The Farm’s Spring Salad Base

Right now, the only produce we’re harvesting is spinach, lettuce, and asparagus! Our spring garden is basically salad. But that’s fine with me!

So today I came up with something called a salad base. (I don’t know if this is actually a thing, but I thought of it all by myself so I’m going with it.)

Try this salad base, and add any toppings or dressings you like!

For the base:

Spinach

Lettuce

Asparagus

Spring Greens

We harvested a few handfuls of spinach and lettuce. Our asparagus bed had two spears popping through today, so we snagged those too.

While I was in the yard, I added some fresh dandelion greens, a few dandelion flowers, and violet flowers! I love foraging for wild edibles in my yard. It’s one of those things that brings me great joy.

Dandelions and violets are all over the place. Please don’t call them weeds! They are free sources of vitamins and add beautiful colors to a plate. I love using them however I can. (For example, Wild Violet Jam.)

I chopped and tossed all the ingredients together in a big bowl.

Here’s the salad base!

I asked my husband if he was feeling cheesy and ranchy, or vinegary and fruity. Of course he says ranchy. So to this base I added shredded cheddar cheese and homemade ranch dressing. (Find our recipe for dressing here.)

You could easily add some berries or chopped oranges to this salad with a vinaigrette dressing or a cheese such as feta, gorgonzola, or goat cheese. This would be a nice spring touch. I seriously ate this salad for lunch and I was full all day from it. Fresh garden spinach is much more tender yet thicker than the store bought kind. So good!

If you want to give this salad a try, add any number of toppings or dressing. A combo of garden greens will never disappoint.