{"id":5185,"date":"2015-05-16T18:01:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T16:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/?p=5185"},"modified":"2015-05-16T18:34:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-16T16:34:04","slug":"seasonal-salad-weeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/?p=5185","title":{"rendered":"Seasonal salad – weeds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"spring<\/p>\n

Do you have weeds in your garden? I hope you do \u2013 at least a few. Because if you have none you must either be an OCD gardener who puts the rest of us to shame, or you spray herbicides (please tell me you don\u2019t do that?). I must admit that even though my kitchen garden is a lot tidier than my house, there are a few weeds here and there.<\/p>\n

\"dandelion

dandelion and ground elder<\/p><\/div>\n

Some that escaped my attention and some that I consciously let be. For example, I have a hard time pulling out nettles, because they make such a tasty nutritious spring vegetable, are important for many butterflies species and potently medicinal, too.<\/p>\n

\"white

white nettle and garlic mustard<\/p><\/div>\n

In the shady part of our allotment around the compost heap (too shady for vegetables) I let the spicy garlic mustard and ground ivy reign free. There\u2019s also ground elder around the edge of our edible forest garden that requires constant vigilance. But many more common weeds are edible and usually very nutritious as well.<\/p>\n

\"urban<\/p>\n

\"fat

fat hen and ground ivy<\/p><\/div>\n

Yesterday we took a walk around the neighbourhood and picked this mixed salad. We had a family weed tasting and fortunately the kids were game (even though Esther said she prefers tasting macarons<\/a>). Below you can see what weeds we picked and read our taste notes.
\nIf there are any other wild edibles you like, let me know!<\/p>\n

\"common

common daisy and white clover<\/p><\/div>\n

p.s. Needless to say, but: when foraging you need to know for sure<\/em> what you\u2019re picking. Also: beware of areas frequented by dogs\/cats and plants growing in potentially contaminated soil.<\/p>\n

\"spring<\/p>\n

Dandelion<\/strong> (Taraxacum officinale<\/em>) \u2013 slightly bitter, reminiscent of chicory
\nCommon chickweed<\/strong> (Stellaria media<\/em>) \u2013 nice \u201clettucy\u201d flavour, can be added in quantity
\nFat Hen<\/strong> (Chenopodium album<\/em>) \u2013 taste reminiscent of spinach (to which it is related)
\nRibwort plantain<\/strong> (Plantago lanceolata<\/em>) \u2013 slightly bitter and only young leaves are palatable
\nGarlic mustard<\/strong> (Alliaria petiolata<\/em>) \u2013 garlicky and peppery, just as you would expect based on its name
\nHairy bittercress<\/strong> (Cardamine hirsuta<\/em>) \u2013 th esmall leaves taste just like cultivated cress
\nGround elder<\/strong> (Aegopodium podagraria<\/em>) \u2013 neutral, \u201cgreen\u201d taste
\nWhite nettle<\/strong> (Lamium album<\/em>) \u2013 nice, fairly neutral taste (does not sting!)
\nGround Ivy<\/strong> (Glechoma hederacea<\/em>) \u2013 strongly aromatic, according to Remco it tastes like \u201csausage on the barbecue\u201d \u2013 as a vegetarian I can\u2019t back that up, but I bet it got you curious!
\nCommon daisy<\/strong> (Bellis perennis<\/em>) – pretty flowers with unremarkable taste
\nWhite clover<\/strong> (Trifolium repens<\/em>) \u2013 slightly bitter with a hint of cucumber<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you have weeds in your garden? I hope you do \u2013 at least a few. Because if you have none you must either be an OCD gardener who puts the rest of us to shame, or you spray herbicides…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,22,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foraging","category-spring","category-vegetables"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1UM10-1lD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.growntocook.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/sized_IMG_2655.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5185"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5196,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5185\/revisions\/5196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growntocook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}