>>1370055It's actually interesting to note that fennel was introduced from Europe but has naturalized.
Since this thread is focused on California I should probably weigh in. I'm big on cooking and I have long been invested with the idea of producing dishes using only California native plants. My autism has gotten to the point where I'm building an entire goddamned spreadsheet of native foods sorted by region and food category.
One highlight includes the coffee berry which has seeds which taste like coffee although they have no caffeine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frangula_californicaThere is Taboose (or tiger nut) which is an edible tuber that can be eaten roasted, raw, dried or baked and taste nutty. Notable in that they were grown by Owens Valley natives in a limited agricultural system which was arguably completely independently developed, since none of the traditional "three sisters" crops were present when they were met by Europeans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyperus_esculentusNot that it helps much when you are /out/ but California has a native species of bay tree which produce leaves which have a stronger flavor than the Mediterranean bay leaf. The reason why they still mostly sell the European kind is pretty much because of their over 2000 year inertia.
Also don't forget to eat your poppy seeds.
