One thing that did not suffer from all of the rain lately in central Tennessee has been the young greens. All sorts of my little green friends have been peeking up – and even getting ready to flower, in the case of chickweed. They certainly are not missing any opportunity with this unusually warm and wet winter weather.
Seeing how much new growth there was, the excitement of spring started to bubble up inside. So, with a friendly walking companion, I set off towards the farm’s shared spring with a salad bowl in hand.
One of the first things that caught my eye was some new growth of watercress. Heather had told me that watercress filled the spring during the warmer months, so I was hoping to find some new, brave growth. And sure enough! -Mmm, what an alive, spicy flavor. This will go into the salad, for sure.
Right along the rock ledges of the spring, I found some healthy young chickweed.
Chickweed lines the ledges of the shared spring
This is one of my favorite little weeds. Unfortunately, I usually didn’t have much luck finding it in quantity back in WI. It has a mild green flavor and is really easy to identify. All you have to do is gently pull on the stem. Once the stem breaks, you should see a thin elastic string still hanging on.
Another plant I was excited to see was garlic mustard. Surprisingly, I did not encounter it much at all while in North Carolina and Georgia. But happily, it grows here in Tennessee.
One last addition to my salad. Wherever I’ve been in TN so far has been covered with these thin little wild chives. They grow almost like grass in some places! So, I grabbed a large, large handful. The flavors these will add – mmm!
Back at the farm house, I threw all these tasty edibles together with some garden collard greens and sliced turnips and topped it all with cranberries.
So thankful for all of the wild edibles that have been popping up around here. -Watercress, chickweed, garlic mustard, and wild chives in abundance. And as long as the weather stays so unusually warm, there will be many more salads like this to enjoy for the rest of my stay.
Out of Place 