California Artists and Chefs Find Ways to Confront Disruptive ‘Superblooms’

Max Kingery, who was picking yellow flowers that covered the hillsides of Los Angeles, has been questioned about his zeal to kill them.

But the clothing designer, who used the plant to dye her spring/summer line, said she wouldn’t take offense at being accused of looting this region of California’s “superbloom.” Rather, he sees it as an opportunity to raise awareness about the wild black mustard, a destructive flower that surged across the state after an unusually wet winter.

Mustard was one of the most famous wild flowering plants to pop up all over California this spring. As temperatures rise, the trees are beginning to die, raising the risk of wildfires in the fire-ravaged state. Its stems act as fire ladders, allowing flames to rise.

Mustard also suffocates native plants and transforms the landscape. Its leaves and roots inhibit the growth of other species and form single, rapidly spreading bushes. California has many varieties of wild mustard, but black mustard, or brassica mustard, is considered one of the most widespread.

Kingery is part of a growing group of artists, designers and chefs defying invasion by harvesting this plant for use in everything from dyes to pesto.

Collectors lead edible hikes to pluck the sansho-like flowers and munch on the leaves. Workshops and instructional guides are held on how to process this into paper, manure, and a spicy version of the famous condiment of the same name.

Aptly named “Pervasive Bloom,” Kingery’s line features sweatshirts, pants, tank tops and other pieces that are naturally dyed with mustard. On the website of his company Old Brother, a model in a mustard-dyed jacket hugs an uprooted weed. Other photos show the clearing of the land.

The Old Brothers store in Los Angeles is adorned with giant panels of plant stems, leaves and flowers woven on a loom by designer Cecilia Bordalampe. Kingery said the material came from the first harvest, and his team initially harvested about 450 pounds (204 kilograms) to make the dye. Since then, they have continued to remove over 100 pounds (45 kilograms) each week from public lands, mostly in Los Angeles.

Kingery said even that amount only cuts out the problem.

The plant was first brought to California from Eurasia in the 1700s, when it was found in adobe bricks at missions. This year, however, its presence exploded due to record rainfall from December to April. Years of wildfires have also created more space for plants to grow on devastated land.

State and local agencies are removing mustard from their lands, but it’s spreading elsewhere.

When the flowers reach their peak this spring, the undulating yellow line of the highway spreads out. The slopes of the hills jutting out from the urban landscape shone. There were cracks in the sidewalk.

“It was physically demanding,” Kingery said. “Indeed, if you zoom out a little, it looks like there’s enough wild mustard here to make salads and dyed sweatshirts for everyone in the United States.”

But Kingery said that when he sees native plants sprouting up on cleared land, he thinks it’s worth it. And he added that it takes a lot of mustard to get the shade you want, but that’s a good thing in this context.

“You don’t want to pull a lot of plants out of the ground for no reason. The idea of ​​using what’s growing off the sidewalk is a really cool concept,” Kingery said.

Berbo Studio artist Erin Berkowitz makes dyes from exotic species, including dyes for her Kingery clothing line. She offers classes with chefs who make pesto from mustard greens and crush flowers to make dressings.

“This is the wealth of art that we have around us,” Berkowitz said.

She said working with Kingery showed the potential of what could happen if more people realized its uses.

“We visually saw the whole hill in the park covered with mustard, which was very hopeful,” she said.

Blue lupines, poppies and other native plants struggled for sunlight beneath towering stalks of mustard trees that were over 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall. “One public space, one whole neighborhood has returned to its original ecosystem, healthy and functional,” Berkowitz said after the harvest in the working-class neighborhood of El Sereno, east of Los Angeles.

“This will further extend the meaning of land conservation and help us “It’s really important to get other people interested who might not think they’re the same as environmentalists.” ”

To this end, environmental horticulturist Alyssa Khan and artist Nadine Allan have created a range of products, including making things like paper, face masks, and even natural pesticides for cultivating garden soil. Created a ZINE, a digital magazine about the uses of black mustard.

Khan said he was motivated by having a friend who lost almost everything in the bushfires.

“We wanted to inspire people to do something about this issue,” she said, educating them.

“It looks very pretty,” Khan added. “There are yellow flowers in bloom, but those who aren’t familiar with what’s going on on a larger scale might say, oh, it’s just a sea of ​​yellow flowers.”

Jutta Berger of the California Invasive Plants Council applauds the ingenuity and suggests that people contact land management agencies to collect seeds left behind when areas are cleared.

“It’s never possible to completely get rid of it, at least where it’s been entrenched for so long,” she said.

Still, Berger said a similar effort to use something creative is making an impact. For example, when chefs devised recipes using predatory lionfish and started serving them in restaurants, lionfish populations declined in some areas, posing a threat to native marine life. “It’s become widely known,” she said.

“One of the things I want people to know is that the yellow fields there used to be not just yellow fields, but yellow, purple, pink and blue fields,” Berger said. said.