Foraging for Spring Greens: Dandelions and Wild Green Onions

Spring is the season to head outdoors and harvest dandelions and wild green onions! Here’s how to go foraging for spring greens, plus what to do with the greens when you find them.Here's how to collect early spring wild edibles, like dandelions and green onions.

Spring is spilling out of every pocket of Creation, and I simply can’t get enough of it. Even the harshest winter seems tame in comparison to the sensual riot of a dazzling spring.

This year, spring is bursting so adamantly that I’m already envisioning brambles thick with blackberries and market tables mounded with tomatoes and summer squash. I have to remind myself that these things are still a few months distant.

But with weather like this, it won’t feel long.

In the meantime, there are still fresh plants to enjoy, so get your pocket knife and head outdoors! Spring is the perfect time of year for foraging dandelions and wild onions. Choose dandelions that are off the beaten path from passersby and cars, and away from lawns and gardens that have been sprayed.

Spring foraging is fun--and free food is always a plus! Here's how to harvest wild edible dandelions and green onions.

Dandelion leaves can be cut off and added to salad, or used in any recipe that calls for spinach. The younger, smaller plants will have a mildly bitter flavour, with bitterness increasing with the size of the plant and the lateness of the season. The roots can also be dug up and used to make dandelion coffee, although I haven’t tried this yet.

Here are 16 dandelion recipes that feature different parts of the plant–roots, leaves, and flowers!

Fragrant and spicy green onions are also plentiful in spring. Find wild green onions on hillsides, open grassy areas, the edges of forests–almost anywhere. Their stalks will be smooth and taller than the grass around them, and they will have an unmistakable oniony aroma.

Spring is the season to head outdoors and harvest dandelions and wild green onions! Here's how to go foraging for spring greens, plus what to do with them.

Gently dig around the plants to get up the bulb, or just cut off the stalks. Both parts can be used as a substitute for green onions from the grocery store. They’re good in scrambled eggs, salad, and casseroles. You should definitely give them a try in this Salsa and Spinach Pie with Wild Green Onions, and in this Green Onion Soup.

[question]Have you ever gone foraging for spring greens? What are your favourite edible wild greens?[/question]

Other foraging posts from my archives:

Foraging 101

Foraging for Wild Black Raspberries

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