White Clover Blossom
Clover, Available Around The World
Hay may be for horses, but clover is for people…well…. almost.
I was forever nibbling on clover blossoms when I was a kid. I suspect I did that because my mother did that. She did that because her mother did. I don’t know how far that habit stretched back, so I don’t know if the consumption it is by taste or by example.
White Clover, Trifolium repens
One of the more surprising sides of clover is that it’s in the pea family, and its blossom is actually a bunch of little pea-like blossoms, called ”wings and keels.” Clover is also a native of Europe and western Asia but has been used as a pasture crop worldwide. And while there are few pasture in the Arctic, clover grows from the top of the earth to the bottom and all around, nearly every location on the rotation. Though well-known as totally edible, from blossom to root, it is not choice “eating wild.” Some call it a survival food, and perhaps rightly so for only the blossoms are truly pleasant to human tastes. The leaves are an acquired or tolerated taste.
In reference to the blossoms, don’t select brown ones. You want young and fresh whether white or pink or red though white clover is the better tasting of them all. Besides a tea you can pan roast the blossoms until nice and crispy. The leaves are another matter. Young ones are digestible raw in small amounts, half a cup or so. Older leaves should be cooked, but I think you’d have to be hungry to eat them. It is a survival or famine food. See Sweet Clover, or Melilotus.
While it may not be that good in taste, clover can be good for you. It is high in protein, has beta carotene, vitamin C, most of the B vitamins, biotin, choline, inositol, and bioflavonoids. Clover does come with three words of warning, however: One is that quite a few people are allergic to it and don’t know it, so go easy at first until you know one way or the other. Secondly, NEVER …. did you see that word? NEVER ferment and eat any part of it. You want your clover either completely fresh or completely dried, Never in between. Lastly clover in warm climates can produce small amounts of cyanide. Here is the site address: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001151308.htm
The botanical name for white clover is Trifolium repens. (Trifolium tri-FOE-lee-um) means three leaves, and repens (REE-penz) means crawling but not rooting. Most of the plant crawls along, only the blossoms stand up. Now, one parting measure of how humanity is getting along with nature: Clover is now legally discouraged in lawns and the like because it attracts bees and people might get stung. Frankly, I think we need less lawyers than less clover.
Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile
IDENTIFICATION: An evergreen perennial growing to half a foot, famous for its three leaves, blossom white, pink and red also varieties edible.
TIME OF YEAR: An evergreen perennial growing to half a foot, famous for its three leaves, blossom white, pink and red also varieties edible.
ENVIRONMENT: Likes sunny areas and moist soil. Usually found in lawns
METHOD OF PREPARATION: Numerous: Leaves – raw or cooked as a potherb, young leaves before flowering suitable in salads or soups, can be cooked and used like spinach. Dried seed pods and flowers ground into powder used as a flour, young flowers in salads. Cooked root edible. Dried flowers best known for making tea. Dried leaves can have a hint of vanilla aroma.
If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi There! What about phyto estrogen? I heard clover can cause erectile dysfunction in men and miscarriage for women. Waiting for your knowledge. Thanks.
The clovers are an iffy lot, as are many members of the pea family. Sweet clover can be involved in the production of natural warfarin read coumadin. Red clover does have some active ingredients, one or two percent. Some studes have shown it to be a pregnancy issue with some farm animals. I do not know of any study using just red cover in women. A studying using red clover, flax and soy did raise women’s estrogen levels in a two weeks. But it is a long ways from some cooked red clover now and then to daily consumption to affect sexuality. As a guy I do avoid flax because studies show a connection between flax seed oil and prostate cancer. I would think a fellow eating red cover, flax and soybeans regularly could indeed have issues, even if eating the latter two regularly. That of course is my opinion and nothing more.
To echo what Deane has already mentioned, red clover does have phyto estrogens and pregnant or nursing women do need to be careful – but the studies done on animals had the animals taking *large amounts* of red clover. I would be much much more concerned with a woman’s consumption of soy and soy products during pregnancy than a fresh red clover or even a red clover supplement.
Intelligence and simpiclity – easy to understand how you think.
Sooooooooooo THAT’S why I’ve been called simple…
I know you can sprout clover to eat, but can you sprout the white….. Or just the red?
White and red, yes. Becareful with Sweet, however.
So clover in warm climates has been known to produce cyanide compounds…but the term “warm” is kind of vague. I live in TN. We’ve got four distinct seasons (although kind of blurry these passed few years). Would my area be considered a warm climate? Also, climate is the factor and not temperature, right? If I was foraging for whatever clover I could find around late Fall or Winter, would it still be the same risk as foraging in Spring?
Yes, you are warm but only for a few months.
What about the yellow flowered ones? There are 2 kinds that grow around my place, FL panhandle. I grew up eating the bushier one with lucky charm looking clover leaf and single yellow pea or peanut type flower. The other has a more seperated leaf and long stem habit with many small flowers making a blossom. I haven’t tried the 2nd yet. Are these actually clover or just close cousins?
Is your yellow “clover” very small or quite tall? If small I would leave it alone, if tall it could a variation of Sweet Clover.
what about eating normal clovers (three leaf clovers) cuz me and my friends have an annual clover fest where we eat the clovers
The answer is I don’t know because I don’t know what you are calling “normal” clover. With clover that is edible you have to limit yourself to about half a cup or you’ll throw up.