I'm happy to say that a year after a debilitating lumbar disc rupture I am back in the garden! This past March has been ever so satisfying compared to last March. After languishing since the previous year, I finally got to enjoy some of my wild salad additions this spring. Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) is my favorite edible wild green and since I could get to it this year it has graced my salads every time. Alas, this one will be fading soon so I'm drying some for tea and soups later.This is one of the few wild greens that I enjoy raw because it has such a nice fresh taste.
Often, the purple dead nettle(Lamium purpureum) is growing alongside my tasty henbit and it is pretty darn good too. Some may not care for the fuzziness of the plant, but it is my second choice for taste. I prefer the flowering tops of both and avoid eating the stems raw because as the plants mature they can be somewhat tough for a salad. There is just something about consuming flowers that gives my body an all over healthy good feeling!
I suspect that consuming edible things not under the thumb of cultivation can give the body nutrients not found in the commonly accepted cultivated crops. I know a lot of people eat chickweed, but I confess that I really dont like it. No, I just dont. No matter how I have fixed it, I dont like it. If I had no choice in the matter, I would eat it to stay alive and that is all. I have been known to slip it into a pot of greens or some stew, but never will I just eat it like I do henbit and dead nettle.
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