Wild Harvest: Forage for your Salad

This time on Wild Harvest I’m talking about gathering and foraging for edible wild greens, commonly known as weeds, and bringing them into your kitchen to use in your spring and summer salads.

One of the magical perks of living in the forest, on the far north of the pacific northwest coast, is the year-long availability of wild greens for foraging. The only times of the year that I am unable to gather edible greens from the forest are the months when there’s snow on the ground. Even then, being on the coastline means that in between heavy snowfalls, there are days and weeks of sun when the snow melts and I’m able to head out to see what edibles have been hiding under the wintry blanket.

But, it’s in spring that my foragers instincts are most sharply alive and alert. As April blooms into May there will be a new edible that starts to grow and spread almost daily. The prolific bushes of Herb Robert and clumps of sprawling dandelion are followed by the wild violets, lemon balm and the wood sorrel, which arrive each year at the same time the first daffodils open their butter-yellow buds. The wild thyme starts to set in soon after, and by the first week of May Mullein, Plantain and many others have started to appear.

With such an abundance of wild greens to gather, from April till the first snows in late November, I rely almost entirely on foraged edibles for my salads and cooked greens. Throughout the Wild Harvest series I’ll be exploring various ways to cook with these wild plants that are found commonly throughout the northern hemisphere at this time of year.

This month, we start with my favourite wild salad greens; lemon balm, wood sorrel, and herb robert

Of these, and really all edible greens, herb robert is my firm favourite. Used since medieval times in many parts of Europe to cure a host of ailments and complaints, it’s a nutritional powerhouse that’s naturally high in vitamins A, B and C, and having anti-oxidant and anti-viral properties. I love the slightly astringent smell of this wild herb, and the very sweet little pink flowers that bring such a lovely spread of colour to the fast greening landscape around mid-may. A large handful of the leaves, stems and flowers go into almost every one of my salads from now till well into late autumn.

The other most commonly used wild salad greens at the cottage are lemon balm and wood sorrel. The lemon balm grows quite happily and vigorously next to many wild and cultivated plants around the cottage, including the herb robert. If you’re new to eating wild greens, the slightly hairy texture of lemon balm leaves might be something of an acquired taste, but for myself I absolutely love the refreshing, lemony crunch and texture these delicious leaves bring to any salad. I either toss in a couple of dozen leaves in whole, or add just a few, thinly sliced, whenever i want just that slight hint of lemon in a salad, pasta, sandwich or tortilla-wrap.

And finally, the wood sorrel. This is one of the most magical little wild plants to grow in the wood line surrounding the cottage. Every spring, under the same young red cedar tree, one of the first signs of the end of winter’s spell is the arrival of the annual mat of fairy-green, triple-leaved, softest of soft wild wood sorrel leaves. As spring matures, and the fragile, shy sorrel blossoms fade away, the sorrel leaves become larger and spread out over the moss covered ground under the firs and cedars. On many evenings I find myself under that young cedar, picking handfuls of these delights to toss into my salad basket.

To a salad bowl of herb robert, lemon balm and wood sorrel leaves I usually add about a 1/3-1/2 cup of homemade kraut, or some other fermented vegetable or relish, a couple of tablespoons of mayo or a good splosh of olive oil, a handful of sunflower seeds or poppy seeds for crunch, and a drizzle of my favourite spicy sauce to serve.

You’ll find me on many a spring evening, a bowl of this salad on my lap, sitting on the deck and watching the shadows lengthen in the growing spring dusklight.

As with all foraging, please be mindful of where you harvest your fresh greens. Make sure they are not sprayed by pesticides or insecticides, and always take care to wash your produce carefully.