Miner's Lettuce in January?

I've been wandering around our Portland neighborhood with great regularity for years—I have dogs that love a good daily ramble, after all—monitoring the progress of the seasons. Which trees start blooming when, whether the daffodils are starting to show their green shoots under the dogwood tree, if the witch hazel at the bottom of the hill is scenting the air with its frilly blooms.

Witch hazel. In January.

And I gotta tell ya, this has been one crazy winter. It's barely past the middle of January and the ornamental plum down the street is throwing out its tiny pink blossoms, the camellias are busting out all over and I even spotted a few little claytonia perfoliata (top photo) popping up through the bark dust in a parking strip.

Climate change real? Yeah, I sorta think so.

If you can get your hands on some, the tender greens of miner's lettuce are terrific in a salad.

In Season NW: Learning to Love Weeds

Growing up, anything that was growing in the yard that wasn't identifiable as grass was declared a weed and was summarily yanked or sprayed or otherwise executed on the spot. Not to say that in our zeal we didn't occasionally rip out one of my mother's prize peonies or a ranunculus or two. And all of us knew from repeated finger-shaking lectures that all weeds were poisonous and would cause painful convulsions followed by death if eaten. Period.

That impression was only fortified later on when there was a flurry of dandelion winemaking resulting in a foul-tasting brew that wasn't even worth drinking for the buzz from the alcohol. So imagine my confusion when I visited my soon-to-be-relatives in Maine and they served up a pile of little green swirls they called fiddleheads, the tiny furled fronds of ferns that were gathered next to icy streams with exotic names like Meduxnekeag.

Suffice it to say that from then on I put childish things behind me and became fascinated with all edible "weeds" to the point where, if I saw some growing in a parking strip, I'd stop dead in my tracks, checking for any telltale signs of marking by dogs, and pick and eat one then and there, much to my son's chagrin.

One of these, claytonia perfoliata or miner's lettuce (above left), is now being grown by several vendors at the farmers' markets in much more sanitary surroundings, and I try to pick up several bunches when I see them. Recently they formed the bed of a beet salad that I served with a pork and couscous tagine, providing a colorful contrast as well as a satisfying crunchiness to the sweet richness of the beets.

Roasted Beet Salad with Miner's Lettuce and Honey Mustard Dressing

For the salad:
3 medium-sized beets
1 bunch miner's lettuce or other leafy greens

For the dressing:
Juice of 1 large lemon
1 1/2 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. whole-grain mustard
1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 400°. Wash beets to remove any dirt clinging to them. Wrap each one, drizzled with a bit of olive oil, in a piece of aluminum foil and place in small roasting pan or glass baking dish. Roast for approx. 1 hour, testing occasionally with a fork. When tender but not mushy remove from oven and cool. Cut in 1/2" or smaller cubes and place in medium-sized mixing bowl.

Combine the lemon juice, honey, mustard, and olive oil in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake until well combined. Alternatively, place the lemon juice, honey, and mustard in a bowl. Whisk to combine. Add olive oil in a slow, steady stream until dressing is emulsified.

Pour dressing over beets and mix to combine. This can be done ahead and refrigerated until ready to serve. Make a bed of the washed and dried miner's lettuce or other greens, top with a pile of the cubed beets and serve.

Claytonia Perfoliata

I was out on a walk through the neighborhood with my son and Rosey, just strolling along and pointing out the difference between wood hyacinths and grape hyacinths (I'm a grape hyacinth person, myself) while he busied himself with copious eye-rolling. We walked under some large maple trees and I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of a large patch of miner's lettuce growing right there in the parking strip.

Now, I've heard about this fleshy little green plant with its round leaf sporting a spray of tiny flowers from its center, and I've even seen bunches at the City Market selling for a hefty sum. But I've never seen them growing in the wild, if wild includes a city parking strip in one of NE Portland's tonier neighborhoods.

I picked a couple of them, hoping that their presence indicated a lack of poisonous chemical spraying, and tasted their fleshy, very mild green flavor that doesn't have a trace of the peppery bite of nasturtium or even arugula. The Wikipedia says it was named after the California gold rush miners who ate it to get their vitamin C to prevent scurvy. So now I need to get some seeds and plant my own. If you've been out hiking and seen some, let me know and I'll go looking for the really wild variety!