When I moved to a small organic farm
in 2004, I quickly got hooked on weeds (note plural). First, there
would be salads of chickweed—a grassy-tasting plant that popped up just
after the ground thawed in spring. Next, from the marshy banks of a
creek, tender, peppery watercress would sprout. Soon after, dandelion
greens would proliferate, adding a bitter note to those spring weed
salads. And then, along an old wood road up the forested mountainside,
would come a flush of stinging nettle—we'd harvest the leaves with
gloves, boil their sting away, and add them to pastas and pizzas.
Finally, by high summer, my favorite weeds of all would emerge from
plowed fields: a high-rising, spinach-related green called lamb's
quarters, and a low-slung, creeping plant called purslane, with its
succulent, lemony leaves.
We never found much of a market for these delicacies (save for the
watercress, which chefs loved). But they became staples of the farmhouse
kitchen, supplements to the cultivated greens that went mainly to the
farmers market and to our CSA shareholders. Now that I spend more of my
time off the farm and in a city, one of the things I miss most is easy
access to these flavorful wild foods.
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