A Spring Seasonal Backyard Recipe and Your Introduction to Corn Salad

This simple spring salad of magical seasonal greens and root vegetables came directly from The Backyard, it is rich in complex flavors, and is sure to cure whatever ails you. What makes this salad so interesting is the interplay between spicy arugula greens and the more mellow & buttery spinach and corn salad. We originally made this salad from overwintered greens including arugula so spicy we just couldn't eat them on their own. Sure enough this salad was the perfect solution.

• 1 part - Arugula
• 1 part - Spinach
• 1 part - Corn Salad (aka mâche)
• Chopped Carrots
• Chopped Radish

Directions - Toss all ingredients with a little of your favorite dressing and enjoy. We recommend a simple vinaigrette. Let the flavor of the greens shine above the flavor of your dressing. You won't be disappointed.

Our extra rugged overwintered Backyard root vegetables. Yum Yum!!

Corn Salad aka Mâche is perhaps the easiest thing one could possibly grow. You simply toss some seeds on the ground and without anything else(except perhaps some thinning/eating) you'll likely have a patch for your own to harvest in a couple months time. That's what we did. If you choose to bury your seeds then go for it. We were experimenting with some techniques in natural farming as described by Masanobu Fukuoka himself in his book The One Straw Revolution. Corn Salad is also a nice edible cover crop and it easily survives winter weather. It tastes both buttery and nutty. Nutritionally, it contains 3 times as much vitamin C as lettuce! Also, since it's actually just a wild European weed it'll quickly naturalize in your yard if you allow a few plants to go to seed. Then after that you'll never have to plant it again!! If you aren't able to grow your own food you'll probably have a difficult time finding this formerly foraged green in a US supermarket although I did see it for sale at the Whole Foods in Seattle. You might also be able to find it at your local farmers market although we've never seen it there ourselves. Seeds, however, are readily available and corn salad is an ideal candidate for guerrilla gardening since it requires no maintenance and attracts no special attention. So go out there and bomb the city and the suburbs with it. Future generations will thank you!

Corn Salad growing in the Backyard.