Well... I've never written a blog before so this may be a complete waste of both our time, but here goes. The above image is of what used to be my cultivated garden but has turned into my whatever comes up that's edible can stay area. I do plant a few things in here, somewhere, but this year, like it or not, curly dock is my main crop. Curly dock can be easily found in almost any bar ditch you look. Right now a lot of the seed heads are green but some are starting to change to brown. In either case they are pretty easy to spot. Earlier in the year, when they first come up, the new leaves are pretty tender and can be eaten raw in a salad but, by this time, they are getting pretty tough and a lot of them are pretty beaten up and bug eaten. They will have a kale like texture. You can find some smaller leaves growing up near and out of the seed stalks that are, for the most part, in pretty good shape. These are really good sautéed, chopped up and thrown in a soup, or used as a replacement in most any recipes that calls for spinach. They make a great creamed dock or dock dip. Very soon the seeds, which to me look very similar to tiny Spanish conquistadore helmets, will all be turning dark brown. Those can easily be harvested by grabbing the stalk below where the seed start and pulling your hand upward to strip them off. I can almost guarantee there will be a lot of bugs and spiders in the mix but just throw them in a paper grocery bag, Brookshires is my go to, and leave it on the porch for a while when you get home. Otherwise, it's all hands on deck for bug smashing in the kitchen when you dump the bag! These seed are super high fiber and will look basically the same coming out as going in if you get me. You can toast, then chaff them if you want but I never have tried to separate the chaff. Either way it's fiber city. You can grind them into a flour to various degrees of fineness or use them whole after toasting to add to things like yogurt or oatmeal. There are recipes online for specific dock seed baked goods but you can add dock 'flour' to regular recipes. Be aware you will not get the gluten ratios you would with wheat or some other flours. Just know there might be a learning curve on getting the right bake. Straight up dock seed crackers are popular in my house and they have that expensive cracker in the fancy cheese section of the grocery store feel to them. That's what's up.
