Wild Winter Weeds

These are the wild winter weeds we picked out of my garden here at The Veggie Tree HQ in class on Sunday. Before I get into some recipes I thought it would be good to have a picture guide to reference.

I will often use multiple different wild weed herbs in a dish, as diversity is the spice of life! I love to marry good flavour combinations and weeds tend themselves beautifully to this with their bitter, sour, sweet, spicy attributes along with all their nutritional benefits.

We could rename these fabulous plants wild herbs or wild greens as this is how I, for one use them. I literally go out my back door and forage these marvellous, free, nutritious, tasty, abundant edible weeds every day and what you can see here I have welcomed in to our barked back yard over the last couple of years with glee. Some are self seeded plants from other parts of the garden and pretty much everything else has just arrived. The diversity is astounding and ways to use them endless!!!

My wild winter weed garden in all its glory!!!

It is truely amazing the diversity of weeds that come into your yard or garden if you invite them to grow. Nutrient dense, free easy to grow and delicious, what's not to love!

What you can see here is:

🌿 Red dead nettle

🌿 Wild mustard

🌿 Dandelion

🌿 Plantain

🌿 Onion weed

🌿 Wild fennel

🌿 Puha

🌿 Sow thistle

🌿 Wild celery

🌿 Lemon balm

🌿 Nasturtium

🌿 Dock

🌿 Bergonia

🌿 Hairy bitter cress

🌿 Land cress

🌿 Chickweed

🌿 Purslane

🌿 Black nightshade

🌿 Oxalis

🌿 Violet

🌿 Ruruhau

🌿 Chicory

🌿 Cleavers

🌿 Jasmine

🌿 Mint

🌿 Clover

🌿 Daisy

🌿 Evening primrose

🌿 Speed well

🌿 Self heal

🌿 Herb robert

Over the next few weeks I'm going to share a #WeedsWednesday post and with some inspirational recipes to utilise the wild weeds you might have growing around your place and maybe even encourage you to create a space in your yard where you let these wonderful plants run free, feeding the bees, bringing up nutrients and fixing the soil, as well as creating wonderful ground covers to protect your soil from drying out or getting too wet for the manicured planted plants in your garden.

If you are keen to check out some recipes here on theveggietree.com go to 'Edible Weeds' Tag or 'Edible Weeds Information' at the top of this page. I would love to hear if you are enjoying these posts, information and recipes, please do not hesitate to give feedback or ask questions in the comments section below.

Anna x