Eating On The Wild Side: Harvest Sweet Goldenrod Fritters

Fall is the time for showy goldenrods to bloom.  Many wrongly think that the blossoms not only cause allergies, but that they are not edible.  On the allergy front, goldenrod is a bee pollinated plant, not an open pollinating one, so they do not cause nasal allergies; they get blamed because they happen to bloom at the same time as ragweed blooms.  There are many, many kinds of goldenrod, from all over the country (for a complete list see Wikipedia), in fact of the 75 or so species of the flower, ALL are native to the North American continent.  The blossoms, stalks and upper stems have long been used to brew a tea (or tisane) that is both light and delicious (especially if brewed from Sweet Goldenrod), but it also has medicinal properties as well; it's a great tea for someone who has a Tzompilli (cold).  These same parts of the plant, when dried, also goes into smoking mixture.  This is my own recipe, using fresh goldenrod blossoms, but dried ones can easily be substituted, in fact some herbal outlets sell the dried blooms, if you don't want to or can't gather them yourself (Mountain Rose Herbs is one company that sells them).

Goldenrod Sweet Fritters:

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup goldenrod blossoms

1/2 cup self-rising flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch Salt

1/2 to 2/3 cup sweet milk

1 egg

1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground allspice (may substitute Apple Pie Spice)

Oil for deep frying

Confectioners sugar to top

1.  Mix all dry ingredients together.

2.  Mix milk and egg and beat into the dry ingredients.  Fold in goldenrod blossoms and drop by spoonful into hot oil.  Fry until golden and drain well.  Top with confectioners sugar and serve.  Also great drizzled with wildflower honey or maple syrup.