Will The Real Lettuce Please Stand Up?

 Welcome back to an entirely new year of LITFM! We took a long hiatus to get our YouTube channel's second season completed and now this blog is back in action. So to get things rolling and at the request of some folks who visit the Farmer's market, I am posting a new series covering forage foods. Given the current geopolitical situation some of this information may come in handy in the not-to-distant future. Today’s forage specimen Wild Lettuce, a common garden weed that is quite available this time of the year.

The long leaves of Wild Lettuce are often mistaken for those of a Dandelion, but the latter is more angular than the former.

Note the different root structure, no central taproot and a lot of support roots.

 

Common Name: Wild Lettuce

Other Common Names: Prickly Lettuce, Milk Thistle*, Compass Plant, Scarole.

Botanical Family: Asteraceae (The Aster family)

Botanical Latin Name: Lactuca serriola (aka L. scariola)

Season to Harvest: Spring.

Habitat: Wild lettuce is commonly found in disturbed sites such as fields, by the road side, vacant lots and inevitably in your garden.

Parts to Harvest: The younger leaves are preferred as they are less likely to be bitter. You can eat the mature leaves if you have something to mitigate the bitter flavor like another leaf green in bulk or a decent dressing. Be mindful of this plant’s milky sap.

Poisonous Lookalikes: None known.

Related Edible Species: Canadian Wild Lettuce (L. Canadensis), will grow side-by-side with Wild Lettuce, lacks the prickly parts on the leaves and is more preferred.

Description: Wild lettuce is an annual or biennial herb that can grow to a height of almost six feet by the summer. It is related to Common Dandelions and Chicory and can be confused for either of them before it starts gaining height. The flowers of this plant are very similar to those of Dandelion but they are smaller and more numerous and borne at the top of the plant. Unlike Dandelion or Chicory, Wild lettuce does not for a singular primary taproot and instead forms a number of fibrous roots and a few short but supportive taproots that aid in keeping its eventual stalk steady.

How to Harvest: Harvest young leaves individually and wash as needed to clean them. I recommend sticking them in a bath of water for ten minutes to dilute out the milky latex sap that may come from the wounded side of the leaves.

Recipe: You can use this plant alone or with other greens in a salad, but you will need a robust-flavored vinaigrette. You can boil the leaves in a small amount of water for 2-3 minutes and then serve them with butter and seasonings of your choice. You can also make a field Vinaigrette that pairs well with these cooked leaves by doing the following;

 

Ingredients:

4 slices of bacon

¼ cup of Feta Cheese (if available, and preferably the Greek type)

½ cup of Vinegar

2 Teaspoons of Sugar (honey may also work)

1 Teaspoon of Salt

 

Preparation:

1.      Fry the strips of bacon into a crispy state.

2.      Heat the Vinegar.

3.      Crumble the bacon up and add it, the sugar and the salt into the hit but not boiling vinegar.

4.      Add the Feta cheese (if available) to the hot mix.

5.      Pour over unseasoned but cooked wild lettuce.

 

*Not the same plant as the actual Milk Thistle which is Silybum marianum.

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog.  In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

 

For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.

 

Produce:

Garlic Bulb, $1.00

Soup Kit – Parsnip, $6.00

Soup Kit – Turnip, $6.00

Seasoning Packet, $2.00

 

Houseplants:

Assorted Succulents, Plastic Pot - $5.00

Assorted Succulents, Round Resin Pot - $5.00

Assorted Succulents, Square Resin Pot - $5.00

Assorted Succulents, Hexagon Resin Pot - $10.00

Assorted Succulents, Lattice Resin Pot - $12.00

Assorted Succulents, Bomber Resin Pot - $15.00

Assorted Succulents, Clay Pot - $9.00

 

Garden Stuff: ($3.00 each)

Elephant Garlic

Softneck Garlic

Lettuce – Parris Island Romaine

Lettuce – Cherokee Red

Lettuce – Five Star Lettuce Mix

Beets – Bull’s Blood

Mustard – Red Giant

 

Coming Soon

Kale – Ragged Jack

Kale – Dinosaur

Kale – Tronchuda

Kale – Redbor

Celery – Tango

Kohlrabi – Grand Duke

 

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

 

Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.

 

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

 

Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:

 

The Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/curacaovexxor/videos

>Newest videos (5): Chinese Money Plant, Red African Milk Bush, Pencil Cactus, Desert Rose, ‘Prehistoric’ Devils Backbone.

 

 

Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClairs General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on March 16th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.

This One is a Classic!

 Welcome back to an entirely new year of LITFM! We took a long hiatus to get our YouTube channel's second season completed and now this blog is back in action. So to get things rolling and at the request of some folks who visit the Farmer's market, I am posting a new series covering forage foods. Given the current geopolitical situation some of this information may come in handy in the not-to-distant future. Today’s forage specimen is a classic; I’ve talked about the venerable forage food Henbit before but not in this complete of a fashion.

 

The 'Sheen of Color' that Henbit makes in late winter is visible even while driving by at 45 miles per hour. It's a shame such a pretty plant does not last longer.

Henbit is especially visible in late February and early March in the Sandhills of North Carolina.

Common Name: Henbit

Other Common Names: Common Henbit, Greater Henbit, Henbit Dead-Nettle,

Botanical Family: Lamiaceae (The Mint Family)

Botanical Latin Name: Lamium amplexicaule

Season to Harvest: Late Winter to Spring

Habitat: Henbit is most commonly found in lawns but can also be found in garden beds, vacant lots and, recently disturbed sites, it is very widely distributed in the United States.

Parts to Harvest: Leaves flowers and tender young stems if possible.

Poisonous Lookalikes: None

Related Edible Species: Red/Purple Deadnettle (L. purpureum). Purple Deadnettle looks exactly like Greater Henbit but, it’s leaves are less ‘henpecked’ looking, more heart shaped and the leaves around the flowers have a definite purple coloration to them. In some places in the USA you may find both growing side by side and in forage cooking they are effectively interchangeable.

Description: Henbit is an annual herb that can get roughly 16 inches tall in ideal conditions and has a semi-sprawling habit. Since it is a member of the mint family there is the possibility its stems can take root where they touch bare soil however, normally it spreads over the tops of other plants. Overall the plant has slightly fuzzy leaves that have a lobed margin and these leaves clasp the stem. The name henbit likely derives from the leaves looking like they have been pecked heavily by a chicken due to the irregular leaf margins. The flowers can range from purple to pink and by late winter a lawn can have an impressive sheen of color due to henbit. The foliage of henbit depending on environmental conditions can vary in color from a bright medium green to a deep purple tinged green.

How to Harvest: Much like with edible forage such as Chickweed (Stellaria media) you can snip off stem segments or harvest the entire plant by pulling it up by the roots. There is one caveat to this however, Henbit is a member of the mint family and one of the earliest sources of pollen and nectar for pollinators in the winter and early spring so I advise only taking what you need and leaving some for the native bees and such.

Recipe: While you can add this forage green to a salad or pickle the new shoots here is my favorite recipe; 

 

Curried Henbit

4 Cups of Henbit foliage, tightly packed.

3 Tablespoons of butter

1 Teaspoon Curry Powder (the basic brown type)

2 Whole Cloves

¼ Teaspoon Cinnamon

2 Tablespoons of Flour

1 Cup of Sour Cream

 

Directions

1.      1. Wash the greens thoroughly with warm water; keep an eye out for foreign debris and dirt.

2.      2. Chop the greens finely and add to a Saucepan and cover the greens with water.

3.      3. Boil the greens for about 10 minutes or until they are soft enough for your preference.

4.      4. Separately melt the butter.

5.      5. Add the Curry powder, Cloves and Cinnamon to the melted Butter.

6.      6. Stir the Flour into the butter mixture and stir until smooth and sauce-like.

7.      7. Add ½ cup of water from the cooked greens to the butter mixture and stir until blended.

8.      8. Drain the remaining fluid from the cooked greens and add the greens to the butter mixture.

9.      9. Add the Sour Cream and stir until the consistency is even.

10  10. Simmer to cook off extra moisture (no more than 15 minutes)

11.  11. Serve over rice.

 

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog.  In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

 

For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.

 

Produce:

Garlic Bulb, $1.00

Soup Kit – Parsnip, $6.00

Soup Kit – Turnip, $6.00

Seasoning Packet, $2.00

 

Houseplants:

Assorted Succulents, Plastic Pot ($5.00)

Assorted Succulents, Round Resin Pot - $5.00

Assorted Succulents, Square Resin Pot - $5.00

Assorted Succulents, Hexagon Resin Pot - $10.00

Assorted Succulents, Lattice Resin Pot - $12.00

Assorted Succulents, Bomber Resin Pot - $15.00

Assorted Succulents, Clay Pot ($9.00)

 

Garden Stuff:

Elephant Garlic

Softneck Garlic

Lettuce – Parris Island Romaine

Lettuce – Cherokee Red

Lettuce – Five Star Lettuce Mix

Beets – Bull’s Blood

Mustard – Red Giant

 

 

Coming Soon:

Okinawa Spinach

Flowering Maple

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

 

Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.

 

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

 

Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:

 

The Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/curacaovexxor/videos

>Newest videos (5): Chinese Money Plant, Red African Milk Bush, Pencil Cactus, Desert Rose, ‘Prehistoric’ Devils Backbone.

 

 

Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClairs General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on March 18^th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.

 

Preparing to Spring Back into Action

 Welcome back to an entirely new year of LITFM! We took a long hiatus to get our YouTube channel's second season completed and now this blog is back in action. So to get things rolling and at the request of some folks who visit the Farmer's market, this is the first part of a series on edible forage foods in finer detail.

 

It is hard to believe but this is just a few plants that have intertwined and formed a dense but deliciously edible mat of healthy greens.

Here is a close-up of the foliage and flower of a Chickweed plant.

 

Common Name: Common Chickweed

Other Common Names: Chickenwort, Craches, Maruns and Winterweed.

Botanical Family: Caryophyllaceae (The Pink/ Carnation Family)

Botanical Latin Name: Stellaria media

Season to Harvest: Late winter through spring.

Habitat: Commonly found in yards, disturbed sites, moist and wet soil areas, cultivated land, the woods, and may appear in containers with other cultivated plants.

Parts to Harvest: Foliage and flowers,

Poisonous Lookalikes: None in the USA.

Related Edible Species: None in North Carolina.

Description: Chickweed is a cool-season annual herb that can have stems that grow up to 12” high. The seeds of Chickweed germinate in autumn or late winter and the plants persist until the first consistently warm weather arrives in late spring or early summer. The best way to identify chickweed is noting what time of the year it is and looking for its oppositely positioned leaves and, white ten-petaled flowers. The foliage of Chickweed is slightly hairy but it overall has a smooth appearance. Leaves are often no bigger than 1.4 inches long roughly egg-shaped. This plant is at its best before it blooms but is edible after it blooms.

How to Harvest: You can pick individual leaves if they are big enough however this is very time consuming. I typically will take a pair of garden snippers or scissors and shear off sections of the plants then check for foreign objects like larger leaves or pine needles and then wash the stems and leaves I’ve harvested. If you really need a lot of this herb in a hurry you can pull up the entire mass by the roots but this method will bring in a lot more foreign debris which can complicate washing and preparation.

Recipe: Chickweed is perfectly fine raw in a salad though I do advise washing it thoroughly before eating it this way. In terms of flavor Chickweed is fairly mild, and is a bit more flavorful than iceberg lettuce and certainly more nutritious. My preferred way to cook this herb is to use it as a replacement for Spinach in other recipes though one should be mindful that it is a delicate herb and it cooks very quickly so it should be added in the last five or so minutes of cooking to ensure it retains any texture.  By itself it can be cooked as simple pot herb by boiling it for 2 to 5 minutes and being served with your preferred seasonings, butter and a small cropped onion. The aforementioned if served with rice is a pretty healthy meal.

 

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

 

For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.

 

Produce:

Garlic Bulb, $1.00

Soup Kit – Parsnip, $6.00

Soup Kit – Turnip, $6.00

Seasoning Packet, $2.00

 

Houseplants:

Assorted Succulents, Plastic Pot ($5.00)

Assorted Succulents, Round Resin Pot - $5.00

Assorted Succulents, Square Resin Pot - $5.00

Assorted Succulents, Hexagon Resin Pot - $10.00

Assorted Succulents, Lattice Resin Pot - $14.00

Assorted Succulents, Clay Pot ($9.00)

 

Garden Stuff:

Elephant Garlic

Softneck Garlic

 

Coming Soon

Lettuce – Parris Island Romaine

Lettuce – Cherokee Red

Lettuce –Five Star Blend

Beets – Bull’s Blood

Mustard – Red Giant

 

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

 

Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.

 

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

 

Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:

 

The Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/curacaovexxor/videos

>Newest videos (5): Chinese Money Plant, Red African Milk Bush, Pencil Cactus, Desert Rose, ‘Prehistoric’ Devils Backbone.

 

 

Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClairs General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on March 3^rd between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.