Sheep Sour
I found a patch of sheep sour in the yard today, and was showing my children that you can eat it. My late grandfather, who was a farmer, showed me the same thing probably 25 years ago. Then it occurred to me to wonder whether anyone else called it "sheep sour." Turns out that there are only a few webpages that use the term. A much more common name for the plant is creeping wood sorrel. That said, my grandfather's folksy term is closer to the official botanical term: Oxalis Corniculata. ("Oxalis" means "sour," and "corniculata" means "horned," as a sheep might be.)
posted by Stuart Buck at
5:55 PM
2 Comments:
I've done the same with purselane, which grows wild around here. It really startled my sister when I yanked a weed out of the garden, and made a salad of it, but she had to admit it was tasty.
I was talking to my 81 year old mother and she told me her grandmother used to make pies out of Sheep Sour, and I said "WHAT"?? I had to look it up on the internet and was glad to see your page. She wasn't even sure she was saying it correctly! Thanks for the info!!
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