A Mess of Greens

In my grandmother’s and even in my mother’s day, the winter diet consisted of meat, grains, root vegetables, and canned goods, either commercial or preserved from the summer’s garden. Fresh greens were simply not available for many winters until finally the A&P began to offer iceberg lettuce in its produce department.

By winter’s end, a powerful hunger for fresh greens had developed. In March an early garden was planted with lettuce and spinach, but any harvest was weeks away. Then, in April, when the dandelions were growing new foliage, Grandma would say, “Let’s go get us a mess of greens.”

Armed with paring knives and brown paper bags, we piled into the car and headed for the country roads. There we filled the bags with tender new leaves of dandelion, curly dock, lamb’s quarter, and pokeweed.

That evening our supper consisted of those greens, cooked in bacon fat and water, and a big pan of cornbread along with slices of home-cured ham. Vegetables never tasted so good as these greens did to our winter-starved palates.

Now that fresh greens are available all year round, gathering wild greens has probably fallen out of practice, but my brother and I still carry on Grandma’s tradition, not only out of nostalgia, but also because wild greens’ nutrients are far superior to any cultivated ones’.

I’m less inclined to harvest wild greens in the spring, though, because so many spring garden tasks require attention. Instead, I like to harvest wild greens when the autumn rains stimulate fresh new growth of dandelions and curly dock. I don’t have to drive anywhere to find them, because they thrive in abundance around our compost heaps among the volunteer tomato plants.

Um-um. Supper’s going to taste mighty good tonight.

Copyright 2016 by Shirley Domer