Mr. Green Jons

I’m a proponent of eating off the land.  Whate’er Mother Nature gives to us to eat, we should eat.  Now, I’m not saying that you should take your fork out to the timber and start nomming on the woodland creatures– that would be both dangerous and detrimental to plant life.  What I am saying, however, is that there are many things that grow in abundance and within reach of most people that are often overlooked as sources of food.

I’ve known since childhood of a weed that looks like young lettuce when it’s young and like a thistle as it grows older.  I’d often wondered if perhaps it was edible.  Last year, my curiousity got the better of me and I pulled up every plant that was growing as a weed in our marginal spaces.  It was February 2008 at this point- really early spring- so  there wasn’t anything else up at the time.  I served up the lettuce and was surprised by the deliciously fresh taste of it.  It was slightly bitter and some of the leaves had developed their spines already (which led to some gulps from my significant other upon swallowing), but this was at the end of winter– that time of year when you’re seriously jonesing for something fresh grown in the garden and don’t know if you can tolerate canned beans one more night.  It was definitely a lettuce.  I thought it was fantastic so I decided that if any of them went to seed last year I was going to glean them and save them to plant.

The lettuce to which I’m referring is the widespread Lactuca virosa.  It grows in any waste-space and if not pulled up while young, it’ll bolt and turn into a towering 6 foot thistle-like beast.   I’ve never known it to take over a location, but like any weed, the possibility exists.

I recently pulled up several more of the plants that were growing locally and made my salad again.  It’s so tasty.  In researching this posting, I found that people use preparations of this lettuce in the same manner as one would use an opiate.  It’s a plant that’s listed by the government as having “special” properties, but isn’t illegal.  I was surprised by this information because I was just looking for a fresh bite to eat!  There are always surprises in nature.

Link to USDA site for Lactuca virosa here.

Link to pictures of wild lettuce here.