Once, in France, I walked on the lawn of a château in Haute Savoie.
Photography by Marie Viljoen.
Dandelions
In the knife edge between winter and early spring one of the nicest vegetables is the dandelion Taraxacum officinale crown dug still attached to the youngest...
...leaves what forager Leda Meredith calls yard squid because of the tentacled resemblance wash very well cut off the root and eat raw tempura d or sautéed
The bright flowers in late spring make the classic dandelion wine, naturally fizzy after a few days of fermentation.
Purple dead nettle (Lamium purpureum) is a pretty, purpled plant that grows at foot-height in late winter and early spring, a lowly cousin of grander garden cultivars.
Purple Dead Nettle
There is a caveat with Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum): DO NOT PLANT IT.
Japanese Knotweed
Allium vineale is the unappreciated relative of the chives we pay for. Use them as you would chives, garlic, and shallots.
Field Garlic
Pokeweed
Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) is conspicuous in early fall when it is shrub-sized and dripping with glossy fruit hanging from hot pink stems. You can treat poke as you might green beans or asparagus.
In summer, when cool weather greens retreat, anticipate lambs quarters (Chenopodium album and other species), a heat-tolerant relative of quinoa. Lambs quarters are highly nutritious, and even the seeds (a pseudograin) can be cooked and eaten.
Lambs Quarters
Garden amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus and other species) is also called pigweed, which is not fair.
Garden Amaranth
Succulent and tart, heat-loving purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is chart-toppingly high in omega-3 fatty acids and is making its way to famers’ markets, at last. See our Recipe: Purslane Salad with Watermelon.
Purslane
Quickweed
Galinsoga parviflora appears almost overnight in summer gardens (hence the common name quickweed). Book a wild foods walk with a local forager, and discover more about these and many other edible plants, growing beneath our feet.