In winter you don’t find as many wild herbs as in other seasons. If there is no solid snow cover, some hardy wild herbs can be found that can be eaten even in winter. We’ll show you what they are.
Hairy foamweed
Foamweed can be found almost all winter in meadows and fields. Young leaves taste like watercress and are slightly spicy, yet very aromatic. There are over 200 different species. Meadowfoam, or bitterfoam grass, is common here. Foamweed likely owes its name to common leafhoppers, insects that build nests in foam. This produces foam, which they use to cover themselves protectively. Foamweed flowers white and can also be found in winter. The small, ovate leaves are arranged in a rosette on the ground and are edible when young. However, after flowering, the plant develops a bitter taste. Due to the senfölglycoside and vitamin C it contains, foamweed is a valuable wild plant in winter.
The chickweed
Those too Vogelmiere it grows all year round and blooms even in winter. However the small star-shaped flowers are not as abundant as in spring. The best way to recognize chickweed is by the water channel inside. If you break the stem very carefully, the water channel remains intact and you can stretch it like a rubber-like thread. The chickweed can also be recognized by the so-called «hairline». On one side of the stem the small hairs converge to form a line.
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How to store canned tomatoes?Identify and collect wild herbs
With our book “With wild herbs and medicinal plants all year round“(available here) we would like to introduce the world of wild herbs to both beginners and more experienced wild plant enthusiasts. Over 160 pages we have divided many local wild herbs by season and provided large-format autographed images of them. For each plant we explain what you can harvest, when and how you can use the wild herb in your medicine cabinet and kitchen. You can purchase our book and other herbal items in ou
Dost
Dost is found in many garden lawns, especially in summer and autumn. The leaves last even into winter. Small quantities can also be harvested in the cold months. Dost it is a very aromatic wild herb that goes well with Mediterranean dishes.
Plantain Plantain
Plantain plantain they can be found all year round. In winter, however, the leaves retreat and only very small and short leaves can be found, with a rather bitter taste. The taste can no longer be compared to the large lanceolate leaves that we know from spring and summer. The flavor of winter leaves is more intense and you should only harvest the leaves sparingly as the plant does not grow in winter.
Wild herb salad in winter
Here you can see our wild herb salad in winter. It’s made from a little bit of dandelion and plantain, a lot of chickweed, and a lot of hairy scum algae. Rosemary, savory and a little something also arrived wise Furthermore. Our seasoning is made from a high quality oil. Either olive oil, pumpkin seed oil or linseed oila spoonful of medium spicy vinegar, a little herbal salt and balsamic vinegar. You can find another alternative in our YouTube video (Subscribe to the channel for free here).
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Botanical Walk – Autumn Colors #2 (November 2023)Brunnenkresse
Die Brunnenkresse it is a rustic plant that is found in abundance, especially when the climate is very humid. It thrives particularly well after the rainy autumn and in winter you can even find it in damp meadows or small streams. When harvesting, however, it is important to protect your inventory. The roots should not be pulled out.
Dandelion
Also Dandelion winter retreats. The ingredients are now mostly in the roots. If you don’t want to dig up the roots but want some leaves in the salad because of the bitter substances, feel free to pick them. But you won’t find much.
Inspiration in our Wildkräuter magazine – also available by subscription
You can find many culinary and naturopathic recipes, plant portraits and inspiration on the world of wild herbs and medicinal plants in our Magazine of the Cantina delle Erbe (available here). In addition to the 2023 print issues, you receive all the magazines that will be released in 2024. With our subscription you will not miss any of the upcoming issues and will automatically have them in your inbox on the day of publication. The subscription is also available in our shop available.
The straw from the meadow
Meadow straw or even Burdock straw they can also be found in winter. Through small bristles, similar to beards on the top of the leaf, the burdock straw attaches itself wherever it finds an adhering surface. Both meadow straw and burdock straw can be harvested in winter, as these plants grow abundantly and can be found in sufficient quantities all year round.
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Trekking in the Viaur valley (Tarn)margherita pizza
margherita pizza they can also be found in winter. Some flowers are frozen. Then you should leave them out. On days when temperatures are above freezing you can pick one or two flowers. You can also eat the small leaves of the daisy.
Excursus: Can we eat wild herbs even in winter?
The question keeps coming up: should wild herbs even be eaten in winter or could they even be harmful? It’s true that many plants add more nutrients to their leaves or flowers in spring and summer. But wild herbs in winter are a novelty that can obviously only be used very sparingly. In winter it is not possible to harvest as much as in summer. However, some plants such as hairy scum or chickweed grow almost as lush in the winter as they do in the spring. You can harvest many of these herbs even in winter, especially since they are also very rich in vitamin C.
Hardy culinary herbs
The herb garden can also provide many herbs if you have planted winter-hardy herbs. Sage, savory, thyme, rosemary and mint can also be found in the garden in winter. However, herbs should be used sparingly in winter, as the plant needs strength to survive the winter. For a quick one Thyme cough syrupor a sage herbal tea is always sufficient and therefore herbs are an important part of the medicine cabinet. In the article you will find our recipe for thyme cough syrup Thyme – the professional against colds
Never miss harvest time again
With ours Seasonal calendar of wild herbs (available here) you will no longer miss the moment of harvesting wild herbs. For each month of the year we have clearly presented the most important local wild herbs on large, colorful calendar pages in DIN A3 format. On the large, easy-to-read calendar you can always see at a glance what you can collect in each month
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How to cook green beans?Our set of seeds for growing
If you want to bring wild herbs to your balcony, you not only have a lot of variety in your salad, but you can also be sure that you have actually harvested the herbs you sow. Growing your own offers the opportunity to get to know wild herbs up close and watch them grow. This way you will be able to study wild herbs up close and memorize their characteristics.
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