When asked about what wild foods people know about in the spring months one usually gets back the ever present reply of "Ramps and Morels". Hidden in plain sight is a vegetable, a shoot, that most people have never even heard of. This fantastic wild edible not only rivals the two aforementioned wild edibles, but may in fact taste better. What could possibly taste better than Ramps and Morels you might ask? Hop Shoots.
Hops are a native species, and that little factoid has caused more than one perturbed beer lover or hop enthusiast to insist that I am in fact wrong and that the Hops that I encounter in the wild are just escaped hops. However we now know through genetics that indeed there are native Hops in the United States. Our native variety of Hops is known to the scientific community as Humulus americanus. Humulus lupulus is the species that is native to Eurasia.
The reason that we have our very own native Hops is simple: The northern hemisphere has a great number of circumpolar species including plants like Yarrow, Purslane, Strawberries, Lingonberries and many more. Many times throughout the last tens of thousands of years the two continents of North America and Eurasia have been connected by a massive piece of land that is called a bridge( I believe that this conjures an inaccurate image in the mind for the actual scale of this "bridge"). Because of this connection many species have had time to cross one way or the other. The progenitor of all hops species is believed to have originated in China and through time this genus made its way to North America.
Hops of either ancestry yield an exceptional vegetable in the spring each year. It is yet another species that not only survives being cut down for its shoots, but thrives under it. Hop farmers descend on their fields each and every year armed with weed whackers to cut down the first emerging shoots of the year. This act, while wasting a perfectly edible and profitable crop, encourages the secondary growth to come in much thicker and more vigorous. Which I am told by my hop farming friends leads to a much better yield of the popular beer ingredient later on.
What are Hops and where do they grow?
Take a walk outside, but this time make it a point to pay close attention to the different shapes and textures of the surrounding landscape. In the beginning of this lifelong journey it is difficult to separate out different plants. Then slowly, gradually you find yourself able to differentiate hundreds of shapes, sizes and smells. This unfolding awareness is much like meditation in that your mind is on one focal point. Finding wild edible plants or mushrooms for the first time can be a little bit like playing a game of hide and seek, but with a gigantic arena to play in.
Ecosystems vary from place to place. A Cedar swamp is not going to house the same species as a Beech-Maple forest. This is why knowing where you stand is important in this very large game of Hide and Seek. As with most things in life once your eyes have seen something, like hops in the wild, that very object that was hidden in plain sight becomes something that one sees with increasing frequency. I remember my very first encounter with wild Hops, and ever after I do not typically miss its presence on a landscape. Such is the power of awareness while taking a stroll in the woods.
Wild hops have a very cosmopolitan distribution that ranges from openings in upland forests to floodplain forests, woodland borders, the slopes of bluffs and thickets. Over the past 15 years I myself have found them in ditches on the side of the road, in low wet forests, and even in very dry sloping fields. They oft mentioned escapees are also often found on old farm lands.
Wild Hops growing in all of their Native glory.
Identifying Hops is remarkably easy as they have a leaf shape that lends itself to proper identification. These opposite leaves are palmate, have serrations on the margins with typically 3 but sometimes 5 lobes. The leaves have a rough, almost sandpaper-esque feel to them and the can be as large as 6" long and 4" wide. These leaves grow on vines(sorry beer enthusiasts, they are not "bines") that are themselves coarse, sand papery and stick to natural surfaces like tree bark and other plant life quite easily. In the absence of something tall to climb, Hops will sprawl out and cover the earth in a very wide swath.
Unfortunately however identifying shoots is not as easy as identifying fully grown Hop plants. Fortunately for us, last years vines will still be hanging around at the time of harvest in the spring, and occasionally old hop flowers as well. The shoots themselves are usually quite skinny and will often emerge in great clusters from a singular location. The harvest for food is confined to the meristematic growth of the shoot, this is the still flexible portion at the top. Sometimes ten inches of the vine is completely flexible and thus edible, other times only four inches might be flexible. You take what is flexible and leave the rest. It is as simple as that.
When we discuss sustainability of the harvest of wild plants, we often tell people not to take too much as it can hurt the plant. This statement is false for Hops. The places in which I harvest Hop shoots have done nothing but expand and become more vigorous in the years since I began this annual wild food harvest. The same phenomenon occurs with wild Asparagus. This may have been an evolutionary advantage that occurs due to fire or herbivory and has led to the ultimate success of the species. Evolution gave Hops a way to survive even after 100% of the above ground material has been removed, and I find that to be amazing.
Prep and Cooking
Once you have gathered enough to make a meal or two grab your gear and head back to your kitchen. Wash off any dirt or debris and decide which way you'll use your hop shoots. Some of my chef friends serve hop shoots fried in a light batter. In our household the primary cooking method is to simply cut the shoots into the same size chunks that you would cut asparagus into and fry in a cast iron skillet with some lard, tallow or ghee. The choice of cooking fat is yours, we prefer something that is neutral in flavor to highlight the taste of the Hops shoots and not cover it up. Add salt to taste and serve immediately. If you really want to have an inception moment try drinking a Hoppy beer with your meal. Hop toward sustainability
The great thing about Hop shoots is that there are literally hundreds of acres of Hops farms in Michigan, and so even if you cannot find wild Hops you might still be able to persuade a friend that grows hops to eat his or her shoots! You both benefit, and perhaps you can even share a meal together and revel in this new vegetable that you never knew existed.
I love vegetables like Hop shoots not only for the taste, but also because plants like Hops prove to us that we can slowly back out of getting the majority of our food at the supermarket and begin to cultivate a relationship with the natural world. Even if you can only eat one or two meals per year of this food, that still means that you are moving the dial back toward greater sustainability as this food is hyper local.
While tasting foods from around the world is exciting at times, I am much more interested in forming a relationship with the plants and the tastes that are all around us. I want to be made of the foods that grow in close proximity to myself. A person before globalization was often made of the same things as his or her land, and that is why the vast majority of tribal people worldwide saw themselves as being part of the land and not simply guests that are passing through. I am not even close to being there, but it is a goal that I strive to move closer to with each and every passing year.