflammation, water retention. The leaves can be eaten in a salad where they have a nutty flavour, or cook in butter like spinach.
I am completely hooked with it now and eat it almost every dish now. Lucky me I have plenty of supply in my garden.
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このGround Elderっていう雑草。今まで、庭の3大悪として、見つけたら仇のように抜いていた(繁殖力旺盛だけど見た目はそんなに悪くないので、根こそぎ抜いてはいなかった)。しかも、いつもアネモネの横に生えてきて、紛らわしい(葉っぱの形がよく似ている、植物って生存本能からよくそういうことするんだよね)。ちっ、面倒なことしやがってって思ってた。
ところが、最近ベルリンのお醤油屋さんのインスタ投稿で、実はこの植物には岩ミツバって名前がついてて、セリ科のハーブで、ミツバのような香りがするとのことを知った。試してみたところ、ほ、ほんとだ!!!、おいしい。しかも痛風、坐骨神経痛、リウマチ、痔、炎症などにも効能があるんだって。そんなスグレモノだったとは。
ということで、現在いろんな料理に多用中。まだまだいっぱい生えてる。残量を気にしないでむしゃむしゃ食べれるって嬉しい。