Wild Salad Bar
Published May 2, 2013
By Rachelle Chinnery
We are now in the season of Green. Lacey bare deciduous tree tops are filling in between the conifers. All shades of newness are budding: bright maple tassels, chartreuse arbutus crowns, and of course, the shimmering pale poplars and alders - variants of green distinctly their own. Spring does come around every single year, but sometimes - like last week- you are profoundly grateful for this eternal sign of new life.
And the ground is alive with new green, too. Edible green.
It’s incredible (to this ex-urban gal) how much of what grows wild can be eaten. We are still collecting nettles, although now we have to start armouring against the thorns. Dandelions are a truly loyal fare, though an import. Chickweed seems to have been growing all winter long here on the coast, also an import. And now, Claytonia perfoliata, also known as miner’s lettuce, is plentiful. This beautiful native plant is one of very few of its type to have been introduced to Europe from this continent by early explorers. Some consider it a weed. I consider it a free range salad bar.
Miner’s lettuce isn’t much like a lettuce at all. It has a very delicate and unusual leaf with a tiny central flowering stem. Quite a sublime little edible, really. The leaf is a bit thicker than you would expect, almost like a succulent. Slightly more astringent than lettuce, it’s a little bitter, but not unpleasantly so.
The story goes the plant got its name from early gold miners who staved of scurvy by eating the vitamin loaded leaves when spring came around. Seems it’s also loaded with vitamin A and iron. Together with its nutritive value, abundance and sheer prettiness, having it within walking distance of my kitchen seems like a personal gift. Added to the new shoots of arugula, kale, and chard from the garden, with a few chives and parsley leaves, this was the best green salad yet this year. It’s a simple pleasure, to be sure. But kind of amazing, too.
This post was used with permission from Rachelle Chinnery’s blog.
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