STICKY SANDWICHES

I love sticky weed.  I am not too keen when it is allowed to become rampant and scramble up the fences like a young man in love, or run under the house and over the top of the roses (and it has happened) especially when it goes to seed.  Those little sticky seeds have to be removed from your clothes one at a time (wear shiny synthetics when working with sticky weed - the seeds can't stick).

However, at this time of the year when the plant is just sprouting, they taste fantastic.  So much so that I am going to freeze a whole lot because I like them best at this stage in their lives.

There are so many things you can do with them it is hard to decide which to highlight.  They are a herb so you can chop them up and use them in a fritter or an omelette, use the tops in salad, whip them into a smoothie, make them into a puree and sqwoosh the puree over the top of soup and so on and so on.  

Whenever you would use a young herb, use these instead.  Take baby steps.  Don't go over the top until you have gotten use to this new way of eating.  Cleavers being a herb actually taste like what they are.  Many vegetables on the market have been bred to taste "neutral" so more people will buy them.  Foraged vegetables are a lot of things, but they are not neutral.

Not only do they taste good, they are good for you....  even Pliny the ancient Greek writer said,  "A pottage made of Cleavers, a little mutton and oatmeal is good to cause lankness and keep from fatnesse".  So obviously he meant it is an aid to slimming.