Cooking with Wild Spring Greens

Spring is just around the corner - I can feel it! Every morning when I wake up, I hear the birds chirping away and the sun is shining through the window.

For me, this means that the early spring greens such as dandelion, chicory, and chickweed will be pushing up through the earth as well as edible flowers such as violet. I love these early spring salads - it doesn't get any fresher than this.

Dandelion and chicory both taste best in the early spring and the late fall. In the spring, you need to pick the leaves before the flowers pop up. Once the flowers appear, the plant gets really bitter.

I like to squeeze a little lemon juice and olive oil over my salad once it's assembled. And goat cheese such as feta or ricotta salata is absolutely perfect. I wrote an ehow article about this called How to Make a Wild Herb Salad. Stop in and take a look!