No, I didn’t eat Leprechaun stew for St. Patrick’s Day, but I did discover a delectable green called miner’s lettuce growing wild all over my yard, mostly in the super-fertilized former goat pen. Supposedly the gold miners ate this leafy green to prevent scurvy. I Googled it and found many food bloggers raving about finding it at local farmers’ markets and providing recipes. I especially enjoyed Matt of Wrightfood’s photo spread of his miner’s lettuce, baby beet, beet green, rapini and spring garlic salad. Matt is studying food photography as you can see…
Raw ingredients by Matt Wright
Miner’s Lettuce Salad by Matt Wright
Matt’s photography inspired my own photo shoot with Darby and miner’s lettuce. He was a good sport…
Then my nieces, Layla and Sabrina, had fun pretending they were leprechauns hiding in my cover crop.
Leprechaun Layla
Leprechaun Sabrina
Both are ready to sprout!
I made dinner of miner’s lettuce, asparagus, crimini mushrooms and rigatoni with scramble eggs from the chickens next door. We listened to Irish pub music on Pandora and it was the greenest St. Patrick’s Day I’ve had in a long time. Or as Layla would say, “Stupendous!”
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!