Explore Wild Greens
By Marilyn Zink
Ever eaten wild greens?
A Wild Greens Festival I attended in my city explored the benefits of wild greens with lots of delicious food samples prepared by chefs from the Vancouver Island University and other chefs in the community.
The food was amazing. There was a wild greens ricotta tart, a nettle soup, a fritter made from the flowers of the Big Leaf Maple, a vegetable roll with wild blackberry coulis and much more. I liked the vegetable roll so much I had three of them but my daughter didn’t care for it.
The event, organized by the Nanaimo and Area Land Trust, also featured speakers and an outdoor plant walk. In the afternoon we went for the plant walk to identify wild edible plants with Abe Lloyd, who earlier spoke on the Historic Kwakwawakw Systems of Gardening Native Root Vegetables.
He identified the different types of edible ferns - which ones you can eat and which ones you shouldn’t. He also showed us how to know if a wild plant was edible (hint - you can snap the shoot easily). He also talked about which parts of a plant were edible and which plants were good to use for tea.
The edible plants were ones like horsetail, chickweed, Indian plum, Big Leaf Maple, Western Dock, rosehips and the many wild berries such as saskatoon berry, blackberry, huckleberry and salmonberry.
When eating wild plants, make sure you identify the plant correctly and know which part of the plant to eat and how to prepare it. Also ensure that no part of the plant has been sprayed or is in an area where toxins affect the environment.
Chickweed is one wild plant that has many health benefits and can be eaten in spring salads or used in other ways. To get a recipe for using chickweed and learn the health benefits, visit www.herbguide.ca and take the free trial today.
Marilyn Zink is the publisher.editor of the Herbal Collective magazine and an herbalist. Visit www.herbalcollective.ca
