This Week's Woodland Grocery Specials

  Nettles are packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and micronutrients. Often used in daily wellness teas and traditional medicines, they are also an excellent staple green for cooking. And on top of all that they store very well, either dried or blanched and frozen. Truly a superfood.        Sadly, commercial harvest has decimated leek populations in some areas. You can sustainably harvest leaves by taking only 1 leaf from the plants that have 2 or 3. If you have a large patch, harvest the bulbs as if you are dividing the plant for transplants. By thinning them, you can actually encourage your leek patch to expand. But to avoid overharvest, please ONLY dig up bulbs if you can be 100% sure that no one else is harvesting from the same patch.       Wild Lettuce is a wonderful green to add to your salads. Lettuce does not grow in dense stands. You will find single plants scattered around woodlots. Don't expect it to taste like its tame cousin...wild lettuce is a bit bitter in comparison. For a nice mix of greens, try offsetting the bitterness of the lettuce with wild violet leaves.    Burdock root is a standard in Chinese medicine for treating chronic illness. It is mildly diuretic and is thought to help the liver and kidneys eliminate toxins from the body. It is also a yummy cooked vegetable. It contains inulin, a healthy starch. Inulin can cause bloating and gas if undercooked, so cook the roots well to avoid discomfort (and don't eat them with beans or cabbage).