Soon after the first decent winter rains in the Sandveld and Namakwaland, you can start looking out for slim green shoots pushing up through the grass, sorrel, and reeds. This is veldkool (Trachyandra falcata or Trachyandra ciliata), an ancient veldkos that belongs to the cattail family. The Khoi and San, as well as the trekboere and Voortrekkers, depended on the veld for a lot of their food. Over the years, many of these wild foods, like sorrel, waterblommetjies and veldkool, made it to our ancestors’ tables. Veldkool has handfuls of nicknames: wild asparagus, poor man’s asparagus, Namakwakool, Strandveld waterblommetjies, wildekool and strandkool, to name a few. It is a smaller plant with fleshy leaves, thin shoots, and green flowerheads. The shoots and flowerheads are edible. “The Sandveld’s veldkool grows in…
