I learned about the dock plant this year, and have been interested to watch it as it has grown up in various patches in our yard. Currently, it is reaching upward, showing off its deep purple/brown seeds, which, I discovered, like the rest of the plant, are edible! I decided to gather some and make homegrown crackers.
After reading about others’ experiences harvesting and using dock seeds, I decided to just leave the outer chaff on the seeds, rather than try to sift them out. Bonus fiber! First, I roasted the dock at low temperature in the oven to dry it out. Then, my daughter and I separated out the stems. We had about 3/4 of a cup of dock seed (with chaff), which I ground in a food processor into flour. This I combined with about 1/2 cup oat flour and 1/2 cup buckwheat flour (also ground up in the food processor). I added salt (about 3/4 tsp), 2 Tbs olive oil, a sprinkling of rosemary, and a tablespoon or two of almond butter and kneaded it up into a dough, then rolled it out on the back of a baking sheet atop a piece of parchment paper. After about 15-20 minutes in the oven (at 350F), they were ready! I broke the dock-y sheet into crackers once cooled, though next time I would slice the dough into neater rectangles with a pizza cutter prior to baking.
The result was satisfying, with a true earthiness and richness of flavor. And, gluten-free. I love knowing that we can grow and produce food like this off of our own land.
