Eat the Weeds

My daughter and I were talking about the grocery store shortages and she commented that she wished she could be a rabbit and just eat the grass. Well, we can all be rabbits with the bounty of edible greens in our spring gardens. Looking around my garden I found several edible weeds including henbit, dead nettle, onion grass, violets, and dandelions. In my herb garden I found parsley, garlic chives, kale, and mint. For some fun color I included the edible flowers of dandelion, violet, and red bud. With all the nutrients from these hardy spring greens I should be able to avoid a trip to the grocery store for a few more days.

Our family has an Easter tradition of including flowers in the Easter meal. The easiest flower to find on Easter is the violet because of the long bloom period. My garden grows plenty of violets and I harvest them often. The violet leaves are edible but the tastiest part, I think, is the flower. Some people candy or make a syrup of the violet flowers for attractive desserts. The violets I harvest go straight on a salad or as a pretty garnish on any side dish. Violets have a lot of vitamin A and C.

Harvesting violets can be tedious. I have good luck picking the flowers by running them through my fingers to pull them off the stem. There are always some bugs that are living in the plants I pick so I set them out in the sun for a bit to encourage the bugs to crawl off.

Whenever adding new foods to your diet, start small in case you have an allergic reaction. Also, if you are taking medicine that can be effected by your diet it is important to talk to your doctor before eating new things.