Eating Invasive Bastard Cabbage for the First Time

It's always exciting trying a new plant or mushroom for the first time, and for me, bastard cabbage (Latin name: Rapistrum rugosum) was one I wanted to add to my menu ever since my husband and I first started talking about moving to Texas.

Though it may be invasive, bastard cabbage does serve
a purpose: it provides spring forage for pollinators.
All the plants were covered in honeybees and butterflies.

Garlic mustard, Japanese knotweed, kudzu, and now bastard cabbage. . . one of the main focuses of my foraging has always been to eat as many invasive species as often as I can. Not only does it help mitigate the ecological damage of a plant, but it provides a sustainable food source.

Rapistrum rugosum, commonly known as bastard cabbage, turnip weed, or wild turnip, is a highly invasive member of the mustard family, known as Brassicaceae. This is the family that includes mustard greens, broccoli, brussle sprouts, turnips, and, you guessed it: cabbage.

It's a hearty plant from Eurasia, and it's hearty qualities are giving it the edge over local Texas wildflowers. Some fear that the famous Texas bluebonnets are in danger of extinction through competition with this invader.  Though mostly a problem in Texas, bastard cabbage is also spreading in small pockets of New Mexico, California, and Arizona.