Red Clover, Red Clover
To sum up what I’ve learned about foraging this year: we’re basically living in Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Everything’s edible. The snozzberries taste like snozzberries. There are just so many natural healthy foods growing all around us, but most of us don’t know anything about them!
My knowledge of clover had always been limited to thinking it was just another pesky weed that prevented me from having that perfectly manicured lush green lawn, or that it was a lucky medallion you could find in open fields or lots. I remember walking around in the unbuilt sections of my childhood neighborhood looking for the lucky four leaves, but my two younger brothers were always the ones that found them.
At our new home, white clover has crept into our yard in patches. The empty lot next to us has growths of red clover, and the undeveloped section of our neighborhood, previously farmland, is covered in fuzzy pinkish flowers. I guess my knowledge also extended to understanding red clover is sometimes used as a cover crop to replenish nitrogen in fields. I read that years ago when I was trying to figure out how to improve my home garden.
Wild red clover sprouting in an open lot
After I started looking into uses for wild violet, my search exposed me to the many uses of red clover. It turns out, it is an edible and herbaceous plant in the legume family and has been used as an herbal remedy in some communities. In “Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook” by Dina Falconi (with beautiful illustrations by Wendy Hollender), red clover is said to have mild blood-thinning properties when used in a tea. Dina recommends eating the flowers and leaves raw in salad and as a garnish, and cooked in soups. You can find isoflavone (a chemical similar to estrogen) extracts from red clover in over-the-counter supplements to ease menopause symptoms, but some modern studies and provided mixed results on the effectiveness.
Even if there are no benefits as an herbal remedy, red clover is an edible - and free! - source for salad toppers and tea. I was willing to try it!
Foraging finds from just beyond our yard
If you read our Wild Violets post, you’ll know that I’m at risk of being the neighborhood weirdo (grown woman in a field picking flowers for… potion?). Luckily the lot next to us is relatively hidden from street and neighbor view, so I got my bowl and head out. I learned that to identify red clover, you look for a pink flower, and more importantly, a leaf with a white or light green chevron pattern. This was helpful because I found that the alsike clover looks similar, but it has a pinkish-white flower and the leaves are solid green. When I got a hang of identifying the plant, I started plucking off the full fuzzy pink heads. Any flowers that started to shrivel or brown were left behind.
Once I was back in the kitchen, washed the flowers and pat them dry. The flowers could have been aired dried by leaving them on a paper towel and baking sheet on top of the fridge for a couple days, but I felt like speed-drying in my dehydrator. It had been a while since I used it and I felt like dusting it off.
Red clover flowers on the dehydrator tray
In total, I probably had about 2 cups of fresh flowers to dry. I spread them out on the stacking dehydrator trays and turned it on.
The dehydrator I use is the Nesco FD-37A stacking dehydrator that I bought a few years ago. It’s very basic - the temperature is not adjustable, there’s no timer, it only has a plug and an on/off switch - but I’ve been using it for years and love it! I’ve dried flowers, tomatoes, zucchini, kale, and even made fruit roll ups in it. For around $30, its a workhorse in the kitchen. There are a lot of great programmable options.
The flowers were near dry after 1-1/2 hours, but I left them go a little longer just to make sure it was good-to-go. I popped off the trays, placed the dried flowers in a mason jar, and placed the lid. I just bought the new Ball leak-proof storage lids and I LOVE them! They look great in the pantry too.
And that‘s it! I have a pint jar full of dried flowers to experiment with. Now when I make a glass of tea in the morning, I add two dried red clover flowers with the loose black tea leaves in the infuser. After the tea cools, I add a little honey and ice. It’s made the perfect drink for these hot summer days!