As I picked another armload of French and Italian globe squash this morning, I thought about low-maintenance edible natives that can enhance an occasional meal.
One of the first things I like to plant is an herb garden. Herbs add another dimension to foods, they are easy to grow as well as decorative and aromatic, and they are best used in small amounts and freshly picked.
Some of the mildly aromatic native sages (Salvia spp.), such as Cleveland sage, can substitute for culinary sage. Be sure to taste first, and start with a small amount. The fruitier hummingbird sage leaves can be used as a seasoning or a tea. Some people like pitcher sage (Lepechinia) as a tea. Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), however, is not related to the sages and is not edible.
By the way, a common plant often overlooked for tea is redwood. Use the young leaves.
If you already have a California bay tree, you can use its more-pungent leaves in place of Mediterranean bay laurel leaves. Not enough space for a tree that will eventually grow as tall as 100 feet? Plant a native bay in a large container and prune it to stay small.
Mints are challenging to grow in the home garden because they quickly outgrow containers, yet overwhelm other plants in the ground. One solution is to plant the native yerba buena (Satureja douglasii), a well-behaved minty groundcover that needs a well-drained site with afternoon shade, and grows well in dappled or high shade. It also looks lovely cascading from pots. The luscious flavor is closest to spearmint. Once the plant is established, it does not mind an occasional trim, though it is not nearly as prolific as other mints.
Mint makes me think of dolmas, a Mediterranean treat made with rice, mint, lemon, and grape leaves. For the lemony flavor, use lemonade berries. If you have a California grape vine, you know it grows rampantly and has leaves to spare, whether trained over an arbor or along a fence.
You can eat the fruit of the vine as grapes, though the pits are large and the fruits small. Or you can harvest them all at once, mash and strain, and make grape juice.
One of the finest evergreen shrubs for the north side of a house is the California huckleberry, which produces a small crop of tasty berries – if the birds share with you.
Blue elderberry trees often produce a big crop, but the ripe berries must be cooked, preferably with the seeds strained out. One Palo Alto homeowner with a 20-foot blue elderberry in the front yard makes elderberry wine every year. This deciduous tree grows fast and also has edible flowers. Avoid eating the stems, leaves, and immature berries, which can cause nausea.
Finally, leave coffeeberry fruits for wildlife. The berries are toxic to humans.
© 2006 Tanya Kucak