Wild Spring Plant Foods: The Foxfire Americana Library (7)

by Edited by Foxfire Students

  Brook lettuce (Saxifraga micranthidifolia) (family Saxifragaceae)

  (branch lettuce, St. Peter’s cabbage)

  ILLUSTRATION 29 Lawton Brooks with brook lettuce.

  Brook lettuce is found in very wet seepage slopes, springheads, on rocks in streams or on stream banks. It has four-to-six-inch dark green, succulent leaves that are irregularly scalloped on the edges and slightly fuzzy. Young leaves are used in salads.

  Myrtle Lamb told us, “It is kind of a long-leaf thing, and grows in the wettest damp places, where moss grows. As it gets older, it gets a red cast to it.”

  Mrs. Norton said, “It’s kind of sticky when its gets old, so you have to get it when it’s real young.”

  Salad: Myrtle Lamb likes to take brook lettuce and cut it like tame lettuce, and put onions in it, and hot grease on it. Then sprinkle salt and pepper over it. Or just pour hot grease over it so that it wilts. It can be eaten like wild mustard or turkey mustard.

  Blue violet (Viola papilionacea) (family Violaceae)

  (johnny-jump-up)

  The blue violet is common in meadows, lawns, and damp, open woodlands. It grows to eight inches tall, with heart-shaped, deep green leaves, and long-stemmed, deep blue flowers. There is a cream-colored form, and the common form with blue and white flowers, called “confederate violet” and naturalized around many home and farm sites.

  Violet leaves and flowers are both edible. The blue wood violet (Viola cucullata) is very similar, with darker blue flowers, and found in rich woodlands and wet places along streams. Leaves and flowers of both species can be used in any recipes. Leaves are very rich in vitamins A and C. Many people mentioned mixing them in with other greens such as wild mustards, creases, or lamb’s quarters. Leaves and flowers are also used in tea, and in a medicine supposed to induce sleep, and to “comfort and strengthen the heart.”

  ILLUSTRATION 30 Blue violet

  Violet flowers have long been used in fancy confections, candied or sugared. In the last century, a gift of candied violets was a “message of love.”

  Greens: wash and cut up leaves of blue violets. Cook with a little water twelve minutes. Serve butter over them, or cook with bacon or fatback. Or mix violet leaves with dandelion greens or milkweed shoots and top with bacon and chopped-up hard-boiled eggs. Or mix with lamb’s quarters or pokeweed and cook as above.

  Violet salad: add chopped violets to other spring greens for salad, or use alone with vinegar and bacon.

  Violet jelly: cook violet flowers with boiling water. Strain, add sugar, pectin, and juice of half a lemon. Simmer until it jells.*

  Sugared violets: cook two cups sugar, one-half cup water, a dash of cream of tartar. Stir until sugar grains. Dip fresh violet blossoms (free from stems) and place on platter to dry.

  Violet syrup: cover violet blossoms with water. Let stand two days. Strain. Cook with honey and juice of lemon. Stir well. Bring to boil. Put in jars and seal. Good for colds or coughs.

  Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) (family Asclepiadaceae)

  (silkweed, cottonweed)

  I LLUSTRATION 31 Milkweed

  Milkweed is a stout perennial, growing in colonies, to five feet tall. It has large, oval, opposite leaves, and stems and leaves exude a milky juice. It is found in dry fields and on roadsides. Rough pods contain silky-winged seeds. Young shoots are edible when very young, before leaves unfold. Young pods can be used as a substitute for okra, and flowers are cooked into sugar.

  In Tennessee and Kentucky, milkweed is considered a tonic, greens “good for what ails you.”

  Fried milkweed: cut shoots in small pieces, boil fifteen minutes in salted water. Drain. Fry in small amount of fat. Add in eggs, salt and pepper, and cheese, if desired.

  Milkweed soup: shoots—gather shoots while young and tender. Do not gather after July. Wash, cook, drain. Add more water, rice, bacon drippings, salt, pepper, or wild onions. Cook over a slow fire until done. Pods—boil a hambone, add young milkweed pods cut in small pieces, several wild onions or ramps, and a handful of rice. Cook slowly. Add salt and pepper before serving.

  Cut milkweed shoots in small pieces. Drain. Serve on toast, topped with hard-boiled egg and bread crumbs. Add onion, if desired. Or add bacon or fatback; or top with cheese sauce.

  Milkweed greens: cook one pound very young stalks in water with salt and butter, covered for ten minutes. Drain. Add more butter and chopped wild onions.

  Ground Hog Plantain (Prunella vulgaris) (family Laviatae)

  (selfheal, square-weed, heal-all)

  A common, naturalized plant, found everywhere along paths and in waste places. Stems are square with green leaves, and spikes of purplish flowers. Mrs. Ethel Corn said, “It looks sort of like rabbit plantain, only the leaves are darker green and bunch up more.” She said to put them in and boil them with a piece of hog meat.

  ILLUSTRATION 32 Ground hog plantain

  Mrs. Norton said, “There is a wild ground hog mustard, they call it, and it grows little and low on the ground, and it’s got a round leaf. It has a bloom comes up, it’s a purple flower. But you have to get it real quick, for if you don’t, it’s gone.” When we asked, she said, “How do you fix it? Just cook it with your wild mustard or anything. We always used the sheep sorrel to make it sour like vinegar. Didn’t have much vinegar then, you know, so they used that.”

  Broadleaf Plantain (Plantago major) (family Plantaginaceae)

  (dooryard weed, great plantain, Englishman’s foot, devil’s shoestring, hen plant, birdseed, waybread, rabbit plantain)

  ILLUSTRATION 33 Broadleaf plantain

  Plantain is a very common dooryard weed, a native of Europe, and naturalized in this country. It has large round, basal leaves and a spike of greenish flowers and seeds. The leaves are edible when young, rich in calcium, and make excellent greens, especially when added to mustard.

  English plantain, or ribwort (Plantago lanceolata), is known in the mountains as white plantain. Leaves can also be eaten, but leaves of rabbit plantain are preferred.

  Plantains are rich in vitamins A and C.

  Greens: pick leaves. Pull off stems, parboil fifteen minutes. Drain and rinse. Boil again in fresh water with fat meat until tender. Or fry in a small amount of grease five to ten minutes after boiling and draining. Or, Mrs. Norton suggests, “You take blackberry leaves, wild plantain leaves, and wild mustard, and cook them together and see what you get.”

  Salad: cook plantain leaves, chopped fine, in salt water. Add a pinch of sugar. Mix with other greens in salads. Or, “Cut it up and eat it like lettuce. Pour hot grease on it,” says Mrs. Tom McDowell.

  Corn salad (Valerianella radiate) (family Valerianaceae)

  (lamb’s lettuce)

  ILLUSTRATION 34 Corn salad

  A common plant of early spring, with opposite, narrow, light green leaves and heads of small white flowers. Valerianella locusta is similar, except leaf edges are wavy, and flowers are a very pale blue. Young leaves are edible “used any way you’d use lettuce.”

  Valerian tea, a mild sedative, is made by boiling leaves in water. Let them stand twelve hours to draw, then strain and drink sparingly.

  Chicory (Cichorium intybus) (family Compositae)

  (succory, blue-sailors, bunk)

  I LLUSTRATION 35 Chicory

  Chicory is naturalized from Europe and found along roadsides. It has dandelion-like basal leaves, and stems that exude a milky juice. Bright blue flowers open every morning and close again by noon.

  Young leaves are eaten like lettuce or endive, and roots are also edible, often added to coffee or used as a coffee substitute. Leaves are extremely high in vitamins A and G and in calcium.

  Chicory with mustard sauce: cook young leaves until tender. Cover with a sauce made of one-fourth cup sugar, one-half teaspoon salt, two egg yolks, one cup scalded milk, two tablespoons vinegar, one tablespoon mustard. Blend until thick in a double boiler. Serve over the drained chicory.*

  Panned chicory: melt two tablespoons fat and add chopped
chicory greens. Cover and steam for fifteen minutes. Add one tablespoon flour, a small amount of cream, salt and pepper. Let simmer five minutes more.

  Chicory coffee: wash and peel roots. Grind and roast in oven. Add to, or use instead of, coffee.

  Wild lettuce (Lactuca graminifolia) (family Compositae)

  ILLUSTRATION 36 Ral Henslee with wild lettuce.

  Wild lettuce is a tall plant, found in open woods, and in damp places. Leaves are dentate, usually a bright blue-green color, and very smooth to the touch. Small, dandelion-like flowers open briefly in bright weather. They may be blue or whitish or pale violet. Lactuca hirsuta and Lactuca canadensis are very similar, differing slightly in leaf shapes, or in flower color, for flowers may be violet, white, or yellow. Tall lettuce (Lactuca floridana) grows to six feet tall, with a hollow, leafy stem, and white or pale blue flowers. Leaves of all species of wild lettuce are edible when young and tender. Every species will emit a milky juice when leaves or stems are broken.

  Wild lettuce must be gathered and eaten in the early spring when the plants are young, as the older plants get tough and wormy. Ethel Corn told us, “It grows mostly in poor ground where it ain’t tender. When you get it, it has a flavor like tame lettuce, only it don’t look much like it, and it’s a whole lot better.”

  Mrs. Keener said, “It’s slick when it first comes up, the leaves are. And it don’t resemble lettuce at all, but it tastes like it. It’s a little bit tougher. You find it all along fence rows, or anywhere. It comes up in early spring, that’s when you get it; when it grows up tall, it’s too tough.”

  Mrs. Norton said, “You break a leaf off and if it’s kinda milky, that’s wild lettuce.”

  Salad: cut up greens and wash. Cut green onions in it and pour hot grease over it. Also good with vinegar, oil, and salt. Mrs. Irene Gray says, “It sure did taste good!” Try frying bacon until crisp and crumbly. Add brown sugar and vinegar and pour over chopped wild lettuce leaves. For extra flavor, add chickweed or mustard.

  Greens: pick young leaves (before they are eight inches high). Wash, and cook with very little water. Add butter, salt, pepper, and bits of bacon and bacon grease.

  Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) (family Compositae)

  (blowball, peasant’s clock, cankerroot, down-head, yellow gowan, witches’ gowan, milk-witch)

  Dandelions are common on lawns and in fields and along roadsids Stems grow three to fourteen inches and are hollow. Dark green, dentate basal leaves emit a milky juice as they get old. The golden yellow flowers are one to two inches across. Dandelion is a native of Europe, naturalized all over America.

  Edible parts include the young leaves, the flower buds, and the scraped roots. Dandelion greens are very rich in iron and vitamin C. Frederic Klees says a Dutchman has to eat dandelion salad on Maundy Thursday to stay healthy all the year. Some authorities say the roots are inedible, and all traces of root must be cut away when preparing greens for cooking. Gather much more than you think you need, for they cook down. Some cooks add a pinch of soda when cooking Dandelions. Mrs. Norton says, “You can use dandelion in tossed salads, the kind with feathery leaves; it makes what you call a wild salad.”

  ILLUSTRATION 37 A clump of dandelion.

  Greens: gather when young, wash, and boil about twenty minutes in water with fatback added; or drain and fry in grease. Season with salt and pepper. Or after cooking, drain off water, and heat with small amount of vinegar. Add small chunks of fried salt pork, heat, and eat. Or cook lightly in salted water. Drain. Mix milk, butter, one egg, and vinegar together. Cook to just a boil and pour over greens.

  Hot greens on toast: cook greens slightly; drain. Add bits of fried bacon and bacon grease. Serve over toast.

  Dandelion bud omelet: gather one cup dandelion buds before flower color shows. Fry buds in dab of butter until they pop. Add four eggs, salt and pepper. Top with raw leaves, finely cut before serving.

  Salad: wash and pat dry one-half cup unopened flower buds and one bunch tender leaves. Fry two strips bacon, toss buds in hot bacon grease until they open. Drain. Mix with leaves and bacon; add three tablespoons oil and vinegar. Or wash young dandelion leaves and chop fine. Add salt, vinegar, and olive oil. When mixed, add one tomato cut in pieces, or cooked lima beans. Toss. Or mix chopped dandelion with chopped ramps or wild onion; top with bacon, bacon fat, and vinegar.

  Green drink: cook chickweed and dandelion, each alone. Put through a sieve, add cider vinegar, and drink for a tonic.

  Coffee substitute: gather dandelion roots. Peel. Roast until dark brown; grind. Use as substitute for real coffee.

  Dandelion wine: pour one gallon boiling water over one gallon dandelion flowers. Let stand until blossoms rise (twenty-four to forty-eight hours). Strain into stone jar. Add juices of four lemons and four oranges, and four pounds of sugar, plus one yeast cake. Stir four or five times a day until it stops fermenting. Keep well covered. In two weeks, strain, bottle and cork tightly.

  Tall coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata) (family Compositae)

  (cochan, coach-ann)

  Tall coneflower grows in wet places, with finely dissected, smooth green leaves, and later in the season, tall stems of yellow, daisy-like flower heads with green, cone-shaped centers. This is a close relative of the brown-eyed susan, and the wild ancestor of the garden golden globe.

  Leaves are edible when young and tender. Mrs. Ethel Corn told us, “You find it along branch banks. It looks like golden globe flowers, and it will run up when it goes to seed. You have to watch when picking it, for the wild parsnip looks similar to it, only it’s more whitish-leaved than that.”

  Mrs. Hershel Keener said, “There’s a plant that grows along this branch called coachie-ann; now I don’t know how you spell it, and it’s got such an odor when it’s cooking. You can boil it just like you do poke, and season it real good, but I don’t like it.”

  Greens: pick when tender and parboil until tender. Wash until water is clear, squeeze water out. Put in pan with grease and fry. Or after cooking, chop fine and add salt and margarine and top with chopped boiled eggs.

  ILLUSTRATION 38 Kenny Runion with cochan from a neighbor’s cornfield.

  RECIPES FOR MIXED GREENS

  Many different kinds of greens can be combined in salads, or in recipes for cooked greens. Any mild-flavored green can be combined with the sharper tasting mustards and cresses, and add bulk.

  Mixed greens:

  Get together a mess of poke, dandelion, lamb’s quarters, violet leaves, and sour dock, and mix together. Cook, drain, and season with bits of fried salt pork, and a little vinegar.

  (or)

  “When I was small, my people used to pick wild mustard, narrow-leaf dock, and lamb’s quarters. Mix it all together and fry in grease,” says Mrs. Al Webster.

  (or)

  Parboil poke, then cook with ham hock like turnip greens. Dandelions are done the same way. Thistle, wild lettuce, whiteweed, narrow- and broad-leafed dock, pussley, wild violet leaves, wild mustard are all cooked like turnip or mustard greens.

  Canned greens:

  Most wild sallets can be canned. Mix mustard and wild turnip greens, or buff sallet and mustard mixed, or with creases. Fix and precook until tender. Put in jars, add water, seal, and cook thirty minutes in pressure cooker.

  Mixed green salad:

  Take equal parts of dandelion, shepherd’s purse, peppergrass, curly dock, poke shoots, and sorrel. Chop fine. Add wild onion to taste. (Poke shoots must be cooked first.) Make a dressing of oil and vinegar, and flavor with garlic, mustard, salt, and pepper. Serve on a bed of wild dock or lettuce leaves.

  (or)

  Toss one cup chopped cress, one cup chopped dandelion, one-fourth cup ramps or wild onions together with French dressing.

  (or)

  Three slices bacon, cut fine. Three tablespoons vinegar, dash of salt, one cup chopped cress, one cup dandelions, one cup wild lettuce. Fry bacon, add vinegar and salt, pour over greens, and toss.

  (or)

&n
bsp; Mix water cress, sorrel, purslane, wild onion, and dandelion leaves, chopped fine. Fry bacon bits, pour bacon bits, grease, and vinegar over greens.

  (or)

  Wash chopped sorrel, sour dock, dandelion. Put in pan with diced onions or ramps, pour dressing of vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and bacon over greens, and toss.

  Wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) (family Rosaceae)

  ILLUSTRATION 39 Wild strawberries

  Wild strawberries grow in colonies, or beds, in open, sunny places, in old fields, along roadsides, or damp meadows. Stems are three to eight inches high, with three divided fuzzy leaves. Small, white flowers appear in early spring, followed by the delicately flavored, red strawberries.

  Strawberries are rich in iron and in vitamin C. They have a wonderfully tart goodness for “eating out of hand,” or they can be used in jams, jellies, pies, preserves, desserts, cakes, or ice cream. Some people are allergic to strawberries and may get a rash from eating them. The berries are small and it takes a lot of work to accumulate enough for a pie, or a batch of jam, but they are well worth the effort, and taste better for it. Someone said, “If it is four o’clock by the time you get your clothes on, it will be light enough to pick strawberries.”

  Strawberry leaves are used to make a delicately flavored tea, said to be good for bladder infections.

  Jam: put a quart of berries in a pot, add a cup of sugar, and bring to a boil, stirring gently. Boil three minutes, add another cup of sugar and boil three more minutes; then add a final cup of sugar, skim off foam and put in jars and seal. Or boil for five minutes one cup strawberries and one teaspoon vinegar. Add one cup sugar and boil fifteen minutes; skim while hot. Set aside to cool all day or overnight before putting in jars. Or cook four pounds of berries in porcelain kettle. Boil juice first. Add two pounds sugar, and boil again. Skim and put in jars.