Eating Green



One of my New Year's resolutions has been to get better at eating my veggies. While I'm a vegetarian (mostly, just like any mouse) and I certainly nibble on a lot of fruit, I'd found that I just wasn't getting my 5-6 servings.

Imagine my delight last weekend when I found that parts of the garden were covered in Miner's lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata). In the photo above, it's the plant with the smooth green leaves in the middle of the picture. I nibbled a few right away - they are easy to pull, and the leaves are tasty if a bit bland. Clearly Miner's lettuce, instead of selecting an unpleasant taste as a strategy for survival, instead chose to breed like crazy.

I pulled out most of the plants and set them aside for dinner.






At that time, I pulled the leaves off the stems and added them to a cauliflower and olive dish, as you would do with spinach. Three days later, I went for a stroll near my place of work and - surprise - Miner's lettuce along the little stream there. I pulled a few to nibble on while I was going back, to the surprised stares of the other, not-so-wild techies that were taking in some sun.

Ah, early spring in California. Nothing quite like it!

Comments

Country Mouse said…
We are having our usual flush of miner's lettuce too. The grandkids love it and we always eat some as we stroll through the garden. When Hazel eats four leaves, she has enough super power to reduce Peter Pan from the evil wizard! How's that for veggie power!!
AnneTanne said…
Not a native plant here of course, but one of the few fresh green leaves I could at to my meals last month. (They grew everywhere in my garden before, but now the only spot left is in the beeches grove at the far end of our back yard...)