Back in the 18th century, about 700 leafy vegetables alone were known, read - edible herbs and flowers. Modern people are concerned to find and use wild herbs and flowers as an edible supplement because of their undoubted usefulness. Let's take a closer look at the "pasture" that will give us vitamins, nutrients and minerals.

Dandelions

Dandelion is mainly eaten in Western Europe and especially in France, where it is even cultivated in greenhouses as a salad plant. In Russian cuisine, salads made from fresh herbs were not known until about the era of Catherine II, and even after that they were served only in the homes of the nobility. The bitterness of the leaves is the main value of dandelion as a medicinal plant. All bitterness increases liver activity, improves digestion and metabolism. In order for dandelion to be safely eaten, there are several ways. The easiest is to pour boiling water over the leaves, but at the same time we get completely lethargic soft leaves, not a particularly pleasant consistency. The second way: chopped leaves are poured with salt water (1 tablespoon per liter) and left to soak for 10-15 minutes, while it is better to try them from time to time so as not to completely lose all the bitterness. The light bitterness of dandelions gives the salad a special piquancy. And the third, most time-consuming method is bleaching. To do this, the dandelion is deprived of light for several days - they are covered with a black film, a cardboard box, or at least a tin can. Arriving at the cottage in a week, you will get white, crispy leaves, ideal for salad.

Primrose

The leaves of all types of primroses are used in Western Europe as salad plants. They have a pleasant taste and a very high content of ascorbic acid.

The leaves of the wild primrose of our forests, which is also called rams, are officially used in medicine as a vitamin plant. They pair well with green onions and cucumbers. Of course, you can make a salad out of onions and cucumbers, but just primrose with onions is tasty and healthy. You can put daisy leaves in a salad, and then their flowers, this is also an English classic, where salads and sandwiches are decorated with daisy flowers.

Levkoy

The leaves of the evening are very good in the salad - perennial levkoy, which blooms with pinkish-purple flowers in June-July. They are spicy, taste like mustard and go well with any other greenery. This plant is very common in our flower beds, but it never occurs to anyone that it is edible. Meanwhile, from under the snow, the bushes of the evening come out with green leaves.

Bluebells The leaves of most bluebells are edible and can not only be eaten raw, but also made into a delicious salad. Rapunzel-shaped bell is especially suitable for this - a pretty perennial that easily turns into an annoying weed. This type of bluebell has creeping underground shoots and large branching roots, similar in shape to a carrot. These roots are also edible and even tasty, so when fighting bluebells, do not throw them in the compost, but rather eat them. Bluebell greens contain a large amount of vitamin E, the vitamin of eternal youth, which is responsible for reproductive function and skin condition.

Day-lily

The most delicious spring salad is obtained from the well-known daylily, especially the one that blooms in autumn. This type of daylily - yellow-brown daylily - is not considered a flower at all in China, from where it came to our gardens. Pickled daylily flowers can sometimes be bought in Chinese shops. But daylily leaves are also edible, they taste like onions, but not at all spicy.

Young leaves are used both independently and in prefabricated salads. In summer, when the leaves become stiff, you can put their young part, located at the very bottom, in salads. Daylily flowers are the main thing eaten, but daylilies that bloom in spring have too strong a smell and are used only as a condiment. Autumn daylilies do not smell at all, so their flowers can be eaten raw and processed in unlimited quantities.

snyt

Pay attention to the most common weed in our gardens, with which more than one generation of summer residents have been fighting - snot, one of the popular names of which is "food-grass". This ancient food plant of our ancestors is mentioned in Dahl's dictionary: "If there were a cow parsnip and sleepy, we would be alive." snyt очень вкусное растение, у которого съедобны молодые листья. In order for them not to cause gas formation in the intestines, they must be scalded or subjected to any heat treatment.

Shchi from goutweed is much tastier than nettle. The taste of gout is reminiscent of carrots and parsley at the same time. Very old leaves can be put into the broth as a spice and throw away after cooking, and cook various dishes from young ones: scrambled eggs, stew, fillings for pies, salads. When gout begins to eat intensively, the plants quickly weaken and after a year or two completely disappear.

Nettle

And, of course, how can you do without young spring nettles? Shchi is prepared from it, added to salads and stuffing for pies is prepared. However, be careful: nettle appears on thawed patches, especially "sweaty ones", long before the complete end of snowmelt. It grows rapidly and after 10 - 12 days becomes "old" and of little use for food.

wild bow

wild bow появляется примерно на неделю позже крапивы и растет на склонах холмов, по берегам рек, по редкотравью на каменистых почвах. Its leaves are similar to the leaves of ordinary cultivated onions, but thinner, tougher, it is noticeably less juicy. wild bow используют для приготовления салатов, как и черемшу. In addition, it can serve as a seasoning for soups, borscht, fish soup, as well as ordinary onions. It is not prepared for the future - I found it, tore off a bunch for salad.

Ramson - wild garlic

It appears already along the thawed patches and the first wild garlic should be looked for on the southern slopes in sparse aspen forests growing on the site of dark coniferous plantations, along forest glades. It appears earlier in places where warm groundwater exits. On sale most often there are bunches with cut leaves and torn flowers.

Kislichka This delicate small plant, whose leaves are similar to clover leaves, can be used as a sorrel. It grows under the canopy of dark coniferous plantations and is very plentiful. However, due to the small size, the collection of sour is laborious. It is not as acidic as sorrel and therefore suitable for salads. To such salads, as an additive, you can use starfish-louse - a common weed that grows in well-moistened open fertile areas.

Sorrel

Different types of sorrel are eaten (ordinary, pyramidal, curly, sparrow). Leaves and young shoots are mainly used in cooking green cabbage soup, which is prepared according to the same recipe as fresh cabbage soup. After the chopped leaves boil once, the cabbage soup is ready. They are served with hard boiled eggs and fresh sour cream. Sorrel is also used as a filling for pies, especially in the first half of summer, when the berries have not yet appeared. The leaves are steamed, cut and mixed with sugar, You can add up to 50% of peeled hogweed stalks (bundles). Sorrel можно консервировать путем горячей обработки и солить. Due to the presence of acid, there is no danger of anaerobic fermentation in this case.

bracken fern

The young shoots of the fern are eaten. Two or three decades ago, no one collected fern in Russia, since they did not consider it an edible plant. But with the development of relations with Japan, China and South Korea, where fern shoots have been eaten since ancient times, bracken fern began to be harvested in our country, first for export, and then for our own consumption. Gradually, the Russians, primarily the inhabitants of Siberia and the Far East, tasted this gift of the forest, and now the fern is considered a delicacy product, along with champignons, olives and asparagus. The fern harvesting season is short - about 2-3 weeks. It starts, depending on the region, at the end of the first or second decade of May, and approximately coincides with the collection of wild garlic.

Asparagus (Asparagus) On sunny sandy slopes, on dry manes and hills, white-greenish and juicy large shoots of asparagus appear in spring at the time of bird cherry blossoms - excellent spring food rich in vitamins and other valuable substances. This plant was introduced into the culture by the ancient Romans, who highly appreciated its qualities. In our country, wild asparagus is found in the European part, in the Caucasus and in Western Siberia, where it grows in meadows, among shrubs. Probably everyone has seen adult asparagus - herringbone twigs with red berries, often added to flower bouquets. Young shoots of asparagus are also difficult to confuse with anything - they are thick sprouts with triangular scales, whitish at first, then darkening and becoming brown-greenish, sometimes with a purple tint. Young shoots of asparagus are eaten boiled, used either as a main dish or as a side dish.

Yarutka

Yarutka can be found without much difficulty in the nearest digging area, abandoned arable land or by a field road, as long as the soil is not covered with solid turf. This is a plant of the cabbage family, or, as they used to be called cruciferous. Young shoots are used in salad.

Shepherd's bag

Shepherd's bag, так же как и сурепка, всходит рано весной, буквально из-под снега. Shepherd's purse leaves are eaten raw in