Foraging for Dock

There are several plants that have become all but invisible due to their sheer ubiquity and the fact they can grow in less-than-desirable places.

Dock is one of those plants – a colonizer of empty lots, a squatter in industrial gravel piles, roadside inhabitant, and pasture weed.

For years, its subliminal association with unpleasant places like dirty alleyways or dumpsters kept me from trying it. But when I moved to my homestead, I found myself surrounded by lush, leafy greens as far as the eye could see. Dock was there, patiently waiting for me to shed my industrial associations and finally see it for what it is: A tough-as-nails, generous plant that offers mild-tasting leaves (and more) during multiple harvesting seasons.

Sorry for judging you, buddy.

Identifying Dock

In this article, I’ll be focusing solely on curly dock (Rumex crispus) as it’s the species I’m surrounded by and generally, the most widely abundant in the United States.

There are several estimable species of dock to forage, however, including field dock (R. pseudonatronatus), narrowleaf dock (R. stenophyllus), western dock (R. occidentalis), and patience dock (R. patientia). All docks are edible, but you’ll find that some are tastier than others. Patience dock is apparently the most delicious of them all. I have yet to find one myself to verify this claim, but I believe it.

Curly dock, like all docks, is a perennial with a yellow, deep-growing taproot. It begins growing as a basal rosette with elongated, lance-shaped leaves. The leaves can be quite large — sometimes more than a foot long. They are distinctively veined, with a prominent midrib that’s usually a slightly different color than the leaf tissue. The margins of the leaves are wavy. They remind me, and many other foragers, of lasagna noodles. When picked young, broken leaves will leave a slimy feeling on your hands. There’s nothing to worry about if you feel slime — in fact, it’s another confirming sign that you’ve got the right plant.

船坞通常被发现在阳光充足，潮湿，有点不安的地面。这就是为什么它在建筑工地或农田中无处不在的原因。在我的土地上，码头植物在我经常光顾的地方最为突出:鸡舍、花园和人行道。离人类活动越远，它们就越稀少。从东海岸到西海岸，你可能会发现一个码头，要么是本地的，要么是引入的，所以找到它应该不是问题。

在整个生长过程中，船坞会有几种不同的形式，了解它们会让你从春天到秋天收获一些东西。

In the spring, dock will form a rosette of leaves, springing from a central point. These will be some of your biggest handfuls to collect, and the most tender greens from this plant.

In late spring, dock will start to bolt, sending up a flower stalk. Leaves will still form along the stalk, but they will be narrower and far smaller. At this point, the leaves around the base may have grown over a foot long.

在夏天最热的时候，花茎会变成一个饱满的、咖啡色的种子头。After the abundant, somewhat pyramidal seeds are fully ripe, the plant starts to die back and wither.

But we’re not done yet. In the fall, from beneath the dried, dead stems, dock will send out a bonus round of tasty leaves for a last hurrah. Though they’re smaller than the abundance offered early in the year, they still give the forager one last gift before the frost sends much of the greenery into hiding.

Dock Look-Alikes

Probably the most easily confused dock look-alike is wild horseradish (Armoracia rusticana). It’s unlikely you’ll find it, however. The plant is relatively rare, and even if you do somehow make the mix-up, you’ll still be harvesting an edible green (just one with a very different kick of flavor).

Another potential mix-up for the forager is attempting to harvest prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum) or burdock (Arctium lappa). Though both have “dock” in the name, they’re not part of the same family as the true docks. They are from theAsteraceae/Compositae family. Prairie dock, with its leather tough, sandpaper-like leaves, will not seem edible once you handle it — which is helpful. And there’s nothing poisonous about burdock. The young leaves are edible, the older leaves are debatably palatable, and the root is a valued vegetable.

Harvesting Dock

Leaves

在整个生长季节，船坞的叶子在形状和质地上都略有不同，但在任何时候都可以食用。在春天，绽开的新叶是精心采摘的。最嫩的叶子会是那些在表面上有卷曲痕迹的叶子。它们通常是许多觅食书籍告诉你采摘的树叶，有些人喜欢生吃它们。

But I always cook dock, and because of that, I would recommend that you not skip the bigger leaves. They may look coarse and tough, and maybe they’re a bit bitter in a salad, but I have found they cook up as nicely as the smaller ones with no trace of bitterness. The stems can be hard to chew, so I usually harvest these by stripping the leaf tissue off the center vein. Dock is so prolific, hardy, and common that this rough handling won’t harm the plants.

At the peak of the season, you can collect a huge bowlful of dock leaves in record time. In terms of food output, I’ve found that dock is second only topokeweedin the amount you can collect and feast on through the spring. What a gift!

Flower Stalk

When still tender and not yet blooming, the bolted stalks of dock are also a good vegetable.Samuel Thayer recommends stripping the leaves and peeling the tough outer layer,but I happily chop it, leaves and all, and include it in my stir-fried greens.

Seeds

In my personal experience, dock seeds are just … terrible. I’ve tried them raw, dried, and roasted, and I find them mouth-puckeringly bad — but that is merely my own experience. Maybe this is some sort of genetic thing where certain people taste things that others don’t. Because the truth is, many folks really like dock seeds.Ashley from Practical Self Reliance actually prefers them to dock leaves (saying that the leaves are near unpalatable) which I find surprising (and fascinating).

所以这是一个让你自己去发现的机会。不要仅仅因为我说我不喜欢就忽略了种子。它们数量丰富，而且非常容易收获。用你的手滑过棕色干燥的种子头，它们很快就会落在你的手里。它们看起来像小小的荞麦种子，周围有一个纸环，这是合适的，因为dock是在荞麦家族。也许有一种方法能让它们变得有价值。我很好奇实验者会在下面的评论中说些什么。

Preparing Dock

码头可以处理，你会任何绿色。它不需要像poke那样半煮，所以当你把它带到厨房时，只需要在你把它变成任何你想要的东西之前冲洗一下。

第一次烹饪船坞时，你可能会注意到，一旦加热，船坞的颜色会发生变化。明亮、翠绿的绿色很快就会变成更橄榄绿的色调。对于那些更看重码头的营养和味道而不是外观的人来说，这不是问题。但对于觅食的蚂蚁来说，它们需要迎合更挑剔的口味，最好是在烹饪码头的时候加入一些其他颜色鲜艳的食材来增添乐趣。我经常把码头和明亮的紫罗兰绿色混合在一起，因为它们在同一时间大量生长，而紫罗兰在烹饪时往往保持绿色。

Now, on a typical day, I usually gather a big pile of dock greens and tender stalks and sautee them with onions, garlic, and salt. A simple preparation like this makes it easy to eat your greens nearly every day.

But if you’re looking to try dock in some different ways, I humbly recommend you check out our earliervideo/article用一些有创意又美味的方法来使用绿色蔬菜。Dock非常适合我在那里分享的任何食谱。

So though I once shuffled dock into the “trash weed” category of my mind, I’m now glad that moving to my homestead allowed me to see the folly of my ways. I am thankful to have met this incredibly generous, multiseason plant, and it has been a part of my menus ever since. I hope that you can get acquainted with it yourself, and enjoy the nutritious deliciousness waiting for you at the side of the barn, the garden, and the path along the way.