Hairy bittercress is a common garden weed. The leaves have a hot cress-like flavour and, once you have the plant in your garden, it will normally self sow. The leaves are available all year round. Chicory is a fairly well-known salad plant. Although a perennial, it is best to sow the seed annually in late spring or early summer for winter leaves.
Older plants tend to die down in the winter or to only produce a very small basal rosette.
It is important to choose the correct cultivars - 'Sugar Loaf' is one of our favourites. The leaves have a somewhat bitter taste that many people enjoy, they can be blanched to make them milder but this will be at the expense of many vitamins and minerals. Spring beauty is about 20cm tall and usually provides leaves throughout the winter. Both the leaves and the flowers can be eaten and have a fairly mild flavour. I find the taste suggestive of raw beetroot and am not very keen on them though they are quite popular with many other people.