Spring salads from the garden are the tastiest as the long wait between fresh harvests is finally over. Though I have tons of claytonia, I can finally mix it up with other plants both cultivated and wild.
From the garden, I harvest a few leaves of claytonia and butter crunch butterhead lettuce. For a bit of a kick, I add a small leaf of sorrel as well as a few tiny stalks of green cutting celery that wintered over in the cold frame. Now to the yard.
This year, everything is coming up at the same time so there is a lot to choose from. First I spot some tiny dandelion leaves that are tender and sweet. To these I add small plantain weed leaves as well as a few nipplewort to vary the texture as well as add a bit of tang. To round out the greens I add violet leaves, red and white clover as well as wood sorrel. The wood sorrel is harder to find than the other greens but I grab enough to enhance the salad with its lemony taste.
For decoration, I grab a few violet flowers as well as those from our redbud tree. Redbud flowers have a slightly complex flavor as their initial taste reminds one of green beans that turn sour.
I bring in my pickings to show Juana and she asks, “And what about the asparagus you have been promising me?” She’s right and a quick return to the garden with my knife gives me the perfect final addition for this evening’s salad.
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Reading these recent blogs I suddenly remembered that as a child I enjoyed
sampling ground level wild plant leaves and flowers to assuage curiosity, but was admonished by well meaning yet uninformed adults not to persist in this adventure due to the potential for poisoning and other negative consequences. I complied.