They say the difference between a flower and a weed is a judgement.

This Mother’s day I had a funny experience with Mom.. as we were walking around her 2 acre yard in the Shenandoah Valley, I spotted the most beautiful burdock I have ever seen in my days studying herbs. I started exclaiming, MOM! Oh my GOD, is that BURDOCK? Mom says, “I don’t have burdock, I have cockleburs! I hate those things! I have tried so hard to get rid of those things.”

I don’t know what cockleburs are, but that sure looks like burdock. So we go investigate further. We start digging out one that’s growing in her compost pile.


If you don’t know burdock, it has a tap root that grows about 2 and a half feet into the ground, and on top is a rosette of gigantic leaves. I have seen the roots get about as thick as a man’s thumb, maybe a little bigger. The one we dug out of Mom’s compost was at least four times that width. No kidding. It was so big, I wasn’t completely sure it was burdock until I tasted it. I don’t know how deep it was because we only got about 18 inches. We brought it in, washed it, chopped it and sauteed the root. Yummy.

We had a fun time laughing about the “cockleburs” that Mom found so hateful but I found so beautiful!