Wild herbs grow inconspicuously along the way and are no longer noticed by many. They are often extremely tasty and a valuable addition to the menu. Unlike the sweet pea (Lathyrus), which is a poisonous plant, the bindweed (Vicia) is edible and extremely tasty.
Not only a treat for bees: the binding of binding vetch
System of the fence vetch
The bindweed is easy to identify, confusion with other plants is hardly possible. It thrives as a perennial, herbaceous plant and forms long stolons. If it grows in front of climbing aids such as fences or dead wood, it holds on to itself with the help of leaf tendrils. The pinnate leaves are about five to eight centimeters long and are covered with a very fine hair down on the underside. The flowers are in racemose inflorescences and are red-violet to cloudy blue, in exceptional cases also white.
The elongated pods look like this:
- Two to four inches long.
- Five to eight millimeters wide.
- Stands out horizontally or grows slightly nodding.
- Young pods are covered with a fine down of hair
- When ripe, these are glabrous and shiny dark brown to black in color.
- They contain three to six round seeds about four millimeters in size.
Edible parts of plants
Leaves, young sprouts and flowers of the bindweed are fit for human consumption. You can collect the flowers throughout the growing season. Shoots and leaves should be harvested as young as possible.
The seeds, on the other hand, are slightly poisonous and must therefore not be consumed.
How does the bindweed taste?
The taste of the crisp, juicy shoot tips is reminiscent of young peas. The flowers have a lot of nectar and therefore taste pleasantly slightly sour-sweet. They are a tasty accompaniment to salads, which they also give an optically interesting touch thanks to their pretty colouring.
tips
You can plant the bindweed specifically in your own garden. To do this, sow the seeds along a fence. The plant thrives on almost any surface without any problems and spreads by itself in the following years.