BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living What food do you have growing in your own yard?

Great! Let us know how it tastes and how you prepared it.

I did enjoy putting young dandelion leaves in my sunbaked quesadilla. Recommended!

I am going to have to try that. My mother often told us that they picked the young dandelion leaves for her mother to use in cooking. I have never tasted them, but now am anxious to.

Up here in Northern NY, the Dandilion greens are older now and bitter, but the dandilion buds are sweet and tender ( the small unopened ones are best, clean as you would a strawberry, remove stalk and leaves): Add to Pasta dishes, salads, stirfrys, Omelets, mix with cooked barley or rice as a great sidedish.
Dandilion buds ( unopened) may help prevent hayfever allergies in children, because the pollen inside each bud is only partially formed,thus, giving the human body immunities, almost like a vaccine.

Cindy, thanks for the ideas for dandelion uses.

Has anyone ever eaten Prickly Pear Cacuts ?

They are very popular in California and there are farms that have huge fields of them! The fruit of the cactus is apparently quite good. I have never tasted it myself, but would like to try it. It also has some medicinal uses.

I've cooked with them before but didn't do it right. TIP - don't just skin and boil the pads. Blech, unless you like slimy foods.

Next time I will make like chicken cutlets.

Cindy, i have not thought to eat the dandelion buds! GREAT idea, thank you.

We used to see this a lot on the rooftops of Mexico City tennaments. Sometimes the roofs would collapse under the weight of the soil!

I miss the wild mountain blackberries we used to gather every year up in the Pacific Northwest. We do not have wild blackberries in Nevada. No mushrooms either. Do you have either of these in your area?

Some friends, years ago, in Washington were out gathering wild mushrooms. One of the guys ate the wrong kind and thought he was a werewolf -- he got pretty wild. The other guys had to lock him in the trunk of the car to get him home safely, then his dad took him to the hospital ER. One has to really know what to look for when gathering mushrooms in the wild.

We use the wild grape leaves to wrap meat and rice. We steam them like Greek dolmas.