Page 116 - The Lost Ways
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wildcraft your table, you might find that you can no longer take a stroll in the woods
without bringing a harvest home for supper.
Prickly Lettuce
Annual or biennial herb; harvest in the spring
13
Like any other lettuce, prickly lettuce is best young. Harvest leaves from small plants (8
inches or less). Prickly lettuce grows anywhere the soil has been disturbed. You can also
find it in open fields and in the underbrush along tree lines.
You can identify prickly lettuce by its prickles along the leaves and lower stems. The young
leaves look a lot like dandelion greens, and both contain a white, milky juice. Neither of
these have any poisonous lookalikes, so you can enjoy them both without worry. If you
find one without prickles, it’s wild lettuce as there are many species of lettuce that have
naturalized themselves here.
13 "Lactuca serriola", by: Jean Tosti
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