Dandelion Flower
Learn how to pick a raw wild salad of Eastern Blue Violet, Miner’s Lettuce, Wild Mustard, Sheep Sorrel, Ox-Eye Daisy, and Dandelion, garnished with Wild Mustard Flowers.
Wild edibles, also known as edible weeds, are the most nutritious vegetables and greens available. By their very nature they have not been tampered with by man, not hybridized nor genetically modified. Since they are rarely offered in stores or markets you have to harvest them fresh so like all fruit and vegetables they will have more nutrients and vital life force than store-bought fruit and vegetables.
There are two big challenges with harvesting wild edibles
- You need to make sure they haven’t been poisoned with pesticides or toxic car fumes if growing on the roadside.
- You need to positively identify them to make sure they are edible and not poisonous.
Dr John Kallas is the author of Wild Edible Plants (The Wild Food Adventure), one of the best wild edible identification books. I have the Kindle version and it’s the wild plant identification book I rely most often. In the video below, John Kallas takes us around a garden makes a salad from the edible weeds growing there.
He’s got some great tips on how to get the right proportions of what he calls the ‘foundation plants’ which are mild tasting, and the more bitter and pungent plants so that the salad is not over-powered by the stronger tasting plants.
