Hands in the Dirt: Wild Greens

Dead Nettle

Photo and article by Donna Iverson

Early spring is the time to prepare garden beds, and the first order of business is pulling weeds.

After a half hour pulling quack grass, I noticed there were two other weeds in the garden bed:  dead nettle and chickweed.  Both are edible, nutritious, and can be used medicinally.  I decided to leave them where they were growing. Both qualify as wild greens, or Horta, as the Greeks call them. They are wild herbs that grow naturally along with other edible weeds like chicory, dandelions, lambs quarters, ramps, plantain, and purslane to name a few.  

Dead Nettle
Actually there are two kinds of nettles and both are edible: stinging nettle and dead nettle. Both names are a little off putting so I wasn’t sure I wanted to eat something called Dead Nettle. But after a little research, I decided to give it a try. A member of the mint family, dead nettle has fuzzy leaves and a square stem. Plus the purple flowers are attractive to bees and other pollinators. 

To be sure I wasn’t allergic, I touched a leaf to my lips to see if there was a tingle. Nothing, Then I put a leaf on my tongue with good results. As I didn’t like the fuzzy texture, I next chopped up a couple of leaves and sprinkled them inside a cheese quesadilla. It was an easy way to add wild greens to my diet. Use them like cilantro in any recipe, especially Mexican ones.

As well as being edible, dead nettle is medicinal.  A tea made from the leaves can help with spring allergies.  To soothe bug bites, chew on a leaf and then press on the sore area.  It has an anti-inflammatory effect. And if you don’t like it, feed it to the chickens.

Chickweed
Other than dead nettle, the other edible wild green growing in my garden bed was chickweed. Barely two inches high with tiny white flowers, it was hardly noticeable.

A native of Europe, but naturalized in the US, chickweed grows year round and is one of the first wild greens to flower in the spring.  A member of the carnation family, chickweed leaves and flowers can be eaten like sprouts. Add to soup, salad and stir fries, or toss it on pizza.

Chickweed is easy for beginners to identify and it’s everywhere, probably in your backyard.  In addition to being low to the ground, it has what looks like 10 tiny white petals.  There are really only five as each one is double lobed. Chickweed doesn’t keep well, so plan to eat it the same day. And when it goes to seed, consider planting it in your kitchen herb garden. 

Arriving soon will be other wild greens like purslane and dandelions. Purslane is often available at farmers markets and dandelions are as close as your back door.  Surprisingly, dandelion greens were recently for sale in the local supermarket.  

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