Spruce needles soaked in hot water for ten minutes with the lid on make for a good-tasting drink that can be enjoyed all year round.
Woolly Burdock roots can be dug up from the ground, washed, and peeled, boiled, and cooked. They are suitable for foods cooked in a wok.
Dandelion flowers can be added to pancake batter and boiled in oil. Smooth-edged dandelion leaves can be shredded and added to salads.
Willow herb sprouts can be prepared like asparagus.
Young birch leaves that are still slightly sticky can be added to salads. Birch sap, which flows in the spring before the leaves come out, is a refreshing drink.
Cat's-tail sprouts are edible.
Meadowsweet makes good tea.
Stinging nettles can be used like spinach.
Stonecrop leaves can be eaten as they are.
The small sprouts of the common reed taste like sugar. They are difficult to dig out of mud, but in areas that have been recently dredged, the plants rise to the surface. Must be eaten fresh.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 2.6.2005
