From the Spring Foraging Cookbook: Spring Beauty and Strawberry Spinach

Spring Beauty

The two prettiest flowers to pop up in early spring are Spring Beauty and Trillium. Both are destroyed by harvesting and should only be collected with care towards conservation. If you live where Spring Beauty is abundant, enjoy! A friend in Canada has countless thousands of these plants just outside her window! Where I live, they are far less abundant, and I only take a few. Several Native American tribes depended on the tuberous roots of Spring Beauty for survival – managing this plant responsibly has been a goal long before America was a nation. There is no reason not to harvest Spring Beauty, though – each plant produces several tubers. Keep the largest and replant the small ones. They can be eaten raw or cooked like potatoes or Jerusalem Artichokes. Spring Beauty does not have a ton of flavor but can give needed calories. The crunch is nice. I would compare Spring Beauty to water chestnuts. They feel good between the teeth and help fill the stomach, but they are not a crave-able dish on their own.

The real appeal of Spring Beauty is not the root, though, it is the leaves and stems. Spring Beauty is one of the very best salad greens. When I can find this plant, I absolutely have to enjoy this one raw. It often grows near Ramps, so the combo is a natural. Any other spring greens and herbs I find are a nice bonus, but I could be satisfied with just these two, alone, with a creamy salad dressing. I mentioned before that blue cheese and ramps pair perfectly but they are also delicious with a quality ranch style dressing.

My favorite Blue Cheese Dressing is a combination of mayonnaise, sour cream, crumbled blue

cheese, a little lemon juice and maybe some garlic; salt and pepper to taste.

A very good Ranch style dressing can be made using a large variety of herbs. I use it as both a

dressing and a dip, and make it often because I grow so many herbs. That recipe is under Miner’s Lettuce.




Strawberry Spinach

This plant is in the same family as Lamb’s Quarters and the leaves may be used the same. Some folks prefer Strawberry Spinach greens to Lamb’s Quarters, especially when they are very tender in early spring. Although the leaves are smaller, it is a good “wild spinach.” Strawberry Spinach gets its name from its berries... yes, this plant often bears abundant berries. They actually look more like raspberries than strawberries though. Unfortunately the berries usually don’t have a lot of flavor. You can cook them down with a lot of sugar and some citrus to make a jam, but they are best combined with other berries, tree fruit or a syrup made from dandelion or honeysuckle flowers. I usually just toss a few of the berries into a salad for color more than flavor. I think of Strawberry Spinach as basically just a nice salad green with a little bonus in the berries. I have read that some heirloom seed breeders are trying to improve the flavor of the berries; they have already been successful in producing larger leaves so that the plants produce enough yield to be grown as a garden vegetable.

This article is an excerpt from

The Spring Foraging Cookbook: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-spring-foraging-cookbook.html
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The information on this site is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing on this site has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I am not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and their is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I’m just a guy who studies herbs. I am not offering any advice. I won’t even claim that anything I write is accurate or true! I can tell you what herbs have “traditionally been used for.” I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use any herb I, or anyone else, mentions you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, sensitivity or underlying condition that no one else shares and you don’t even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to read my blog you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices and not to blame me for anything, ever.