The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-08
GREEN SALAD GATHERING.
wild Plants Out of Which the Initi-
ated Make TOOthsome Dishes.
Boston Transcript.

Boston Transcript.
The salad gatherer who goes country
wards just about this time and returns
with a ruined pair of boots from contact
with soft pervasive mud, with gloves
spoiled by the same token, but bearing
bunch of watercress or other wild salad for
which he would pay 10 cents at the market,
does not, unless he is mentally unbalanced,
think he has saved any money by the trans
action. But he does know that he has had
lots of fun, has cleared his mind of many
cobwebs, and has made good nights sleep
inevitable. He tells of these achievements
as he mixes the salad at dinner, and if he
has the sort of audience he likes he knows
that his words will send them salad hunt
ing within the next twenty-four hours.
OF course the watercress as above re-
ferred to is only the head of a procession of
wild things that take kindly to oil, pepper,
salt and vinegar. There is sorrel, for in
stance, which needs but little vinegar, and
that not sharp; 1t grows right under your
feet the instant you get outside the city
limits, and before, for that matter, and
makes a salad unlike any other, but pi-
quaint and interesting when the young and
tender leaves of it are used The French
know 1t and love it. and those of us who
have taken a leaf from their books hunt
for it whenever the weather is half respect
able for being out of doors.
The salad gatherer who knows of values
in wild things never comes home without
crisp head or two of dandelions, either as
a main incident of his trip a side.
Only the sort that is white, merging into
green, as the leaves lengthen, takes his
eye, for that is sure to be not too old and
worldly for his use. He adds pepper with a
careful hand in making q dandelion salad
even in that prepared from watercress,
and that which he uses is white.
Then the collector of wild salads can
never resist cowslips, though they do grow
in slippery places. Not all salad apprecia-
tors rank the cOwslip as among the valu-
able finds, but now and then one whose ar
dor leads him to throw off tradition and
make experiments for himself takes 1T
home. He gives the various docks" a try,
too, usually to his own satisfaction; while
chicory gladdens his eyes and makes his
mouth to water as he gets his first glimpse
of 1t, though il is getting scarce now.
But all Is not security and peace for the
disciple of wild and uncooked salads. For
too many times he has in his household a
cautious and conservative person, as cook
or director-in-general, who regards his
precious treasures so many greens
and will have them put into boiling water
before they go TO the table. However, if he
IS firm, this person does not treat the same
specimen twice in the same way.
A little later, though he can take home
to this person some young and tender milk
weed tops anG tell her to do her best at
boiling them; for then she will indeed have
greens" that too few know the delights
of. a bit they taste of asparagus to those
who are not happy unless they are discov
ering resemblances. To the real lover of
wild things however, they will taste just
themselves; that is, unapproachable.