“Hi. My name is March, so dust off your garden boots.”
“Hey there. I’m your anticipation, and I can feel the gardener motor heating up.”
“Bonjour. Je m’appelle Louis. Tehee. I am the sum of all garden experience ever experienced. Call me Lou. Let me know if you need anything.”
With Lou close at hand, we can take a tour of what edible native flora will be arriving in the garden soon. The tour will be limited to the plants in the area I can see from here. You probably have flora nearby I don’t have. Oh well… everybody has a biosphere.
Already flourishing and even flowering on rocky hillsides around here is purple dead nettle. My version has been here all month, and it’s green and not dead or related to nettles, but it is a sign that seasons are changing. It is draped over rock borders and flowering in February.
Purple dead nettle is valued in the forager world as a nutritious wild edible. In my experience sampling leaves, I found them to be fairly benign in taste with only a quick green herby tang when I swallowed. One source claimed the flowers to be a bit sweet. My sweet meter never beeped, but having tiny pink flowers along pathways in February makes the garden feel alive.
“The leaves at the extremes of mature branches will be reddish-purple, and the flowers provide nectar for early springtime bees,” Lou asserted. “It’s their favorite.”
The leaves can be added to soups or salads or nibbled in the garden. Folks who know claim the leaves are therapeutic as part of a poultice on wounds or cuts. Tea drinkers dry the leaves for tea which supposedly benefits your kidneys, and it’s in gardens now, but gardeners will be adding it to compost piles soon.
Coming soon to my hillside will be broad-leaf plantain. Through the year, I keep dried leaves in a jar to sprinkle on beans, soups or most any gourmet delicacy I concoct. The leaves purportedly can assist with and even regulate the digestive process. I have used the leaves in moderation like other leafy vegetables in stir-fries and such. Experience indicates the leaves might also reduce inflammation.
“That’s my line,” Lou observed. “Anecdotal evidence touts its several anti-inflammatory compounds including glycosides, terpenoids and things.”
Plantain seeds contain a type of fiber called psyllium which absorbs moisture as it traverses the digestive system thereby becoming a laxative, so pay attention. Interesting to note that because of its value in laxative products, the Global Psyllium Products Market reported psyllium products grossed $215 million in 2022 and might reach $228 million this year. Our world needs that much laxative?!? Plantain is here to help.
Also, a regular visitor and hard to control is curly dock. Each plant has long a root which might snap if you try to pull up the plant without digging, and the root will then send up more foliage. The young leaves can be steamed and eaten, but not too often because they contain a bit of oxalic acid. However, the leaves are full of vitamins A and C, and dock is famous for its myricetin, a flavonoid with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The good news is you won’t have to plant dock if a plant has ever been on your property or even nearby because evidence indicates…
“Anecdotal evidence is voluminous,” Lou elucidated, “which claims dock is a prodigious reseeder. It sends an erect stalk four feet tall or so as the plant matures, and the seed stalk and seeds eventually turn a dry rusty brown.”
Herbalists claim the dried roots can be used in teas to cleanse the liver. I’ve used the juice of the green stems to soothe the sting of nettles. Maybe it soothes other stings.
“Hi. I’m the word monitor, and this article needs to end before it even begins to laud the benefits of lambs quarters, chickweed and purslane. Thanks, Lou, and we are out.”