Spring Greens

dandelion and wild carrot greens (photo by jhy)

Early spring is the perfect time to augment your salad with wild greens. Even though hardly anything here has greened up yet, I found young dandelion and wild carrot (Queen Anne's lace) sprouts. The only tricky thing about any of this is to learn to identify the plants while they are still small and hiding in the grass or the leaf litter from the previous year. You want young leaves before they become bitter. Both are edible when mature, but the taste isn't as nice.

Common dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, is pretty familiar to most everyone.

young dandelion plant (photo by jhy)

Wild carrot, Daucus carota, is recognized by most people when it flowers, but the young leaves are quite distinctive. They have a definite carrot odor when broken.

young wild carrot plant (photo by jhy)

Collect them by simply breaking off the leaves. Plants growing near road edges will have more grit, but you'll want to wash the leaves anyway. Place in a colander and remove any grass, sticks, etc. Wash gently and shake or pat dry as desired.

I like to mix them with regular lettuce to make a nice salad base, but if you collect enough, you don't need lettuce. The iceberg lettuce does ameliorate any bitterness of the wild greens.

dandelion and wild carrot greens mixed with lettuce (photo by jhy)

Milkweed Buds

milkweed buds ready to harvest (photo by jhy)

Milkweed buds can be harvested when they are still tight like little broccoli florets. Try to get them as early as possible when they have little color other than green. These will have the best flavor. The ones shown are probably as far along in terms of opening as you want (eating the flowers won't hurt you, but the flavor is different from the buds). Even if some of the flowers on a stalk have opened, there may still be buds near the top of a plant that will be fine to take. This is common milkweed, Ascelpias syriaca.

note the milky sap oozing from the cut ends (photo by jhy)

I just snip them off the plant with scissors. You can see that I've also taken some small leaves, which also taste great. The milky sap oozes out of the cut ends, and it is bitter, but cooking will eliminate that problem. Wash the scissors right away if possible, as that sap is like glue!

cooked milkweed buds will turn bright green (photo by jhy)

Boil some water, with or without added salt as you wish, add the milkweed buds and boil gently for 2-3 minutes. They will turn bright green as they cook. Discard the cooking water as it will be bitter. If you are going to add the florets to a soup or stew, I suggest cooking them separately and adding at the last minute so that bitter sap will not leach into your broth.

milkweed buds as a baked potato topping (photo by jhy)

You can see that tonight I'm using these as a topping for a baked potato, just like broccoli. Add any other toppings you like, or just use the greens. They can be eaten straight as a vegetable, or added to other dishes. The flavor is mild.

Purslane- Tart, Healthy Green

common purslane (photo by jhy)

Common purslane, Portulaca oleracea, is grown as a vegetable in many cultures, but in the United States it is usually considered a weed. What a weed! You can easily get several servings of vegetables from one healthy plant, for free! The plant is an annual.

Identification is relatively easy. Look for this plant, also known as hogweed, in disturbed soils. It grows in a flat rosette, radiating in a slightly off-center manner. The stems are reddish and the entire plant has a somewhat succulent appearance. You can gather it throughout the summer, up through the time it has tight buds. The earlier pickings will be more tart. When the buds form, the flavor becomes milder.

It can be eaten raw, or cooked in several ways. Today, I boiled the leaves and stems and ate them as a green.

Pull up the entire plant, or cut the stems at the base. Wash thoroughly and pull off wilted or sunburned leaves. Tight buds are fine to eat, and won't change the flavor.

yield from three purslane plants (photo by jhy)

I like to use scissors, because it's a very easy way to cut the plant into pieces of similar size. I cut the largest stems into sections 1 to 1.5 inches long and throw them into boiling water first. Then I continue with the smaller stems and leaves. Boil until cooked to taste. I prefer them slightly crunchy, 2-5 minutes.

Rinse and serve immediately with your preferred condiment (oil, salt, etc), or eat plain.

Early plants will have a tart, citrus taste. They remind me of beet stems.

Purslane contains more omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy vegetable, more than some fish. It is also high in vitamins A,C and E, and magnesium, calcium, potassium, and iron. Anti-oxidant properties come from betacyanins and betaxanthins present in the plant.

It is high in oxalate, which can contribute to kidney stone formation, but cooking reduces that risk, and many vegetables we eat regularly contain oxalates. As with any food, it makes sense to vary the menu.

Watercress- Any Season for Your Salad

watercress growing in a stream (photo by jhy)

Watercress is a member of the mustard family that can be found and harvested year round. Even in the Northern states, if there is open water in a stream you might find watercress available for picking.

It has a spicy flavor, and the leaves are great to add to salads. Watercress is nutritionally rich, having iron, calcium and folic acid, vitamins A and C, and it is high in iron.

The one thing to watch out for is the quality of the water source where you pick it. If it's growing in a contaminated stream there will be bacteria adhering to the leaves. Always be sure to wash the leaves in potable water. If the stream smells bad, or is downstream of something like a cow pasture, it's best to pass over that source.

I have found that the flavor varies from time to time and place to place. The leaves pictured above look just like any other bunch of watercress, but they weren't very spicy at all.

Eating What Nettles You

The common stinging weed, Nettles– all varieties are edible and tasty.

tall nettles (photo by jhy)

Do you know of a weed patch filled with nettles? Nettles are those tall weeds that make your legs or arms itch and burn instantly when you touch them. Well, you can take true revenge and eat the monsters for dinner! This article will walk you through the very simple process of preparation.

There are several species of stinging nettles, all in the genus Urtica. The herbaceous plants are common in North America, Europe and Great Britain. The stinging is caused by small pointed hairs on the stems which release histamine, serotonin and possibly formic acid when touched. (In the southern hemisphere there are species whose toxin is more potent.)

Nettles are very nutritious! They are considered a delicacy in many parts of Europe. They are rich in vitamins A, C, and D. They also contain iron, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Surprisingly, they are also high in protein. Most green leafy vegetables do not provide protein.

The first picture is the leaves of Urtica dioica, the most common type. These plants are fairly mature, almost ready to blossom in mid June. This is about as mature as you would want to harvest for eating, but they are still ok. When the plants flower and become more mature small calcium carbonate granules called cystoliths form in the leaves. These can irritate the urinary tract, so it’s best to eat younger leaves.

harvest the younger leaves (photo by jhy)

Wearing gloves, harvest the tips and upper leaves of the plant by any method you like- break them off or cut them. I filled a colander with the leaves quickly. Remember that greens cook down a lot. This would be enough for a large serving for one person, or a side dish for two.

Wash the greens. Like any fresh-picked produce, be sure to look for insects and remove them. Once nettles are good and wet the stinging effect is removed. And cooking or drying removes the toxic properties.

boil gently for 10-15 minutes (photo by jhy)

Simmer the greens gently for 10- 15 minutes. The leaves I harvested needed to be cooked for 15 minutes.

a serving of nettles as table greens (photo by jhy)

Serve as you would any green. You might like them with oil and vinegar, or perhaps butter and lemon. Purists might go for just a little salt or non-salt seasoning. Nettles taste similar to spinach.

If you did not add salt to the water you cooked the nettles in, use it to water your houseplants when it cools. (You can do this with any fresh vegetable juice- the key is that there was no salt added to the water).

Next time you come across a patch of young nettles, take some home for dinner!