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PLANT PROFILE LIST
NAME: Curly-Yellow Dock
SPECIES / FAMILY: Rumex Crispus / Polygonaceae (Rumex)
OTHER COMMON NAME(S):
CONDITIONS: full sun to partial shade, moist to well-drained soil
PARTS:
EDIBLE
TASTE
RAW/COOK
SEASON
All
Shoots
lemony
COOK
Late Spring-Fall
Leaves
lemony
COOK
Late Spring-Fall
Buds/Flowers
Fruits
Roots
Seeds
Summer-Fall
Nuts
Pods
Stalk
Bark
PORTION: moderate
COMMENT: Tastes best cooked. Seeds can be ground into flour. * In this editor's opinion, Patience Dock is the best dock for eating raw, but not-so-much cooked, while Bitter-Round Leaf Dock and Curly Yellow Dock are best eaten cooked, but not-so-much- raw.
To remove this outer shell, toast the seeds to make the shell brittle, then "grind" them between the palms of your hands to shatter the shell off the seeds. Take this shell/seed mixture and go outside during a light wind and pour the mix back and forth between two bowls, allowing the wind to blow away the lighter shell material. This is called winnowing. The seeds can be roasted then eaten as a snack or ground into flour, boiled into porridge, added to bread, etc... Really, their use is limited only by your imagination! They add a nutty, quinoa type flavor to soups and stews. https://www.foragingtexas.com/2008/08/dock.html
CAUTION: Cook with lid off to minimize oxalic acid, as with spinach.
NUTRITION/MEDICINAL:
LOOK-A-LIKES: other docks, young corn
POISONOUS LOOK-A-LIKES:
OTHER USES: “dark green to brown and dark grey dyes can be obtained from the roots of many species in this genus. They do not need a mordant.” Also used for caterpillar food (1)
SOURCE LINKS (may include nutritional and medicinal info, plus other uses):