(The tastier the chicken broth you start with the less salt you need at the end). Serve with a
few beans floating on each bowl.Wild (using tame) Greens and Flowers Salad -- Serves 4 - 6
Salads were much liked in the Spring when new, tender greens appeared. A great variety of
mixtures was used. Since salt was uncommon or not used at all, salads were flavored by
herbs, oil pressed from seeds, and especially with a vinegar made from fermentd, evaporated
uncooked maple sap (which we can't do or get). So this is an approximation of the spring
tonic salads beloved by all woodland people after the long winters.1 cup watercress leaves and (only) tender stems
1 cup lamb's quarter new leaves (or use small spinach leaves)
1 cup arugula lettuce torn (not cut) to bite-size pieces;
can also use Bibb or less espensive leafy (not iceberg) lettuces
1/2 cup tender nasturtium and violet leaves torn up
1/2 cup nasturtium and violet flowers (in season)
1 Tbsp honey
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup salad oil
As much tender mint leaves as you like in the salad
2 tsp fresh mint chopped fine and bruised
2 tsp chopped tarragon (fresh) or 1 tsp dried if necessary
optional: salt and pepper to taste
Combine honey and vinegar, whisk in oil, which in crushed mint. Season to taste with small
amount of salt. Pour over greens and flowers in large bowl, tossing for at least 3 minuts to
cover all lightly with dressing. Serve immediately.
Lambs quarters (chenopodium album) is a fuzzy-leafed weed that can be found in city empty
lots (though it depends on the nvironment whether you'd want to eat if if gathered there). I
don't know its Ojibwe name, "Indian spinach" it was called by older ladies years ago. It is very
very high in beta carotene (plant vitamin A) and calcium, and is a good food for nursing
mothers where there are no dairy cattle or milk. Violets of all sorts flower all over city and
suburban lawns as weeds. All species are high in vintamins C and A. Chickweed (Stellaria
media, Ojibwe name winibidja bibagano, or "toothplant"") is another common spring herb that
grows all over (as law weed for example) as low, spreading mat, It is very high in vitamin C,
and was therefore a common anti-scurvy remedy for this deficiency disease. I'll be running ID
pix for it in the Plants section here. Small amounts of new mustard leaves (brassica negra)
were used for pungnt flavor, probably not too easy for city-dwellers to find, but sometimes
sold in produce or health food stores. Wild onions and leeks was also traditional and sought
from early spring until gone in winter -- flower heads as well as leaves and bulbs would be
eaten in salads as well as cooked>
Salad oil was pressed from some kinds of seeds I don't know, from sunflowr seeds, but most
especially the oil that can be pressed/cooked out of acorn meal which has been cold-water
leached of bitter tannin. There was supposedly less of the bitter tannin in acorns from certain
oaks: mitigomisk. Bitter kind was called wisugimitigomisk (bitter oak). The acorn meal was a
general good (and whole acorns of the sweet kind were roasted) and the oil was all-purpose
cooking and household utility oil, used on bullrishes for weaving to keep them soft, waterNative Foods -- Recipes--Beans
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/r_beans.html (3 of 5) [5/17/2004 11:52:08 AM]