Common Burdock / Wild Gobo (Arctium minus)

Family: Asteraceae | Edibility: Choice Edible (4/5)

A stout biennial weed forming huge heart-shaped basal leaves with woolly white undersides in its first year, sending up a grooved purplish stem bearing hooked burrs in its second year, supported by a deep, crisp, nutritious taproot.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Roots/Tubers, Shoots, Leaves

Harvest Seasons: Spring, Fall, Winter

Flavor & Culinary Uses

Earthy, sweet, artichoke-like, nutty, and savory with a satisfying crisp water-chestnut bite — First-year autumn or early-spring taproots dug, scrubbed, julienned, and simmered with soy sauce, sesame oil, and ginger (Kinpira Gobo); Tender young second-year flower stalks peeled completely of bitter outer rind and boiled as wild cardoons or tossed in stir-fries; Sliced root roasted in an oven until dark brown and brewed as earthy, caffeine-free wild prebiotic tea; Roots parboiled and pickled in rice vinegar with wild garlic

Habitat & North American Range

Pastures, roadsides, fencerows, barnyards, and rich disturbed alluvial bottomlands. (Zone 3, Zone 4, Zone 5, Zone 6, Zone 7, Zone 8, Zone 9)