This is one of the species of Plantain (Plantago lanceolata) growing happily in my front yard, my menagerie of Chickens, ducks and drakes seem to leave it pretty much alone so far!!

I rotate the feathered mob around areas of my yard so they don’t over use any particular area at a time anyway so always have an area fenced off from them for re-vegetation or re- pasturing.I collect and sow edible weed seeds in with the grass seeds in my pastured areas so the mob and I can graze all year round!

I use the young leaves cooked as with any other green or raw in salads.
I also use the seed heads munched up in breads muffins ect.
When we were kids we used to pick the seed heads with really long stems and make each other hold out our bare wrists and whip each other with them to see who would chicken out first, funny things we do as kids never thought I would be eating them now!

Cleaned Plantain leaves

So here are the leaves trimed off the plant, washed and ready to use.

And this is what I made with the leaves on this particular occasion.

Plantain, Duck egg omelette

I had a heap of amazing eggs that my lovely Muscovy ducks had laid, so I whipped this up for my lunch. On this plate you can see the Scrumptious omelette, home made sauerkraut and fermented baby zucchinis garnished with Plantain leaves! (see recipes for more details)

Now this is my idea of a bung up meal! dig in……..