Advice for foraging and using it in Greek cuisine

[dimi_pat]

I recall my family harvesting a lot of wild greens when I was a kid. It seems that whenever dinnertime was approaching, I'd find a family outside looking for greens for Horta, maybe even a "spanakopita" or rather "hortopita" - which of course was made the same way as spanakopita just with the wild greens.

My question is, what were they looking for? I know about vleeta (amaranth greens), but they picked more than that. Maybe dandelion greens at certain times of the year and some others. What did they pick?

 

[k_tsoukalas]

Love this memory — it brings me right back to my own childhood! Yes, vleeta (amaranth) was a big one in the summer, but our family also picked a mix depending on the season. In the spring, we’d gather radikia (wild dandelion greens), zohos (sow thistle), and vlita, plus tsouknides (nettles — carefully!). Some would even collect lachanida, saramagka, and glykatsaroucho, though names vary by region.

The more bitter greens like radikia were boiled and eaten with lemon and olive oil. Milder mixes were used for hortopita, just like spanakopita but more earthy and wild. My grandmother always said the secret was using whatever the land gave you that day.

If you’re ever in Greece in the spring, you’ll still see folks with a plastic bag and a knife, gathering lunch from the mountainsides!