Field Greens Salad From the Yard (One of Many)

Field Greens Salad From the Yard (One of Many)

Outdoor Alchemy

19 July 2014

So this is one of those things that takes a little more than work to really do right. That is to say, it rather takes community, cooperation, love; and:

About equal portions of dandelion greens and lamb's quarter, cleaned, which takes a bit of work.  The girls went on an herb hunt while i dug some miscellany out of the fridge. Then the kids all pitched in on cleaning while i tried to sort out what to do.

The dandelions should be relatively young if you can help it. If they are leathery and/or hairy they're probably good for something, but not eating. Don't pull; cut, and think about uses. One can dig a fat root for some, otherwise leave some life for later in the season. Then don't  pull; cut, and think about uses.  Mainly these are good if you get the red, with its milky bitterness off the bottom of the leaf.  The lamb's quarter stay tasty till they die but the stems get rough so you'll have to pull leaves if it's past Spring.

Then, you put it together with stuff. This depends on just what stuff ya got. The other night  to the best of my sketchy memory it was some red onion and garlic, olive oil, some vinegary pepper juice with cut up peppers, one of those crunchy peaches, some carrot and a radish or two, tomato, bell pepper red and green, some water-wilted cuke chunks (kinda cleaned out the fridge a bit), some green olives and juice, cheese, mustard, salt, pepper, honey. Mix it up and serve it, or let it soak up flavor a spell.

This isn't really a recipe; you can use different things mix ingredients around or differently. Use marmalade instead of honey. Throw in a splash of vodka. Some avocado, tarragon, eggs...whatever. Make it how you like it, because,

Here's the thing: this stuff is fine to eat alone later when it's leftover or whatever and you need a snack. But it's not cooking or anything; it's alchemy. For your soul.