Dandelion, Thistle and Chicken Soup

Dandelion Greens/Dandelion and Thistle Root

 Over the winter, many wild plants grow in my garden and when it is time to prepare the soil for vegetables, it's time for those plants to come out. I take advantage of this free feast as I work my way through the garden through out the Spring. This time I got lots of Dandelion and Thistle plants to work with. I was planning on making Chicken Soup this evening anyway, so why not add all this good stuff to it? After blasting the roots with the hose to remove the soil, I brought them inside to prep them for the soup. I cut off the healthy greens from the Dandelions and washed them a second time than took the roots from both the Thistle and Dandelion and cut them up and washed them a second time also. You can't get all the dirt with the hose when roots are tangled like the dandelions were. The Thistle Roots were perfect straight tap roots so they were easy to clean. The leaves on the Thistle are also edible (and quite delicious) though I didn't feel like fussing with the thorns today. My chickens benefited from my laziness as they devoured the thistle leaves with a passion. I now had plenty of wild veggies to add to the regular fare of my Chicken soup!
 This time of year is a good time to harvest roots. The plants still have plenty of energy and nutrition stored there waiting for the warm weather so they can put all that energy to good use growing flowers.
 By the way the soup was excellent!
 Peace.