Can i eat dandelion greens from my yard

Its roots are deep and skilled at grabbing onto and pulling up minerals. I find a powder of the roasted roots most helpful in the morning or as a midafternoon pick me up. I like to mix a teaspoon with 8 oz. It tempers my craving for caffeine and gently encourages my system to get working.

Its sunny flowers contain wonderful remedies for the blues. Bummer to bring up winter just as summer finally arrives, but, if we prepare now, our chances of enjoying January through March will be greater. The summer solstice comes on June A salad spinner works great to get excess water off leaves and flowers before cooking. Get out there before you mow the lawn and collect some delicious, nutritious dandelions.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. Five ways to eat dandelions. While there are many ways to consume the three edible parts of dandelions, Michigan State University Extension recommends trying the following: Dandelion green salad This is the most simple way to use dandelion greens. Sauteed greens Cooking dandelions eliminates some of the bitterness. Dandelion fritters Collect flower heads and wash them.

Baking with dandelion petals The petals of the flower are extremely versatile. Did you find this article useful? Please tell us why Submit. Balancing Foods with Adim Ogbuaku. Dandelions pack a whole lot of vitamins and minerals into a small plant. Besides being chock-full of nutrients, dandelions contain compounds that may help prevent health problems. More research is needed to confirm everything dandelions can do, Geib notes. Dandelions contain several different types of antioxidants throughout the roots, leaves and flowers, Geib says.

Chronic inflammation in the body plays a role in a long list of serious health problems, including cancer and heart disease. One way to stay healthy is by eating foods that fight inflammation. Add dandelion to your anti-inflammatory diet: Lab studies have found that compounds in these plants can dial down inflammation. Dandelions are rich in potassium, which makes them a natural diuretic.

In other words, they make you pee. Chickweed is a resilient plant that may appear on roadsides or riverbanks and can thrive in just about any soil type. It's rich in vitamins A and C and contains about as much calcium as dandelions. Chickweed leaves, stems, and flowers can all be eaten either raw—added to sandwiches and salads or ground into a pesto—or cooked.

The plant has a grassy, spinachlike taste. Chickweed can look very similar to radium weed, a poisonous plant that grows in similar conditions, so consult an experienced forager before picking and consuming chickweed. Mallow, or malva, is also known as cheeseweed because its seed pods resemble a wheel of cheese. It shares a family with cotton, okra, and hibiscus, and apart from its distinguishing seed pods—also called "nutlets"—you can identify it by its funnel-shaped flowers, each with five petals and a column of stamens surrounding a pistil.

This hardy plant can grow almost anywhere—even in harsh, dry soil conditions. Mallow's leaves, flowers, and seed pods can be eaten raw or cooked. Both the leaves and flowers have a very mild taste that's often more tender and palatable in juvenile plants. Mallow is high in vitamins A and C, protein, and carotenoids. Wild amaranth—or "pigweed"—leaves are another great addition to any dish that calls for leafy greens. While the younger leaves are softer and tastier, the older leaves can also be cooked like spinach.

Displaying either green or red leaves and small, green flowers in dense clusters at the top of the plant, wild amaranth has been cultivated since ancient times. The Romans and Aztecs reportedly regarded it as a staple food. Wild amaranth seeds can also be gathered and cooked just like store-bought amaranth, either as a cooked whole grain or as a ground meal.

Curly dock is an oft-overlooked plant that has slender, rigid leaves and tall flower spikes packed with flowers and seeds.

The plant contains more vitamin C than oranges, which means it's also high in oxalic acid. Consuming more than milligrams of vitamin C per day could lead to a buildup of oxalate in your kidneys.

The leaves can be eaten raw when young, or cooked and added to soups when older. In younger plants, foliage is less curly and leaves are round and broad. Mature plants develop stems whereas leaves emerge right from the root when young.

The leaves taste tart and spinachlike. Because of their high oxalic acid content, it's often recommended to change the water several times during cooking. Newly-emerged stems can be peeled and eaten either cooked or raw, and the mature seeds can be boiled, eaten raw, or roasted to make a coffee substitute.

Wild garlic is ubiquitous throughout Europe, but this favorite foraging find is also widespread among the damp woodlands of the eastern U.

It's so abundant, in fact, that the U. Department of Agriculture considers it a " noxious weed ," or one that could be harmful to the environment or animals. It's not, however, harmful to humans, who typically love stumbling upon a blanket of its signature long, pointed leaves and white flowers sprawled beneath the trees. Wild garlic tastes like garlic, of course, only grassier.

The flavor is milder than the pungent aroma these plants put off you'll probably smell them before you see them. Every part of the plant is edible, from the bulbs to the seed heads. Wild garlic is higher in magnesium, manganese, and iron than bulb garlic. Known for their heart-shaped leaves and delightful purple flowers that cover forest floors and stream banks come spring, wild violets are also called "sweet violets" on account of their sugary flavor. They're often candied and used to decorate baked goods, turned into jam, made into syrups, brewed as a tea, or used as a garnish in salads.

Both the leaves and flowers are edible and rich in vitamin C, but the roots and seeds are poisonous. A common winter weed in warm and mild regions of the U.

The plant is part of the mustard family and has a sharp, peppery flavor similar to mustard greens or arugula.