Yeah, they can stick you and break off and cause a problem. A lot of what I have read is that in many a state(s) thistles being weeds are outlawed to grow/possess. So leave a few thistles to grow, for the sake of the “wild canary” (goldfinch). The green parts are still edible but have to be trimmed of spines. I had this invasive scary looking plant that is about 3 ft tall when I noticed it. This is a key species for native butterflies here. The thistle has been the national emblem of Scotland since the reign of King Alexander III (1249–1286). A bit more reading has shown me C. lanatus is not actually in my area, so I should be able to pick and eat all thistles in my area without much discretion. So far I’m really enjoying your site. Star thistle is a popular monofloral honey. Native American Indians used thistle for neuralgia, over eating, an herbal steam for rheumatism and to shrink hemorrhoids (presumably without the thistles!). I am of Acadian descent and heritage. Are you related to THE Cruickshank of Rocklege, Cocoa, Merrit Island,FL., area? Are you saying that after it gets 5 feet you can’t eat it? The thistle, and more precisely Onopordum acanthium, is one of the symbols of Lorraine, together with its coat of arms which displays three avalerions, and the Cross of Lorraine. Thanks for sharing what you have learned along the way. E & S Livingstone 1962, The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Badge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, "Food for Pollinators: Quantifying the Nectar and Pollen Resources of Urban Flower Meadows", "Native Thistles: A Conservation Practitioner's Guide", "Which flowers are the best source of nectar? Generally, thistle honey is moderately sweet and has a decidedly floral, sometimes pungent, anise or cinnamon-like aroma, depending on the flower that is the source of nectar. (if you didn’t get bored reading it.) Prickles can also occur all over the plant – on the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. Note the basal rosette, photo by Green Deane. If you are in Florida and on the west coast you might see Cirsium nuttallii, which is tall and skinny with many branches. They can recommend books. Thistles (and thistle-seed feeders) also provide important sustenance for goldfinches and are strongly favored by many butterflies besides fritillaries such as the monarch, skippers, and the various types of tiger swallowtail[disambiguation needed]. Some reports say they like wet areas but that certainly is not the case here in Florida. It has a light, transparent and a thick viscous appearance with a distinct aroma of anise (some say almonds), slightly sharp or pungent with notes of sweet, spicy cinnamon, molasses and prune. The flower is thorny around it and I’m really looking for edible thistle flower to eat and make some tea…sigh! When I found out it was edible, it was too late and the plant was already 4 ft tall…lol. Using maca powder is optional, but has been said to help balance out your hormones, so this is a good one if you have hormonal issues. So much good information!! Milk thistle tea has a delightfully smooth, rich, nutty flavor. So how does it work, and could milk thistle work for you too? Thistle Hill Farm Farmstead Tarentaise is an aged alpine raw milk organic cheese handmade by John and Janine Putnam on their family farm in North Pomfret, Vermont from the certified organic milk of their grass-fed Jersey cows. The honey of the star thistle is light gold in color, and is often described as having a floral taste. I didn’t know what it was but I didn’t want to cut it down. All can be eaten raw, steamed or boiled. I can’t find a source any where. What does Italian thistle honey taste like? Thistles, you’re either going to love ’em or hate em. Use cautiously (consult your physician) if taking specific drugs which require adequate blood levels, such as cardiac glycosides or cyclosporine. Many find the taste comparable to a cross between hemp and . What Does Milk Thistle Extract Taste Like Tesco ed’s Medical Terminology Page. Personally, I prefer the stalks of second year plants in spring, when they are a foot or so high. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thistle&oldid=995082297, All articles with links needing disambiguation, Articles with links needing disambiguation from December 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2020, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from Popular Science Monthly, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 19 December 2020, at 03:20. As part of the arms of the University of Edinburgh, the thistle appears together with a saltire on one of the escutcheons of the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh. The other which i’ve been calling “American thistle” also has spines but the only really stiff ones are on the bud. You might want to visit Foraging Texas to get the exact name of the species. I forgot to say we stew the stalks of milk thistle. I can’t find much information on its uses (if any) on the internet though. Thistles, in this case Cirsium horridulum (SIR-see-um hor-id-YOO-lum) are among the hardest to gather of wild foods, Black Walnuts probably being the worst. Some species, although not intensely poisonous, do affect the health of animals that swallow more than small amounts of the material. Unless it’s a different type of plant. Imagine an untamed spinach,” Langdon Cook, author of Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager , told Wall Street Journal in 2009. Thistles can be found from valley bottoms to mountain tops. Thistles, in this case Cirsium horridulum (SIR-see-um hor-id-YOO-lum) are among the hardest to gather of wild foods, Black Walnuts probably being the worst. Delicious! I let one grow and it as eaten by a deer once it reached my height lol. During this operation one barefoot Norseman had the misfortune to step upon a thistle, causing him to cry out in pain, thus alerting Scots to the presence of the Norse invaders. Kidney and Liver Disease. The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, the highest and oldest chivalric order of Scotland, has thistles on its insignia and a chapel in St Giles's Kirk, Edinburgh, dubbed the Thistle Chapel. Milk thistle, or silybum marianum, has been used as a herbal healer since ancient Greek times. The term thistle is sometimes taken to mean precisely those plants in the tribe Cardueae (synonym: Cynareae),[2] especially the genera Carduus, Cirsium, and Onopordum. Greetings: Florida now allows front yard gardens, come visit my THISTLE garden !! The ones here get to at least 5 ft tall. It can help prevent elevation of liver enzymes, which can be a side effect of the medication. Incidentally, it’s shaving brush-shaped flowers can be purple or yellow. At the base, they’re about 2 1/2″ in diameter. Hi — we’re currently living (here in central Virginia) in the midst of a perennial old field of 20 acres or so. It may look dangerous, but it is not poisonous. What does it taste like? Dinner here I come! When you say you use the entire rosette is that just the greens or is it the flower also. [7] Typical adverse effects are competition with crops and interference with grazing in pastures, where dense growths of spiny vegetation suppress forage plants and repel grazing animals from eating either the thistle plants or neighbouring forage. Lorraine is a region located in northeastern France, along the border with Luxembourg and Germany. Copyright 2007-2018 – This web page is the property of Green Deane, LLC. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Disclaimer: Information contained on this website is strictly and categorically intended as a reference to be used in conjunction with experts in your area. Just curious if I can simply eat it all. If you end up reading this and want me to send you a picture of the thistles here or with the Blue Orchard Mason Bee on it then just tell me in an email and next time I get the chance Ill send you the picture if you asked for one. Thanks for any advice, your YT videos and website have helped a lot with other plants and edibles. Buon appetito! People really love its taste and claim it to be delicious. They were about a foot or two tall with big yellow or bright pink/purple flowers and very thorny leaves. Known as the silent disease, because of how it causes harm to the body … Thank you everyone! What does thistle honey taste and smell like? Hello, My mom doesn’t believe that they are edible and I don’t eat any greens except for green beans but I actually want to see what the thistle tastes like. Rub the “wool” off and enjoy, raw or cooked. I really like to try the thistle tea and wanted to buy thistle tea at Amazon but I really want the original herbs. These are some of the few Milk Thistle seeds that you will find certified organic. Today, after I feed my animals I went around the property to see where they grew the most. Thistle flowers are the favourite nectar sources of the pearl-bordered fritillary, small pearl-bordered fritillary, high brown fritillary, and dark green fritillary butterflies. Thanks! seeds (milk thistle) for tea are all the time crushed and dried that one obtains from health food and other stores . These prickles are an adaptation that protects the plant from being eaten by herbivores. The honey stands out as having sweet floral notes and a medium taste intensity. Do you have a website? And should you be in the wilderness with little but a thistle for protection, know the Seminole Indians made blowgun darts from the plant. Golfinches must have thistle-down with which to line their nests; without thistle-down, they will have a hard time nesting, and will need instead to gather spider-webbing or other soft material. The leaves are still edible if you strip them of spines as are the bottom of the flower buds, though the bud bottoms aren’t much more than a nibble. Perfect Press ® Milk Thistle Oil has a smooth, malty taste. Only a few grew in the grass and some grew in the red dirt and clay areas but they mostly liked growing where the people that built our house dug a hole to put wood ashes in. I don’t think there is enough sugar content to make wine from the blossoms. Prickly yet pretty, milk thistle is a plant with a long, thin stem, spiny leaves, and a purplish-pink thistle at the top. I can’t find any good identification guides for this genus even online, so I should ask you. This floral combination appears on the present issues of the one pound coin. The flowers are favorites of Tiger Swallowtails, an occasional Silver Spangled Fritillary, and of course our humming bird love them. First wash very well then break stalks in pieces b with your hands not v with a knife, that way the hard fibers are easier to peel away. Is it possible to forage for milk thistle and can the same benefits be obtained from the plant or parts thereof? Although the taste may be a little bitter, you can add sugar or sugar substitutes or honey to your beverage to sweeten the taste. What is native? [11][12][13], Other thistles that nominally are weeds are important honey plants, both as bee fodder in general, and as sources of luxury monofloral honey products.[7][14][15]. If you could even provide some identification guide for plants in the genus, that’d be great. [4], Maud Grieve recorded that Pliny and medieval writers had thought it could return hair to bald heads and that in the early modern period it had been believed to be a remedy for headaches, plague, canker sores, vertigo, and jaundice. Or said another way, there is no poisonous true thistle, but not all of them are palatable. Milk Thistle Protects Your Liver. Tarentaise is a unique American farmstead cheese which reflects the Terroir of Pomfret Vermont and Thistle Hill Farm. It’s perennial because the landlord gets it mowed once a year and has done so (more or less) for the last 20 years. Looks like it is Bull Thistle. All the rest are — well — not really friendly, but if i’m careful, i can handle them with out gloves, it doesn’t hurt when i brush them with bare legs, and i can grab the stalks at the base with bare hands (uncalloused). Like many tasty wild plants, the thistle did not make its way into main stream food channel because of the spines and its two-year growth habit. This week I would like to point out two more thistle species, and some thistle look-alikes. In some species the branching can be throughout the stalk, in the bull thistle branching occurs only on top. Last summer I got stuck by a thistle on my left hand between my pinkie finger and ring finger, so much so that after two days and the swelling not going down along with some minor pain in the underside of my forearm I went to a doctor who pretty much told me to go home and stop being a wuss.