Ulmus pumila

Ulmus pumila

Elm Samaras are a tasty spring salad. They are very easy to collect in large amounts, which is unusual for a wild edible. But on the other hand, the collection season is very short.

A "samara" is a winged seed. Elms, maples, and ash trees have samaras of difference shapes. The wing is a thin membrane extending out from the edge of the seed, to help it catch the wind and be able to fall farther from the parent tree. Elm samaras are round, and often have a notch at the end. Elm trees can be recognized by their serrated (toothed) leaves, but often the easiest way to recognize an elm tree is by noticing the thousands of round seeds on ground underneath it.

Most elms bear their fruit in the early spring before their leaves grow. This means the seeds are only available for a short time in the spring. But this is good for collecting the seeds, because they can be stripped easily from any branch low enough to reach, without worrying about collecting a lot of leaves with them. I was able to collect enough for a salad in five minutes.

The saramas grow in bunches connected by short stalks. I suppose one could pull the bunches of saramas off the little stalks, but I found that the stalks were not tough at all, so I didn't notice them as I ate them with the samaras. It was a lot less work just to leave them on after washing, plus they helped keep the samaras in the bunches separated, instead of lying flat against each other, which improves their presentation in a salad.

After washing, I spread them on a towel to dry a bit, and inspected them for foreign matter. I found a few small leaf buds and twigs. Don't be surprised if you get a few bugs as well. We got a couple ladybugs and some smaller things on one collection trip. For my salad, I chopped some tomato and cucumber into small pieces and tossed it all with a little balsamic vinaigrette.

The flavor of these raw is quite good. They are fairly tender, with a mild and slightly sweetish flavor. The wet salad vegetables, cucumber and tomato, were a good accompaniment in the salad I made with them. I have not tried them cooked, because I like them so much as a raw salad.

These are best fresh and raw, but I tried cooking them to see how they would taste. After boiling for 5 minutes, they turned mushy and bland tasting, although the water/tea from them had a nice, hearty flavor. I decided it would be better to not separate any juice from the samara, so I next tried them in an omelet, with a bit of onion, salt, and pepper. This was quite good, and the family wanted more. Because they can get mushy, these could be used whereever you might consider using cooked spinach.

Elm samara omlet ("Elmlet"), slightly scrambled

Identifying these seeds is very easy. No other tree-born seed is quite like them. Although a few mustard seeds look similar, they do not grow as trees. Look for the round-winged seeds, as a fairly dense first growth on trees early in the spring. Fruit trees will be in full blossom and other trees might be putting out their first leaves, so from a distance it may look like any other tree putting out new leaves. Get up close and get to know your trees, and you will soon find this one as well. The leaves, when they appear, are sharply serrate (toothed), and sometimes doubly-serrate (having smaller serrations inside large serrations).

This food is available fresh for only a few weeks in the spring, but it is super-abundant during that time. Elm trees can grow well over 50 feet tall, and cover themselves with seeds before the leaves come out. A single tree produces more salad than one could eat during that time.

Later, the dried fallen seeds can be rubbed and winnowed clean of the dried samara. This leaves a lentil-like seed, but I have not yet experimented with the seeds in this stage.

There are several species of Elm trees around. Siberian Elm (Ulmus pumila) is considered to be a weed by many people, so there is a good chance of finding that species. It may be difficult to distinguish some of the species before the leaves come out. American Elm (Ulmus americana), which is now endangered after being wiped out by dutch elm disease, has hairs around the edges of the wing.