Spring has arrived here in western North Carolina
and across much of the world.
There is not a lot of green on the trees yet,
but there is a lot of green on the ground
and a lot of that green is edible!
So today, I am going to walk
through my neighborhood
and introduce you to some spring plants
that you can easily begin foraging
and getting that delicious
and nutritious springtime food.
This right here
might look like grass to you,
but it is actually onions or chives.
Now, spring is well underway here,
but you can start foraging
for greens and onions
as soon as the snow is melting
and you start to see a little bit
of green on the ground.
People walk past lawns full
of onions and chives just popping up.
It is one of the earliest foods
to start in the spring,
and you can harvest it
like you would chives
and just enjoy the green onions,
or you can actually pull up bulbs
and have a nice little onion.
To some walking through this park,
they see a bunch of weeds
or they see a lawn to mow.
But do you know what I see?
I see nature’s salad bowl!
And this salad bowl
does not just have the greens,
but it has beautiful flowers as well.
Dandelion flowers!
Not only are the greens edible,
but the flowers are delicious as well.
You can also make a coffee substitute from the roots.
The dandelion is just an incredible,
nutritious, medicinal, beautiful
food to add to your diet.
It is one of the first things
to come up in the spring.
So through that long, lonely winter,
if you see that dandelion pop up
then get that in your belly!
There is a saying in the foraging world
that I like to remember.
It is: You have got edible and incredible,
edible and forgettable,
and then you have got edible and regrettable.
Here we have something that is
often called dead nettle.
Dead nettle,
it is kind of edible and forgettable.
But I have to say, when spring has just sprung
and you have got your fresh greens popping up,
even the ones that are forgettable
are very, very memorable.
For me, just to get out in the spring
and have this connection to Earth,
even with plants that do not
necessarily taste incredible,
that little bit goes a long way
in awakening from a long winter.
Now, some people,
when they see this sea of green,
they would just imagine that
all of this green tastes the same,
but it really could not be further from the truth.
The reality is that
all of these different greens
added up together brings in a whole
diversity of flavor and different
nutrients and medicine.
This here is plantago.
You have got narrow-leaf plantain.
You have got broad-leaf plantain,
also called plantago.
And it is one of the most
medicinal plants on Earth,
and it grows as a weed all across
our yards, our parks, our “wastelands.”
This medicine is growing freely
and abundantly all around us,
and I just could not do a video on spring greens
without mentioning plantain or plantago.
It is one of my favorite plants,
one that I so much encourage you
to incorporate into your life.
I came here to show you this field
of stinging nettle behind me,
but I also came across one of my favorites
and that is garlic mustard.
Mmm!
Garlic mustard is considered an invasive,
which means by eating this,
you are actually working with the Earth.
Foraging can be beneficial to our Earth.
Now, another plant that I absolutely love
is stinging nettle.
So walk over here just a little bit.
Now, stinging nettle gets the name
stinging nettle because it stings you.
Right now, that is stinging,
but not only is this an edible,
but it is also a medicinal
just to let it sting you.
I mean, would you have it
that what other people consider
to be the bane of this plant is actually
one of its absolute gifts to us?
To remove the sting,
you simply have to cook it.
What I like to do is make a nettle tea.
It is very high in minerals,
one of the highest out there.
So I will make a nettle tea.
I will also just sauté it up
and eat it with olive oil, lemon and salt.
And if you are really careful
and you know what you are doing,
you can just roll these stinging leaves right up
and put that right onto your back molar,
and you can eat it fresh without being stung.
Mmm!
And that is a delicious one.
You can eat these greens fresh from the yard.
You can take them home,
put them in a salad.
You can sauté them.
You can save them for later
by freezing or drying them.
Whatever you do, just make sure
you get out foraging.
I like to say eat one wild thing a day,
something I have learned from many
of my foraging friends.
So, if you want to learn how to forage
and you want to get out there,
I recommend checking out our website
findaforager.com.
With it you can find a forager near you
to go out and learn from in person
as well as many, many tips.
So just go out there and do some foraging!
Rob Greenfield