Wonder Weeds

Abstract

LOOKING FOR A WAY TO ADD some nutrition to your flock's diet without spending a ton? Outside your back door may be the treasure you are seeking and requires you to do no more than pick and wash!

When America was first settled, those who came here to homestead brought with them a supply of food, medicinal, and textile fiber seeds since they had no way of knowing what usable plants were available in the area they were settling. Many of these food plants were greens that could be grown and eaten during the leanest months oflate winter and early spring. As it happens, some of them grew extremely well and gradually "escaped" from cultivated garden plots into the wild, their seeds borne on the wind or by marauding wildlife. Today millions of dollars per year are spent on eradicating some of the most nutritious of those food plants from our lawns and gardens!

Dandelions were used as a green leafy food crop, their flowers made into wine, roots into a coffee-like beverage, and the entire plant was used medicinally for a number of ailments. With the resurgence of interest in gourmet cuisine, seeds of true dandelions (Taraxacum o./ficinale) and look-alike varieties of chicories ( Cichorium intybus) are becoming more available, and so the circle is completed with the one-time food crop returning to the backyard garden plot. You can find the best quality dandelions during the colder months of the year. As the temperatures rise, so does the bitterness in the leaves until even the critters will no longer eat them. Harvest the young leaves from areas where no chemicals have been applied for many months and away from sidewalks and streets where dogs may have soiled them. Wash them well to remove any animal contamination as well as any insects and dirt clinging to the leaves. They are excellent braised or used in soup as you would escarole, and will keep for several days in the refrigerator in a zip bag.

For the birds, feed sparingly, remembering that they are a whole lot smaller than we are, and a single leaf in comparison to their body size may be as large as a bushel of greens is to us. Also remember that these greens pack a ton of micronutrients and minerals as well as the standard vitamins A and C, so it is easy to overdo things. In his book, Stalking the Healthful Herbs, Euell Gibbons lists the nutritional values of dandelion greens as containing 2.7 grams of protein per 100 grams of weight, 14,000 IU vitamin A per 100 grams of weight, 187 mg/lOOgr calcium, 3.1 mg/100 gr. iron and 35 mg/100 gr. of vitamin C, proving that dandelion greens are a true nutritional powerhouse for anyone.

The common chicory ( Cichorium intybus), or "chickory" as it is sometimes spelled, has pretty blue flowers that can be seen along railroad cuts and rural roadsides throughout America. In its distinguished past, farmer and President Thomas Jefferson proudly imported seeds from Italy to serve as a salad crop as well as fodder for his cattle. Anyone who has bought curly endive, the forced heads of radicchio and Belgian endive, or escarole for soups and salads has enjoyed the cultivated forms of this plant. New Orleans' famous chicory-laced coffee owes its smooth flavor to the roasted and ground roots of the chicory plant, making it one of the most widely used of the wild plant/herb group in America today. Because the wild form of chicory prefers areas in full sun and full pollution from vehicles, you may wish to deliberately grow this particular plant in your garden for safer gathering. Collect the flowering seed stalks when the first seeds are being dispersed by the wind and sow the seeds directly into the garden after the day length begins to shorten, around July 15 or mid-summer. There should be plenty of greens for you in late fall and early spring, and the roots can be dug carefully after a full summer of growth, planted close together in sand or potting mix, covered, and chilled in the refrigerator until you force them in early spring to create your own Belgian endives!