It isn’t everyday that I go looking in my yard for salad additions, but I did that just the other day, and if my neighbors saw how excited I was to find a lowly dandelion in my yard I might be drummed out of the neighborhood.

You see, a class I took this weekend through the Women of Wisdom Foundation here in Seattle opened my eyes and tastebuds to edible possibilities I have previously overlooked.

Jennifer Sundstrom, our teacher for the class, lists the title of Ethical Sustainable Wildcrafter on her business card. But there’s nothing stuffy about Jennifer in person. She’s smart and knowledgeable about herbs (some of them are also known as WEEDS) and delights in sharing her knowledge.

Did you know that rosemary is a part of the mint family? I didn’t. And that if you take just a tiny taste and chew it between your teeth you can feel that mintiness.

Perhaps you’ve seen plantain in your yard? Or, god forbid, dandelions? They’re edible, and not just edible, good for you. (Caveat: You do need to know for sure what you are picking before you eat it. There is a false dandelion, for example.)

But with a little know-how provided by our teacher, the salad I had for lunch that day was by all means dynamite. It included the usual suspects like lettuce, but became increasingly eclectic as we added rose petals, lavender, fennel, chickweed, plantain, dandelion , oregon grape berries (the bush was just loaded with them), as well as some goodies like nuts and fruit.

With a homemade salad dressing, it was pretty killer.

But the most valuable piece I got out of the class was how to really look at the edibility of a plant, what it looks, feels and even tastes like. We’re so used to buying food from the grocery store that we forget we have the ability to detect what’s good to eat.

It’s a different way of looking at your yard. At one point I said to Sundstrom that her neighbors must love her because she’ll eat dandelions. She laughed and said, “No, they hate me because I GROW them!”

Jennifer Sundstrom teaches classes locally and can be reached at j.r.sundstrom@verizon.net. To visit the Women of Wisdom go to www.womenofwisdom.org.

Rhonda lives in Ballard and is the Urban Crop Circle Project Leader for Sustainable Ballard. She’s always looking for something good to eat. Questions, Comments, Ideas? You can reach her at Rhonda@sustainableballard.org.