Eating on the Wild Side

Since pests and heavy rains have been inundating our garden of late, we've been looking for a cheap (and fun) way to get the green goodness that we generally eat in the form of homegrown collards, swiss chard, mustard greens and kale. So on a hike in Kenscoff this morning, I picked some dandelions.

You're supposed to pick dandelion greens before the plants have flowered, but I didn't find any of those. To get the bitterness out of the leaves, I had to blanch them. Even so, they were good. My only regret is that I didn't pick more. The French make cream of dandelion soup, which we'll definitely have to try the next time we have a chance to go hiking-and-dandelion-picking.

A little PSA for ya: The next time you're mowing your lawn, try to think of the dandelion as more than just a weed. You can saute or steam dandelion greens the same way you would use any other green. It's way fun to gather your own food and dandelions a're full of vitamins and anti-oxidants (unless you use Roundup).

We had ours sauteed with turnips over wild rice: