Fresh greens contain many vitamins and microelements. Some edible herbs can boost immunity and cleanse the body. To do this, many gardeners grow dill, sorrel, and parsley in their garden plots. Green onions and salads are rich in fiber. Perhaps this is the entire list of greens that are planted in the garden for consumption. Edible wild herbs can help diversify your diet. Many of them are medicinal plants. Beneficial wild edible herbs are popularly called edible weeds.

Where do herbs grow?

Edible wild herbs can easily be mistaken for common weeds. Some species grow directly in the garden bed. Experts do not recommend getting rid of them. Many weeds have beneficial properties and good taste.

Edible wild herbs are widespread in the middle zone. Edible plants can be found in a meadow or forest clearing. It is better to collect edible herbs away from roads. The urban environment also adversely affects the properties of plants. The plant gains its most beneficial properties by growing in meadows and forests with good ecological conditions.

Edible herbs “come to life” (photo attached below) with the beginning of spring, straighten out, and gain strength. They reach their greatest development in midsummer - they bloom luxuriantly and set seeds. In the fall, fruiting occurs, they become coarser and gradually die off. Let's take a closer look at which herbs are edible.

woodlouse

Otherwise, woodlice is called chickweed. The plant reproduces quickly, and in damp summers it can spread to most beds. The growing season lasts a long time: from May to October. The leaves contain more vitamins of groups A, C and E. Chickweed has a high concentration of trace elements, iodine and potassium.

Woodlice is a medicinal plant. Doctors recommend consuming it raw for thyroid diseases, cystitis, hypertension, bronchitis and arthritis. By adding a few leaves of the plant to a salad, you can prevent the development of cholelithiasis and urolithiasis.

Housewives sprinkle salad, soup or main course with finely chopped herbs. Due to its neutral taste, woodlice is suitable for most prepared dishes.

Quinoa

Quinoa, like woodlice, is usually classified as a weed and is actively combated against its spread. The main property of this plant is vitality. In addition, green shoots contain many useful substances.

Herbalists use quinoa for arthritis, gout, constipation and menstrual irregularities. The leaves contain substances that suppress appetite. There are also a number of contraindications: not recommended for gastritis, colitis and other gastrointestinal diseases.

Previously, quinoa saved people from hunger and vitamin deficiency, so it was cultivated. But over time, the plants stopped sowing fields with seeds. Now this seed crop is undeservedly forgotten. The leaves have a delicate taste and can be added to salads, okroshka and fortified cocktails.

Dandelion

At almost every step we come across wild but tasty medicinal edible herbs. One such plant is dandelion. This is a low plant with bright yellow flowers. The seeds are dispersed by the wind over long distances, so it may appear unexpectedly in the garden. Refers to medicinal herbs with choleretic and diuretic effects. Its leaves help normalize metabolism and relieve symptoms of constipation and hemorrhoids.

The upper part of the plant is added to salads and soups. Sometimes young leaves are stewed with onions and spices, and then used as a seasoning for fish and meat dishes. Before cooking, dandelion shoots are immersed in salt water for 30 minutes. This little trick will help get rid of the bitter taste.

Nettle

Nettle is a fastidious edible herb in the garden. She prefers to settle in places with good environmental conditions. Vitamins A, B, C and carotene are contained in large quantities in the leaves. Nettle is rich in phytoncides and tannins, there are small amounts of minerals, as well as iron, magnesium and potassium salts.
Some gardeners consider nettle a valuable plant because its infusions can lower blood sugar levels and relieve inflammation. It is recommended to eat it fresh for liver diseases, arthritis, anemia and anemia.
Before cooking, nettle leaves are poured with boiling water for a couple of minutes. Add finely chopped greens to salads, side dishes and omelettes. Due to the high protein content it will be thick and filling.

Burdock

Burdock is a plant with large fleshy leaves and inflorescences, which are strewn with hooks on the outside. Thanks to these hooks, the seed heads easily stick to clothing and wool. Distributed almost everywhere.

In Asian countries, burdock is considered a garden crop and is used in cooking. It is widely used as a dressing for salads and soups. Young shoots and roots of the plant are popular. Large leaves can also be eaten, but they are not as tasty.

They have a high content of essential oils, tannins and vitamins A and C. Thanks to this, burdock has found use in medicine. Its decoctions stimulate tissue regeneration, improve digestion and reduce fatigue. Doctors use the leaves of the plant as a medicine for diabetes and urolithiasis.

Horse sorrel (wild sorrel)

Sorrel is a plant with bright green leaves that have a pleasant sour taste. It is recommended to keep it not only on the table, but also in the first aid kit. Sorrel is able to stop bleeding, relieve inflammation and improve appetite. The plant relieves pain well and removes toxins from the body. For medicinal purposes, it is also used to treat vitamin deficiency, scurvy and anemia.

The leaves of the plant are rich in organic acids and microelements; they contain a high concentration of vitamins A, B, C and K. The chemical composition of wild sorrel is similar to rhubarb. give sorrel antibacterial properties.

Housewives love to make salads and use it as a filling for pies. In the Caucasus and Central Asia, the plant is widely used in the preparation of dough, soups and hot dishes.

Sapling is a short herb with delicate green stems and lush leaves. One of the relatives of this species is celery. It grows mainly in forests in sunny meadows and along the edges of paths. The first shoots appear immediately after the snow melts. Only young leaves are suitable for collecting, so it is better to go in search of the leaves in early spring.

Dwarf contains several groups of vitamins and is rich in manganese, boron and iron. Infusions from the upper part of the plant are used in the treatment of kidney and liver diseases, anemia and vitamin deficiency.

In cooking, they are used raw or boiled. It is not recommended to boil squash for a long time, as it quickly loses its beneficial properties. The plant is a good substitute for cabbage, so it is fermented with carrots. Housewives add the leaves to okroshka and salads, prepare cabbage soup and cold soup. And the petioles are usually salted and pickled.

Yarrow

Yarrow is a perennial with serrated leaves and corymbose inflorescences. The medicinal plant is collected during flowering time. Fresh heads are of great value. Prepared for the winter, drying in a well-ventilated dry room.

The concentration of essential oils, tannins and organic acids in yarrow can reach 80%. Researchers also note a high content of vitamin C and carotene.

Yarrow's young shoots, leaves and flowers are considered edible. However, it must be used extremely carefully. In large quantities, it is harmful to the body and can cause skin rashes and dizziness. This herb is not suitable for people with increased blood clotting and a tendency to form blood clots. Pregnancy will also be a contraindication for the use of yarrow.

Plantain

Plantain is a small plant that can be found on roadsides. They grow everywhere in steppes and meadows, and can be found in wastelands and sandy soils. It is very easy to recognize a plantain: the leaves are collected in a rosette close to the ground, and several flower stems on top have a dense spikelet.

Everyone knows that plantain is good at stopping bleeding and healing wounds. The juice of the plant has disinfecting and anti-inflammatory properties.
Plantain leaves are used in cooking. They can be added to salad or soup. Traditionally, in the middle zone it is customary to prepare teas and infusions from plantain. In Siberia, the seeds of the plant are stored and then fermented with milk. It turns out to be a very useful seasoning. In Europe, plantain is known as it can be found in garden beds.

Lungwort (pulmonaria)

Lungwort is a low perennial herb with pink or blue corollas. Flowering begins very early, and the inflorescences contain a lot of nectar, so the plant is considered a good honey plant. It grows mainly in forests and ravines, but can also be found in bushes. For development, young shoots need shady corners; with an abundance of sunlight, they quickly die.

Lungwort contains a lot of manganese, copper and iron, so it helps cleanse the blood. The leaves contain rutin, carotene, ascorbic and salicylic acids. The plant retains its beneficial properties even after drying. Lungwort has been used for a long time to treat lung diseases.

Young shoots and leaves are used to prepare decoctions, and they are used to salt and pickle vegetables for the winter. In European countries, lungwort is added to mashed potatoes and dough.

In order to enrich your menu with vitamins and microelements, it is not necessary to plant all the beds with garden herbs. Useful edible herbs and plants can be found among weeds and wild plants. They can and should be used to stock up on nutrients during the warm period. Edible herbs and plants can support health and provide long-term energy. There are so many beneficial herbs in the wild that can be eaten that it is impossible to list them all. We looked at the most common edible herbs (names and descriptions of plants).

A perennial herbaceous plant from the Asteraceae family. It grows in the forest-steppe zones of the European part of Russia, in Western Siberia. It grows in damp places, along the banks of rivers and mountain streams, in thickets of bushes. Listed in the Red Book. Bad honey plant. There is no commercial honey from elecampane.

Siberian hogweed, Puchka, Pikan - Heracléum sibíricum. Herbaceous plant of the Apiaceae family. Siberian hogweed, despite the name, is predominantly a European species, common throughout Central Russia. It is also distributed in Central Europe, Ciscaucasia and Western Siberia (in its southern part it reaches Altai). Found in Crimea, Kazakhstan (Dzhungar Alatau). It grows in damp places - in meadows, between bushes. It grows in meadows (especially flooded ones), along the banks of rivers and streams, forest edges, roadside meadows, and […]

Ural ribbed plant - Pleurospermum uralense A two- or three-year herbaceous plant, a species of the genus Pleurospermum of the Umbrella family (Apiaceae). It grows in coniferous and birch-aspen forests, along their edges, in forest clearings, rarely in subalpine meadows, in ravines and near swamps. Secondary honey plant, produces up to 180 kg of honey per hectare.

Belongs to the Umbrella family. Deadly poisonous biennial plant. It grows on forest edges, water meadows, limestone slopes, as a weed in crops and vegetable gardens, in fallow lands and wastelands, near housing, near roads and fences, in landfills, on the slopes of ravines, along railroad tracks. Bees visit hemlock well, taking nectar and pollen from it. Under certain conditions it produces a large amount of nectar.

Bog thistle belongs to the Asteraceae family. Perennial or biennial plant. Grows in damp meadows, swamps, swampy forests, and bushes. Its stem is completely covered with thorns. Grows in Siberia. The honey productivity of one hectare is 250 - 300 kg. Sometimes it produces commercial honey.

Weed plant. The species infests all types of crops and is found in fallows, orchards and orchards, as well as along roads, along ditches, and in fallow lands. Contains white milky juice. Strong honey plant and pollen plant. It releases nectar only in the morning, because... After lunch the flowers close. Intensive honey collection up to 380 kg per hectare. The honey crystallizes quickly and is dark amber in color. The pollen is dark yellow.

A perennial herbaceous plant 30–90 cm high from the Asteraceae family. It grows in various meadows, clearings, meadow clearings, along roads in many regions of Russia. It is well visited by bees, which, under favorable weather conditions, collect a lot of nectar and pollen from it. Honey productivity in terms of continuous tracts is over 100 kg/ha. The pollen is yellow.

Perennial honey-bearing herbaceous plant. Sandy cinnamon grows mainly on sandy soils, in dry copses, forest glades, hills, on fallow lands, rocky and sandy slopes everywhere. The hard scales of the inflorescence wrapper do not wither and do not lose color even when the inflorescences are cut off - hence the name of the plant immortelle.

Herbaceous perennial plant from the Euphorbiaceae family. A good honey plant. Produces commercial honey. It grows in meadows, in light forests, along pebble and sandy river banks, along roadsides and in crops, especially on loamy soil. Acute milkweed displaces all plants that live in prairies and fields, shading them and taking away moisture and nutrients, as well as releasing […]

An annual or biennial herbaceous weed plant of the aster family (Acteraceae) with an erect branched stem 30-80 cm high. The leaves are lanceolate-linear, the lower ones are petiolate. The flower baskets are solitary, at the ends of the branches they consist of dark blue marginal funnel-shaped and central purple tubular flowers, surrounded by hard scales of an ovoid involucre.

Mediocre honey plant. It blooms in June - September, the fruits ripen in August - September. A perennial herbaceous plant from the Asteraceae family. It grows on sandy and loamy fresh and moist soils, in meadows, forest clearings, forest edges, in bushes, less often as a weed in crops. Prefers soils of average fertility and drainage.

A perennial herbaceous plant from the Asteraceae family. It grows in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of the European part of Russia, in Western Siberia. It grows in damp places, along the banks of rivers and mountain streams, in tall grass meadows, forest clearings and edges, and in thickets of bushes. Bad honey plant. There is no commercial honey from elecampane.

A huge variety grows on the territory of our country. Many plants are used for medicinal purposes and can replace many pharmaceutical drugs. This article will talk about some medicinal herbs, which help against various ailments.

1. Calamus

A perennial plant, has a height of about 10 cm, grows near various bodies of water (streams, rivers, lakes, swamps and flooded meadows), it is believed that it grows only near clean water. For medicinal purposes, only the roots of this plant are used, which are harvested (collected and dried) in early spring or late autumn. Dry roots are used for disorders of the nervous system, for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, and for fever. There are contraindications: should not be used during pregnancy, stomach ulcers, kidney disease and people with low blood pressure.

It is an annual and also biennial plant, about a meter high, growing in fields and meadows, sometimes along roads. Sweet clover flowers and leaves are harvested from June to August. Infusions of dried sweet clover leaves are used to treat gout, help open abscesses and tumors, for rheumatism, as well as for insomnia and as a diuretic. There are some contraindications: cannot be used during pregnancy, internal bleeding and poor blood clotting.

3. Red clover

A perennial plant that grows in meadows, along river banks, along roads and forests. To prepare medicines, only flowers with upper leaves are collected. The collection and subsequent preparation of plants (dried, fermented or pickled) occurs from spring to autumn. Clover is used for headaches, malaria, asthma, lotions are applied to burns and abscesses, and is also used for general strengthening of the body.

4. Felt burdock (burdock)

With large leaves, it grows mainly in wastelands, along roads and in gardens as a weed. Burdock rhizomes are harvested before winter or early spring. Fresh roots are used to prepare an ointment that is used to treat burns and wounds; the leaves are applied to inflamed wounds to relieve heat and protect against bacteria. A decoction of the roots is used to treat the gastrointestinal tract and as a diuretic, as well as for rheumatism and to treat various tumors. The infusion is recommended for the treatment of the gallbladder and liver diseases. Young burdock roots are eaten.

5. Dissected hogweed

A large and powerful perennial plant that grows up to two meters in height. It grows almost throughout the entire territory as a weed: in fields, meadows, forests (mainly coniferous), as well as along the banks of reservoirs and in gardens. In treatment, infusions of rhizomes and leaves are used as a sedative for cramps, various skin diseases (for example, scabies), and indigestion. Lotions of fresh leaves soothe the pain of rheumatism. used in cooking, it is salted, dried, pickled, added to soups and main courses.

6. Oxalis

Low-growing (5-10 cm), perennial, creeping plant. It lives in coniferous and deciduous forests, near the banks of rivers and lakes, prefers shade and moist soil. It is used in the form of a herbal infusion to treat kidney and liver diseases, heartburn, as well as metabolic disorders, used as a diuretic and analgesic during menstruation and as an external remedy for purulent wounds. This plant is also added to a variety of soups. Use is contraindicated for gout, urolithiasis, bleeding disorders, and acute kidney disease.

Many wild herbs contain a large amount of vitamins and nutrients, so you should not neglect what nature itself provides.

Living in central Russia, you can get a tasty and rich plant diet without any money. Even without cultivating a summer cottage.

For example, people get sick and are treated. What for? If you can do disease prevention. How? Very simple! Eat medicinal herbs! Edible ones in large quantities, but purely medicinal or toxic ones - in small quantities!

Wild edible plants grow literally under our feet. Of course, you shouldn’t collect them within the boundaries of a metropolis, but in your free time you can go somewhere further away. In a pine forest, broad-leaved forest. Or take a walk through the field and pick a bouquet not for beauty, but for tea, soup or salad :)

So, we are going to the spring forest, warmed by the Sun. There may still be snow on the ground, but the hazel (hazel) tree is already beginning to bloom. All you have to do is lightly tap his dangling yellow earring and a whole cloud of pollen flies out of it. One hazel earring produces up to four million pollen grains. The first thing we can do is collect this wealth. Catkins, as a source of valuable pollen, can be brewed into tea together with other herbs for immunity, male strength and general strengthening of the body.

If hazel and alder bloom, then healing sap is already moving in the veins of the birch. In itself, it is already useful, since it is structured and filtered water. The composition also contains sugars, organic acids and vitamins. Birch sap must be collected carefully, little by little. After completing the collection, the holes need to be treated with garden varnish. Birch sap can be frozen or preserved for future use.

Let us remind you that sap can also be collected from maple trees. It is much sweeter than birch. In Canada, for example, they make excellent maple syrup. You can identify a maple tree by its leafless shoots. Maple is characterized by an opposite arrangement of buds, three leaf marks and the contact of leaf scars to form an angle.

After the snow melts, under the forest canopy you can find both overwintered green plants and young early spring ephemeroids.

Wintering horsetail, hoofed grass, and celandine emerge green from under the snow.

They are inedible, like young greens - anemone and corydalis.

But honey and lungwort are very tasty and healthy!

The borer belongs to the Umbrella family. Many of this family are poisonous plants, but the herb is an incredibly tasty and healthy herb. In the summer it will become harsh and can only be used in soup, but the young spring mushroom is happily eaten raw right in the forest and used to make salads. No wonder, according to legend, Seraphim of Sarov only ate it for two years.

Many people have known the lungwort, full of pink and blue flowers, since childhood. Lungwort flowers are very sweet, and the leaves are also edible. Like dreamweed, it goes well in a spring salad.

For a hint of bitterness, you can add blooming cherry leaves to the salad.

Goose onions also taste very good and will only complement the salad composition.

Even in deciduous forests we can find a valuable spring vegetable - spleen. Its leaves and stems are edible and resemble watercress. The name speaks for itself; it was previously used for diseases of the spleen.

And in open areas we meet the well-known coltsfoot. Its flowers are also edible. And the leaves that appear later are very popular as medicinal raw materials.

And the spring primrose, which is widely used in medicinal practice as a pulmonary and vitamin supplement, and in decorative floriculture, is also edible. Both flowers and leaves go great in spring salads and teas.

Separately, we will look at what is more nutritious - edible roots and tubers of wild plants, edible mushrooms and ferns.

Porcini mushrooms, boletus mushrooms, and boletus mushrooms are collected in the fall. And there are mushrooms that grow in the spring. These include the red dog. Sarcoscifa is a little-known edible mushroom, eaten fresh.

Morels are often found in coniferous forests. These mushrooms are conditionally edible; heat treatment is required before using them for food!

Now let's look at edible roots that can replace our usual potatoes. In first place, of course, is burdock! It is better to dig young plants 1 year old, they are soft and more edible. But if you spent half an hour digging an old two-year-old root, then it doesn’t matter! It will also make a good brew! :)

It will be difficult to eat enough of the spring clear nodules alone, since they are small, but if you try, you can pick up a handful and add it to spring soup. It is not recommended to eat them raw, because chistyak, like many other plants of the Ranunculaceae family, is poisonous. Cooking destroys toxic substances.

And finally, let's admire one of my favorite plants. This is the Purchase, also called the Seal of Solomon. Signets on the root indicate the age of this perennial plant. Kupena is poisonous in its raw form, so the root should be soaked for a long time in salted water and then boiled. But after all the events we will get a delicious delicacy with a unique and interesting taste. True, it must be thoroughly cleaned, otherwise your tongue will be scratched all over later :)

There is so much I want to tell you, but I can’t fit all the plants into one article! You can write whole volumes and stories about edible flora. I consider F.V. Fedorov’s book “Wild Growing Food Plants” to be one of the best books on this topic.

And, in conclusion, I will tell you about edible ferns. The fact is that not all of them, descendants of the dinosaur era, are edible. Ostrich and bracken are incredibly healthy, edible and tasty.

But they are not consumed raw, but are boiled, fried or salted for future use.

Ostrich never has sori (groups of spores) on the underside of the leaf. Ostrich spores develop on separate brown spore-bearing shoots! These shoots look like an ostrich feather, which is why the fern was named so.

Bracken is easily distinguished from all other species by the curved edge of the leaflet and the longitudinal covered row of sporangia. The bracken fern does not form bushes and the blade of the bracken frond has a triangular shape.

This is where our article comes to an end. Unfortunately, the species of edible flora covered here are only a small fraction! And it’s difficult to truly know all these plants from pictures and text. Live, by immersing yourself in Nature, by touching, smelling and tasting each plant - this is the only way to fully understand and get to know herbs!

All the best to you and good health!

When relaxing in nature or walking in the forest, we often have no idea how many edible wild herbs surround us. Even the so-called weeds, which gardeners do not hesitate to remove from their beds, sometimes surpass in value and benefit the cultivated plants that we grow so carefully and carefully.

Why are the beneficial properties of wild herbs so unique and even superior to the value of cultivated plants? The fact is that over many years of survival in natural conditions, wild plants have developed special mechanisms of resistance to adverse environmental factors, pests and diseases. This vitality and endurance is transferred to our body, strengthening and healing it.

Since ancient times, food wild plants have been present in the diet of our ancestors - nettle, quinoa, sorrel, wild garlic, chicory, burdock. For the diet of Siberians and residents of the north of the European part of Russia, these natural gifts are traditional today. During the siege of Leningrad, about 40 types of wild herbs were consumed, adding them to regular food or using them as independent vegetables.

Many wild plants are superior in nutritional value to cultivated ones. For example, nettle contains 8 times more vitamin C than kohlrabi cabbage, the carotene content in nettle is one and a half times higher than in parsley, and the protein content of quinoa is not inferior to spinach. Often the greens of edible wild plants have high medicinal activity, due to which they find their use in herbal medicine and folk medicine.

How can you use edible wild plants?

1. The easiest way is to add green edible herbs to salads. Suitable for this purpose nettle, quinoa, whine, dandelion, plantain, knotweed, cinquefoil, burdock, chickweed, lungwort, hogweed, sorrel, angelica. Wash the greens thoroughly in a container with salted water, rinse and dry on a towel. Some herbs will require additional processing, for example, dandelion is soaked for several hours in salted water to get rid of bitterness, and nettle must be rinsed with boiling water so that it loses its pungent properties.

2. Another affordable and very healthy way to consume fresh wild plants, which has become increasingly popular lately, is green smoothies. They will saturate your body with fiber and chlorophyll, which are so rich in green plant leaves. Use the same wild herbs as for salads. Try different combinations of wild plants, garden herbs and various vegetables and sour fruits - you can create a new cocktail recipe every day!

3. Add wild herbs to first courses (soups, borscht, okroshka) and second courses (porridge, stews, cutlets, pancakes, pie fillings) 5-10 minutes before readiness. Nettle, dandelion, plantain, knotweed, cinquefoil, burdock, horsetail, quinoa, primrose, woodlice, fireweed, lungwort, hogweed, and angelica will be good for this purpose. Plants with a pronounced taste and aroma, such as tansy, shepherd's purse, and wormwood, are added in small quantities as seasonings.

4. Wild plants are indispensable for preparing herbal teas and other drinks (kvass, decoctions, juices, sbitney, etc.). Over the summer, you can prepare and dry a lot of useful herbs, from which in winter you can make tea mixtures with unique taste and aroma - nettle, fireweed (fireweed tea), wild raspberry leaves, linden blossom, meadow clover, chamomile, etc. are suitable for this purpose. oregano, yarrow, meadowsweet, motherwort. And from the roots of burdock and chicory you can prepare a useful analogue of a coffee drink.

5. The healing power of wild herbs will also be useful for external use - use them for skin and hair care, adding them to various masks and scrubs, and body baths. For example, any green smoothie is a ready-made mask for the face and hair.

Rules for collecting, storing and harvesting wild herbs.

• The collection of wild edible plants begins in early spring and continues until autumn. You can collect herbs away from roads, landfills, and cities in forested, ecologically favorable areas. It is best to collect in dry, clear weather, in the afternoon, when the plants are dry from dew. Carefully cut the herbs with a knife or scissors, being careful not to damage the root system. Collect only those plants that you know well, adhering to the same rule as when picking mushrooms: “If you're not sure, don't pick!”
• At what stage of development should useful wild plants be collected? It depends on the purpose of collection and the type of plant: if for greens, it is better before flowering, for drying and storage - during and after flowering, and for edible roots and tubers (for example, chicory, burdock, meadowsweet) it is better to dig up towards the end of summer or in the fall.
• The collected herbs should be sorted out to remove debris and insects, and rinsed thoroughly in cold water. It is advisable to consume them fresh on the day of collection; in extreme cases, they can be stored in the refrigerator for no longer than 2 days, wrapped in a wet cloth or paper, and on top in a plastic bag. Avoid direct contact between herbs and plastic packaging.
• To prepare healthy herbs for the winter, you can use two methods - drying and freezing. It is better to freeze juicy greens, intended for later addition to first and second courses. You can dry herbs and roots in the shade in the open air, or using a temperature-controlled dryer, not higher than 35-40ºС.
• It is best to store dried herbs in glass jars, tightly closed with lids, at room temperature, hidden from sunlight. In winter, dried herbs can be added to food and made into teas and herbal infusions.

And now - a little more about the most common wild plants.

Knotweed (knotweed) - fresh grass contains a large amount of protein (4.4%), fiber (5.3%), carotene, vitamin K, flavonoids, glycosides and trace elements. It is superior to kohlrabi in terms of vitamin C content.
Young stems and leaves can be used to make salads and soups, and dried for the winter.

Angelica officinalis (angelica) and angelica forest -Angelica officinalis leaves contain large amounts of protein, fat and fiber. All parts of the plant contain organic acids, essential oils, tannins and aromatic substances, but the roots contain much more of them. Angelica contains less aromatic substances and more protein.

For medicinal purposes, rhizomes and roots of angelica officinalis are used, which are harvested in the fall in the first year of plant growth, and can be combined with angelica silica.
The more juicy angelica forest is used in cooking for preparing salads and soups, while angelica officinale is used only as a spicy and aromatic plant.

Fireweed angustifolia (fireweed) - contains 18.8% protein, 5.9% fat, 16.6% fiber, as well as a large amount of vitamin C, iron, manganese, copper and other trace elements. Young shoots and leaves of fireweed are used for salads, purees and cabbage soup, and fermented and the tops with young leaves dried in a special way - for preparing aromatic Koporye tea.

Stinging nettle - Almost all vitamins, many microelements, organic acids, as well as phytoncides and tannins are found in its leaves, and fatty oil is found in its seeds. There is 2.5 times more vitamin C in this plant than in lemons.
In spring, when nettles are quite tender, young shoots with leaves are used for salads. The tops of shoots with leaves are suitable for making cabbage soup and puree until late autumn. Dried leaves can be added to various dishes and used for tea collections.

Quinoa and pigweed - these two herbs are very similar to each other both in appearance and in their medicinal properties. Quinoa and gooseberry leaves contain large amounts of vitamin C, vitamin E, carotene, essential oils and saponins.
Young leaves, shoots and inflorescences of both plants are eaten and used fresh, pickled, pickled and dried. Salads are prepared from fresh leaves; in addition, they are boiled and mashed. A special delicacy is the sweet-tasting flower balls of the common marigold.

Big burdock - in European countries and Japan this plant is cultivated as a vegetable.Dried burdock roots contain up to 69% carbohydrates (including about 45% inulin polysaccharide, useful in the treatment of diabetes), up to 12% protein, about 7% fiber, up to 0.8% fat-like substances, organic acids and tannins. A large amount of ascorbic acid, essential oils, mucus, and tannins were found in the leaves.

Burdock leaves and stems at a young age are suitable for salads. The roots are used for soups instead of potatoes, boiled, fried, pickled and baked. Flour from the dried roots mixed with cereal or grain flour is used to make flat cakes.

Moistwort (medium chickweed) - brich in ascorbic acid, carotene, vitamin E, saponins, minerals, especially potassium. Improves the activity of the cardiovascular and central nervous systems, has a hemostatic and analgesic effect, and is useful for gastrointestinal diseases and various internal inflammatory processes.
Tender greens go into salads, soups and herbal teas.

Dandelion officinalis - The young leaves of this plant are rich in protein, carbohydrates, fat and calcium and by mid-summer contain 17.8% protein, 12.0% fiber, 6.4% fat. Dandelion roots accumulate up to 40% inulin by autumn.
Young dandelion leaves are kept for 30 minutes in cold salted water to remove bitterness, and are used to prepare salads, soups, marinades and seasonings, and roasted roots are used as a coffee substitute. One of the most valuable properties of this plant is considered to be its ability to have a tonic effect, eliminate feeling tired.

Shepherd's Purse- the leaves contain vitamin C (more than kohlrabi), carotene (more than carrots), as well as various organic acids, fatty and essential oils, tannins and other biologically active substances. A significant amount of oil was found in the seeds.
Young leaves are used as food for salads, soups and purees. Dried leaves and seeds are used as a spice.

Large plantain - Fresh plantain leaves contain 20% nitrogenous substances, 10% crude fiber, 0.5% fat, flavonoids, citric and oleic acids, seeds contain up to 44% mucilage, about 20% fatty oil.
Plantain leaves can be added to salads, soups and seasonings, and used in herbal teas. Unlike other herbs, this plant does not have a laxative effect on the stomach. Young leaves go well with sorrel, especially in soups made with young greens.