I spent a profitable hour on Friday evicting ground elder from my autumn raspberries. While doing so, I remembered that ground elder is a correct answer to the perennial question “What have the Romans ever done for us?”. Yes, it was the Romans who introduced ground elder to the UK. They did so with the best of intentions (a theme of disastrous plant & animal introductions through the ages), bringing it with them as a food plant. Apparently, the trick is to pick only the very young shoots. I’ve not tried it myself, but Scottish Forest Garden and downsizer.net have recipes.
I guess if you keep picking new shoots, eventually you’ll eat it to exhaustion. Please let me know if you try any of them.
Now – anyone know of any redeeming features of bindweed?
You will not make me like ground elder. I have it in the strawberry bed too, as well as the raspberry bed – you can be more brutal in the strawberry bed, thought, because the roots are so shallow. And I know no redeeming features of bindweed!