Wild Weed Salad- A Poem and a link

Spring is here and how fitting that I came across this delightful poem today! I was just writing an article earlier today about foraging for wild weed salad greens!!! Yum-o! Some of the most delicious salads I have eaten have consisted of wild weeds such as sorrel, lambsquarters, chickweed, wild mustard, curly dock, dandelion,purslane,etc! Since you usually pick these sort of greens and eat them within a day of harvesting they are extra nutritious and give one a real energy boost!




Wild Weed Salad


A wild weed salad for lunch today
To tempt tired taste buds, won't you stay?
Come wander down the hedgerows lush,
The ritual gathering, quiet, no rush
Pink tiny leaves of dandelion
And cleavers clinging from the vine.
Wild sorrel sour to give an edge
Shy cervil nestling 'neath the hedge
Fine fennel, pungent, tall and bold
Calendulas, their petals gold
Sow thistle stems and leaves to eat
Wild mallow, rounded, green and sweet
Relaxing, cooling lemon balm
Blue borage flowers to add some charm
Fat hen leaves, pointed, greenly splayed
Wild onions sweet, we'll need the spade
Some modest violets peeping through
A handful of their green leaves too
Lush chickweed, tangy adding zest
Fat juicy purslane leaves are best
Rosettes of plantain, ribbed and green
A wealth of herbage, strengths unseen
A feast of goodness we'll be fed
With dressing 'French'
and homemade bread.

This wild weed salad poem-recipe was written by well known New Zealand herb devotee, Carmel Hare. She lives in Auckland, NZ, where she has developed a medieval herb garden modeled on the Bonnefort Cloister Herb garden, the Cloisters, New York. Her garden is open to visitors, many of whom get to sample her famous "survival salad" made from wild herbs and weeds. Carmel believes that many valuable trace elements and vitamins are found in abundance in wild herbs and weeds.

Such is the popularity of her Wild Weed Salad that she decided to detail the recipe by way of her poem.




I also came across this delightful article by a local teacher here in New England and wanted to pass it along too! Wonderful stuff!