Contact: Diane Relf, Extension Specialist, Environmental Horticulture
Posted April 1997
Move over lettuce and tomatoes. You're about to get a lot of new company in the salad bowl. Most gardeners have a much more varied source of salad ingredients in their garden than they ever imagined. All it takes is looking at crops, and yes, weeds, with a slightly different point of view.
Salad greens don't have to be lettuce or spinach. Corn salad, chinese cabbage, and endive are a little more adventurous, but how about trying young dandelion greens or wild sorrel? Use caraway foliage for an unusual accent. Parsley is more than a garnish or a seasoning - with its high nutrition and great taste it can be used in a salad. Other herbs, such as dill and basil, provide different and exciting flavors. Harvest a few young garlic leaves and add them. Beet and turnip greens don't have to be boiled; the young leaves are also edible fresh. If chickweed or lamb's quarters are encroaching on the garden, harvest some for the salad bowl. Pea tendrils, especially the multiple tendrils on semi-leafless varieties, provide a different texture and a preview of pea season.
The salad garnishes available in the garden are even more interesting. Many flowers are edible and add a beautiful touch to the dinner plate. As most people know, nasturtium leaves, blossoms, and buds all are edible and have a spicy taste. Pair the orange of nasturtiums with bright yellow calendula petals for some first course excitement. Many herb blossoms are as edible as the rest of the plant. Borage has lovely and edible blue flowers, chives provide lavender blooms, and sage has tiny lavender flowers to delight the eye and the palate. From the flower garden come rose petals, marigold petals, violas, and pansies. The vegetable garden can provide pea and bean blossoms, and if the corn salad bolts before used as a salad green, harvest the flowers for a second salad season.
Nibbling while working in the garden is a good way to test plants for salad use, as long as the plant is known to be safe. Just because part of a plant is edible doesn't mean it all is. Take rhubarb for an example. The leaf stalks make marvelous sauces and pies, but the leaves can cause sickness. Don't harvest any flowers from ornamental plants that have been treated with pesticides. If you do know that something is edible, try a bit of it and see if it is suitable. Remember that the salad should be balanced with strong and mild textures and flavors. Start slowly, adding one or two new ingredients at a meal.
Pick salad greens in the cool of the morning. Wait until the dew has dried to gather blossoms for garnishing. Rinse and dry the greens as for lettuce, but don't wash the blooms. Instead, spread the flowers on a light colored surface and pick out any foreign material or insects. The blooms should not be allowed to get wet, even by salad dressing. Instead, dress the greens and add the flowers on top. Then sit back and watch your family's eyes (and mouths) open wide.
(Prepared by Ellen Silva, Extension Technician, Consumer Horticulture, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0327.)
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