One that grows here in Central CA is Miner's Lettuce. It is a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals, and can be used like spinach. Unfortunately, it grows only in the Spring and then disappears for another year. Someone here mentioned that they bought and grew this in their garden. I'll have to check on that because I miss having that every year.

I would also find the Stinging Nettles... and end up with a red, itchy nose from smelling the flowers. 😏

CA Kate - nettles on the nose, ouch! We try to get all of the flowers off before they go to seed, a tricky endeavour that needs gloves, maybe a face mask too!

I've heard of miner's lettuce, will try. We have mache self-seeding but it stays very tiny. I've tried to grow purslane after having it in a salad at Chez Panise cafe, but it needs more hot weather than we have, I think, so it didn't grow well.

intwilight - if it doesn't like Kansas, maybe Miners lettuce will like Alaska - will try it out.

Calendula lotion sounds awesome - I steeped calendula flowers in coconut oil a few years ago for a basic skin lotion but I am very much a novice on that stuff. I usually save the flowers for tea, so pretty! Last year I had grown about 70 calendula from seed so I had quite a bit. This year just bought from the store, but maybe I'll also get some from seed, I didn't harvest them all in the hopes of volunteers but our season is so short , we'll see.

I haven't checked it for this context, but the book Nourishing Traditions has a lot of info on traditional ways of preparing foods that are ultimately the most nutritious. I find it hard to read, but valuable.

It’s elderflower season here.

And this evening I used the green seeds of wild garlic in a potato salad. I use a lot of wild plants in cooking but we have no need for using them in medicine.

Intwilight, we were always picking the Miner's Lettuce in the early Spring... around Easter. Perhaps it's already too hot.

Floral, we have loads of elderberry, but its sambucus racemosa with the red berries - poisonous when raw, they say. But I will look into cooking it, your pot of flowers and lemons looks amazing and with more imagination and caution maybe i can use our variety which has only just leafed out.

seeds of wild garlic sound tasty, will check that out. we once tried to grow ramps but no luck.

pllog, thanks, I’ll check that out… i have one specific to Alaska too, needs dusting off.

The elderflower was being made into cordial. It’s a popular soft drink here, available commercially. You can also make elderflower ’champagne’ and wine. This is Sambubus nigra.

I've eaten a lot of wild greens. For most, including nettles, I've been underwhelmed. The one I liked best was lamb's quarters. Ones I've tried besides lamb's quarters include: burdock, cattails, purslane, wild mustard, wood and sheep sorrel, hairy cress, dandelions, nettles and wild onions. Also day lily buds, and various roots and berries. I made a salve out of plantain and also comfrey. Meh. The coconut oil and Vit. E oil were the real beneficial ingredients.

As far as edible flowers, I've used violets, cornflower (bachelor's buttons) borage and nasturtiums, and added lavender to strawberry jam. I like nasturtiums. I have also used basil, oregano and thyme flowers when in bloom. A little gritty with the flower bits, IMHO. I have encased cinnamon basil and lemon thyme flowers in lemon jelly and canned peaches for flavor and presentation though. I just wouldn't put them in a salad other than as an optional garnish. Violets make ok jelly but it's the color mostly.

I grow spilanthes/ toothache plant - some sellers call it eyeball flowers. It supposed to be an antiviral, and the blooms will numb your mouth when you chew them. I've used it when I had a cold, flu, or sore throat.

It self seeds easily here in my yard.

I have elderberries too, but the mockingbirds are getting them all right now.

Thanks, floral, I had been wondering about the use for the elderberry flowers - is your cordial made with brandy? My first treat when I moved here was cranberry liquer made by a friend, which was so deep red and sweet, I loved it almost too much as a 20-year-old who was new to alcohol!

Ipinkmountain - thanks for listing the variety of greens to try. I like lambs quarters too, I just graze on them in the garden, haven't collected. They are fuzzy but crunchy at the same time, nice texture. I haven't tried the nettles on their own yet, I'll try that just to see about its individual flavor, sounds not too impressive on its own.

I have comfrey with which haven't made tea or eaten, but a leaf placed on my sprained ankle took the pain right away, and my husbands splinter came right out after comfrey leaf application.

I admire your canning skills, I don't do well with that, things come out runny.

carol - that sounds like a great idea , I see that Pinetree Seeds sells it, I'll get that on my list for next year, I wonder if it can be dried effectively for winter cold and flu (and covid :(( ) season.

Today we are going to try hops shoots - actually planning to get rid of the hops which is making a move on my flower garden and does not have time to flower in our short summer anyway .

You have to cook nettles. Their hairs are very irritating so must be cooked away. Even harvesting them or lightly brushing against them can cause a big problem, especially with some folks with super sensitive skin. Interesting side note, the inner pith of the nettle plant can be woven into fibers that are as fine as silk. In the old fairy tale about the princess with the six enchanted swan brothers, she is instructed by her fairy godmother to weave her brothers magic shirts from gathered nettle fibers to break the spell they are under and transform them back into princes. She must stay silent until the whole task is finished. The detail that is often left out of the "grim" story is that weaving nettle fibers could be a painful and time consuming task to do and stay silent the whole time. A real labor of love. Often other plants are substituted, but it's the wild nettle that makes sense in the story. And yet another side note, that's why you have to cook them, to get rid of the hairs and soften the fibers. To weave with them, you dry the plant and pound away the outer part of the plant, exposing the inner fibers.

Wool is hard enough on the fingers! I sure wouldn't want to have to spin and weave nettle fibers!

I've had nettle soup but I have never processed nettles to get the fibers. I am not good with fibers, in general. Can't spin or weave to save my life (or that of my six brothers). https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/turning-nettles-into-textiles-zbcz2101/

Being vegetarian, the nettle soup I had was made with nettles and some other wild greens, and then milk and maybe a little butter and flour to thicken. Not a type of soup I like in general, even with a green I do like, as in spinach or broccoli. It's too bland for my taste. I like my cream of vegetable soup with way more vegetables, herbs and even sharp cheese and or lemon juice.

Elderflower cordial is just a syrup. No alcohol. Unlike sloe gin.

I’ve cooked nettles but have not been that impressed. They need to be picked young before they get fibrous. It’s too late now. We also use quite a lot of wild garlic in season.

Your Nettles must be larger-stemmed than ours; ours are little and skinny. i can't imagine getting fiber to weave from such a little plant.

I've drunk lots of nettle tea - tastes grassy to me.

I've also made syrup of elderberries a number of times. It was a very messy process because the juice stains practically everything, and you need to strain it to remove the jillions of teeny tiny seeds. Mine was dark purple/black, and I added some citrus peel and lemon juice/citric acid, along with a lot of sugar, since the berries don't really taste very good on their own and are not sweet at all.

And I don't dry spilanthes flowers, but keep them in a jar in the freezer, minus the stems - they can last for months that way.

Our nettles are perfect right now, as the dandeliions are just opening

A cup of dandelion petals for a gallon of mead on the way, including a few green parts for bitterness (and out of laziness)

Sloe berries look beautiful, great color! I now know it's not a 'slow gin fizz' in a cheap bar in the US, haha!

So many great examples of using the herbs/weeds, thanks everybody! Much appreciating the ideas and experience! I'm seeing more and more potential in my own garden and feeling more motivated.

We do love using flowers in salads, nasturtiums as IpinkMountain said are great, wondering if our perennial cornflowers, centaurea montana, are edible, never tried that. Ok, yes they are, how pretty they will be even as buds - maybe a hops dandelion green centaurea salad with honey mustard dressing to help make it palatable tonight! Also chives including buds, sorrel leaves, (no borage or nasturtium leaves/flowers yet). Thanks all for helping me get excited about foraging :))

Our nettles are waist high by now and flowering, certainly big enough to use for fibre. Dandelions have been flowering for months.

I’ve made elderberry jelly plentry of times. I don’t find it particularly messy if strained through a cloth. Thus....

Well, that was my thought too, the nettles I've seen are awfully thin to be getting fibers from, but so is flax . . . I dunno, not something I am inspired to try. But I do get the arduous task that fairytale princess must have been up to in order to make six coats for her swan brothers . . . and no talking!! :) I would probably not be able to do it, I'd soon be cursing like a sailor out of frustration . . .

I think that even though each nettle plant has a small amount of fiber, they are usually prolific so if you harvest and process them en masse you can get a lot of product. Not going to be me doing that though. The harvesting I could actually handle, but I stink at spinning and weaving and any type of knitting or crochet. Again, not from lack of trying . . . just not destined to be my thing. I need stuff that general hacking away is the only level of hand coordination needed. I can't manage the patterns either, my brain just doesn't work that way.

my nettles are beyond eating now, heres what yhey looked like on that soup night

hadnt thought of weaving, interesting!

last night we used our spruce tips to make IPA… spruce are by no means a weed, but i let the seedlings grow even in unopportune places where they have no real future just for the delectable tips

thinking of harvesting elderberry flowers , seems the flowers of my type (stated above)might be okay… not the red berries unless seeded and handled carefully