Read Wild Spring Plant Foods: The Foxfire Americana Library (7) for Free Online Page A

are darker green and bunch up more.” She said to put them in and boil them with a piece of hog meat.

    I LLUSTRATION 32 Ground hog plantain
    Mrs. Norton said, “There is a wild ground hog mustard, they call it, and it grows little and low on the ground, and it’s got a round leaf. It has a bloom comes up, it’s a purple flower. But you have to get it real quick, for if you don’t, it’s gone.” When we asked, she said, “How do you fix it? Just cook it with your wild mustard or anything. We always used the sheep sorrel to make it sour like vinegar. Didn’t have much vinegar then, you know, so they used that.”
    Broadleaf Plantain
(Plantago major)
(family
Plantaginaceae
)
(dooryard weed, great plantain, Englishman’s foot, devil’s shoestring, hen plant, birdseed, waybread, rabbit plantain)

    I LLUSTRATION 33 Broadleaf plantain
    Plantain is a very common dooryard weed, a native of Europe, and naturalized in this country. It has large round, basal leaves and a spike of greenish flowers and seeds. The leaves are edible when young, rich in calcium, and make excellent greens, especially when added to mustard.
    English plantain, or ribwort
(Plantago lanceolata)
, is known in the mountains as white plantain. Leaves can also be eaten, but leaves of rabbit plantain are preferred.
    Plantains are rich in vitamins A and C.
    Greens: pick leaves. Pull off stems, parboil fifteen minutes. Drain and rinse. Boil again in fresh water with fat meat until tender. Or fry in a small amount of grease five to ten minutes after boiling and draining. Or, Mrs. Norton suggests, “You take blackberry leaves, wild plantainleaves, and wild mustard, and cook them together and see what you get.”
    Salad: cook plantain leaves, chopped fine, in salt water. Add a pinch of sugar. Mix with other greens in salads. Or, “Cut it up and eat it like lettuce. Pour hot grease on it,” says Mrs. Tom McDowell.
    Corn salad
(Valerianella radiate)
(family
Valerianaceae
)
(lamb’s lettuce)

    I LLUSTRATION 34 Corn salad
    A common plant of early spring, with opposite, narrow, light green leaves and heads of small white flowers.
Valerianella locusta
is similar, except leaf edges are wavy, and flowers are a very pale blue. Young leaves are edible “used any way you’d use lettuce.”
    Valerian tea, a mild sedative, is made by boiling leaves in water. Let them stand twelve hours to draw, then strain and drink sparingly.
    Chicory
(Cichorium intybus)
(family
Compositae
)
(succory, blue-sailors, bunk)
    I LLUSTRATION 35 Chicory
    Chicory is naturalized from Europe and found along roadsides. It has dandelion-like basal leaves, and stems that exude a milky juice.Bright blue flowers open every morning and close again by noon.
    Young leaves are eaten like lettuce or endive, and roots are also edible, often added to coffee or used as a coffee substitute. Leaves are extremely high in vitamins A and G and in calcium.
    Chicory with mustard sauce: cook young leaves until tender. Cover with a sauce made of one-fourth cup sugar, one-half teaspoon salt, two egg yolks, one cup scalded milk, two tablespoons vinegar, one tablespoon mustard. Blend until thick in a double boiler. Serve over the drained chicory. *
    Panned chicory: melt two tablespoons fat and add chopped chicory greens. Cover and steam for fifteen minutes. Add one tablespoon flour, a small amount of cream, salt and pepper. Let simmer five minutes more.
    Chicory coffee: wash and peel roots. Grind and roast in oven. Add to, or use instead of, coffee.
    Wild lettuce
(Lactuca graminifolia)
(family
Compositae
)

    I LLUSTRATION 36 Ral Henslee with wild lettuce.
    Wild lettuce is a tall plant, found in open woods, and in damp places. Leaves are dentate, usually a bright blue-green color, and very smooth to the touch. Small, dandelion-like flowers open briefly in bright weather. They may be blue or whitish or pale violet.
Lactuca hirsuta
and
Lactuca canadensis
are very similar, differing slightly in leaf shapes, or in flower