So far I've gathered edible wild flowers and lamb's quarters.

And the clover will give the rice a sweeter taste too..But you said white clover, what about the purple clovers, are they not sweeter??

The white ones have sort of a dull taste, the more colorful ones are sweeter, but protein is not one of the things listed for them. I know, white with white, not exactly a colorful menu. The recipes I have indicate cooking the rice and clover with milk, more white, I think cheese would be a little more colorful. Personally, I like fresh whey from homemade cheese the best. It's amazing how good fresh whey is, but the dried stuff is even nastier than powdered milk. Maybe white clover with dark whole wheat flower would be better in bread and more dramatic. Might look like worms though, ha, ha. Take care.

Clovers can be cooked with rice and milk or soymilk (if vegan) in your favorite rice recipe. White clover flowers in rice pudding, nobody even knows they're there. Extends the rice, uses up the clovers, and adds plant protein to the pudding. I know some wild flowers, but not very many. Redbud flowers are a new one on me. I don't know those. I think this year might be a good year for a porch garden if you have a porch, because it sounds like you're having a rough year for growing things. My porch garden is going pretty well. Thanks and take care.

I made dandelion syrup one time, but someone called when I was making it and I over cooked it. Made great cough syrup and that was about it. But Dandelion Jelly, that was good. Recipe had juice from lemons in it. Yes, yellow dock is wickedly bitter. My parents used to cook greens with vinegar and bacon (if you're vegan, the fakin' bacon works just as well). I've never had wild asparagus, but I hope to some day. One year when we were very dry, there was a bumper crop of purslane and plaintain plants. Maybe you have some of those? Thank you very much for your response.

My husband started liking asparagus by picking them wild on his way home from school..I haven't tried any wild asparagus, but would love the recipes you have for the syrup and how you used them in pancakes..I usually just juice them along with other veggies, but looking for other ways to make them, I have many dandelions that I can use..

To make the dandelion syrup, pick a quart of dandelion flowers. Pack then down a little, but not tight. In a stainless steel or enamel pot pour in 1 quart water and the dandelion flowers. Bring just to a boil and remove from heat. Cover and allow to set overnight. Strain out the flowers with a sieve lined with a clean piece of muslin, then squeeze all the liquid from the flowers. Put the liquid back in the pot and stir in 2 pounds brown sugar and 1/2 lemon sliced very thin. Bring to a boil, then turn down to barely simmer several hours until it reaches a thick honey-like syrup. Pour up into jars or bottles and store in a cool, dark place. *this is basically just a simple syrup using the dandelion infusion instead of water. I use brown sugar because it hasn't had ALL the nutrition refined out of it. For the pancakes, pick a cup or two of dandelions (amounts don't have to be exact). Pick the little green bracts of the back of the flowers, rinse in cold water and blot dry. Add to your regular pancake recipe.

I let lambsquarter, purslane and so on, grow in the garden. For the most part they get along well with whatever I've planted and they help crowd out weeds I don't want growing there. No, I wouldn't want to use sugar on dandelion blossoms and I wouldn't want to freeze them for drinks, but I'm wondering if they were frozen in water they'd keep their shape better. They could just be drained when thawed. I think I'll try that and also freezing them individually on a cookie sheet then transferring to a plastic bag and see what happens.

Let me know the results, please. Thanks.

Cool, your one spot will have two crops, lambsquarters and peppers. I haven't tried dandelion flowers in egg drop soup. That's a pretty neat idea. Wild flowers in general are usually preserved by drying with sugar and egg mixture or freezing in water in ice cube trays to be used in drinks. Dandelions seem like they wouldn't fit in either category, johnny jump ups and wild violets, esp. Canadian Wild Violets do come up in that category. How do you think you would go about freezing dandelions flowers? I could see doing the same with the early small greens as you did with lambsquarters, but not sure how you would do the flowers? Thanks and take care.