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By Mary Zemach

French sorrel Large spinach-like leaves. Has a tart lemony flavor. Also great in sandwiches. By March theleaves are up for picking. Cut off the flowering stalks. When you have an excess, make French sorrel soup, orpesto, using sorrel in place of basil. (If you freeze it to use in winter, add the ground nuts and Parmesan cheeseafter thawing.)

Blood-veined sorrel Lance-shaped leaves, up in April. Handsome; no one will recognize it as an edible.Seeds from Nichols Garden Nursery.

Lovage This is a perennial celery, grows 3 to 5 feet tall, in sun or shade. The new leaves are up in March, andare nice added to a salad, though too strong flavored to be the only green you use. Older leaves all season aregreat in soups and casseroles. Makes a splendid cream-of-celery soup. Dry some leaves for winter seasoning.Be sure to save the seeds--celery seeds! to use as a seasoning. The stems are hollow, and make great drinking

straws, or pea shooters for children. Grows into a large clump after a few years, so one is all you need.However, I spot them around the yard, as the flowers attract beneficial insects.

Salad burnet Grows 8 to 10 inches high. A beautiful lacy looking plant with tiny leaflets along the stem.Mild cucumber flavor. In mild winters you can pick a few sprigs throughout the winter. A short-livedperennial--usually about 8 years, so let it go to seed occasionally for more volunteers. Up mid to late March.Does well in partial shade.

Sweet cicely You'll think it is a fern until the white flowers appear. Grows 2 to 3 feet tall, depending onmoisture. Very mild licorice flavor; the leaves are tender all season long. Grind the large seeds in a mortar andpestle to flavor salad dressings. Germination rate is low, but when established, it will reseed itself. Likes partialto full shade and moderate moisture. "It is so harmless you cannot use it amiss," say the old herbals. The

entire plant is edible--people used to candy the stems and roots. Up in April in Los Alamos.

Fennel Both green and bronze varieties. The leaves look like dill- - they are related. Chop them in salad; alicorice flavor. Up late March to early April. Does well in partial shade.

Violets The young leaves are nice in salads; high in vitamin C. The flowers are also edible, and are lovelysprinkled on a salad.

Dandelion You probably already have it, and should be using it, as it is more nutritious than anything you canbuy. Use the earliest leaves in spring, raw or cooked. When the leaves get tough and bitter, twist off therosette, and new tender leaves will grow out. Start by adding one finely chopped leaf to a salad, if you thinkyou won't like it.

Egyptian onion Probably the most useful vegetable I grow, producing more food per square foot thananything else. It is a scallion type onion, and never forms a large bulb. Mine are up in February, and last wellinto October, or even November. Cut them half an inch above the roots, and they will grow out again. Theydon't flower, but put up a flowering stalk that produces a cluster of small bulblets, which can be planted toincrease your supply. I plant them around fruit trees to repel insects. Put a few near the house to come upearlier than those out in the yard. I use them cooked and raw as a substitute for regular onions for 8 months ofthe year, ignoring the color, for the flavor is certainly there. Then, for a treat, I buy bulb onions in the winter.

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Chives Up late March or early April. Delicate onion flavor. The purple flowers are decorative and tasty insalads, and will color an herb vinegar.

Garlic chives Up early April. Taller and more robust than regular chives, with narrow strap-like leaves thathave a distinct garlic flavor. The flowers are white, about 14 to 18 inches tall, and are nice in salads. When the

petals fall, the young green seeds, which have a nice garlicky bite, are nice in salads or mixed with creamcheese.

Pink nodding onion Sold as a wildflower, which indeed it is. I don't bother eating the leaves, having so manygarlic chives, but the pink flowers are decorative and delicious in salads, and just gorgeous mixed with creamcheese to spread on crackers. Blooms after chives, and before garlic chives.

Garlic I always leave some unharvested to go to flower the next spring. The young tender flower stalks andbuds (in May) are good either cooked or raw. Sometimes sold at Farmers Markets.

WINTER-OVER BIENNIALS FOR EARLY GREENS.

Swiss chard The new leaves are good raw in salads, or cooked as greens, until the plant goes to seed. Theycome in a rainbow assortment of stem colors. Place them near the south side of the house, and they will livethrough the winter. Elsewhere, mulch them heavily and hope for the best.

All members of the cabbage family--cabbage, kale, ornamental kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts. Use the newleaves. When they start to flower, the buds, which resemble miniature broccolis, are good raw in salads, orcooked in stir fry. If you don't eat all of the yellow flowers in May, let a few go to seed and save the seeds forsprouting in the winter.

Beets Similar to Swiss chard, to which they are related.

Parsley, both plain and curly leaf varieties. It will reseed. The new leaves on the wintered over plants giveplenty of parsley until the new seedlings are large enough to eat.

RESEEDING ANNUALS.

Lettuce, endive, and arugulawill reseed themselves, if you let them.

Lamb's quarters. A common weed in everyone's garden, sometimes sold at Farmers Markets as Mexicanspinach. Mild flavor, much like spinach, to which it is related. Dry and powder some to use in winter soups.

Red orach. Larger than lamb's quarters, but related. Great color to the leaves and stems for salads. Whencooked, the leaves turn green, but the stems remain red. Reseeds enthusiastically, but the extras pull out easily.

Purslane, or portulaca. Comes up late for me--June, July, and later. Use cooked or raw. Called verdolagasin Spanish.

EDIBLE FLOWERS.

It is very chic these days to use edible flowers in salads, and many will be ready long before you can expect anycolor from tomatoes. The more expensive the restaurant, the more flowers you get. You can outdo them all athome. Many books list edible flowers, but here are a few.

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Violets, pansies, violas, and Johnny-jump-ups, calendulas, marigold, dianthus, pinks, carnations, nasturtium,fireweed, rose, borage, lavender, rosemary, sage, pea, string bean, and runner bean flowers. Also, dandelion--clip the petals over a salad. Put whole washed flowers in biscuits or fritters--they seem to nearly disappear inthe baking. Great in corn fritters. Day lily (chop the petals for salad; cook the unopened buds in stir fry. Don'tuse regular lilies or sweet peas, which are poisonous),

CAUTION: Be sure you know what you are picking, for many lovely flowers are poisonous.

www.permaculture.orgMary Zemach, 740 Canyon Road, Los Alamos, NM 87544