 Dandelions, Taraxicum officinale After a few hiccups, Spring is clearly underway in Missouri. People are putting in their gardens or maybe they are starting to sprout, but most of the early produce on our table we never planted. Our lawn, and probably yours as well, contains a number of treasures hidden amongst the creeping weeds we try so hard to stamp out. Whether in the city or country, early to mid spring comes with a number of useful plants and even a modest yard can contribute to your table if you know what to look for.
This article will tell you about a number of the useful weeds you can find this time of year and whether you still decide to stamp them out, you may not be able to look at them the same. The standard disclaimer applies to all wild harvesting: know what you are picking and know how to prepare it properly! This article may give you a place to start, but it should not be an end. Use multiple sources to identify your plants and reach out to more experienced wild-crafters in your area to help you with unfamiliar species. Some species may look confusingly like other, non-edible, plants at first, and, like any produce, you need to know what parts of the plants to eat and how to prepare them safely. You also need to be sure that no noxious chemicals have been sprayed on your lawn which might render the plants inedible. That being said, I hope this brief overview will get you interested in this fascinating subject.
 Wild Chives, Allium schoenoprasum Two common spring edibles need little introduction: wild chives and dandelion. Both of them may be annoying to homeowners and we spend many hours trying to eradicate them, but they are also useful and easy to prepare.
Wild chives are usable just like garden chives, green onions, or scallions. They can be used fresh, cooked, or dried for later use. They start early in the spring and keep producing late into winter.
Dandelions have a number of uses and were brought to the new world as a garden plant before escaping into the wild. The early leaves, before flowering, can be steamed as green vegetables. A dollop of vinegar in the water or as a condiment goes well with the somewhat bitter flavor. The flowers can be battered and fried as fritters, used for dandelion wine or jelly. The roots, like chicory, can be dried, roasted, and ground to make a decaf coffee substitute. Dandelions are high in vitamins A, D, C, iron, and calcium, but also sodium. They can also be used to make a natural yellow or magenta dye for wool.
 Purple Dead Nettle - Lamium purpurium One of the most prolific early blooming weeds is dead nettle, a low, spreading, non-stinging variety of stinging nettle. It is fast growing and nutritious. You can put it on salads raw if you can deal with the slightly fuzzy texture (I can, my wife can't) or it can be steamed as a pot herb. I find it goes well as a stew herb for cooking meats like chicken or rabbit and you can use it to flavor the broth without eating the herb itself if you wish. Our rabbits get quite a bit of it this time of year and love it. We even press it in small bales for later in the season.
 Violets, Viola species Violets are blooming like crazy this time of year. Some violets bloom in early spring, some fall, a few species both times each year. Many people grow violets in their garden for decoration, but few people know they were originally grown as a salad green and are very nutritious, being especially high in vitamin C and iron. The leaves and flowers are both edible raw or lightly steamed. The flowers have long been sugared for decoration on cakes and other deserts and they can be made into a syrup for pancakes or to sooth sore throats and coughs.
Red bud is now in bloom and frames the landscape in delicate pink blossoms. It is also a great addition to stir fries. Add the flowers or young buds to stir fries with some onion and maybe a little green pepper. They taste a bit like snow peas and can be used in their place in recipes.
 Cleavers, Gallium aparine Cleavers or goose grass is an odd but useful little lawn plant. It is a bedstraw-relative with long spreading stems and whorls of slender leaves, but it is very rough and prickly feeling and has tiny white four-petaled flowers. The young sprouts can be used as a vegetable, it is high in vitamin C and its tea used to be used, among other things, to counteract scurvy, but its best use arguably, is as a coffee substitute by drying and roasting the tiny berries after the ripen in early summer. This plant can also be used to make a natural red dye.
Burdock, familiar for its prickly burrs, is a two-year or biennial plant that starts as a low plant with its leaves in a basal rosette the first year before growing tall and flowering the second. It is a critical plant to know for wilderness survival because of its many uses, but, in particular, the roots and early leaves of the first-year plant are an excellent vegetable when cooked properly and it is grown for food in Japan. Be sure to know the difference between first-year burdock and other plants like wild rhubarb whose leaves and roots are poisonous.
 Common Chickweed, Stellaria media Chickweed is a low, inconspicuous lawn plant that is a good salad green and is often used as a substitute for basil in making pesto.
Ivy-leaved speedwell, bittercress, and hollyhock are also useful. Really, the list is endless, so if you want to add some variety to your table, learn wilderness survival at home, and reduce your grocery bill a touch, take a good look at what you have in your lawn. It has always struck me when I see a small weed, edible and medicinal, poking up through a crack in a sea of concrete, that God tries to provide for us no matter how much we try to shut Him out. Maybe it is time to listen.  Ivy-Leaf Speedwell, Veronica hederifolia  Hollyhock, Alcea rosae Copyright © 2008, The Misty Manor, Mercers
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