Now that the new year has begun, maybe it’s time for a spring tonic.

The idea of a spring tonic comes down to us from the centuries before refrigeration, when most people lived on their family farms and winter fare was mainly what they had dried, stored in the root cellar or, after John Landis Mason invented his jars in 1858, canned.

The hogs were butchered in late November and provided meat and fat during the winter. This was supplemented with the root vegetables: potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips, rutabagas and chicory roots. This food kept them alive, but after a winter of salt pork and potatoes, they yearned for something fresh and bright to eat.

When the first plants peeked up in spring, the spring tonic was born, and it was usually a salad of whatever tender young things were emerging. In the East, people would have to wait until March or April, but here in coastal California, January brought plenty of new life stirring in our sandy soils.

The typical spring tonic salad was dominated by the first leaves of dandelions. Not only were they tender, they were far less bitter than dandelion leaves that had been exposed to sunlight for weeks on end. They were packed with heaps of nutrition, just the thing to rouse heavy winter-weary bodies from their potato torpor and refresh them for the rigors of the spring planting season ahead.

You’ll need edible grade seeds such as alfalfa, broccoli, radish, mung bean or sunflower. Make sure they’re organic — not coated with fungicide; a one-quart wide mouth Mason jar and a sprouting lid with smallest holes, fitted for wide-mouth jars.

Place a tablespoon of seeds in the jar and fill with fresh cool water. Let soak for eight hours or overnight.

Drain and rinse the sprouts by pouring fresh, cool water through the holes in the sprouting lid. Drain again until most of the water is poured out. Refill with fresh cool water.

Repeat the rinsing and draining process at least two times per day for three to five days or until the sprouts have grown to your liking.

Remove the sprouts from the jar and immerse in a bowl filled with fresh, cool water.

Push the sprouts down to the bottom of the bowl and let the seed hulls rise to the top.

Pour off the hulls and rinse again if necessary.

Drain the sprouts thoroughly and store in the fridge in a lidded container lined with paper towel. The sprouts will keep fresh for at least a week.

Today it’s more about celebrating the natural new year that begins on Dec. 21 and its promises of lovely weather to come. But let’s not forget that dandelion greens are one of the most nutrition-rich plant foods; you’ll find them young and fresh at the stores and growing wild just about everywhere. If you collect them from the wild, make sure they haven’t been sprayed with agricultural chemicals or grown too near a roadway where they were exposed to auto exhaust or in someone’s lawn where a weed-and-feed fertilizer was used.

From root to flower, dandelions are loaded with vitamins, minerals and fiber. The greens can be cooked by braising, added to stir-fries or eaten raw in salads. They’re an excellent source of vitamins A, C and K. They also contain good amounts of vitamin E and folic acid and small amounts of other B vitamins. They are rich in minerals, especially iron, calcium, magnesium and potassium. The root contains the invert sugar inulin — safe for diabetics — which is a soluble fiber that supports your intestinal microbiome, the gut bacteria involved in strengthening your immune and other crucial bodily systems.

Besides dandelions, other greens often added to spring tonic salads included a few early leaves of ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata), onion seedlings and a few young pea shoots from the midwinter garden, a few tender center leaves of curly dock (Rumex crispus) and a little chickweed (Stellaria media).

If you’re leery of gathering edibles from the wild or are unsure of what the wild plants look like, you can substitute sprouts. In many cases they’re just as fresh and nutrient-dense as the wild plants.

Here’s a spring tonic salad that’s bracingly bitter yet icy-sweet, crammed with nutrients and a guaranteed pick-me-up after we’ve finally said goodbye to 2020 and its associated catastrophes.

This January salad cleanses the body, refreshes the soul and gives us hope for a new year far better than the last one. You can find most of these ingredients at our better markets, and the sprouts are easy enough to bring to life on your kitchen counter.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

In a large salad bowl, gently toss all the plants and grated root.

In a second bowl, mix together the oil, vinegar and tamari.

Place salad in individual serving bowls and dress with the vinegar dressing.

Jeff Cox is a Kenwood-based food and wine writer. You can reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net

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