Five Nutritious (and tasty!) Spring and Summer Greens
Prefer to listen to this article? No problem! Four Season Foraging now offers free audio versions of articles with the help of a text-to-speech website. Simply click the play button on the right!
Five Nutritious (and tasty!) Spring and Summer Greens
I remember when I first started foraging twenty years ago, I initially focused on plentiful and weedy wild greens. I think this is the case for many new foragers—we look at what’s around us and what’s familiar as a starting point. For many people, this includes plants like dandelion, plantain, chicory, dock, and garlic mustard. These are some of the wild edibles that formed the foundation of my foraging practice, but to be honest, I was not impressed. As a city kid who grew up eating a diet largely devoid of fresh vegetables, the bitter flavor and tough or stringy texture did not sit well with me. Fortunately, I was not deterred; I learned that the palatability could be greatly improved by being choosey about the timing of the harvest, the parts picked, the habitat, and the preparation methods.
There is something to be said for learning how to work with less-than-ideal flavors and textures. Furthermore, typical diets in modern US culture are heavy on sweets and lacking in fiber, while avoiding bitter flavors and tougher consistencies. These inclinations can be changed with time—I now love bitter greens and will eat a whole plate of raw dandelion leaves!
I know that sounds disgusting to plenty of people, and while I love extolling the benefits of bitter foods, I also understand that folks need to start somewhere. Furthermore, I don’t want to turn people off to foraging by shoving bitter greens down their throats. So here are five tasty, nutritious, and (mostly) easy to identify wild greens that I recommend!
Wood nettle (Laportea canadensis)
A cousin to the ubiquitous stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), this native woodland nettle has alternate, oval to egg-shaped leaves on long petioles. Like stinging nettle, this plant is covered in stinging hairs that act like tiny hypodermic needles, injecting a chemical cocktail of irritants into your skin if broken. Though the name “wood nettle” makes it sound more benign, the sting is actually much worse than that of stinging nettle. I will often pick stinging nettle barehanded, but don’t do so with wood nettle (unless the plant is very young, in which case the stinging hairs are still soft and don’t break when touched.)
The plant can be frozen, dehydrated, or pulverized to remove the sting, but cooking is the most fool-proof way to ensure you won’t end up with an itchy mouth. The taste is very vegetal, but in a good way. Many people prefer wood nettle to stinging nettle because it has less of a toothy texture. I wasn’t able to find nutritional information on wood nettle specifically, but I would imagine that like stinging nettle, it is rich in vitamins A, C, iron, magnesium, calcium, and potassium.
Sochan (Rudbeckia Laciniata)
This stately perennial flower is a favored cooked green among the Cherokee, who call it sochan or sochani. It has many other common names, including cut-leaf coneflower, green-headed coneflower, and tall coneflower. Growing up to 10 feet tall, this native plant can be found in full sun to part shade in moist fields, woodland edges, and other places with rich soil and adequate light. As a member of the aster family, the greens have a distinct flavor that is best described as “aster-like”—basically, herby and clean, somewhat like parsley. This flavor compounds with time, so the greens are best eaten when young. They are typically cooked, though I have seen people using them raw as a parsley substitute in tabouli and similar dishes. Nutritionally it compares to kale, with high amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, zinc, magnesium, iron, calcium, and potassium.
Care must be taken to ensure you are harvesting the leaves of the correct plant—it is often best to wait a year and use the flower to help identify the plant. In the photo above, you can see the old dead flower stalks from the previous year. The flower heads have drooping yellow petals (technically ray flowers) and yellow disk flowers (the tiny flowers at the center of the flower head.) This will help tell it apart from similar plants like grey-headed coneflower (Ratibida pinnata), which is another tall aster that has brown disk flowers and leaves that are more narrowly divided than sochan’s. The leaves of mildly toxic buttercups can also be confused with sochan when young (though the flowers are significantly different.)
Basswood (Tilia Americana & related species)
American basswood (Tilia americana) is a mid-sized to large tree native to eastern and central North America. Related species include the European little-leaf linden (T. cordata), which is often planted in cultivated landscapes. They can be used interchangeably. Basswood has several edible parts, including the flowers and fruit, but since this post is about greens, I will simply focus on the leaves!
Basswood leaves are best when they first come out in the spring and are still bright green and silky tender, usually early May in the Twin Cities area. The leaves have an asymmetrical heart-shape (one of the lobes at the base are higher than the other), are finely serrated around the edge, and alternately arranged on the stem. I love eating them raw as is, or in salads or sandwiches. You can also cook them, but as a member of the mallow family, they have a mucilaginous quality that becomes more pronounced when cooked. I’m not a fan of the slimy texture, but feel free to give it a shot if you are! The taste is very mild and a bit nutty. I couldn’t find nutritional studies of basswood leaves as they pertain to humans, but they are said to “ contain high levels of important mineral nutrients such as nitrogen, calcium, potassium, and magnesium.” (quoted from nutrition source below.)
Lamb’s Quarters (Chenopodium album)
This weedy plant grows prolifically across North America. It can be found in a myriad of landscapes from full sun to mostly shaded in disturbed soils, vacant lots, gardens, sidewalk cracks, fields, open woods, and shores. We are lucky that it’s so abundant, as it is a delicious wild edible that probably makes the best spinach substitute of any wild plant I’ve found!
Pick the young leaves and tender tops. This plant comes out a bit later in spring or early summer. It can be recognized by its alternate leaves that are anywhere from diamond to egg to lance-shaped. Lower leaves are largest with coarse toothing; leaves become narrower and less toothed as they ascend the stem. The young tops are often covered with a mealy white coating. Eat raw or cooked, substitute for spinach in recipes. Like spinach, lamb’s quarters contains oxalic acid, which is contraindicated for people on a low oxalate diet. Lamb's quarters leaves are nutritionally dense, containing high amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, calcium, iron, and magnesium.
Common Purslane (Portulaca oleracea)
Common purslane (portulaca oleracea)
If you’re a gardener, you’re probably familiar with purslane. Even if you’re not a gardener, you’ve probably come across this common weedy plant of sunny disturbed soils, fields, roadsides, sidewalk cracks, and gardens. It is widespread across North America, though it originally hails from Eurasia. It grows a bit later in the year, usually appearing in late spring or early summer. This sprawling plant typically only reaches heights of a few inches, but its succulent red-tinged stem and spatula-shaped leaves are distinctive. Be aware that spurges (Euphorbia spp.) are toxic and look somewhat similar in that they are also low-growing plants with reddish stems. They also like the same habitats, often growing side by side with purslane. However, the leaves of spurges are broadest at the middle, whereas those of purslane are broadest at the tips. Furthermore, spurges exude a milky white latex when broken.
The entire above-ground portion of purslane is edible. I like eating it raw in salads, on sandwiches, or as a garnish. It can also be cooked, but it has a mucilaginous quality that gets more pronounced when cooked. Like lamb’s quarters, it contains oxalic acid, so it is not recommended for folks on low oxalate diets. This plant holds the distinction of containing the most omega-3 fatty acids of any leafy green on the planet. It is also rich in antioxidants, and contains moderate levels of vitamins and minerals.
Join Us on Patreon!
The topic of this article was chosen by my Patreon supporters. Big thanks to my patrons! Please consider joining! It's an easy way to help me keep producing the informative content that you enjoy.
