Winner Winner, Chickweed Dinner
Lettuce is bland and boring. It's nobody's favourite vegetable. You're probably letting half of it go slimy in the bottom of your fridge, coz nobody wants to eat it. Yay, crisper sludge.
Wild greens are just better. And Chickweed is the perfect lettuce substitute.
They're beautiful, delicate leaves; lettuce for a fairy. It's mild tasting without the bitterness you might associate with some other wild greens. When raw, it tastes similar to cos lettuce and corn silk. Once cooked, it's a little more like baby spinach.
It's so common that you probably have it growing on your nature strip. Need a handful of fresh greens? Just step outside for a second. No need to waste your money at the supermarkets, or buy plastic-wrapped produce.
One Chickweed plant can produce more than 15,000 seeds, which might explain why it seems to appear everywhere.
Here's how to identify Chickweed, Stellaria media:
Stem:
• Winding stems, like a tiny vine, that sprawl along the ground
• When you gently pull apart the stem, a thin, stretchy thread is inside (key identifier)
• Distinctive thin line of hairs along the stem (key identifier)
• When the line of hair meets a leaf, the hair switches to another side of the stem
• Sap inside is clear, not milky
• Stem cross section is round
A little mnemonic to help you remember: If it has a chicken bone and a chicken comb, it’s Chickweed. Chicken bone = inner thread. Chicken comb = line of hairs.
Leaves:
• Simple cartoon-like leaf shapes
• Light spring green
• Leaf pairs occur opposite each other along the stem
Flowers:
• White
• 5 petals with a deep V-shape, which look like 10 petals at first glance
• The genus Stellaria means ‘star’, referring to the star like flowers
• Tiny – smaller than 1cm
Season:
• Most common in winter and spring
• Later in spring, the stems become more fibrous, so pick the fresh growing tips
Habitat:
• Backyards, nature strips, parks, creeks, basically everywhere
• Avoid roadsides, industrial zones, contaminated soils, or areas affected by pesticides
Toxic Lookalikes:
• Petty Spurge, Euphorbia peplus
• Scarlet pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis.
You can rule out both lookalikes because neither has Chickweed's two key features: the line of hair on the stem, or the thin thread inside.
Additionally, when breaking the stem, if the sap is milky white, it's Petty Spurge or another lookalike.
Scarlet pimpernel has orange flowers, while chickweed has white flowers. Once Chickweed flowers, this is another way to tell them apart.
Once you find Chickweed, it's easy to use. Add to sandwiches, salads and tacos. Chefs use it like a microgreen or herb. You can even add it to green juices and smoothies, or cooked in soups and curries.
In Japan, it was traditionally cooked into nanakusa-gayu, which is a herb congee eaten around the festival Nanakusa no Sekku. It is also an ingredient in traditional Japanese pickled plums. In China, it's used in stir-fries and hot pot. In France, peasants added it to omelettes, savoury tarts and soup. In India, it's cooked with mallow as a vegetable side dish.
It's also a good source of vitamins and minerals, including potassium, magnesium, iron and calcium. But if you're pregnant, you might want to avoid it. There's not much research on Chickweed to know whether it's safe during pregnancy.
Chickweed has many medicinal uses. The Naturopaths & Herbalists Association of Australia recommends eating it raw or steamed to cleanse your kidneys and liver. You can also add it to a bath to relieve inflammation, arthritic or rheumatic pain. Make it into a poultice for a range of skin issues, like eczema or psoriasis.
It's used for many of the same reasons in folk traditions around the world. The Ainu people of northern Japan used it for bruises and musculoskeletal pain. European herbalists applied it externally and ate it to ease arthritis. In traditional Chinese medicine, it's used for skin infections.
In Ireland, a remedy known as Diancecht's porridge was made from chickweed, dandelion, wood sorrel, hazel buds, and oatmeal, and used for colds and sore throats. It was named after Dian Cécht, the Celtic god of healing.
Some foragers make it into skin salve. Sydney-based forager Diego Bonetto includes a recipe on his website. I prefer to make mine into a lip balm. Start by making Chickweed oil to use as a base of the balm.
Chickweed infused oil:
Collect and dehydrate chickweed. If your foraging heart desires, you can add additional medicinal greens like violet leaf, mallow and ribwort plantain. Add some dried calendula flowers if you can find some (I find them in community gardens and nature strips). You could also add dried rose petals or lavender. If you do not have a dehydrator, hang leaves and flowers upside down on a sunny windowsill for a couple of weeks. Then admire your handiwork and pretend you're a woodland apothecary brewing up something magical.
Once completely bone dry, gently crumble the herbs and place them in a jar. They should shatter easily rather than bend. Cover completely with olive oil or sweet almond oil. Use a fermentation weight if anything isn't completely covered with oil. Seal and leave to infuse for 4–6 weeks in a cool, dark place, gently shaking occasionally.
Strain the oil through a fine sieve lined with muslin. Make sure no plant material or moisture remains in the finished oil.
Chickweed lip balm:
• 3 Tbsp Chickweed infused oil
• 15 g beeswax (available online)
• 6 drops vitamin E oil (optional, to help slow oxidation, available from Chemist Warehouse)
• 10 small lip balm tubes or compacts (available online)
Place the beeswax in a metal bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Stir until the beeswax has completely melted.
Remove from the heat, add the infused Chickweed oil and vitamin E, and stir well. Use a pipette to fill lip balm tubes or small containers, then leave to cool and set. Best if used within 1 year. Makes enough to share with your foraging friends.
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