WriterByNature.com

There is so much to learn.Starting with mushrooms:

Dryads Saddles

Yellow morel or Morchella esculenta.

I cannot believe the size of this prized mushroom, my largest find of the season.

Black morel or Morchella elata

There is an art to spotting a morel. This photo gives you an idea the challenge. I’m getting better at it.

So many plants are coming back to life.

Wild ramps have been seen in stores for $22 a pound.

My CSA, Harmony Farms, is happy to let me help weed. The cultivated vegetables are taking a little longer to ripen. This has been a chilly spring. But I went home with lambs quarters, diligently weeded out of the garden - enough to fill a shopping bag.

I’ve seen lamb’s quarters selling for $16 a pound.

Wild spring garlic is delicate. I marinate raw bulbs in olive oil.

Chickweed is the bane of many farmers. Others have caught on that this weed is a pricey edible. Young chickweed is delicious in salad; it tastes like corn raw. When it’s in full flower you can cook it; then it tastes like spinach.

When many of these greens flower, they taste better marinated and/or cooked.

Many flowers are edible. Here are the one’s I’ve been snacking on and adding to salads.

Wood sorrel leaves and flowers are great in salad, but too delicate to cook.

Violet flowers last longer if you put them in water and keep them in the refridgerator. Violet leaves are tasty raw or cooked.

Wisteria flowers are edible, but the seed pods are toxic.

Black locust blossoms are edible, but should be eaten sparingly.