Challenge for the Weekend... Lawn Salad

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Challenge for the Weekend... Lawn Salad

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cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 9:21 am Post subject: Challenge for the Weekend... Lawn Salad

Right, if your lawn is as scruffy as mine it's full of edible goodies.

I propose that this weekend, you add some bits from your lawn into a salad. From my lawn (and it's immediate edges) I can pick:

Dandelion
Daisies
Chickweed
Cow parsley
Sorrel
Fat Hen
Common Mallow

They all found their own way there. Self seeding wild-ish in the lawn are:

Lemon balm
Rocket
Mustard
Mint
Chervil

Other common lawn invading salad edibles include:

Ground elder
White dead nettle
Lesser celandine

This weekend, if you're up for it, I challenge you to make a lawn salad. Mix the edible leaves and flowers with some interesting salad leaves (if you've got some growing in the garden all the better), dress lightly at the last minute, and enjoy. And delight in the fact that you're eating the lawn.

boff

Joined: 23 Mar 2005
Posts: 354
Location: Still alive and kicking

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 9:28 am Post subject: Re: Challenge for the Weekend... Lawn Salad
You could swop some of that for some horseradish you know.. I'll have a look tonight see what I can find in ours. Good challenge !

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:47 pm Post subject:
can you eat the greens of horseradish or just the root also, can you eat radish tops? i always wondered... they look so nice but i didn't want to make myself sick eating them so i never tried any.. they just seem like a nice salad green as radishes grow so quickly and so early in the season

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:48 pm Post subject:
Dunno about horse radish but the leaves of virtually any brassica; radish, swede, turnip, kohl rabi, beetroot etc are edible as are carrot leaves.

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:51 pm Post subject:
ahhhh carrot! i'd always thought that was a waste too! are carrots related to dill and fennel? they are both edible leaves and all and they look so similar to carrot tops... well next time we can grow some radishes i'll try the leaves and see if they are better in my belly or the composter now, i just need to get that allotment

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:56 pm Post subject:

ButteryHOLsomeness wrote:

can you eat the greens of horseradish or just the root

Yes, you can eat the leaves. You only want to eat the REALLY young ones, and then sparingly. They can be pungent and bitter.

Quote:

also, can you eat radish tops? i always wondered... they look so nice but i didn't want to make myself sick eating them so i never tried any..

Yes, you can, and the seed pods, and the flowers. Put them into stir fries, they're tasty. Oh, and in soups too.

Quote:

they just seem like a nice salad green as radishes grow so quickly and so early in the season

When they're really young, they're really good in salads.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:58 pm Post subject:

ButteryHOLsomeness wrote:

ahhhh carrot!

i'd always thought that was a waste too!

are carrots related to dill and fennel? they are both edible leaves and all and they look so similar to carrot tops...

well next time we can grow some radishes i'll try the leaves and see if they are better in my belly or the composter

now, i just need to get that allotment

You can eat carrot leaves, but some people don't get on with them. Some people even get rashes from them. But again, if you get them young they're good and tasty; I'd say that if you thin your carrots out, add the really young leaves to salads.

They are related to dill and fennel, and the other umbellifers too, but some of the umbellifers really aren't safe to eat the leaves of; hemlock, water dropwort and the like of course are poisonous, and it's well worth steering clear of parsnip leaves.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:59 pm Post subject:

ButteryHOLsomeness wrote:

are carrots related to dill and fennel? they are both edible leaves and all and they look so similar to carrot tops...

Yup they're all umbellifers as are Ground Elder, Coriander and Parsley

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 7:38 pm Post subject:

thank you cab and tahir, very helpful!

all the things i learn on here are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. i keep reading bits and pieces and have 'EUREKA' moments where i think of some bit of misc knowledge i've picked up in the 'non downsizing' parts of my life and suddenly everthing makes sense!

that of course leads me to more and more things and the connections are coming thicker and faster but it's great fun learning so much so thanks!

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