Leaping Into Spring
Renee Fredrickson, Ethnobotanist
Early spring may be the richest foraging time of year when it comes to the nutritional and medicinal benefits offered by the plants springing up in the Puget Sound area. While this time of year cannot boast popping sweet, ripe berries into your mouth with the hot sun on your back or digging plump, delicious tubers for roasting, the sheer abundance of easily accessible, edible greens is startling, especially following a long dreary winter.
On that note, if you lived here several hundreds or thousands of years ago, your winter diet would be long on proteins and fats stored since the last hunting and fishing of the fall, and very short on green plant matter. By early spring, your body would be craving vitamin and mineral rich vegetation, and the appearance of greens such as berry shoots and nettle would be cause for celebration. Some of these greens are rich in bitter compounds which stimulate the production of bile and offer a necessary jumpstart to improved liver/gallbladder function and therefore, healthy digestion. Across cultures, bitter greens have long been included in salads, and salads eaten to begin a meal for exactly that purpose – the body is much better prepared to digest whatever foods come next once those bitters have gone to work.
So, what can we eat?
Chickweed, Stellaria media*, is an abundant perennial plant of gardens, abandoned plots and overgrown lawns. It is tasty eaten raw and in salads. It can be chopped and added to omelets or veggies. Use leaves and flowers, trimmed with scissors. This plant is best used fresh rather than dried. By late spring, the stems will dry and turn brown and the plant is no longer palatable. Chickweed is especially mineral rich along with containing Vit A. As a side note, chickweed infused oil is marvelous for the skin.
*Note: S. media is an introduced species closely related to the native S. crispa
Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, might be the plant we most love to hate. But this sweet-tasting, sunny-bright flower, along with its leaves (a great source of bitter greens), its crowns and roots (supporting liver function and healthy digestion), can be one of our most solid allies in nutritional health and wellbeing. All this for the price of time outdoors finding free food! The leaves are most tasty when picked early, before the flower stalk emerges, but can be gathered all year, steamed, boiled or dried for use in soups, etc. The smaller, more tender fresh roots can be roasted and eaten with other root vegetables. Roots, once thoroughly cleaned, can be dried in a slow oven till brittle, then stored long term. They can then be ground and used for dandelion root tea. The most beautiful treatise I have ever read about this inspiring little plant comes from Euell Gibbons’ chapter on dandelion titled, “The Official Remedy for Disorders”, from his widely-read book Stalking the Wild Asparagus.
Stinging Nettle, Urtica dioica, is truly one of nature’s great gifts as winter departs and spring is fleeting. Non-coincidentally, it emerges at the same time as the “gifts” that bring some people seasonal responses such as itchy eyes and congested sinuses, and is regularly used in tea or extract forms, to curb these allergies. Nettle leaves can be dried and stored for the year to use as tea or added to cooked dishes. They can also be powdered and added to about anything, including baked goods. Fresh leaves can be made into pesto, nettle soup, used to make pasta, just to name a few uses. Leaves can be dunked into boiling water, squeezed out gently, and frozen for later use.
Nettle emerges early and the leaves must be harvested prior to the flower clusters that come out from the leaf axils as summer approaches. In late summer, the seeds can be harvested for medicinal purposes. Foraging note: all parts of the nettle plants are covered in small, hydroponically-operated hairs that can deliver a tiny dose of formic acid (the same chemical as in a honeybee sting) to the predator….you, that is. After all, how does a plant so tasty and nutritious protect itself?
Nettle is high in virtually all the major minerals including selenium, plus Vit A and Vit B complex. From a health perspective, it is truly a powerhouse.
A Note on Foraging
Listed here are only three of spring’s abundant plant offerings for food and medicine. There are many others. If you are planning to forage for these riches, it is imperative that you POSITIVELY IDENTIFY ANY PLANT YOU PLAN TO EAT. The ones listed here are not difficult to ID, and hopefully, you will be inspired to go deeper. Take the time to search out reputable sources. My recommendation for a field guide to this area is Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, by Pojar and MacKinnon. Almost all our local bookstores carry this book and would appreciate seeing you.
Regarding harvesting, I encourage you to do some reading on the ethics of wild plant collecting, including sustainable harvesting, considering your impact, harvesting in clean places, not taking too much or more than you can use, and the offering of gratitude. Most foraging books and indigenous sources will provide you with guidelines. Thank you.
Recipes
Nettle (or other) Pesto
Blend until smooth, refrigerate or freeze
Note: pesto simply means “paste”, so this recipe can be used for any fresh greens, including dandelion leaf. I usually go out into the yard and find what’s fresh at the time and add it; arugula, grape leaf, salad burnet, oregano, sorrel….experiment.
Dandelion Root Tea
Place 1-2 tsp dried, ground dandelion root into about 2 cups boiling water. Simmer for several minutes and strain into a mug. Adjust the amount of root to water according to taste. Add sweetener if desired. Some use this as a coffee substitute – high in minerals and no caffeine.
Nettle Chips
Ingredients
Renee Fredrickson, Ethnobotanist
Early spring may be the richest foraging time of year when it comes to the nutritional and medicinal benefits offered by the plants springing up in the Puget Sound area. While this time of year cannot boast popping sweet, ripe berries into your mouth with the hot sun on your back or digging plump, delicious tubers for roasting, the sheer abundance of easily accessible, edible greens is startling, especially following a long dreary winter.
On that note, if you lived here several hundreds or thousands of years ago, your winter diet would be long on proteins and fats stored since the last hunting and fishing of the fall, and very short on green plant matter. By early spring, your body would be craving vitamin and mineral rich vegetation, and the appearance of greens such as berry shoots and nettle would be cause for celebration. Some of these greens are rich in bitter compounds which stimulate the production of bile and offer a necessary jumpstart to improved liver/gallbladder function and therefore, healthy digestion. Across cultures, bitter greens have long been included in salads, and salads eaten to begin a meal for exactly that purpose – the body is much better prepared to digest whatever foods come next once those bitters have gone to work.
So, what can we eat?
Chickweed, Stellaria media*, is an abundant perennial plant of gardens, abandoned plots and overgrown lawns. It is tasty eaten raw and in salads. It can be chopped and added to omelets or veggies. Use leaves and flowers, trimmed with scissors. This plant is best used fresh rather than dried. By late spring, the stems will dry and turn brown and the plant is no longer palatable. Chickweed is especially mineral rich along with containing Vit A. As a side note, chickweed infused oil is marvelous for the skin.
*Note: S. media is an introduced species closely related to the native S. crispa
Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, might be the plant we most love to hate. But this sweet-tasting, sunny-bright flower, along with its leaves (a great source of bitter greens), its crowns and roots (supporting liver function and healthy digestion), can be one of our most solid allies in nutritional health and wellbeing. All this for the price of time outdoors finding free food! The leaves are most tasty when picked early, before the flower stalk emerges, but can be gathered all year, steamed, boiled or dried for use in soups, etc. The smaller, more tender fresh roots can be roasted and eaten with other root vegetables. Roots, once thoroughly cleaned, can be dried in a slow oven till brittle, then stored long term. They can then be ground and used for dandelion root tea. The most beautiful treatise I have ever read about this inspiring little plant comes from Euell Gibbons’ chapter on dandelion titled, “The Official Remedy for Disorders”, from his widely-read book Stalking the Wild Asparagus.
Stinging Nettle, Urtica dioica, is truly one of nature’s great gifts as winter departs and spring is fleeting. Non-coincidentally, it emerges at the same time as the “gifts” that bring some people seasonal responses such as itchy eyes and congested sinuses, and is regularly used in tea or extract forms, to curb these allergies. Nettle leaves can be dried and stored for the year to use as tea or added to cooked dishes. They can also be powdered and added to about anything, including baked goods. Fresh leaves can be made into pesto, nettle soup, used to make pasta, just to name a few uses. Leaves can be dunked into boiling water, squeezed out gently, and frozen for later use.
Nettle emerges early and the leaves must be harvested prior to the flower clusters that come out from the leaf axils as summer approaches. In late summer, the seeds can be harvested for medicinal purposes. Foraging note: all parts of the nettle plants are covered in small, hydroponically-operated hairs that can deliver a tiny dose of formic acid (the same chemical as in a honeybee sting) to the predator….you, that is. After all, how does a plant so tasty and nutritious protect itself?
Nettle is high in virtually all the major minerals including selenium, plus Vit A and Vit B complex. From a health perspective, it is truly a powerhouse.
A Note on Foraging
Listed here are only three of spring’s abundant plant offerings for food and medicine. There are many others. If you are planning to forage for these riches, it is imperative that you POSITIVELY IDENTIFY ANY PLANT YOU PLAN TO EAT. The ones listed here are not difficult to ID, and hopefully, you will be inspired to go deeper. Take the time to search out reputable sources. My recommendation for a field guide to this area is Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, by Pojar and MacKinnon. Almost all our local bookstores carry this book and would appreciate seeing you.
Regarding harvesting, I encourage you to do some reading on the ethics of wild plant collecting, including sustainable harvesting, considering your impact, harvesting in clean places, not taking too much or more than you can use, and the offering of gratitude. Most foraging books and indigenous sources will provide you with guidelines. Thank you.
Recipes
Nettle (or other) Pesto
- 3-4 cups fresh nettle leaf
- ½ cup olive oil, adjust for consistency
- ½ cup toasted hazelnuts, can substitute walnut, pine or other nuts or seeds
- 3-5 cloves garlic, or to taste
- Salt to taste
Blend until smooth, refrigerate or freeze
Note: pesto simply means “paste”, so this recipe can be used for any fresh greens, including dandelion leaf. I usually go out into the yard and find what’s fresh at the time and add it; arugula, grape leaf, salad burnet, oregano, sorrel….experiment.
Dandelion Root Tea
Place 1-2 tsp dried, ground dandelion root into about 2 cups boiling water. Simmer for several minutes and strain into a mug. Adjust the amount of root to water according to taste. Add sweetener if desired. Some use this as a coffee substitute – high in minerals and no caffeine.
Nettle Chips
Ingredients
- 3 – 4 cups stinging nettle leaves
- 2 tablespoons melted lard tallow, or coconut oil
- Sea salt to taste
- Preheat your oven to 300°.
- Toss the nettle leaves with melted fat. Spread on a baking sheet.
- Sprinkle on sea salt to taste.
- Bake for 20 – 30 minutes until crisp, gently turning once with a spatula halfway through baking.
- Cool on paper towels.
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