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Let your guard down and embrace the smutty fungus

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GARDEN JOURNAL

Taken out of context, even smut can be a good thing. Not the smut that Postal Inspector Anthony Comstock railed against when he had a woman arrested for mailing a postcard where she called her husband a "rascal." In 1915, he even arrested department store window dressers for dressing naked mannequins in full view of the public.

* But the smut to embrace isn't the postal smut; this smut is corn smut, a disease caused by the pathogenic plant fungus Ustilago maydis.

Corn smut replaces the kernels with big, distorted tumors that rook like mushrooms. These tumors called "galls" give the cob a burned or parched appearance. CaUed "huitlacoche" in Latin America, corn smut has a flavor Similar to mushrooms or truffles. The earthy, woodsy flavor is excellent in omelets, quesadil-las and other tortilla-based foods. Eating corn smut goes back to the ancient Aztecs and is still considered a delicacy in Mexico, and increasingly here in the Untied States.

Harvest the galls about two or three weeks after the corn ears are infected, while the galls are still immature.

In 1989, the James Beard Foundation even hosted a huitlacoche dinner, where they tried to improve smut's image by calling it the Mexican truffle.

Corn smut grows best during times of drought and high temperatures. The Aztecs inoculated corn with the smut spores by scratching corn plants at the soil level with a knife. This gave the water-borne spores easy entrance into the plant.

Besides corn smut, you can eat other bad things from the garden. When a plant goes to seed in a process called bolting, the leaves become bitter and we toss out the plant as worthless. However, flowers of many herbs are not only edible, but tasty. When your herbs bolt into flower don't pull them up; eat the blossoms.

You can use culinary herb blossoms such as fennel, thyme, basil, sages, lavender, marjoram, oregano, rosemary and cilantro as garnishes. Take fennel (Foeniculum vulgare.)

You can dip fennel blossoms in egg and fry them. Or combine fennel blossoms with chive blossoms (Allium schoenopra-sum) into a crowd-pleasing souffle. Chive blossoms on their own will add a delicate pink-lavender color to salads.

Most blossoms will have a delicate flavor of the underlying herb so they can be used to add color to soups.

If you have wetlands or damp woods, you might be lucky enough to have common cattails (Typha latifolia) to eat. Cattail flour or starch from the roots can be used as a great flour substitute. Peel the roots while they are wet, when they are much easier to peel than if they are allowed to dry. Chop the peeled cattail roots into small pieces and break up the roots under water. This will separate the flour from the fibers. Since cattail root flour contains gluten it allows flour to rise in yeast breads.

Beyond corn smut, old herbs going to seed and cattails, you can round out your found garden with the ubiquitous dandelion (Taraxacum officinale.) This is a famous diuretic, meaning it helps you pass urine. In French, it is known affectionately as "pissenlits," which is a fun word that means "Wet your bed."

Not to worry, unless you have a weak bladder, it doesn't really affect most gardeners that way.

Sauteed with olive oil and gar-lic or blanched then tossed into a salad the strong-tasting dandelion is richer in Vitamin A than carrots.

Dandelion roots can be dried and used as a vegetable or even roasted for a coffee substitute.

So let your guard down and embrace smut, weeds and other pests. You'll eat well and make the best of a bad situation, you rascal.

Paul Barbano writes about gardening from his home in Rehoboth Beach. Contact him by writing to P.O. Box 213, Lewes, DE19958.





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