Utah’s edible Plants

I have always been fascinated with the Idea of using unusual plants in our food. I really like using pink roses in my salad (it seems so romantic) as I was thinking about this, I thought I would do a little research and see what edible plants Utah has to offer. It would be fun to pick them and use them in unusual dishes don’t you think!

When visiting Utah how fun to be able to go on a beautiful hike and gather food as well… There actually are some guided tours that take your thorough and show you plants that are edible as well as survival skills in the wilderness. This particular instructor does two classes, both a desert class and a mountain/harvest class.

For more information on tours click here.

Our State Flower

The Sego Lilly is our state flower and is an edible plant. It grows in the desert in the western states and is the state flower because it helped the early pioneers survive a tough winter. The bulb is very tasty. It is a sweet and delicious bulb but you must know for sure what you are harvesting because there are poisonous flower bulbs that can be mistaken for them.

Sego Lily is a beautiful white desert flower with three main petals and yellow and purple in the center of the flower. It has an almost grass like stem that is round and can grow anywhere from 3 or 4 inches to over 12 inches tall and the stem will extend as far as 8 inches into the ground to the bulb.

Warning! You need to make sure you are harvesting the Sego Lily and NOT the Death Camas. Their flowers look nothing alike and if you cut the Sego Lily bulb in half you will see no more than 4 rings while the Death Camas will have many like layers of an onion.

Video to help you identify the plant: