We've all heard stories from the Great Depression and how many folks resorted to eating weeds like dandelions in salads and sautéed. Eating "weeds" goes back a lot longer than the 1930s, however. In Medieval Europe, dandelions and other wild greens were used for medicinal and culinary consumption. Both traditional Chinese and native Americans used dandelions in herbal medicine.
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| three watercress plants pulled up from the cracks in a walkway around the garden |
What is a weed? One definition is a weed is anything that pops up where you didn't plant it. By that definition, my watercress is most definitely a weed. It pops up every year in early spring in the cracks of the walkway surrounding the gardens. In many regions, watercress is viewed as a weed, and an invasive weed at that.
I started my watercress with some rooted watercress from the produce section at the grocery store many years ago. I had made watercress and butter tea sandwiches and simply had more watercress than I needed. But it's now a wild plant and seeds itself where it pleases.
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| homemade blackberry vinegar -- wild blackberries infused in white vinegar in the fridge for 3 months |
Edible weeds have a reputation for being sharp or bitter in flavor, most likely why most Westerners don't eat them. However, edible weeds are often higher in nutrients than their cultivated cousins. In fact, In England during World War 2, folks were encouraged to grow watercress from seeds in a dish on their windowsills, as a major source of vitamin C. In addition to vitamin C, watercress and other edible weeds are very high in antioxidants, beta carotene, vitamin K, and many minerals.
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| tonight's watercress salad with 1 tangerine peeled and chopped, a single serving of dried cranberries, and a tablespoon of "bacon" bits |
So, while I have a fridge and freezer full of vegetables that I could choose to go with dinner tonight, I'm opting for my wild watercress. It will do my body a heap of good. Watercress has a sharp taste, so I prefer it raw in a salad, and dressed with a sweet vinaigrette, made with a fruity vinegar like this homemade blackberry vinegar, along with with sugar, salt, pepper and oil, or an orange juice vinaigrette, made with a small amount of orange juice, vinegar, honey, oil, salt and pepper.
Weeds also can be more tough than a green like lettuce, so when I make a salad with weeds, I slice it chiffonade-style, leaves stacked and sliced into narrow ribbons.
Besides the nutritional benefits, eating weeds is quite frugal. It's just important to only eat weeds that you know have not been sprayed with anything toxic.
Have you tried eating weeds? What were your impressions?
I've been thinking about this very topic! Thanks for sharing this information about how you use watercress. I have been adding nettles and nasturtium to my salads. Like you, not much is in the garden right now and it feels wasteful not to make use of them.
ReplyDeleteHi,
DeleteI agree on the feeling like it's wasteful to not make use of what grows in our yards. Something that is perfectly good food provided for us.
I was thrilled today when I found a dandelion plant growing in between the stepping stones in the front yard. We have very few dandelions in our yard, which many folks would think is a good thing. But I've been wanting to add some dandelion to a salad this spring, and now I have the one plant. Enjoy your salads!
I am particularly sensitive to the bitter taste, so I don't seek out bitter greens. My definition of a weed is a plant growing where you don't want it to (and is particularly hard to get rid of.) But whatever the definition the saying, "One person's trash is another person's treasure, or one person's weed is another person's dinner." applies. :)
ReplyDeleteMy husband tells the story of when his grandmother from Guatemala came to stay with them and picked dandelions out of the yard for supper. The neighbors weren't quite sure what to think. However, it was common practice for her.
Hi Live and Learn,
DeleteThat's a great story about your husband's grandmother picking the dandelions in the yard. Different places and different times.
I love watercress! But I've only had it from a store as I don't think I have seen it growing in the wild (but now I will have to look more closely).
ReplyDeleteI love urban foraging, especially in the Pacific NW. Last spring/summer I ate a lot of dock (cousin of Swiss chard) from a nearby vacant lot. I also saw it growing along various walking trails. Otherwise, I have foraged nettles, dandelion leaves, hazelnuts, plums, crabapples, blackberries, salmonberries and thimbleberries. One time I even gathered salal berries and made a salal/mixed berry jam, which was delicious.
When I visited family in southern Italy years ago, they had a pine tree of the variety that produces pine nuts. They showed me how to get the pine nuts out of the pinecones. I thought that was pretty cool. :)
Hi Tina,
DeleteIf you have unsprayed Oregon grapes in your area, you can make jelly with those. I did that one year when my kids were little, and they were thrilled with it.
That is really cool about the pine nuts you extracted from pinecones in Italy. What a fun memory from your trip to see family there.
Great topic! While we don't have watercress here that I'm aware of, presumably due to our very different climate, I have utilized the lambs' quarters that grow in the yard. Poke salat also grows wild in this area (and occasionally, my yard) but I have not tried eating yet simply due to how many times it needs to be boiled first to make it safe.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you brought this up. While headed on a hiking trip earlier this week up in Missouri, I stopped by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and their house at Rocky Ridge Farm where Laura and Almanzo bought land and planted the apple orchard. They showed us the nearby site of the initial cabin they built and lived in at first, and I was recollecting from the first Rose book of how they lived on beans and cornbread for many months over that winter and were so excited to find the first greens in early spring.
Hi Cat,
DeleteI think eating wild greens in early spring used to be a common thing. In some regions, the bitter wild greens were thought to be beneficial for health particularly in early spring. From what I read, it had to do with the idea that winter "thickened" the blood, and the wild greens would "thin" it. I can imagine not having anything fresh tasting all winter and delighting in wild greens when they first pop up.
Your side-trip to the Ingalls-Wilder farm sounds like fun.
My husband loves foraging. We've had dandelion both as greens as well as dandelion jelly, which sort of tastes like honey. We have violets that grow wild in our yard, so we add them to salads and as a garnish on top of other food (like chicken) during the spring. I'm honestly not sure what all he has added to our salads. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteDandelion jelly sounds delicious! If we ever have a dandelion problem in our yard, I will make some of this.
Maybe it's a good thing you don't really know what your husband has added to your salads? It does sound like meal time in your house is sometimes something of an adventure.