Salad Art Using Native Plants and Flowers
We love to take big salad bowls and walk around our yard and garden, building our salads like we’re at a salad bar. We gather a combination of cultivar plants and native plants and flowers to build colorful, delicious and nutritious salads. I showed my husband my salad today and he said, “It’s like salad art.”
My salad today is made from the following ingredients:
Amish Deer Tongue Leaf Lettuce. We grew this lettuce in a raised bed from heirloom seeds I purchased from Seed Savers at least ten years ago. I was surprised they actually came up.
Arugula. Our arugula also came from heirloom seeds I purchased from Seed Savers when I bought the Amish deer tongue leaf lettuce. We planted it outside our house in some rather pitiful soil. It’s basically 6-10 inches of dirt and rock over a limestone slab. Still, the arugula grows like crazy, has reseeded itself year after year, and is spreading to new locations.
Lemon Balm. Dave planted a little bit of lemon balm, and we have a lot now. It tends to spread. I use it in teas, in my Tom Kha Gai soup, and in salads. Lemon balm is great to help you relax; and some say it can lower blood pressure. If you’ve ever heard of the pricey essential oil called Melissa, it comes from lemon balm. So the properties of Melissa are the same for lemon balm.
Apple Mint and Peppermint. These mints really take off. In fact, they take over – more than lemon balm. I’d recommend putting them in an area where they are contained. Besides using them in salads, they are great as teas. I also dip peppermint leaves in chocolate. Yum! Mints are good anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatories. They also are anti-bacterial.
Green Onions. Our friend gave us a ball of green onion cloves last year. We broke them apart and planted them in a couple different raised beds. They are mild and delicious and are super easy to grow. They lasted all winter long and seem to handle freezing temperatures just fine. I cut off a green shoot from one of the onions and chopped it up in this salad. It adds great flavor if you like mild onions.
Spinach, Kale, Swiss Chard and Beet Greens. Dave periodically plants spinach, kale, swiss chard and beets from seed in our raised beds. He keeps the kale, swiss chard and beets going year round. These greens always go well in a salad and are very nutritious.
Eat Your Weeds
Many things that grow wild in our yards are considered weeds, but really they are edible and packed with anti-oxidants, anti-inflammatory, vitamins and minerals. The plants below are included in today’s salad. Note: consult an herbologist before eating plants from your yard. Make sure you know you are getting the right plants. Also, don’t eat plants off the side of the road or from places that have been sprayed.
Plantain. Plantain is a wild green (not the banana-like fruit). It grows all over our yard and is common throughout North America and the world. It has both external and internal medicinal uses.
Plantain is a good source of bioavailable zinc, beta-carotene, and calcium. Plantain can be eaten raw or cooked and used dried or fresh. It’s a bit thick, so I snip it into small pieces. Plantain can help heal internal tissues, calm inflammation, and aid the gastrointestinal system.
Plantain helps has anti-histamine properties so it helps with asthma and allergies. It can also help with UTI’s and can ease diarrhea. “Plantain is often used to support conditions such as IBS, leaky gut or intestinal permeability, colitis, esophagitis, and gastrointestinal ulcers. The seeds and seed husks of plantain, specifically P. ovata, are sold in commerce as psyllium, and are used as a source of soluble fiber to promote bowel regularity.” (Source: The Herbal Academy)
Creeping Charlie. We have Creeping Charlie in several spots around our garden and by our creek bank. It makes a good ground cover, but it will go everywhere … in places you don’t want it to go.
Rather than curse Creeping Charlie, I do what I can to curb it back and eat it for its good qualities. Creeping Charlie flowers, stems and leaves are all edible.
The tiny leaves with the flowers are particularly good and not as pungent as the older, larger leaves. It’s been used for inner and middle ear issues, reducing inflammation of the sinuses and mucous membranes, helps with tinnitus, and kidney and lung disorders. Try Creeping Charlie when when you have a head cold or bronchitis.
We throw 4-5 leaves in a salad. Because it’s spring, I used the little purple flowers with an attached small cluster of leaves in this salad.
Violets. You’ll notice the deep purple flowers on my salad. Those are wild violets straight out of our flower bed. We also have them growing in a pot. I also included some of the violet’s heart-shaped green leaves. Violets can be used as a sedative. They are also are thought to be good for liver decongestion. Their heart-shaped leaves are a hint to their benefits. They are a circulatory stimulant, and they emotionally support the heart.
“Emotionally, violet leaf is said to support the emotions and the heart… to soothe both nostalgia and obsession….it is a silent, seductive, and persuasive… helps you to realize your potential.’ She recommends it for timidity of the spirit, shyness, to overcome fears and shyness. Energetically and ritualistically, it is an oil of springtime, and of new beginnings and new growth.” (The Herbal Academy)
Chickweed. Chickweed isn’t native to our area, but it grows like crazy and tends to take over our raised beds. We pull a lot of it out and still have plenty for soups, salads, etc. It’s rich in calcium and is very good for you. This salad has some of the little white chickweed flowers and the leaves/stems. I’ve made pesto out of chickweed like you would with basil and it’s very tasty.
Tip: I use a pair of kitchen scissors to chop up all my greens into small pieces so they’re easier to chew. These greens are more substantial than your typical lettuce from the store. So you may need to get used to the heartiness of them. Snipping them into small pieces helps.
Salad Toppings
I like to use raspberries, blueberries and hemp seed as a topping. Hemp seed is great for lowering cholesterol, and thus good for the heart. I also used my favorite raspberry vinaigrette dressing from Aldi. You can also add nuts, grapes, dried fruits, and cheese if you wish – basically anything you like on a salad.
One Comment