The horror, that I would actually feed my kids a humble weed. At least that’s what Lauren was thinking when I served up a big bowl of dandelion greens. They’re bitter, so when I use them in my cooking, I make sure to give them a good toss with olive oil, salt, and a splash of vinegar. But they’re fun to taste on their own because that’s what we do on our mystery food challenge. Try vegetables in their raw state for the pure pleasure of exploring something new. And maybe if I hadn’t covered our lawn in weed killer, we’d have been eating more dandelions this year.
ME: Guys. I have a pretty special mystery food. Does anyone know what this is? You guys will not believe what it is.
LAUREN: What?
ME: What do you think it is?
SAM: We don’t know what it is.
ME: I know, that’s why I’m asking. What do you think it is?
LAUREN: Lettuce greens?
ME: Nope. Have you seen this before, because I think you have. It’s kind of like a lettuce green. You’ve seen it before. It grows in our yard. Anyone have any idea?
LAUREN: (gives me a suspicious look)
ME: It’s dandelions. These are dandelion greens. You can actually eat them.
LAUREN: Oh, yuck.
ME: And I bought them at the Farmer’s Market, a whole bag of them, and you can actually eat them.
SAM: And you can just pick them from the front yard?
ME: Yes, you can just pick them from the yard, except that we spray weed killer on ours.
SAM: Nahhhhh.
ME: I know. Isn’t that the worst thing ever? We could be hunting and foraging for chives and dandelion greens in our backyard because they both grow there, and instead we killed them with weed killer.
LAUREN: I’m feeling really sad for them.
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