Those bright orange daylilies in roadside ditches can be dinner, if you know what to pick

The bright orange flowers popping up in roadside ditches may look ornamental, but one TikTok creator is sharing how to get them onto your dinner plate.

Daylilies are more than just a cheerful summer bloom. When carefully foraged, they can also serve as a free seasonal ingredient.

In a TikTok video, Appalachian forager Savannah Schwartz showed viewers how to harvest and cook invasive daylilies, which she described as "a really fun edible wildflower" with a "mild flavor."

The video focused on identification and various kitchen uses for the plant, with Schwartz suggesting the blossoms could be stuffed, used to hold fillings in wraps, pickled while still unopened, or cooked in a stir-fry. 

@savannaschwartz These bright wildflowers are easy to spot and can make a fun addition to your plate. Remember where you saw these bright orange flowers in different seasons to get a nice harvest of the shoots and tubers. These are invasive, so forage to your heart's content. #foraging #ediblewildplants #daylilies ♬ original sound - Foraging Kentucky

She said the plant offers different edible parts throughout the year, including shoots in spring similar to bok choy, flowers in early summer, and tubers in fall and winter.

In her caption, Schwartz added: "These are invasive, so forage to your heart's content."

Schwartz also warned that proper identification and location matter. Schwartz told viewers to avoid roadside patches that may have been sprayed or exposed to heavy traffic, to watch out for hybrids, and to identify daylilies by their bright orange, six-petaled flowers and long, grasslike leaves.

One commenter wrote, "Girl, I had no idea these were edible. I love foraging. I've just been picking these all summer for the prettiness. I can't believe these are actually edible."

If you safely swap in foraged daylilies for store-bought lettuce, bok choy, edible flowers, or a side vegetable, you could save money, depending on local grocery prices and what you otherwise would have bought.

Because daylilies are widely established in many places, harvesting them can be one way to put an invasive plant to use instead of buying additional packaged produce transported from elsewhere.

If you want to try this, start small and harvest only when you are completely confident in identification. Schwartz's video highlights a few beginner-friendly options, including using the flowers as wraps, pickling unopened buds, or tossing the shoots into a stir-fry.

Keeping track of a healthy patch could be useful in future seasons, since the same plants may produce shoots in spring and tubers in fall and winter. That could stretch one free food source across much of the year.

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