[Klara]

how strange no seeds - but I thank you for telling us, because now I appreciate my kale even more. Try finding some organic kale seeds - there is Seeds of Change in America - that's where I used to buy - usually can be found in health food stores - at least, they were in Erewhon's.

I didn't eat loads of dandelion - just one plant, a few leaves, amongst the many kale and several nasturtium. I"m guessing there's a reason why wild greens aren't in the mb cookbooks - either people don't know how to forage and identify what is edible, or maybe, at least I know for purslane, they are considered quite yin - (my purslane is coming up now also) but it seems to me to have occasionally, if one is in good health, can't hurt. otoh, when I took a wild foods class, we were told also of the different properties of the weeds, which is good to know!!!! but like you said, only good things about dandelion. Sure, lambs quarter was one of those weeds we picked - I'd have to look up my notes to recall anything special about it.

Aveline Kushi in her Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking has a short chapter on Wild Vegetables (p. 202) -here's a little of what she says: "Wild vegetables (I, Klara, call them edible weeds) begin to appear in the early spring, often while the snow is still on the ground. They have a very strong upward energy and are traditionally good for diseases such as tuberculosis, which is most common in spring. Wild foods are much hardier than cultivated plants and should be eaten only occasionally and in very small amounts. Of course, as with any unfamiliar foods, care must be taken to make sure the plants are edible and not poisonous." Then she goes on to list a few (far from exhaustive list) and includes some recipes for using them.

If mb is based on how traditional people ate, then I don't see a problem with eating wild foods.

Klara