Eat your weeds!

First off: I am thankful today for friends who could hear me literally sob about car seat woes and then offer a compassionate hug.

Next: do you eat weeds?

No, not weed. Weeds!

Every spring before we can plant, the garden sprouts up and is quickly carpeted with a plant called dock, which is an edible wild green that I’ve heard described flavor-wise as the “love child of spinach and sorrel”. My kids profess to hate it, but I’ve tucked it into various dishes this spring with no negative repercussions.

My three year-old actually enjoys helping me cut the “old, disgusting weeds” and wash and chop them. And I love getting some use out of something that we despise taking over the garden. It feels like a bit of pay back for all the work of digging it up where we don’t want it.

Earlier this year, my sister sent me a link to this Creamy Sausage Mushroom Orecchiette (okay, I seriously had to look about five times at that page to spell the pasta correctly! And now, I’m just going to double-check . . . moving on . . .) Around here we call it “Sausage Pasta” and it gets made with whatever pasta I have on hand (usually rotini or penne, but I’ve used rice noodles too), whatever greens I have on hand (including–you guessed it–dock!), and yogurt or sour cream in place of the mascarpone. Oh, and mushrooms on the side! Here’s one iteration with just dock.

And not one of my kids said a word.

So, do you eat foraged greens or other foraged foods? How do you get the family on board with trying new things?

with love, Anita