This common weed, Yellow Dock, makes great pesto spring, summer, and fall.

Linda Diane Feldt | Contributor

Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, and especially yellow dock Rumex crispus, make great pesto. They are hardy greens, so the recent frosts haven’t wiped them out, if anything they are a bit sweeter after a frost.

Yellow dock leaves can be used to make great pesto spring, summer, and fall. Most of my pesto is made exclusively with yellow dock leaves. There are two varieties around here: Use the narrow leaved. The wide leaf variety has a bad aftertaste.

Dandelion leaves have more variation in taste. You can always use them to augment other greens, but they range from sweet to bitter depending on the species and the time of year. They are least bitter in the spring and fall, so now is a great time to harvest and make into pesto, use in salads or add to pot greens. But even at their sweetest, not everyone appreciates a pesto made exclusively from dandelion greens.

In the spring and early summer, Lamb’s quarters, Chenopodium album, can also be used for an extra mild pesto. At this time of year, the leaves don’t taste very good. Garlic mustard, Alliaria officinalis, makes fabulous pesto, alone or combined with other greens. It is an invasive that grows year round - even under the snow. Just add less additional garlic when you use it.

Here is my basic recipe for pesto:

Pesto

Serves: 4-6
Time: about 10 minutes to prepare
Equipment: food processor
Leftovers: freezes well, use refrigerated pesto within a few days, although it is safe for longer it loses a lot of nutrients quickly.
Ingredients: 1 quart very fresh greens, garlic, olive oil, nuts, cheese (optional)

1. In a food processor fill the container with freshly picked greens that have been rinsed, inspected and dried off, about 1 quart or more. Yellow dock, dandelion, garlic mustard and lambs quarters, are some unusual greens that make great pesto. Add 3-4 whole garlic cloves. Drizzle about 1/4 cup of olive oil over the leaves.
2. Add 1/2 cup of the nuts of your choice; walnuts, pecans, and pine nuts are all favorites. 3. Run the food processor at medium speed. Use a spatula to frequently scrape down the sides. If it isn’t easily forming a paste within a minute or so, add more oil.

Use immediately on hot pasta, in a cold pasta salad, as a condiment on a sandwich, or any other use. This can also be frozen in plastic bags or small containers. For best results, use frozen pesto within six months. I add cheese (Parmesan or Romano) as I use the pesto, rather than freezing it with the cheese mixed in. You may prefer to add the cheese while you’re making it.

I prefer pesto made from wild greens; basil has a strong aftertaste that I don’t really like. This yellow dock pesto is especially high in iron, and of course all greens provide plentiful calcium and antioxidants.

Make some now, freeze it, and enjoy a very fresh green taste mid-winter. And in the spring, yellow dock and dandelion will be one of the first wild greens to emerge. You can enjoy making and eating it then as well.

Linda Diane Feldt is a local Holistic Health Practitioner, teacher, writer, and blogger. You can follow her on twitter, visit her website, or reach her at ldfeldt (at) holisticwisdom.org. Linda Diane is giving a brief introductory workshop on Wildcrafting at the Transition Town Chelsea event this Saturday. You can find this recipe and many others on using wild and tame greens in her cookbook “Spinach and Beyond: Loving Life and Dark Green Leafy Vegetables” available at Nicola’s, Morgan and York, Indigo Forest, Crazy Wisdom Bookstore, and from Amazon.com.