Eat Your Weeds In Early Spring

"Weed" - such a mean word, rife with anger and judgement, with a healthy dose of disgust. "I have to weed! Look at all these damn weeds! My lawn looks like crap because of all the WEEEEEEEEEDS!!!" But what makes a plant a weed, as opposed to a flower, vegetable, or natural remedy? Only you, my friend, only you. Wouldn't you enjoy gardening a bit more if you could look at the view out of your kitchen window and think "Ah, look at that lovely expanse of medicinal and edible wild plants that I didn't have to do any work to sow or produce! Good thing that I am under no obligation to do anything about removing them due to their many health benefits. I think I'll have another cup of coffee and watch 'Househunters International' for the 450th time." Well, you're in luck. I'm going to spend the next few months exploring the many uses of these volunteer plants so you can consider them a crop, and save yourself the time and trouble of eliminating them with chemicals. Let's get started learning about zone 6 spring time edibles. Our next post will have a few fun recipes created by the husband and designated garden chef, Tom DiGangi!

Garlic Mustard - alliaria petiolata 

spring garlic mustard before sending up flower stalks

We have lots of this growing in the moist shady areas around the edges of our yard. This biennial will be 2-3 feet tall if left to flower and produce seed. At this stage in spring, it's a low growing clump of triangular to heart-shaped leaves with toothed edges that smell like garlic when crushed. Like most wild greens and herbs, the leaves are mildest and most edible when young, before the plant bolts and produces flowers. We use this like a strong flavored cooked green, although it's also tender enough to be eaten raw and fresh in salads. Make sure you check out Tom's garlic mustard recipes in our next post!

Wild Garlic - allium viveale

a lovely wild garlic portrait by Tom DiGangi

Also called field garlic and wild onion, this bulbous perennial looks like small clumps of tall thin grass. When crushed, it gives off a strong garlic/onion odor. In May and June, it will flower and produce little
bulbs, which are also edible. We use the wild garlic grassy leaves just like you would use chives - to sprinkle on top of any finished meat, vegetable, or soup dish to add an extra burst of flavor and freshness.

Dandelion - taraxacum officinale
Do I even need to describe this one? Dandelion, the most hated of lawn invaders, produces yellow flowers, white puffy seed heads, and has a tap root that goes from here to China. All plant parts serve as food and are rich in vitamins A and C. Flowers can be battered and deep fried, leaves can be cooked or eaten raw, and the root can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute. Since I married one of those Italian types, we've been eating dandelion in various formats for quite awhile, so I won't repeat the recipes here. Instead, check out the following old blog posts for some inventive dandelion applications created by Tom:

• why you should eat dandelions
• soup recipe
• pasta recipe

Chickweed - stellaria media

chickweed running up a raised bed

Also called starwort, starweed and satin flower. Chickweed has a variety of external and internal medicinal uses that I will get into later, since we're only talking about wild edibles in this post. This prostrate annual pops up every early spring and furiously takes over my sleeping vegetable garden. After years of cursing up and down about this thing, I finally determined what it was and learned about it's positive properties. I believe this year I finally made peace with this little creep(er), although I still wind up pulling up and composting more than I save. Chickweed is chock full of vitamins, and has a fresh grassy taste good for eating fresh in salads. The leaves, stems and flowers are all edible. I created a pesto using it along with garlic mustard, since its milder flavor tempers the stronger tones of the garlic mustard. I'm also going to dry some, and steep fresh parts in alcohol to make a tincture. Multiple generations can grow per year, so if you want to limit the amount of chickweed you are harvesting, get it out of the ground before the flowers produce seed.

chickweed running amok in my strawberry bed

Gourmet Weed Primer - Dandelions, Part II

Dandelion Pappardelle with Chicken Ragu (Serves 4) - Tom DiGangi Jr.

Here are a few things to know about this recipe. First, pappardelle is a ribbon-shaped pasta about five inches long and one inch wide. Second, if you don’t have duck fat lying around the house like we do, just use a little extra olive oil or bacon fat. Third, please do not use chicken breast meat, as it will be dry and tasteless in this dish. Finally, stirring-in the ricotta cheese with the heat off is critical to making a creamy sauce. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Pasta:

3 Eggs

2 ½C (300g) All-purpose flour

1C Blanched and squeezed-dry dandelion greens

4 Chicken thighs (bones and skin removed)

1T Extra virgin olive oil

Sauce:

3T Extra virgin olive oil

1T Duck fat

1 Yellow Onion, diced

1 Carrot, diced

2 Celery Stalks, diced

2 Garlic Cloves, crushed

1t Red pepper flakes

2t Dried sage

1C Red wine

8oz Canned Plum tomatoes with packing juice

½C frozen peas

2T Fresh garlic chives, minced

2T Ricotta cheese

2T Grated parmigano reggiano cheese

Salt to taste

Procedure

To make the pappardelle, squeeze all of the water out of the dandelion greens and process to a fine paste in a food processor. Add the eggs and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, and process until well incorporated. Next, add the flour and process until a ball of dough is formed. Remove the dough and kneed for a few minutes on a lightly floured surface to form a smooth, not sticky, ball. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least a ½ hour. Roll out the pasta into thin sheets, using extra flour to keep the dough workable. Using a pasta roller attachment for an electric mixer is a good way to make the rolling process easier and the end product more consistent. Then cut the sheets into 1-inch wide ribbons to form the pappardelle.

To make the ragu, heat the duck fat and 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Brown the chicken thighs for a few minutes on one side. Turn the chicken over and add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, red pepper flakes and sage. Sauté the chicken, vegetables and spices for a few minutes more, then add the tomatoes (crushing them in your hand as you go) and red wine. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and let simmer for 40 minutes. Add the peas and continue simmering for another 10 minutes.

To finish the dish, boil the pasta in a gallon of salted water for just a couple minutes. Add the pasta to the ragu. Remove the ragu from the heat. Stir in the chives and cheeses. Adjust the seasoning and serve immediately with a hearty red wine, like Dolcetto.

Think we're done with dandelion? Nope. Stay tuned for Tom's next wild foods meal and his recipe for Pan-Seared Wild Trout with Dandelion and Spring Onion Crustini.

Gourmet Weed Primer - Dandelions, Part I

I mean it! It's dandelion week in our yard, house and blog, and Tom is fired up about it. I harvested a smidgen of a fraction of those onerous weeds cropping up in our garden beds, and Tom has been blanching, sauteing, kneading and pulverizing these things into new recipes. Even NPR caught the vibe of his enthusiasm this week with an interview of wild greens forager Sam Thayer. If you're not sure WHY you should be eating dandelions, check out the NPR interview or visit my blog entry from last year - The Easiest Way To Remove Dandelion Weeds From Your Garden. But if you want to know WHAT you should be doing with the dandelions once harvested, TommyD is your man.

Dandelions – My Port in a Storm

Tom DiGangi Jr.

In all honesty, I don’t love dandelion greens. Most of the time, I just like them. Arugula, chard and spinach are the greens I would marry. Dandelions deserve a couple of dates, and then… move on. But, that’s just fine with me.

As winter wanes, my desire for fresh greens waxes. So, each spring, dandelions and I have a nice dinner, maybe take-in a movie, you know… get reacquainted. Then, we lose touch for the rest of the year, until winter creates that longing, once again. It’s a great relationship. And, after a harsh winter like this one, I’m fired up about spending some time in my port in a cold and snowy storm.

The dandelion is bitter and intense. Yet, it is enticing because it is the first produce from our yard. The trick is to find ways to tame the intensity of dandelions. Here are two recipes to mellow the personality of this spring spark plug. They both employ a technique called “blanching,” which reduces the bitter flavor and sets the bright green color of the greens. The recipes also utilize my other favorite harbinger of spring – garlic chives – highlighting the adage “what grows together, goes together.”

Thai Dandelion and Carrot Soup (Serves 2)

Ingredients

1 Quart Asian-inspired stock (see below)

1 Carrot, quarter inch dice

1 Quart freshly harvested dandelion greens (no roots or flowers, please)

1T fresh garlic chives, minced

2T soy sauce

Salt to taste

Procedure

Blanch the dandelion greens by placing them in a large pot of salted and vigorously boiling water for two minutes. Remove the greens and “shock” them in a large bowl of ice water, mixing the greens until they are cool. Then drain the greens, and set-aside.

Combine a quart of the stock and the diced carrots in a small pot. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and let simmer until the carrots are almost cooked through (about 10 minutes). Chop the blanched dandelion greens into bite-sized pieces and add to the pot to simmer for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and stir-in the chives and soy sauce. Adjust the salt to taste and slurp up the liquid health.

Asian-inspired stock

Ingredients

Handful of leftover chicken and/or pork bones

1 Onion

1 Carrot

3-4 Fennel stems

3T Fresh cilantro

3 Dried Thai chiles

1 Star anise

3T sun dried tomatoes

3 Garlic cloves

3 Fresh quarter inch thick ginger slices

3 Quarts of water

Procedure

To make the stock, combine all ingredients in a 4-quart (or larger) pot and simmer, mostly covered, for at least 2 hours. Skim the foam off the top of the stock occasionally while simmering. Pass the stock though a sieve. Discard the solids. Let your imagination and the contents of your pantry and fridge create variations on this list. Ultimately, you are just looking for a homemade, healthy and flavorful stock, with some classic Asian dimensions.

Come back tomorrow for Tom's recipe for Dandelion Pappardelle With Chicken Ragu!

The Easiest Way To Organically Remove Dandelion Weeds From Your Garden

Oh, what to do about the evil lurker known, properly known as Taraxacum Officinale? Never mind that dandelion greens are an amazing source of Vitamin A and beta-carotene, and are also rich in Vitamins B, C, D, calcium, iron and other minerals. Ignore that dandelion roots are used in natural medicine as an appetite stimulant, digestive aid, and diuretic. They are horrible nasty little bits of nature that find their way into every nook and cranny of our lawns and gardens. Have you seen the bright yellow flowers they produce in spring? Disgusting!

I treat these noxious little buggers exactly the way they deserve to be treated. Here's my simple process for dandelion weed management the organic way:

Step 1: Assemble your tools - basket, gloves, and scissors/pruners.
Step 2: Step outside, saying loudly to yourself and any neighbors who may be listening, "I AM GOING TO THE GROCERY STORE NOW!"
Step 3: Pull the dandelion up at the base, getting as much of the root as you can. You won't get it all and it hardly matters. Cut off the root and flower stem for the compost pile. Put the flower tops and leaves in the basket.

Congratulations! You've organically removed dandelions from your lawn, and they are halfway read to be put in a pot. "Not fair!" you say. "They will grow back from the root that's left in the ground!" you say. True indeed, but you missed my point. I promised you information on the easiest way to remove "dandelion weeds" from your garden organically. And the easiest way to do that is to rename them "dandelion greens" and call them dinner. Done and done. However, if that does not satisfy you, I suggest you check out this article by radio garden host guru Mike McGrath consisting of actual lawn management tips for dandelion control.

As for those of you who are still reading, I leave you with Tom's basic dandelion (or any other kind of) greens recipe. Last week he made a homemade ricotta gnocchi in a sauce of dandelion greens, shiitake mushrooms and Parmesan cheese - but didn't write down the recipe. When I can get him to recreate it, I'll do another post. In the meantime, here's another great website. Wildman Steve Brill tours, lectures and writes all about foraging for wild foods. Here are a few more of his dandelion recipes. The very first leaves of spring dandelions can be eaten raw or lightly sauteed, but they get progressively more bitter as they get older. The recipe below includes boiling the greens first, which helps soften the stronger late season flavors. Although I haven't tried them yet, googling the phrase "dandelion fritters" will lead you many recipes for battered and deep fried dandelion flowers. Enjoy!

Dandelion Greens Sauteed in Olive Oil and Garlic

2 C. packed dandelion greens, washed and chopped
1/4 C. olive oil
1 garlic clove, sliced or minced
salt, pepper, red pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to boil and add salt. Thoroughly wash and pack dandelion greens. Add to boiling water and simmer for about five minutes until the leaves turn bright green. Immediately move greens to an ice water bath to retain the color and continue rinsing. (The boiling and rinsing helps remove the compounds that cause excessive bitterness, especially in dandelion greens that have already produced a flower). Let rest, and add olive oil to a saute pan turned on medium heat. Add garlic and red pepper and saute for a few minutes to release flavor but before garlic browns. Squeeze water out of the dandelion greens and add to saute pan to continue cooking until completely wilted, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

From the Cockamamie Schemes Files: Homemade Avocado Moisture Scrub

What's a zone 6 gardener to do in the dead of winter? Good gardeners read new plant books, clean and organize tools, and start shopping from the deluge of seed catalogues that start arriving the second the ball drops. I plan on doing all that too. Soon. But January gardening prep for me is generally comprised of cockamamie schemes and elaborate plans; Thanks to nature, I don't actuallly have to DO anything. Why not take advantage of the vacation time, and turn to other topics?

Forever on my to-do list is this line: "Make natural beauty treatments and home remedies." It's always on the list but I never get around to doing it during prime gardening season. This year might be different though, due to a combination of the plants I bought last year at Well Sweep Herb Farm and my subscription to Herb Companion Magazine. Unfortunately, my herb garden is asleep and I want to start my project now. Thanks to Shop Rite and my love of Mexican food, I finally made my first official home beauty treatment with hilarious, disgusting and ultimately positive results.


Avocado Moisture Scrub

(from "The Herbal Home Spa" by Greta Breedlove)



2-3 fresh avocado pits

1 C. water, milk or yogurt

(makes 1 treatment)



I let the pits air dry for a few days, then gave them a few good whacks with a meat mallet. From there I moved them to our regular food processor for a rough grind, and then a spice mill for a finer grind. I think you could go right to the spice mill from the smashing, if you like. Mix the avocado pits with the base of your choice, and you have yourself an exfoliating, moisturizing face and body scrub. Apply, leave on for 10 minutes, and wash off. Those are the basic instructions from the book. But let me tell you exactly how it worked for me, as well as some important lessons learned.

One, unless you like freezing temperatures, let the stuff come up to room temperature before application. Second, please note that this is a gloopy mess, and prepare accordingly. Third, it turns out that, at least for the variety I purchased, avocado pits become orange once pureed. Perhaps you can see where I'm going with this.

I started out applying the scrub as a face mask while over the sink. Not good. Giant orange gloop drops all over the sink. So I threw a towel down and continued, but to no avail. The gloop had migrated beyond the towel and was leaving orange splotches on the rug and floor. I hopped into the tub (where I should have been in the first place) and resumed scrubbing the arms and legs. The entire tub area promptly became a full fledged mess with orange splatters on the floor and wall; The tracks left by my moving feet made it look like someone has been naked wrestling with the Great Pumpkin. However, there was no turning back at this point as I was almost completely orange by then and busy wondering just how long ten minutes actually is. I probably lasted most of the ten minutes, and the shower afterward was a sweet reward ... although that water seemed to be moving down the drain awfully slowly. Ah, yes. One of those plastic drain covers would have been in order PRIOR to the water being run. Time to look on the bright side: the drain was always slow, the bathroom needed to be cleaned anyway, and this is some good blog fodder.

As I observed my orange path of destruction across the bathroom, I came to the following assessment: It was worth it. The scrub was amazingly soft for an exfoliator and putting it on was like getting a lumpy massage. I hate those sugar body scrubs because they feel like they are just scratching the skin. It really really worked as a moisturizer too, and it would probably make a great hair mask. And since I can't find any other use for an avocado pit except sprouting it to make a houseplant, it's a perfect solution for using an unusable item. In the future, I believe I will halve the recipe and use it as a hair/hand/face mask instead of a full body scrub disaster.

Am I daunted by being forced into cleaning a bathroom I had no desire to clean? Am I giving up my DIY pharmacy dreams? No! There's a whole internet full of weirdos just like me dishing out recipes for this kind of stuff. And if you are one of those weirdos and have a homemade concoction for me to try, email me at laurasglassart@verizon.net.

Useful Weed Primer: Broadleaf Plantain

If you've been following my blog, you already know about my recurring theme of the trials and tribulations of a lazy gardener. Therefore, it will come as no shock to you that I hate weeding and have not yet found a way to justify not doing it. Not until now.


Think for a bit on the definition of a weed. Really, a weed is just a plant that appears in a place you don't want it. Grass in your raised herb bed is a weed, but herbs in your lawn are weeds too. Speaking of lawns, ours is a disaster by conventional standards. I'm not sure if any of what's growing there is actually grass. I don't care because I sort of hate the concept of a lawn. If I had the time, energy and back strength, I would rip it all out and make a huge showcase garden. Without those factors in my favor however, I need to learn to like both the grass and the weeds. Perhaps if I could find a positive quality about all the weeds in my lawn, I could put to bed some of my weedy lawn angst!



Two gentlemen have arrived on the scene to aid me in my agenda. Cyrus Hyde, an herbalist and owner of Well-Sweep Herb Farm, led lecture tours at their open house event a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, Queen Sophia was in no mood to tolerate herbalists or plant discussions of any sort. If we were not hanging out with the dogs or watching the chickens, she was a crabby crying meanie. Hence, Cyrus' mountain of knowledge about his farm and plants was mostly lost. I did get a chance to learn three things: 1.) horsetail grass can scratch any metal and can sand wood more beautifully than any sandpaper 2.) wild ramps grow in our area and are available for purchase and 2.) most of my lawn is actually a potential first aid cream! Success!

According to Charlie, broadleaf plantain, a common garden & lawn weed, is great for soothing sunburn , treating insect bites and taking the itch out of poison ivy. He prefers to use a match to wilt the leaf and squeeze out the juice onto the affected area, or just slap the wilted leaf on there whole. Without a source of flame, the good old fashioned chew-it-up-and-spit method works too. Either way, you have to abuse the plant a bit to get it to release it’s juice.

I can't begin to explain how happy I was to hear this. We literally have this stuff growing everywhere. I went home to do more research, and easily found a few great websites with lots of plantain facts. Baby leaves are edible in salads and high in vitaminA, B1, C, and K along with riboflavin and calcium. Leaves also contain chemicals such as aucubin (a strong anti-toxin) and allantoin (wound healing and skin regeneration). Plantain has been used medicinally by Europeans for hundreds of years as a cure-all, but modern research is confirming its wound healing and anti-inflammatory properties. In Germany, the commission that regulates herbs and herbal uses also approves plaintain for use soothing coughs and mucuous membrane irritation during colds.

For more information and some homemade healing recipes, check out the following sites:

www.altnature.com
"Medicinal" herb tea: For colds and flu use 1 tbls. dry or fresh whole Plantain (seed, root, and leaves) to 1 cup boiling water, steep 10 min. strain, sweeten. Drink through the day.
Healing salve: In large non-metallic pan place 1lb. of entire Plantain plant chopped, and 1 cup lard, cover, cook down on low heat till all is mushy and green. Strain while hot, cool and use for burns, insect bites, rashes, and all sores. Note: used as night cream for wrinkles.

www.prairielandherbs.com
go to the site for instructions and dosage amounts on plantain tea as a cough treatment, as well as instructions on how to make your own herbally infused oil.

www.botanical.com
this site has a few recipes for treatment of odd ailments and more details about plantain’s uses throughout history.

Of course, after all the chatter, I had to see for myself. I tried it out on the constant case of poison ivy that I get on my forearms from May to October every year. Sure enough, it worked. A week later (and still as of this minute) I got a lovely case of secondary poison ivy over most of my face and eyes, but I've been hesitant to try it there. I might just have to, since the steroid shot is not kicking in yet. Tonight I just might be found hunched over the cauldron (modern day cauldrons go on electric stoves, of course) mixing up a witch's brew of herbal healing.

I am now officially hooked on discovering the beneficial properties of all the volunteer plants growing in my lawn and garden beds. Lucky for me, my enlightening moment at Well-Sweep Herb Farm was quickly followed by a wild foods foray given by Steve “Wildman” Brill. My next article all about Steve and his quirky tour of edible weeds coming soon!