As you know the gap between spring and winter is the time when winter stores are almost depleted and before this year’s crops are ready. It is considered a hard time of year because of lacking many foods, and vegetable is one of the indispensable food on the daily meal. You can look for edible wild plants that can help you fill that gap. Wild greens can be an important source of nutrients at this time of the year.
And in the post today, we’ve gathered 25 common edible wild plants that you can look for around this time. Most people think that wild weeds can’t be eaten but in the fact is in contrast. You totally use them as another familiar vegetable, you can add them to salad, steam, boiling, and more. With these wild weeds, their taste is the same as other vegetables, even better. Check out and save them!
#1 Dandelions (Taraxacum)
The young leaves can be used for salads. They are rather bitter but can be a good addition to mixed salads with milder leaves. You can also use the roots. Dandelion roots can be harvested to use as a coffee substitute. You can also cook the roots by steaming them or boiling them.
#2 Wild Garlic/ Wild Leeks/ Ramps/ Ramsons (Allium ursinum/ Allium tricoccum)
Like bear garlic, the leaves of wild leeks also have an onion-like smell. However, the leaves of these plants resemble leeks more than garlic, and the unfolding leaves in spring have a mild, sweet flavour. The small bulbs can also be used, in salads and a wide range of savory dishes.
#3 Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)
Garlic mustard is it tastes great. In spring, you can harvest the leaves and the young stems. The leaves are a cross between garlic and bitter mustard greens, and the stems resemble garlic scapes.
#4 Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria)
This plant is another non-native invader and can be an annoying weed wherever it grows. Once established, it is difficult to eradicate. But this is another weed or wild plant that can be controlled by eating it. Young leaves have a parsley-like flavour and can also be used as a potherb. Nip off flower heads as they form to keep the seeds from forming, and also to keep the plants producing tasty leaves for longer.
#5 Chickweed (Stellaria media)
Chickweed is a wild edible weed. Chickweed is another abundant weed and can be picked by the handful and added to your spring salads. It has a very mild and pleasant flavour that is not that different from iceberg lettuce.
#6 Fat Hen/ Lamb’s Quarters (Chenopodium album)
The young leaves of this plant may be eaten raw but are best cooked. They are mild tasting and a little bland but make a very acceptable substitute for spinach in a range of recipes. In addition to being a useful wild edible, it is also possible to obtain a dye from the young shoots, and crushed fresh roots are a mild soap substitute.
#7 Plantain (Plantago major/ Plantago lanceolata)
Plantain is a common garden weed and wild plant. The young leaves can be added to salads, and you can also boil or steam the leaves and use them exactly as you would cabbage or kale in a wide range of recipes.
#8 Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica )
Nettles can be used to make a spinach substitute in a wide range of recipes. They have a spinach-like and slightly sweet flavour that really does taste great. Harvest the top five leaves or so from each stem. Run the nettles carefully under running water, then place them in a large pan and boil them. As soon as they have been boiled, they completely lose their sting and you can use them in a range of recipes.
#9 Purple Dead Nettle (Lamium Purpureum)
The young leaves can be harvested and eaten raw or cooked as a potherb. The purple tops even have a slight sweetness to them. You can basically use them as you might any other green leafy vegetable or herb.
#10 Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule)
The mild and slightly sweet leaves work very well in a salad, and like purple dead nettle, they can also be cooked as a general-purpose green vegetable, or used as a potherb.