Spring is finally here! For centuries, the wild plants that grow in spring were consumed as a tonic to help reawaken your body after a long still winter. We can do the same! Here are a few basic wild edibles to get you started.

Remember, eat wild plants at your own risk. I purposefully picked plants that are easy to identify and have no poisonous look-alikes, but wild plants do have the potential to make you wildly sick. Never eat something if you're not 100 percent sure what it is!

Dandelion

Now is the perfect time to harvest dandelion! This early in the season, the greens are still tender and not too bitter. Pick small leaves from plants that haven't flowered yet to add to salads or pasta dishes.

Flowers: The entire dandelion flower is edible! They actually taste OK too-- kind of like a cucumber with a weird flower texture. Harvest the flowers and put them on literally anything: salads, pasta, sandwiches, ramen noodles, or even macaroni and cheese. If you have access to a kitchen, you can cook the flowers into surprisingly good dandelion fritters.

Smoothies: both dandelion greens and flowers make great additions to green smoothies. The leafy greens are pretty much the most expensive part of making green smoothies, so why buy produce when you can find nutrient rich, locally grown, wild greens pretty much everywhere?

Plantain

(No, not the sweet banana-like fruits.)

While lots of people say plantain can be sauteed like spinach, added to salad, and just generally consumed, I find them way too bitter and fibrous to be considered "palatable."

That being said, they're everywhere and they have crazy nutritional properties. Legit superfood growing in the yard.

Like dandelions, if you pick them in early to mid spring, while the leaves are still small, they work very nicely in smoothies, or even chopped and cooked into biscuits or egg dishes.

Dry the leaves for a pain-relieving tea. I've found it works just as well as Midol! Fresh leaves also make a great poultice for relieving itchy insect bites.

Ground Ivy

Ground ivy is that little purple flower that grows underneath the dandelions in the shady spots along dorm buildings. Technically the whole plant is edible, but I find the leaves to be too bitter. In fact, Ground Ivy has a flavor similar to hops. Historically the bitter leaves were used in the British Isles to flavor beer!

The delicate purple flowers make great garnishes for salads, eggs, sandwiches etc. Ground ivy is also known for having great medicinal properties. A tea made from the leaves and flowers can help control asthma and spring allergies as well as tinnitus and ear infections.

Ground ivy is in the mint family and is best identified by its square stem. It is often confused for Common Mallow, but since both plants are edible, it's not too big of an issue.

Wood Sorrel

Sorrel is by far one of the most palatable wild edibles you will encounter! It has a crisp citrus taste, similar to lemon balm. It grows abundantly all across North America and is super easy to identify. It looks like clovers with solid colored leaves. Actual clovers have a little white V on each leaf.

This is Clover. See the white V?

This is sorrel.

Sorrel tastes great as a substitution for cilantro. It also works well on a salad, eggs, sandwiches and smoothies! I personally find it to be a great garnish for hummus!

If you are into the whole infused water phenomenon, wood sorrel lends a great flavor alongside cucumbers or ginger.

I hope this inspires you to get outside!