Yesterday we started a wild winter foraging walk through our neighborhood in Pittsburgh, PA. Here it is December 26 and not only are edible greens abounding, there are edible flowers around!

I showed you dandelion, bittercress, garlic mustard, onion grass, burdock, dead nettle and goldenrod. Today we’ll start with Common Mallow (Malva), which is a delicious, fresh-tasting edible which makes a wonderful base for a salad, along with other non-bitter greens like chickweed and dead nettle.

Common Mallow

Here is a common thistle. There were many of these rosettes around, thriving! I’ve never taken the time to de-thistle and eat, but if you needed to for survival, this is a very good green.

Thistle

Plantain. Here we have the narrow leafed variety. We saw some broad-leaf plantain, too, as well as some leftover dried stalks of the broad leafed plantain, which still contain seeds, another good edible.

Thin leaved plantain, Plantago lanceolata

Here is the delicate and delicious chickweed, Stellaria media, one of my favorite fresh greens and found in abundance all winter long, even under snow which I will demonstrate if - er, I mean when - we get snow this year.

Chickweed, Stellaria media

There was also lots of white and red clover leaves around. Here is a picture with two big red clover flowers in blossom!

red clovers...with flowers! December 26, Pittsburgh, PA

There were also evergreens in the ‘hood such as blue spruce, cedar, and fir trees. The needles from these make a refreshing tea which can be enjoyed all winter long. More on that coming soon!

Happy foraging!

Melissa Sokulski, Food Under Foot