This is the time of year in the hills when the jaded appetite turns to turnip greens and poke sallet, speckled dock and branch lettuce. To mountain folks, weary from a dreary winter-long diet of store-bought vittles, it is a very special season. They call it green up time.
And in the hills green up time, which comes when spring starts bustin’ out all over , sends folks into the old fields and along the branches in search of wild greens. There they pick themselves a mess of creases or a bait of ramps, a poke of crow’s foot or a batch of pepper grass.
The first of the wild greens to come along is field cress, which mountain folks call creases. Found only in the fields where last year’s corn crop stood, it grows in dense, light green clusters and makes for good eating when served up with hot cornbread and buttermilk. To prepare creases, you parboil them in a kettle and then cook them in a skillet with bacon or fat back drippings.
After creases come in, there’s a heap of other wild greens for the gathering and the eating. Old time turnip sallet comes next and then crow’s foot, which some folks call Indian mustard. This potherb, which grows along branches, is easily identified by its leaves which resemble crow’s feet. The way to prepare it is to take the tender leaves and scald them with hot grease like you do lettuce that comes from the garden.
One of the favorites of all the wild greens is branch lettuce, which is quite rare and something to behold in its habitat. In the right hands, branch lettuce can be made into a dish that is mouth watering. It grows in the winding hollows where the water flows warm from the earth, or in and near the edge of a branch where the earth is dark and damp. To the botanist, its genus name is saxifrage and its species name is microanthidifolia. However, since time out of memory, mountain folks have called it branch lettuce. It is easy to recognize. It grows in beautiful pale clumps. And as the heads form and mature, a pale tint of pinkish purple edges the leaves. The leaves form a loose head, much like a relaxed open hand, palm up and fingers pointing up. They are thick and light-colored, creamy white at the center.
Chopped coarsely or used just as is you take only the smallest leaves and spread upon a serving dish, with a sauce of hot vinegar, a touch of sugar, bacon or ham drippings and covered with sliced boiled eggs, branch lettuce is something to tickle the palate.