Post by heavyhitterokra on May 18, 2021 10:25:04 GMT -6
Sheep Sorrel
Sheep Sorrel is one of my favorite Spring Greens, because of that, it was really hard to know where to place this thread. Even though it's a prolific Spring Green, such as can be used to spice up a salad, it's also just a wild plant that I've never tried to cultivate. It grows so well in the wild, there is no reason to cultivate it.
Sheep Sorrel has many uses as a salad green, as the main ingredient for a refreshing Spring Tea, as an herb to flavor fish and other white meats, as a tonic, and as an anti-inflammatory medicine.
I'll attach a few photos below.
This is what the plant looks like from a ways back.
The name, "Sheep Sorrel" comes from the fact that it is a tart tasting plant, such as any other sorrel, and because the leaf resembles a sheep's head. The latter makes it very easy to identify.
The seeds can be a mustard yellow color, or a rusty red color. Being how the seed heads can reach a height of 18" inches, this makes them very easy to spot amongst other grasses in a large field. I often see very large patches of Sheep Sorrel growing along roadsides and in pastures. It's probably one of the easiest wild herbs to spot that I can think of.One can use Sheep Sorrel readily in almost any recipe calling for lemony ingredients. It has a pleasantly sour or tart taste, with no hint of a bitter after taste. I eat it on hotdogs, roasted on a campfire, in place of yellow mustard while camping in the Spring of the year. It's also good, added to salad greens, providing a lemony, tangy element that lends itself well to many types of salad dressings. It's also good, wilted, or fresh, eaten on fish, or pork chops.
Sheep Sorrel also possesses the very desirable affect of helping to curb inflammation caused by over doing it while chopping firewood, or gardening, or many of the other reasons one gets 'stove up' while working outdoors. I'm not sure why it's not a more well known herb? It has a wide range of habitat and can be found most anywhere this time of year when Spring grasses are flourishing.