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Wild Edibles Walk-About in Your Yard

Spring violets
Salad with spring violets. Photos by Arianna Alexsandra Collins.

While there are many benefits to buying fresh produce at grocery stores and farmers’ markets, your own yard can also be a source of seasonal and nutritious flowers, fruits, nuts, tubers, and mushrooms. Many flora and mushroom species grow in urban, suburban, and rural properties alike. If you have a lawn, no matter the size, you likely have the fixings for seasonal lawn salad, ingredients for pesto, and nutritive greens for stir-fries and soups. Wood sorrel, lamb’s quarter, violets, dandelion, purslane, and chickweed, for example, are often found in lawns.

When I work with homeowners to conduct one-on-one wild edible inventories, I love witnessing their “aha” moments of delight in learning how to identify things growing in their own yards that they can eat. Because some participants in my wild edibles programs remain nervous about properly cooking these foods, they may also join a meal preparation and feasting workshop, where we prepare delicious food and eat it together. Knowing how to forage for food and then to prepare it to share with others nurture both a sense of community and place.

garlic mustard
Garlic mustard can be used to make pesto.

Last spring, a wild edibles inventory at my friend Valerie’s 0.14-acre property in urban Holyoke, Massachusetts, revealed violets, dandelions, wood sorrel, and garlic mustard. Violets carpeted her lawn. All violets (except African violet houseplants) are edible and add a splash of color to salads and soups. During this visit we gathered a bunch of violets to garnish the curried soup Valerie had prepared for lunch, and they made a delicious adornment.

Some violets, such as sweet violet, common dog violet, and wood violet, pass by the end of spring, but Viola tricolor, also known as johnny-jump-up and heart’s ease, can bloom through the fall. Viola is a daintier relative of the pansy; these irregular 5-petaled flowers can be purple, blue, yellow, or white. Violas contain vitamins C and E, magnesium, and calcium. These may be added to salads or as a garnish to curries and soups for a bit of raw vibrancy as the seasons change.

Dandelion flowers (Taraxacum officinale) are another spring edible often found on lawns. These familiar flowers contain antioxidants and beta-carotene. Dandelion leaves steeped as a tea are a healthy bitter to support liver health.

Another flower coming into bloom in May is lilac (Syringa spp). These shrubs come in a variety of colors ranging from white to purple to magenta. Although I appreciate the scent more than the flavor, I have added lilac blossoms to salads and infused them in honey for a healthy lilac-scented honey. For the latter, I cover the fresh flowers in honey and leave it for six weeks. No need to strain – this can be eaten by the spoonful or added to teas and any baked goods that call for honey.

The shady patch in Valerie’s yard is home to a healthy crop of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolate). This aggressive invasive plant can be used to make pesto. She appreciated the sharp flavor but reported that the next time she made garlic mustard pesto she would add other, blander greens to the mix to offset the intensity of the garlic mustard.

Wood sorrel
All aerial parts of wood sorrel are edible raw.

Valerie’s lawn is also decorated summer through fall with flowering yellow wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta). Wood sorrel has long stems with yellow, rounded, 5-petaled flowers and heart-shaped leaflets. All aerial parts are edible raw. The sour taste is from their high oxalic acid content, which occurs naturally in several vegetables, including spinach and rhubarb. Although oxalic acid can interfere with calcium absorption if you eat large quantities of raw plants containing it, sprinkling some leaves, buds, and flowers into your salad should not be an issue. And if you appreciate that sour lemony taste, you can also chop up about ¼ cup of fresh leaves and flowers to toss into a stir-fry to flavor your veggies.

Although Valerie lives in a relatively urban environment with little yard space, she can capitalize on her sunny east- and south-facing front yard to seed and encourage more wild edibles. She could replace grass with garden crops and wild edibles to gain food access deeper into the season. Her site is on an upward slope from the road with a sidewalk border, so there is no concern for sand or polluted rainwater coming off the pavement into her yard.

Foraging – in the woods, fields, wetlands, or your own yard – can be a year-round endeavor. Meanwhile, in springtime, the fields and lawns are alive with new shoots and tender flowers awaiting your culinary exploration.


Spring Greens Soufflé

2 cups marsh marigold or ostrich fern fiddleheads
1 cup toothwort
¼ cup ramps or scallions
7–8 medium eggs
1 cup of your favorite cheese
2 Tbs plain chèvre or cream cheese
Pinch of salt and black pepper
Oil to coat baking dish and to sauté greens

Harvest marsh marigold leaves and flower buds and the aerial parts of toothwort, leaving the roots so the plants may continue to grow. If you do not live near a wetland for foraging, ostrich fern fiddleheads are an alternative ingredient that can be found seasonally in northeastern woodlands. (You can also often find locally sourced fiddleheads in community grocery stores in the spring.) Rinse the plants. Lightly chop and gently sauté the marsh marigold (or fiddleheads). Oil a 9-inch pie pan and cover the bottom with the sautéed greens.

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl until whites and yokes are completely mixed together. Chop toothwort and mix in. Set aside a few leaves for decorative topping. Chop ramps (or scallions) and mix into the eggs. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper.

Tear the chèvre (or cream cheese) into smaller pieces and add to the egg mixture. Grate 1 generous cup of your favorite cheese or combination of cheeses (I recommend Swiss, cheddar, or smoked gouda). Sprinkle about half of the cheese over the greens in the pie pan and then add in the egg mixture. Add a few toothwort leaves for decoration. Top with the remaining cheese. Bake at 375°F for 40 to 45 minutes. The soufflé should look puffy and golden yellow. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Serve.

Notes: Ramps are another spring ephemeral that tends to get overharvested. In foraging for ramps, I recommend only taking a few leaves per clump of plants you find and leaving the bulb so that the plants can regrow. See Foraging on page 34 for more information on harvesting ostrich ferns. Marsh marigolds should not be eaten raw; for more information on foraging marsh marigold, see “Marsh Marigold: An Underappreciated Green” in Northern Woodlands, Spring 2016.

Discussion *

Mar 04, 2022

Impressive use of local edibles!  Well written!

Andy Kawczak

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