With this new flush of lettuce from our cold frames, we now are eating salad every night!! And so perfectly timed with mother nature’s spring offerings, the lettuce is really a small portion of what ends up in the salad bowl. Most of what I am harvesting is growing in the cracks of the garden, around the edges, completely volunteering their life in on our fertile land, with no effort on my part. If there is one thing I have learned from gardening in the southwest is it how much can I get way with NOT doing. I realize that creating a lush fertile environment not only attracts the right friends, but the right foods. Build it and they will come, and oh they do! Salad harvest time is right at dust, my favorite time, when everything is perky from the cooling air and just calling out to me pick! me pick me!. I can wander in an area of about 10 feet and gather Orach, salad burnet, perennial Arugula,french sorrel, yellow dock, dandelion leaf, lambs quarters, mint, loveage and even volunteer lettuce. It all feels so effortless. Granted, much of the work has been done, the soil turned and seeds laid years back..now new things find their way in, go to seed and have whole new gaggles of youngens below them next year… I planted nothing that is in my salad tonight– this year that is, but that lettuce, bless it! Here are some wild friends to invite into your salad bowl or garden.
Arugula rustica-Diplotaxis tenuifolia- Perennial - cool season peppery, spicy flavor very italian
French Sorrel- Rumex acetosa 'De Belleville' perennial cold season-lemony flavor
Salad Burnet-'Sanguisorba minor'- Perennial cool season - fresh & tasty
Dandelion-'Taraxacum Officinale'- perennial all season- bitter & zesty leaves
Seedybeans Blog 
Cool Erin! I’ve got lots of wild mustard greens now around my place. Not sure what they are called, they are a bit fuzzy and spicey.