Rumex crispus

Rumex crispus

The most common type of dock, Rumex crispus is commonly known as Curly Dock if you look at the leaves with their wavy or "crisped" edges, or Yellow Dock if you look at the root.

There are many ways to enjoy this plant, and most of them depend on finding the plants when they are young and tender.

When dock first starts to grow, it can be recognized by the large leaves, and the way each side of the leaf starts out curled to the back or underside of the leaf, and uncurls after it has grown out far enough. The base of the young leaf will be surrounded by a dry sheath at the base of the previous leaf, with a slimy substance down in there as well. The sliminess washes or wipes of easily enough, and the inner stem and base of these immature leaves can be eaten raw, tasting like lemony celery.

The lemony flavor is from oxalic acid, which people who only eat modern highly processed food will caution you against. But it is present in varying amounts in many vegetables. It is safe to eat in reasonable amounts, and toxicity is "wildly unlikely", but it has been linked with kidney stones, so it is prudent to avoid it if you have problems with those.

The young leaves themselves can be eaten raw, and also have that lemony flavor. But the best way to eat the leaves is to boil them for about five minutes. The cooked leaves lose a lot of the lemoniness, because a lot of the soluble oxalic acid stays in the cooking water. But they still have a fresh, enjoyable flavor, and just the right amount of texture to make chewing them enjoyable as well. Cooked dock leaves have a big reputation as one of the most enjoyable greens around and they certainly live up to it.

The dock plant will soon send up a tall stalk with flowers and eventually the 3-winged seeds which are the easiest way to identify the plant when it is mature. But if you catch the stalk when it is still growing, before the flowers open, there will be a part with is still flexible and tender. This can be peeled and eaten raw. The outer surface will still have some fibers after peeling, but still tender enough to bite and chew up if you got the flexible part of the stalk. It is crunchy and the lemony flavor is subdued to a tanginess. Samuel Thayer (in Nature's Garden) says these are his favorites parts of the plant, either raw or cooked. But when I cooked them, the inner stalk quickly turned to mush, which squishes out of the fibrous part instead of supporting it so you can bite through it. This is bad news for cooking the stalks, but good news for cooking the leaves, since the central leaf vein softens very quickly.

I've noticed that after the seed stalk has grown up, there are often some smaller, more rounded leaves growing at the base of the plant which are still tender and a bit thickish. Look for these leaves after the other leaves and stem have become mature and tough. (update:) It's now half way through September, and the stalks and seed have dried to a rusty red, but there are still leaves growing from the bases of the dry stalks. They are only slightly bitter and tender enough to eat raw, although washing off the dust helps greatly, and cooking them is even better.