This edition of Wild foods & wine brings to you a favorite to a few of my hens. The Chickweed. Yes it is edible!Eating boiled chickweed & drinking its broth has long been an old wive's remedy for obesity. It is a storehouse of many vitamins and minerals. It is a great soource of vitamin c & iron to note a few. Chickweed can be used as a poultice for boils, abcess', swelling from bee stings and so much more. Not only is it's medicinal uses of many, so are it's forms to eat. You can eat them raw chopped into your salads, or steamed/boiled to eat like a spinach.It does not have a strong fla
vor- kinda bland really. I found adding a dash of salt & pepper or a small bunch of spinach leaves boiled with the chickweed helps in its taste.Click the picture for a closer peek. I feel so guilty that just 2 years prior I pulled so much of it down & was thrown into the compost pile only to not be utilized in this recipe:
*********Chickweed bread***************
2 cups chopped chickweed stems & leaves cut into tiny pieces
1/4 cup minced onion
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons honey or a fruit juice concentrate
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups wheat flour
3/4 cup warm water
1 packet yeast
Saute' onion & chickweed till tender- Not Brown! dissolve honey and yeast in warm water then the salt. Mix this with the sauted onion & chickweed. Slowly add the wheat flour untill the dough no longer sticks to your fingers. Form into a ball and let rise to twice its size. Form into 2 loaves and let rise and again. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes
So get the gardening shears & trim away instead of weeding them out.
Enjoy!
~Tammie
3 comments:
I sure wish I could find some good chickweed here! I thought I recall my friend Michelle telling me that there was some next to the parking lot at work but I hate to forage from a place like that! I do live on the edge of a small stand of trees, ferns and such. I haven't wandered in yet but maybe there's some in there? That bread sounds great!
Once again Farmchick you have me on a mission. I will have to ask around to see if anyone has some growing in their garden or if it even grows here. If I can find some, count me in!(lol)
Brightest blessings
Heb
A quote from one of my books
"This is one plant readily available to any reader of this book, for it is found around the world, from Greenland to Tierra del Fuego, from Lapland to Capetown, and from Siberia to Tasmania. Wherever Europeans have gone this plant has followed, becoming a common weed in all countries". So this promises to not be an impossible mission, just a fruitful one, my dear cyber friend. Good luck & happy weeding!
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