Wild Edibles, part III

For those who garden or gather, this month is for you to try adding flowers to salads. One only need a base of favourite greens. I find baby spinach or mixed arugula greens works best, for flavour and texture. A light oil and vinegar dressing with celery or poppy seeds is best.

Then comes the best part: Any of dill flowers, chives and flowers, dandelion (petals only), calendula, chicory, nasturtium, daylily, violets, pansies and clover petals may be added to taste. Not all are needed nor desirable. Use what you have available.

Why not have an herbal tea too. Dried wild strawberries make a good tea but my favourite is sweetfern. Drying the plants intensifies the flavour. Crush a few in a small teapot that has been warmed. Pour boiling water over it, allowing it to steep. Strain and serve. Needs no sugar nor honey, but you decide.

Of course wild-gathered foods should be done mindful of contaminants such as exhaust and sprays.

Chicory flowers, by Martin Thomas
Daylily flower, by Martin Thomas






Viola tricolor, by Martin Thomas


Sweetfern, photo by Marian Munro

March 17: Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to ye!

Joining the Celtic Cross, harp and leprechaun as symbols of St. Patrick’s Day is the shamrock. Legend has it that the shamrock was chosen as Ireland's national emblem by St. Patrick who had used it to illustrate the doctrine of the Christian Trinity. The Trinity is the idea that God is really three-in-one: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

The Irish have considered shamrocks as good-luck symbols since earliest times, and today people of many other nationalities also believe they bring good luck. The Irish Shamrock is actually one of several three-leaved clovers found in Ireland and introduced to Nova Scotia. In addition our wood-sorrel is sometimes called a shamrock. Its leaves certainly resemble those of the clovers, but larger and sometimes folded.


scan of vintage postcard, Marian Munro collection
Trifolium pratense, Red Clover, photo by Sean Blaney
Trifolium campestre, Hop Clover, photo by Martin Thomas
Oxalis montana, Wood-sorrel, photo by David Mazerolle