GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: edible greens

  • Dandelion Greens & Bacon Salad Recipe : GF Video

    Dandelion Greens & Bacon Salad Recipe : GF Video

    What do you with dandelion greens? You make a salad of course. Watch our video to find out how to identify and forage for dandelion in your yard, and make a great salad. If you are looking for edible plants in your yard, make sure the yard hasn’t been treated with herbicides or other things that are bad for you to ingest. Check out our other foraging videos here.

    How To Find and Prepare Dandelion Greens

    Wild Greens are abundant if you live in an area with grassy weedy places. They grow, we eat them. Things like mustard grow wild, wild onions, dandelion, purslane, burdock, all sorts. What I like about dandelion is it is ubiquitous and abundant, and it grows all summer. It is said that the dandelion greens are more bitter after the dandelion flower have bloomed, but my personal experience has been mixed. It is true the older the leaf, the more bitter it will be.

    I do suggest buying at least one foraging plant identification book, I’m a big fan of Leda Meredith’s Foraging Books, she also has regional foraging books out as well. A second book you might consider is Joy Of Foraging.

    Dandelion Greens

    Follow this simple dandelion greens recipe, and all will be great. It uses items you probably have in your fridge.

    Dandelion Salad Recipe  makes 2 salads

    1 bunch of dandelion, about a large handful, tap root and flower stems removed, washed and dried.

    2 strips of thick cut bacon

    balsamic vinegar

    2 eggs, poached for 3 minutes

    1 avocado

    Cook the bacon to crisp

    While the bacon is cooking arrange the dandelion in two salad bowls or plates.

    Cut the avocado in half, core and add to the bowls

    Add the poached egg on top of the greens,

    Cut the bacon into small pieces, spread over the salad

    Pour about a half teaspoon of the bacon grease from the pan over each bowl.

    Serve as soon as possible.

    Now on to foraging for Lambsquarters!

    Wild and Urban Foraging for Lambsquarters : GF Video

     

  • Amaranth Urban Foraging Edible Green

    Amaranth Urban Foraging Edible Green

    Urban Foraging while walking the Labs, I ran across a familiar sight in urban areas, an edible green, a type of amaranth that farmers refer to as pigweed.

    Amaranth comes in several versions, the one pictured here is not one of the more floral ones, but it is an urban edible green that you’ll see in tree pits , parks, and weedy lots and roadsides.

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    The more visually striking amaranth varieties have names like Golden or Elephant. Golden Amaranth has a huge head of small flowers that lean over from the top of a tall stalk. Elephant Amaranth is purple pink and looks like an elephant trunk.

    You can eat the leaves of all these amaranth varieties, and harvest the seed/grain of those that have substantial flower heads. The weedy version I found in the city doesn’t have much of a flower.

    You can eat the leaves raw, but most cultures cook the leaves. In New York I’ve heard amaranth also called calaloo, which in Jamiaca is the name of the plant and the name of a dish made with amaranth.

    Depending on who you ask, amaranth is a weed or a healthy source of vitamins. Pigweed amaranth fills up farmer’s fields yet cooks use amaranth.

    Do you grow or cook with amaranth? Let us know below: