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Tropaeoulum majus NL: Oost-Indische Kers / F: Capucine This cute climbing plant comes originally from the Andean region, but it seem to do pretty well in most climates. It is praised as much for its ornamental aspect as it is for its culinary and medicinal uses. Its hot-pungent taste, a little stronger than watercress at times,  makes it a delicious - and cute! - salad ingredient. Leaves, flowers and seeds are all edible, very rich in vitamin C. I like using the larger leaves (when they grow in shadowy places the leaves can get as large as 15cm of diameter!) in my green smoothies, leaving the sweet flowers to salads. The young seeds are even hotter than the flowers and leaves and they can be ground, added as spice to salad dressings or stews, or they can be prepared as capers. The mature seeds contain more than 25% of protein and they can be dried and ground to be used as a healthier pepper substitute. In medicinal herbalism is nasturtium mostly known as an expectorant and disinfec...

Rosa canina NL: Wilderoos/Hondsroos - F: L'églantier (fruits: cynorrhodons) This shrub is another great attraction for wild life. It can be seen in flower from May to September, its lovely scent being spread all around. The flower of this rose is used in preparation of the Bach Flower “Wild Rose” prescribed to help dispel apathy and increase life motivation. The fruits are ripe around July and can be eaten raw or preserved by drying. They can also be part of delicious jams or compote - a great source of vitamin C for use in winter time. The dry fruits are regularly used in herbal infusions, usually sold as “rose hips”. The rose leaves can also be used in herbal teas that can even replace coffee. Fruits are very rich in vitamins C, E and betacarotene.   Make sure to remove the hairs in the seeds and of some fruits, as they can be irritating to the throat. When making compote, at the stage of sieving the cooked pulp the hairs will be removed anyway, so the attention should be taken o...

Trifolium pratense NL: Rode klaver - F: Trèfle des prés Clovers are known as great soil improvers and can also help with eliminating unwanted weed species. They loosen subsoil, oxygenating it with their roots, naturally fix nitrogen in the soil up to 60-70kg per acre and are also great bee-friends. As food they should be consumed moderately in their raw form due to their high content in oxalic acid. Young leaves and young flowering heads are eaten raw in salads, or cooked like spinach. The seeds can be sprouted and used in salads or cooked. Do not eat the seeds raw, as they contain trypsin inhibitors, meaning that it can interfere with certain enzymes that help in the digestion of proteins. Those substances are normally destroyed if the seed is sprouted first. Flowers and seed pods can be dried to make a delicate herbal tea, or can be ground into a powder and used as a flour to enrich meals. Root is also edible, cooked. Red Clover is traditionally known for its powerful cleansing prope...