Everyone really likes wild herbs!

Fresh wild herbs cost nothing and are found in every lawn and garden. They grow on their own, do not require any work and can be harvested outdoors all year round. They are also rich in important nutrients. In this article we will show you how everyone really likes a fresh salad of wild herbs.

Wild herbs are rich in nutrients

A wild herb salad allows you to eat fresh, uprocessed wild herbs. They do not need to be heated or dried, but can be washed briefly and eaten directly in salads. There are no limits to your imagination and personal preferences. Fresh wild herbs can be found all year round, even in winter. On the few days when a thick blanket of snow makes collection difficult, it is possible to carry out the search on the walls of houses or in covered places. Fresh wild herbs can be found here even in winter. A very important aspect, in addition to their year-round availability, is that wild herbs are available for free. You can save on purchased salad. If you have your own garden, you can harvest your own herbs there, which are almost always far superior in nutrients to purchased lettuce. The following overview shows how many more nutrients wild herbs contain than lettuce.

Semi-wild salad to start

Not everyone is thrilled with a wild herb salad the first time they come into contact with it. Some people are skeptical at first. Why should you eat “weeds”? The nutritional data and the argument of freshness and free availability may be rationally convincing, but of course the taste should also be convincing. For starters, it’s best not to harvest an entire bowl of wild herbs and use them to make a salad, but rather go slowly and mix small amounts of wild herbs into your existing salad. Here, for example, some dandelion leaves, daisies or even some plantains are suitable. Edible flowers, such as nasturtiums or borage flowers, are also very suitable. The best thing to do is to create a dish with a previously good salad as a base and decorate it with edible flowers or wild herbs. You can also use aromatic herbs from the garden such as parsley, savory, rosemary or chives.

Collect and use wild herbs year-round

In our book “With wild herbs and medicinal plants all year round“(available here) we help you identify, collect and use wild herbs and medicinal plants all year round. As the name suggests, the book is divided into four seasons. You can find support in our herbalist’s shop www.die-moderne-Kräuterhexe.de ours too Seasonal calendar of wild herbs (available here). By the way, you can use this calendar every year because we designed it as a permanent calendar.

These wild herbs are suitable for starters

In this little video we explained which wild herbs are particularly suitable for starting. They are easy to find and easy to recognize.

The right dressing for wild herb salad

In order for wild herb salad to taste good, it is very important to prepare a dressing that also tastes good with regular salad. We have a classic balsamic mustard dressing. But of course you can combine what suits your individual tastes. Our favorite dressing for a wild herb salad is usually made from a high-quality oil. Either olive oil, pumpkin seed oil, or flaxseed oil, a tablespoon of medium spicy vinegar, a little herb salt, and balsamic vinegar. Here we mainly use the dark one. It harmonises particularly well with the rather bitter wild herbs and its sweetness ideally complements the important bitter substances.

Seasonal reports and recipes in the magazine

In spring 2022 we implemented a project close to our hearts: our Kräuterkeller magazine. Each season an edition is now published in digital and paper formats. There you will find many reports on the wild herb season, tips for home remedies and current recipes. You can find the recipe for leek soup in the latest winter issue. THE Magazine of the Cantina delle Erbe (available here) is not a subscription and you can decide for yourself which editions you want. The magazines are also available in our herbalist’s shop at www.die-moderne-Kräuterhexe.de

Wild herb salad in the cold season

Fresh herbs are especially tasty in late fall and winter. We find that we appreciate a fresh wild herb salad even more than in the warmer months. The salad may be a little smaller, but it is still tastier. A wild herb salad, for example, may consist of just a little Dandelion AND Plantain plantainlots of chickweed and hairy foam. You can also add aromatic herbs such as rosemary, savory and a little sage.