Hostas are edible!!!

Hostas, apparently, are not just ornamentals. I have never been interested in them as I only care for what I can eat. But, having seen https://scottishforestgarden.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/hostas/, I now wonder when they come up? When can I start pestering my more onamentally inclined neighbours for a taste?

 

Blimey, never knew that

 

I know they are a snail & slugs favourite food but I never knew they were edible for us!

 

yeh they are in james wongs home grown revolution book i think i do have it somewhere

its the new shoots that are edible isnt it?

 

The new shoots are best, apparently. But when are they coming out? Should I be in there already?

 

I have found them in Mr wongs book and he says

as much as a third of the newly grown shoots can be harvested each spring without affecting the plants overall health or productivity

they can be snipped off either when the new green shoots reach 10-20cm high but are still tightly rolled up in little upside down cones or when they have just begun to unfurl

he then says that for the finest flavour cover the newly emerging shoot tips in spring when they are just beginning to poke through the surface with a 10cm-20cm layer of straw. harvest these shoots once leaves are sticking out above the straw and starting to unfurl. this will force plants to elongate their petioles ( leaf stems) and become more tender and sweet. However he says he would not do this every year as this process can weaken plants

 

If you venture near mine, Annemieke, you'll find yourself sprinkled with salt and thrown in a container with a lot of putrefying slugs and snails! Ye Gods, as if hosta-growers didn't have enough to contend with.....

 

I won't be partaking of many of my numerous Hosta shoots as a herd of bl...y bambis have scoffed most of them.....funny how animals seem much more clued up on what's tasty that we are! Luckily the Hostas seem to recover from being munched and put on a great show every year. If you go by the deers' preferences they like the plain green Hostas best so if anybody is going to try sampling them, go for the all green types.

 

I've heard about these slug problems! I found a suggestion on a website, see below, but obviously haven't tried this out myself.

"The main problem with their cultivation is that slugs are also partial to a hosta salad, though in my climate this is only a problem in late summer. I make a slug trap by breaking off a few leaves of the largest species and placing them around the hostas and other susceptible plants. Then I regularly collect the slugs that congregate underneath." (From http://emmacooper.org/files/hostas.pdf)