In the share:
- Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica): A highly nutritious cooking green that loses its stinging quality when exposed to heat. Great in soup, steamed+sauteed, pestoed, or as a pizza topping. Recipes:
- Japanese Knotweed shoots (Fallopia japonica): Tender spring shoot (of a highly invasive plant) that tastes like mild rhubarb. Use it in any recipe that calls for rhubarb: compote, pie, syrup, pickles. Recipes:
- Ramps (Allium tricoccum): The celebrity of spring-time ephemeral greens, ramps are wild relatives of onions and garlic with spicy, sweet, and juicy leaves. Great in just about anything savory. Recipes:
- Wild Bee Balm (Monarda): Tasted like a spicier oregano. Use as a seasoning, fresh or dried, or grind up into extra potent pesto. Recipes:
- Field Onions (Allium canadense): A year-round staple, field onions are abundant in just about any local landscape. They can get tough further into the year, but right now are tender and reminiscent of chives. Use green tops as you would chives, small bulbs as you would onions (great pickled), or grill the whole thing. Recipes:
- Frozen maple sap (Acer saccharum): Tree juice! Maple sap flows in early spring and is most commonly turned into maple syrup. As is, it's mildly sweet and full of minerals, kind of like coconut water. Great as a refreshing summer drink on its own, as a cocktail base, or for making the best coffee. Recipes:
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- Elderberry syrup (Sambucus canadensis + honey): Elderberries aren't good for us raw, but cooked and mixed with a sweeter to preserve, they make a delicious and healing syrup. Try it with seltzer or hot water or pour over ice cream. Recipes:
- Chickweed (Stellaria media): A mild and buttery salad green. Best eaten raw. Recipes:
- Violet flowers (Viola sororia): Snacked on, candied, floated in a drink, or turned into syrup, violet blossom add beauty, fragrance, and floral taste. Recipes:
- Pine and Spruce tips and baby pine cones. A Vitamin C packed snack, spring conifer growth makes great pesto, sandwich or salad additions, decadent grilled treat, tart tea, or a citrusy note sprinkled on desserts. Recipes:
- Dryad's Saddle mushroom (Polyporus squamosus). Often the first edible mushroom of the season, Dryad's Saddle isn't the most amazing fungal delicacy, but it's an exciting introduction to the forest bounty in the months ahead. Recipes: