Free salad

Here is another wild plant that is abundant around here and quite delicious. Miners Lettuce. It carpets the ground in places in the forest and around the edges. I believe it is called Miners lettuce because it is one of the first edible greens that come up in the spring and the miners, maybe gold miners and such, living out in the wild, would be starving for some greens and eagerly picked this tasty plant. It has a slightly peppery taste but is quite mild.  I suppose any people who went without greens all winter would welcome this plant in the early spring.

It can be picked bare handed, unlike the stinging nettles. I didn't even need to wash it because we have had so much rain here, it was clean as could be. I did check it for bugs but it was ready to eat as is.

Or with some home made dressing. Yum! Notice my fork. Isn't that a beautiful design?  I just love my old silver ware. This pattern is called Evening Star even though it is a flower design, no stars. Eating with old silver ware is so much nicer than using modern stainless steel, to my mouth, anyway.

Bon Appetite!!