#EdibleHostas #HerbalMedicine #PreservingHarvest
🌿 Did you know Hostas aren’t just beautiful ornamentals — they’re an edible, nutrient-rich, and free food source right from your yard? In this video, I’ll show you exactly what parts you can eat, how to harvest them at the right time, and easy ways to preserve them for later use.
🌸 Packed with potassium, calcium, magnesium, and fiber, Hostas have also been valued in traditional medicine for centuries. Their anti-inflammatory and detoxifying properties, along with respiratory benefits, make them a true multi-purpose plant for any self-reliant garden.
Join me as I talk about why hostas are worth a try 😊
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❗ Disclaimer: This content is based on personal experience and is for educational purposes only. Please research and consult an expert if needed before consuming any new plants.
#EdibleHostas #HerbalMedicine #PreservingHarvest #JustKrista #SimpleLiving #ResourcefulLiving #SelfSufficientLiving #FrugalLiving #EdiblePerennials #HowToEatHostas #ForagingPlants #GardenToTable #SurvivalFood #BackyardEdibles #PreppingTips
Hi everyone. Today we’re going to be exploring um edible hostas from the garden to plate. And um I’m just going to show you what I plan on doing with them. And I hope that you find this information um enjoyable, educational, and uh maybe you’ll you’ll try it as well. So, uh, basically two days ago, I, um, went around to, uh, all my garden bed areas and I collected, um, a whole bunch of, um, hosta leaves off of, uh, my plants and, um, then I put them in a big tub and I soaked them in in vinegar and water. Now, the intention was to process that the next day and uh, I didn’t get around to it. And yesterday I had met my uh niece that came from Massachusetts with her family and we were celebrating a baby shower of my uh nephew and his uh wife and um so I wasn’t around and unfortunately the uh hosta leaves uh that I did cut stayed in the the vinegar water a little too long and perhaps maybe I added a little too much vinegar to the the water. Who knows? But I’m not going to waste them. I will show you um what they look like here in a minute. Um but um basically before I I do that, I basically want to you know talk about hostas as a source of food. And it’s not something that um you know is t typically traditionally done. I know that it’s something new to gardeners um out there and so um we’re going to uh talk about that. So, I’m going to lower you and I’m going to put you in front here of my this bin that I have here in front of me. Uh, let me just make sure. Yeah, you can see it. So, inside this bin is just water. I’ve taken out all of these um these are um pasta flowers. Some of them have started to bloom and other ones like so um have not bloomed. So you can see the the un unopened uh bud right there. And let me just show you one that’s partially opened. So here’s one right here that is partially opened. But all of these are edible, right? Hostile plants have actually been around uh and used in Asian cuisine for a long time and their popularity, you know, as a as an edible plant is slowly um spreading, I guess, to North America. So, what I would do is when this chute I mean this is a longer stem that comes up out of the uh the plant itself and I just snipped it off there. Um but you can see that this part here is pretty pliable but this part here is super stiff and and that wouldn’t be very good for eating at all. So, what I’m going to do is I’m just going to take and I’m going to snip this off right here and I’m just going to toss it in in a clean container right there. And I’m just going to throw these on the ground for now. Here’s one that totally hasn’t been opened. And there’s still a leaf right there. And again, just going to take and snip that off. Now, hosta flowers, hosta blooms. Um, these are used literally around the world for garnishing, um, garnishing in restaurants as a garnish, for instance. Um, but they are very edible for us as gardeners as well to take out of our um garden beds and um and eat them ourselves. Um, some of the uh um uh the when a when a in the springtime, I guess, when a hosta first starts coming out of the ground. Um, and and obviously it’s not spring right now, so I can’t show you that. Um, there are young chuts that that So, let’s pretend that this is a let’s pretend that this is a chute that’s coming up out of the ground. It doesn’t a chute does not look like a bud. Um, these young shoots are edible and they are called hostins. So, that’s spelled h o s t o ns. And some of this information will be in the description for you guys to see. Um but the stems uh the hostens in the spring are edible as well as the leaves and the stems um especially the pliable parts of the stems and the flowers and even the roots um of hosta plants are actually edible. I do have some notes here that I’m going to be referring to u because there’s a lot of information to cover. So, hostens um are those uh basically the young tightly rolled leaves that first pop up in the spring and they look a lot like asparagus tips actually and that’s often how they’re used. Um they call them hostess shootutes which is I think most people do. Um, but just a heads up though, it’s not you’re not supposed to be harvesting more than what they say is probably onethird of the new shoots in the spring so that the plant has enough energy to, you know, thrive. Basically, um, all hosta varieties are technically edible, but not all of them taste great. Um, hosta 14ini is often mentioned as one of the best tasting ones. And in Japan, uh, some people even eat the roots. That’s not common here in North America, but I’m planning to give it a try this fall when I’m going to be dividing and relocating some of my hosta plants. Um, I have them in my garden beds. And originally when I put them there uh I guess 2 years ago 2 or 3 years ago uh that wasn’t it was a sort of a temporary location in in some cases and um so I do plan to relocate some of them. Um and basically if deer, you know, I mean they’re a magnet to deer. Uh I don’t really necessarily have a deer problem here with my hostas because there’s way too many hunters that live around me and and I think the deer are pretty smart. They stay away They stay away from uh hunters, but um if the deer can dig them up in the winter, um I figure that it’s probably worth worth my my effort to give them a try as well. Um speaking of which, uh hostas are toxic to cats and dogs and horses, but deer, slugs, ants, earwigs, um you name it, seem to like like hostas an awful lot. That one I don’t want. I’m just going to pull that off. Um I have read though um that uh if you so if you do have pets like cats and dogs, you can um take and make a mixture of lemon juice and water and spray to deter uh pests and and from nibbling on the plants. Um I haven’t tried it yet, but I might since I have somewhere between I don’t know 60 to 80 hosta plants on my property. But I really do definitely need a bigger sprayer to be able to to do that. So, back to the edibles. Hosta shoots um leaves and flowers can be sauteed, used in stir fries. They’re added to soups or sandwiches or even eaten raw. And when they’re small and tender, um sort of like a lettuce kind of thing. The larger shoots are better for boiling, but they might be a bit more bitter. um they don’t store um for long periods of time in the fridge and freezing isn’t typically ideal since it changes the texture possibly. Uh but that works out really well for me and I’m going to show you why it’s going to work out. So now that I’ve showed you the shoots, I think I could move this out of my way and raise you guys back up a bit so that you’re looking at me. There we go. So, uh, let me get over here, move these tubs around a little bit because you guys don’t need to see me cutting those flowers off. So, these here are the shoots that I picked two two days ago and from very, you know, varying different kinds of um, hostas. Now, I’m looking for the larger leaf hostas. So, these have been soaking in vinegar way too long. two days in vinegar and probably the water vinegar mixture was a little bit too hot. And you’ll see that by some of the leaves cuz they started they went from a nice, you know, vibrant green to sort of like a yellowish color, but that’s not going to matter because I plan on making hosta rolls with them. Now, these here are are edible. They’re slightly palatable. Um, and you can just basically take your scissors and you can cut it like so. This would be good in soups. This would be good in whatever stews, um, stir fries, and obviously as you cook them, they’re going to get a lot more tender. Um, I’m just going to toss that over there in the So, I just wanted to show you that what will happen if you, you know, have a a vinegar mixture that’s a little too strong. It will sort of start to yellow the leaves. Um, but as I said already, um, I I was out of, uh, away and I couldn’t process them, uh, being away. So, here’s a few more. And I like these leaves because they’re bigger. And I’m going to be basically taking this stem for the hosta rolls that I’m going to be making. So, traditionally, like I would use cabbage and make cabbage rolls, but these are called hosta rolls. So, I would snip that right off. as you can see. And then I’m going to basically now that they’ve been um um sanitized with water and vinegar, they’ve been soaked in water and I’ve taken them out of the water to to show you the process here. I’m now going to take and I’m going to blanch these for uh probably about 5 minutes approximately. And then I will take them out after the 5 minutes and then put them directly into a cold water bath to stop the cooking process. And then I will take them out of the cold water. And I’ll dry them off completely and I will package them in freezer bags. And I’m going to be freezing these so that I can pull them out um this fall. And uh we’re going to see together because um I’ll let you guys know um if they’re going to be uh if they’re just going to like shred and rip apart or if they’re going to um be workable for a um hostel. So that’s pretty cool. I’m looking forward to that. Now, just before I turned on the camera, let me see if I can get up here. Yeah. So the here’s a good example. I went behind me. I’ll I’ll fix you guys here in a second here, guys. I went behind me and I cut off. I don’t know about 10 more. Okay. So, I went behind me right over there. You can see behind me there’s some hosta plants over here. And I cut off these. Now, these have been soaking in vinegar. Um, so there’s the difference in the color. So here’s one that just got cut like literally five minutes ago versus one that’s been soaking. You know, you can see the color and they’re the same uh hostile leaves. Same same variation, right? So there’s the difference. Um here’s a an uglier one versus a nicer one. So they do maintain their bright green. um if you process them quickly. So, all of these ones here, right? And I’m just going to stick those over here in this water mixture and take them out of the vinegar because they’ve been in there for probably 20 minutes and they don’t need to be in there any longer. Um so, basically, that’s what I plan on doing. I plan on blanching them, freezing the cabbage leaves. Um, and that will change the texture. It’s going to obviously soften them and I don’t know at this point in time. Um, and and that’s how I do my cabbage, right? I take the whole head of cabbage and I put it right in the freezer. Some people boil it. I don’t. I I freeze the whole cabbage and then that way when I thaw it out, um, it’s it’s already um I just cut out the um oh, what’s it called? the core. I cut the core out. It’s easier to cut. And then those leaves just fall right off. And then I’m able to roll up my mixture into the cabbage leaves. So, I’m going to try the very same thing with the hosta leaves. That’s why I’m calling them hosta rolls. So, I don’t know if anybody’s ever done it before. I didn’t even research it to find out. But anyway, hostas are incredibly lowmaintenance. They can live for literally 30 years with very little care whatsoever. Um the flowers uh right now they attract the butterflies and and the bees and which is a huge bonus to the garden. And medically hostas um have a really fascinating history actually. Um they were once classified um once upon a time they were classified as a lily and um so they were in the lily family and hence names like I wrote it down plantain lily, August lily um gushi which is a word um that is used still used uh to by some in uh Japan. Um, but these days they are classified under the asparagus family and that makes total sense because they taste like asparagus, right? So that’s how they taste and and uh they were reclassified into the asparagus family. So um they’re believed um to contain over 101 beneficial compounds and folk medicine credits them with anti-inflammatory an analesic and even c I’m not going to say the word sea fighting properties. They’re rich in potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, maginise, iron, zinc, and fiber. um which honestly I’m sure that I could probably use a lot more of and maybe some of you could too. Hopefully I’m in the screen here properly guys. Um the flowers in particular are used in uh traditional um magnol magnolon medicine and uh supposedly that’s to clear heat and detoxify the body um ease coughs and soothe your your throat. So basically hostas aren’t just a um you know pretty plant in our garden um like we’ve been led to believe all these you know centuries and decades and whatever. Um they’re very practical and um you know whether that’s for medicinal uh nutritional value. They’re lowmaintenance. The flowers attract uh bees and and um and butterflies and whatnot to our garden. And you know, best of all, they feed us, right? So, you know, let me know in the comments, guys, if you’ve ever tried uh eating hosta, any part of the hosta, the root, the leaves, the flour. Um I’d love to um hear your experiences. And, you know, knowing that they are so edible, uh would you try them? You know, are you going to try them? I hope you do because uh I’m certainly going to be making it uh part of my staple. like it’s gonna it’s going in the freezer. Um all these pieces that I’m I’m cutting off right here. Um and not only that, but you can take and I do plan on doing this um for the simple reason for their nutritional value and all of the the goodies uh that they have. you know, uh I’m going to be taking them and I’m going to dry them into a powder and um grinding them up and putting them in a mason jar and adding them to all kinds of, you know, maybe a ve vegetable stock uh that I’m going to be uh um using in the future for vegetable dishes and things like that. So, um as you can see and as you heard, they they have some excellent uh nutritional, medicinal um value. They’re lowmaintenance and uh let me know if uh you have any intention of trying them and if you have I would love to hear your experiences. Take care and uh I’ll talk to you soon. Bye for now.
41 Comments
Hostas aren’t just for shady garden beds ~ they can feed you too! 🌿 Have you ever tried eating Hosta leaves, flowers or shoots (hostons)? I’d love to hear your experiences or questions about this underrated edible perennial.
💬 Share your tips, recipes, or any creative uses for Hostas (or other edible ornamentals) below. Let’s learn from each other and make the most of our gardens.
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❤❤ hello there.My friend.Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful knowledge.Hope your day is great
Hi Krista 👋 your hair looks great! Didn't know about hostas. I'm definitely going to have to get me some. Ill love anything that taste like asparagus lol
Fascinating! I had no idea Hostas were edible. Thanks for sharing such useful tips and history. 🌿
Well, I had no idea. Hostas could be edible. Hostas are something I have wanted to add to my yard and garden area four years and I have never done it. I need to make a list and do some things that I've been meaning to in the spring.
You are a wealth of information and a great resource for gardeners. I am so glad I have found you.
Great plant to have around. Very easy keepers. Your right many have no clue about them. Same about elephants ears…if prepared right quite tasty. 😊👍
Wow eating Hostas?! Cool
I didn't know they were toxic to dogs and cats. Eeek. Guess I won't be planting any!
Fun and interesting video…. I had no idea that Hostas are edible. Well done, my friend. 💞💖💓
Interesting but 😂😂 I’ll stick with broccoli 🥦. It’s pouring here 🎉🎉🎉🎉, have a super day Krista, Ali 🇨🇦
Wow! This is interesting. I had no idea hosta’s are edible. Unfortunately they won’t grow here because it’s too hot and sunny. Good idea to freeze the whole cabbage. I’ll try that. Thanks for sharing! ❤
interesting info
Wow, totally new to me but super interesting! I knew Hostas were edible but never had the guts to try them—maybe now I will! Thanks for sharing such great tips and info! 😊🌿
Wow……who would have thunk this……..good info……….
Sending 🌹 good luck sub like suggestions comments share like support concern ❤❤❤
Didn’t even know you could eat that plant learn something new every day from you, my dear friend and how to prepare it for the plate
Very good info!👌💕
Hi Krista! I must have missed this one.
i have never seen these plants before, thanks grandma
Thank you for sharing this information and the tips as well.
I tried growing hostas here in Texas, I planted 3 packs of seeds through out the garden, none made it. It was so sad to see them all die. Perhaps I should try again. 😊❤
I tried hosta before, it was interesting. This was fun
Hi Krista, slugs love hosts too! When I lived in western Washington it was almost impossible to grow a whole Hosta plant in the Spring. I love the Hosta plant. This is so interesting that they are edible. I can see why they were once classified as a Lilly as they look like a big Lilly pad. Oh, they taste like asparagus, yummy. Thanks for all the info Krista. 💖
Hi Krista. I haven’t tried Hosta leaves, but I would give them a try. I didn’t know that they were edible. Thank you for sharing!❤
I had no Idea that you could eat them?
I love the fact that you make use of a small piece of land to plant and harvest lots.❤🎉🎉🎉
Good to know!
Interesting, I didn't know they were edible!!!
Congratulations to your nephew and wife! We’ve seen this done before with the young shoots but haven’t tried it yet.
That was wicked interesting! I would never have thought they were safe for us because of the whole animal thing. Wow. So the young shoots would be around the same time as fiddleheads? Can you tell I'm cooking in my head?
Very interesting. I haven’t tried eating them before. Thank you for sharing.
Great video, yes I eat them as shouts. They are another great edible medicinal to grow 👍🌱🥰❤🙏
Very interesting
That's so neat! I didn't know they were edible! Thank you for educating us with this information ❤
😮🫣😵💫
Seriously? Never heard of this.
I would have to be mighty hungry. Thanks for sharing!
I only have one or two hostas in my garden and I never knew they were edible or medicinal. I do know the bugs like them! Didn't know they were poisonous to the animals. Thanks for sharing. 🤠
Thanks for sharing your good video🌿🌺🌿🌺🌿🌺🌿🌺
This is very fascinating! Hostas are one of the only plants we can grow here in the mountains! We live in a solid zone 3 and most plants simply freeze to death over winter. I'm excited to share this with our small group of gardeners here!