Plant invasion in Howard County

      I happened to be going around Lake Elkhorn and saw a sign posted by the Columbia Association that pointed out the plant called garlic mustard and indicated that we should pull the plant out where ever we saw it.  It is invasive and crowds out other plants.  My first thought was that garlic mustard sounds like a plant that would be interesting to cook with and it at least had some nice white flowers.  In searching the internet I found this info on eating the plant.

"Garlic mustard was introduced deliberately, so there must be something good about it. Here's some suggestions on how you can control its spread by eating it. Garlic mustard is not a delicately flavored herb, so in most cases you will look for a recipe where you can mix it in in smaller proportions with some other greens as part of a mix.Linda Diane Feldt's book Spinach and Beyond: Loving Life and Dark Green Leafy Vegetables (Moon Field Press) has some sample recipes for cooked greens that will work with garlic mustard. Use garlic mustard in a proportion of 1-to-4 in recipes like this; you don't want to eat it straight if you have a choice."

    After seeing the sign I noticed the plants around the border of my yard and around many paths in Columbia.  I have pulled out some of the plants but it would seem to require an army of people to even begin to address this issue.

       Maybe CA needs to organize a "attack garlic mustard day" of volunteers. Maybe even make a "Garlic Mustard Festival" with food tasting of recipes using garlic and mustard!

 P.S.
Found this recipe for garlic mustard pesto.
P.S1
Thanks to the Columbia Patch for alerting us to how Columbia got some attention in the Wall Street Journal recently.