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I first met chickweed beneath an evergreen hedge in Bloemfontein, South Africa. It will need to have been springtime in that chilly, winter-dry metropolis, as a result of the chickweed was lush, ample, and tender. It smelled recent and felt cool as I collected it as a inexperienced deal with for our bantam hen and guinea pigs at house. I used to be 5 years outdated, at free whereas my mom performed tennis on the court docket hemmed by the hedge. Quick ahead a number of a long time, and throughout two hemispheres, and I’m amassing chickweed once more—this time, to feed people. The diminutive plant is well trampled underfoot, however it’s a disgrace to squash or kill such good meals (additionally relished by bees). It’s a compelling inexperienced vegetable, and tastes effervescently of spring.
Pictures by Marie Viljoen.
Dom Perignon most likely by no means actually mentioned that he was consuming the celebs when he took a sip of fortuitously fizzy Champagne. That was an early instance of selling spin. However that spin would profit the lowly lawnweed, Stellaria media. The chickweed genus is known as for stars (stella = star), and the tender edible is sensible with constellations of them in early spring. It’s tiny, five-petaled flowers assist establish the plant, whose leaves style just like the scent of freshly-shucked cornsilk, a taste that’s very important and versatile.
The place I stay in Brooklyn, New York’s USDA Zone 7 (-ish, because of city microclimates), chickweed can seem as early within the yr as February. In milder, moist areas, it’s a winter weed, most conspicuous in cool, moist seasons. The Eurasian native, now at house all around the world, shuns warmth and humidity. Generally, in a cool, damp autumn, it is going to reappear briefly.
Early within the season chickweed’s behavior is prostrate and dense.
In full solar chickweed tends to stay mat-like, however in shade the vegetation can develop as much as 12 pliant inches tall if they’ve sufficient moisture. By mid-spring these stems are lankier, the leaves are smaller, paler, and extra spaced out, and its behavior is outlined extra by copious seed capsules (beloved by birds), reasonably than blooms.
I really feel wealthy every time I acquire chickweed. It’s the uncommon leafy inexperienced with placing taste, and it feels unusual and fortunate to be gathering without spending a dime what may promote for substantial quantities at inexperienced markets (and infrequently, it does, when it meets a farmer with foresight).
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