© 2025. The Trustees of Indiana University
Copyright Complaints
1229 East Seventh Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405

News, Arts and Culture from WFIU Public Radio and WTIU Public Television

Give Now

Play Live Radio

Next Up:

0:00

0:00 0:00

Available On Air Stations

Some web content from Indiana Public Media is unavailable during our transition to a new web publishing platform. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Radio

Earth Eats

Eats Wild Episode 6: Building relationships with plants

Published July 4, 2025 at 10:39 AM EDT

woman in ball cap, smiling at camera, standing in garden with basket full of leafy greens — Keitlyn Alcantra harvests quelites (lambs quarters and purslane) from The Healing Garden at Hilltop Garden and Nature Center on the campus of Indiana University, Bloomington.

“Throughout industrial history, the idea behind weeds is very political and it's very constructed. They are only weeds because they get in the way of ideas of, you know, how you think that a well kept clean, pristine area would look or like you're trying to reach a certain idea of class.”

This week on the third SUMMER episode of our Eats Wild series, we harvest and cook edible weeds (also known as Quelites or wild greens) with anthropologist Keitlyn Alcantara, and we talk about Indigenous foodways and how to think differently about our relationships with plants.

black skilled with bright greens and chopped orange squash flowers with steam rising from pan — While quelites usually refers to wild greens, sometimes other plants are thrown in, like these squash blossoms joining the purslane.

close up of tacos with eggs and greens on a wooden cutting board, quesadillas visible in background — Quelites are so easy to incorporate into meals. Here, they were sauteed, folded into scrambled eggs and served in corn tortillas.

Plus, Amy Roche and Julia Valliant teach us how to make simple floral syrups from linden and elder flowers.

two women standing at counter in kitchen with white flower bunches in their hands and bowls in front of them. — Amy Roche (L) and Julia Valliant remove elder flower blossoms from their stems to make elder flower syrup. The flowers can be eaten in their raw state, but the stems and berries can be toxic if not cooked.

overhead shot of glass bowl with small, pale yellow flowers in clear liquid — Floral syrups are straightforward to make—you just pour simple syrup over freshly picked blossoms, let them steep for a few hours, then strain. Pictured here are linden flowers.

Earth Eats