Daylily Greens Garlic Butter Saute
Written and Photographed by Juliet Blankespoor

Daylily greens
Lime-green succulent spears of winter’s released slumber, daylily greens are a relished early spring wild green. Daylily’s pleasant mild flavor is excellent paired with the more pungent creasy greens or wild turnip. To prolong the season, cut the greens right at the ground, and daylily will send up tender new growth. You can cut your patch two or three times without slowing it down. The daylily greens have been up for about three weeks here in the southern Appalachians and they are beginning to develop more fibrous or chewy leaves. Once the older tips become fibrous you can cut them of, retaining the succulent lower new growth. Pictured below, you can see how we cut the greens at ground level.

Cutting daylily at the ground level

Cutting off the fibrous tips of daylily

Daylily greens (tender bases only)
Daylily Garlic Sauté
Some people have daylily allergies, so try a small portion the first time, prepared from cooked flower buds or greens (raw daylily is more likely to cause a reaction). Also please read the article for ID tips, as it’s easy to confuse many poisonous plants for daylily.
Ingredients:
- 4 Cloves of garlic
- 2 Tablespoons of butter
- Daylily greens
- Salt
Directions:
- Mince the garlic.
- Warm 2 Tablespoons of butter in a skillet.
- Add the garlic for a few minutes.
- Add the washed greens and sauté until tender.
- Salt to taste.
Be creative with this basic recipe, substituting sesame oil, tamari and ginger for a more Asian flair, or fresh lime juice and chipotle pepper for a Mexican twist. For more on eating daylily, read my article about the delectable daylily
Meet The Green Mastermind Behind Blog Castanea:

JULIET BLANKESPOOR is the founder, primary instructor, and Creative Director of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, an online school serving thousands of students from around the globe. She's a professional plant-human matchmaker and bonafide plant geek, with a degree in botany and over 30 years of experience teaching and writing about herbalism, medicine making, and organic herb cultivation. Juliet’s lifelong captivation with medicinal weeds and herb gardening has birthed many botanical enterprises over the decades, including an herbal nursery and a farm-to-apothecary herbal products business.
These days, she channels her botanical obsession through her writing and photography in her online programs, on her personal blog Castanea, and in her new book, The Healing Garden: Cultivating and Handcrafting Herbal Remedies. Juliet and her family reside in a home overrun with houseplants and books in Asheville, North Carolina.
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mohamad says:
hyyy
iam very glade when i saw your website becaause i like to know more and more about all midicinal plant and i like to plant them in my garden
thank you hope to see you
Mom says:
mmmmmmmmmmm…..