Empower Yourself
Simple Spring Salad.
by Marie Summerwood
Dinner should be ready in about 10 minutes. Let's go
into the backyard and pick a salad. Yes, in ten minutes,
and yes, this early in the year! I t may look like everything's
just beginning, but you can actually pick a most delicious
salad for several people depending on your weed population
and your garden flowers. For many of these plants, the
tiny leaves early in the season are the tastiest ones.
Take several baskets or bags and some scissors, we'll
keep the piles all separate until we take them inside.
That way it's easier to see if we've harvested anything
by mistake. We'll pick some wild greens and some early
garden plant leaves. You can easily supplement your own
lettuce with wild greens or go completely wild.
As soon as we step outside we of course see the most
famous of weeds, Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale). Although
you can eat them all season, dandelion leaves are at their
rmost delicious before the plant flowers for the first
time. They make a tasty salad green. Snip a few leaves
here and there or hold all the leaves of a plant upright
and cut the whole bunch. Cut a lot of dandelion, making
sure it is indeed dandelion by checking the back midrib
of the leaf. It should be hairless; if it's not, you may
have cut some chicory leaves. Chicory is actually a wonderful
cooked green and can be used for salad if the leaves aren't
too bitter. And if some dandelion are already flowering,
pick some of the flowers. They are actually many flowers
in each seeming blossom; you can pull them apart and sprinkle
your salad with flecks of yellow gold.
Next is Chickweed (Stellaria media), a common garden
weed that offers generous abundance in the salad department.
Identify by its bright green mouse-ear shaped leaf and
tiny white asterisk-like flowers. Chickweed grows out
across the garden spidering out, shedding its many many
seeds. Its name chickweed comes from the traditional use
of collecting the plant and letting the (many and copious)
seeds fall to the bottom, then saving them to feed chickens
during the winter. The taste of the fresh leaves flowers
and stems is delightful any time of year but especially
welcome in the spring.
Violet (Viola odorata) will certainly attract our attention
this time of year with her exquisite flowers of several
shades of purple and white. The flowers are sweet like
candy. My almost 7 year old friend next door says they
are one of his favorite breakfast foods. Believe it or
not, these beautiful spring flowers are not true flowers
in that they do not set seed. Violet's true flowers are
green, bloom in late summer under the leaves and are pretty
invisible. The leaf of this plant is also quite delicious
most of the year through. In the spring it's mild tasting
and filled with Vitamin C when fresh.
Early in the spring Catnip (Nepeta cataria) plants are
sending up small green leaves. My big catnip plant has
become a yoga mat for my cat. Especially in the sunshine
when the plant oils evaporate slightly and exude that
irresistible catnip aroma, she lies all over the plant,
rubbing her face in it and purring. Luckily I have other
catnip plants that I can graze on. The leaves this early
in the spring are quite delicious in salad, or in pesto.
Just watch out for the salad that contains freshly snipped
catnip leaves; it could become an object of interest for
any felines around. And while we're at it, let's not overlook
the marvelous mint family. Peppermint (Mentha piperita)
and spearmint (Mentha cardiaca) are among those that can
be used in a wild salad. The leaves add a lively taste,
particularly chopped very small. And speaking of the mint
family, some freshly minced leaves of oregano, thyme,
basil, rosemary or lavender can add wonderful excitement
to a salad if they are up in your garden.
Yellow dock leaves (Rumex crispus only , not rumex obtussifolia)
is a wonderful spring green, raw or cooked. Choose the
longish wavy leaf of crispus, not the broader one of obtussivolia.
It's quite delicioius, with a slightly sour taste, is
in the same family as sorrel. Yellow dock is used widely
as a spring tonic along with dandelion, because they both
encourage healthy flows in the liver and gall bladder.
Plantain (Plantago major) is tender early in the spring
if it is up in your yard. Leaves are mild tasting, contain
Vitamin C and add good bulk to the salad. Not much taste.
not unpleasant though.
Garlic mustard (Alliaria officinalis), a member of the
mustard family, is incredibly successful at reseeding
itself. So eat this one quite freely, please! The sharply-toothed
leaves are round or heart shaped. They are low to the
ground with 2 or 3 leaves and usually grow in patches.
The first wave of garlic mustard comes through in April
and May. The second wave comes through later in the summer
and the spring plants come from those seeds.Garlic mustard
is a delicious wild green. It has a light garlic flavor
and is quite tasty in salad. I must add that garlic mustard
is so successful at reseeding that in some areas it is
considered a huge nuisance; it tends to take over habitats
and in many places extreme measures are regularly taken
to control its expansion. If it is about to flower or
is actually flowering, you can pinch the top off; that
will limit its expansion. I believe a public information
and training campaign might help to control this amazinglly
invasive though very useful food weed. If everyone managed
their own salad patch and if we all helped to manage the
public areas, by eating it, this plant might learn its
place in the dance of the world.
Cronewort(Artemisia vulgaris) is a common perennial weed
that is only just beginning its leaf growth in the spring.
About 2-4" in height is good for eating this plant
raw in salad. After it reaches 6-8" or so in height,
it's just too bitter. Even so, it still offers slight
bitter background, a must for every wild salad. Cut the
leaves in tiny pieces and don't use too much to start.
The leaves and roots of plants up to 10" in height
can be used to make a very delicious vinegar rich in minerals.
Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca), is also quite a bitter
leaf, though not so much early in the season. Cut small
for salad. The young spring leaves of motherwort make
a surprisingly fabulous vinegar. This plant's botannical
name means lion-heart, and is in the mint family.
Ox-eye daisy leaves (Leucanthemum vulgaris) are a familiar,
friendly early summer flower, the traditional daisy with
white petals and a yellow middle. Early in the season
the leaves are strinkingly sweet and provide an interesting
contrast to the other tastes of bitter and salty.
Other possibilities in the spring are young growth of
last year's plants, including chives, turnip greens, kale,
collards and arugula, garlic shoots, onion shoots.
The next time you look out the window at your lawn and
garden, you can choose to see a bunch of unwanted greens,
or you can see dinner. Remember, the best revenge against
weeds is to eat them. As we say in the wild, Sauvage Appetit!!
Disclaimer:THESE ARE SAFE, WELL-KNOWN GARDEN WEEDS.
ALWAYS USE CARE WHEN PICKING PLANTS THAT ARE NEW TO YOU.
ASK SOMEONE WHO REALLY KNOWS, AND CONSULT GOOD BOOKS.
PLEASE TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IDENTIFYING ANY PLANTS
MENTIONED. THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE
FOR INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS BY READERS.
Marie Summerwood has been working with wild plants since
1983. She also taught natural foods cooking in the Syracuse
area for 10 years. She teaches and writes about using
wild plants for food and medicine.
Sidebar Article on Dressings
You Can Dress Them Up!
A few words about eating wild greens. I cut them small
as their taste is usually stronger than lettuce. If lettuce
or spinach is part of the salad, make it small as well.
Roll the leaves together like a cigar and cut into strips,
like linguine. Or tear if you must.
It is quite critical to find the right dressing for the
greens I eat. I find that with wild greens, a dressing
containing more oil tastes best, and the greens seem to
digest better. Olive is my favorite and, as a mono-unsaturated
oil, is the reported best for daily consumption. Use extra
virgin olive oil, the first pressing of the olives, for
the most taste. Greek olive oil is the highest quality,
and of course the most expensive, but Italian oil is also
very delicious. Read labels carefully. The large letters
will say "Packed In Italy" buit the small print
will say the oil is actually a blend of oils from Tunisia,
Morocco and Spain. Sad to say, these are the lowest quality
oils.
Lastly, I usually eat part of my salad, saving the rest
for later, after the oil and vinegar have "cooked"
the greens. I know others who have this strange practice
as well.
LIGHT LEMON GARLIC DRESSING
Combine
1/4 c lemon juice
1/4 c good quality olive oil
2-3 TB tamari or soy sauce
2 cloves freshly & finely crushed garlic
3/4 c water.
SESAME DRESSING
Whisk together
1/3 c freshly roasted* sesame tahini
2 1/2 TB lemon juice
1 TB tamari
1/2 c water
*use a cast iron or other heavy skillet over low or
medium low heat , pour in tahini and stir very attentively
until it thickens, becomes fragrant and slightly darker
in color. Be careful not to burn yourself, it gets quite
hot.
SAUERKRAUT DRESSING
2 TB olive oil (or organic bacon fat if you eat it)
1 medium onion
8 -10 oz. sauerkraut, including juice (unpasteurized if
possible)
1/2 tsp dill seed OR add 1 TB fresh chopped dillweed after
cooking
Cut onion into thin crescents. Heat oil and saute onion
until translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients including
liquid. Simmer covered if you want it hot, or blend cold
kraut with the onion, that's good too. Plus, if your kraut
is uncooked, you get more healthy additions to your gut
flora. Blend until smooth or leave chunks.
Use on crackers or bread with cheese and mustard, as a
sauce on greens, vegs, on meat dishes, etc, or as a marinade
Marie
Summerwood, Wise Woman Center cook, has been a lover
of food and nourishment for many years. She taught macrobiotic
cooking for 10 years, then found cooking with weeds (at
Weed's) to be a natural next step. Cooking in the Wise
Woman Tradition uses any food, any technique needed for
the right nourishment of the moment. It is a sacred recognition
of the cycles of our lives, and the will to bring to it
what will best nourish. Marie recognizes that one of the
deepest spirals of life begins in the kitchen. Read about
Marie's love for her
magnificent cooking at the Wise Woman Center.
Learn more about her fabulous CD
Women's Sacred Chants.
Read some other articles by Marie.
Marie teaches sometimes, at the Wise
Woman Center, in Woodstock NY :