Backyard En Salade

I grew up on a farm and one set of memories that strongly resonates with me now that I have kids is going out into the fields and gleaning snacks.  I'm not talking about running down a cow and hacking out a steak.  My sister and I used to go pick black raspberries, red raspberries, wild strawberries, gooseberries, apples and so forth as each came into season.  Usually eating until our stomach were distended.

Now that Mrs. McBugbear and I have modest country lot, we've been planting like mad to create the same sort of environment in our backyard, 'cause three little bugbears take a heap of feedin'.  So to date we've planted, five blueberry bushes, three black raspberry canes (one domestic and two wild), a wolf river apple tree, domestic strawberries (which are doing well in their second year), a plum tree, a gooseberry bush and a high-bush cranberry.  This joins the half-dozen or so wild apple trees, the black cherry trees, the wild strawberries and the wild black raspberries.  We also have a large patch of mint, dill and a bunch of annual herbs that the kids can go out and glean from.  This year we've also introduced mustard greens in the garden and I expect the various cherry tomatoes to be gleaned pretty hard.  Saturday I decided to have a backyard salad (except for the feta which I bought, but I do have a feta recipe and access to whole milk).

Ingredients

fresh Mustard Greens
fresh Mint
fresh Thai Basil
fresh Purple Basil
fresh young Dandelion Greens
feta Cheese
roasted pumpkin seeds (from last year)
1/4 cup olive oil
1-2 tbsp grainy mustard
pinch of brown sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp dried oregano
salt
pepper
1/4 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar

Pick your fresh greens and toss (only use greens from a lawn that you are certain hasn't had pesticide or herbicide applied).  Chop the feta coarsely or crumble and add along with the pumpkin seeds. Combine olive oil, grainy mustard, sugar, garlic, oregano, vinegar salt and whisk.  Serve with the salad.

I find that nothing is more satisfying than making a dish that you've prepared from scratch, in this case from scratch means scratching a hole in some soil and tossing in a seed or three.