Anyone who pays attention to the natural world knows about invasive species. These insidious plants and animals, often introduced accidentally, tend to out-compete native species and often dominate the conquered ecosystems.
It’s not really their fault. Their invasions are without intent. They are just part of our increasingly interconnected planet. But if biodiversity matters, they can become the enemy.
The Nature Conservancy of Texas discovered a novel way to bring more attention to these colonizers while pushing their efforts to protect entire critical ecosystems in our state.
Invasives: It’s what for dinner.
Anne Ashmun and Laura Huffman
The Malicious But Delicious feast at Foreign and Domestic on East 53rd Street presented four invasive species in mouth-watering dishes.
Asian giant tiger prawns can grow to a foot long and have infested the Gulf of Mexico, where they could scoop up smaller sea creatures, including our precious gulf shrimp. We ate plump samples that were merely a few inches in length.
You see bastard cabbage everywhere along our highways. The stringy yellow flowers got into our roadside seed mix by being too tiny for the filters. Now they are invading nature preserves and choking off our indigenous wildflowers. We consumed tart greens and pollen in a pasta dish.
Feral hogs are the bane of Texas farmers, ranchers and other landowners. Incredibly smart, prolific and destructive, they can’t be controlled through trapping and hunting alone. We need to do something about their reproductive systems. Meantime, the Conservancy gang devoured the gamey beasts in moist portions.
Award-winning pastry chef Jodi Elliott, wife of chef and co-owner Ned Elliott — a man of few public words — created a masterpiece of ice cream, macaroons and jam by using Himalayan blackberries. These “widespread and economically destructive” imports are strangling our native berries while cross-pollinating with them.
I recall when Louisiana chefs sought to control the invasive nutria in the bayous by serving their meat at top New Orleans restaurants. Nice try. I don’t think they cut the numbers of these South American river rats, which tear up the riparian banks, but they focused attention on the problem.
That’s what the Nature Conservancy is trying to do. Deliciously.