Today the temperatures hit 20°C and the sun was shining, it was warm enough to be outside and the thought, that maybe we are going to have a summer, made a tentative appearance in my mind. My favourite corner shop had loads of fresh, colourful fruits, vegetables, as well as fresh bread and big bunches of mint, dill, basil and flat leaf parsley and to my surprise some sour plums that I will use to make a recipe on the novice gardener’s blog.
And so I planned a simple summer lunch: red lettuce leaf salad topped with the summer’s first watermelon balls and common scurvy grass leaves (Cochlearia oficinalis) (in the plant pot picture below). I bought it during a raid on the local organic nursery. Common scurvy grass, is chockful of Vitamin C, and used to be taken on long ship journeys to combat scurvy. The plant was also served as a tea and used as a home remedy to treat gout and rheumatoid arthritis. Scurvygrass is slightly bitter, it tastes sharp and mustardy, and has a wasabi edge to it and it really complimented the luscious balls of watermelon in the salad.
Seasoning was simply a couple of drizzles of lemon olive oil (all natural with no synthetic flavourings) and balsamic vinegar and of course some freshly ground salt and black pepper.
We also had some tiny sliced Persian cucumbers (worth hunting these down they are far superior to their larger cousins), fresh herbs served on a side-plate, Turkish style bread and Bulgarian Feta. I believe it may at last be summer.
Information on scurvy grass from the following website http://www.natur-lexikon.com/Texte/MZ/003/00222-Loeffelkraut/MZ00222-loeffelkraut.html
polianthus 
Oh em gee, that looks so good! And you really do learn something new every day, first time I heard of scurvy grass. Very interesting. Let me know how you make out with the sour plums.
First time I heard of it too when I found it in the nursery 🙂 – thanks for commenting, and for sure I will let you know how the sour plums went – I was so excited to find them!
Salads, nice and fresh, are my favorite food – provided a great bread and cheese are in involved (which they are in this case!). Beautiful photos. I had a salad at lunch of shaved brussels sprouts, cherries, a goat blue and various other culprits – but it was not as gorgeous as your pretty veggies shown here. Lemon and balsamic are a huge hit in this house!
HI Shanna – thanks for looking round, it’s a pleasure to have you on the site – interesting salad you had for lunch, brussel sprouts, cherries goat cheese, sounds very interesting – not sure I’d naturally combine those flavours but I assume they worked well? You are somewhere in the south where it’s warm and you get fresh fruit all year round aren’t you? Lucky you? Something I wonder about – if you guys move to San Fran – what happens to you chickens?????? 🙂
We are in New Mexico! Our chickens were recently slaughtered by a vigilante who went around our neighborhood killing chickens. 😦 The garden is going in soon, though, which is a ray of light. Yes, this combination sounds odd, but it is divine with a lovely vinaigrette. I come up with things that sound odd but “work.” The sprouts, cheese and cherries are savory, sweet and earth in unison and sing in unison. Have a great day! Love the blog.
oh I am sorry about your chickens, that’s too bad – strange people out there I guess. Why would you slaughter peoples chickens? Garden is always nice. I am curious about your recipe now, but of course you used fresh cherries which I can totally see working, it’s winter here, and fresh cherries are so many seasons off they didn’t even cross my mind, all I could imagine were the red tinned ones and I am pretty sure they wouldn’t work with your recipe. I must check the recipe, is it on your site? What dressing did you use? Thanks so much for loving the blog 🙂