Barbarea verna — the sharp, peppery 'creasy' green of Carolina and mountain tradition, picked from cold fields when nothing else was growing. The first bite of green after winter, hot as black pepper.
Creasy greens are a deeply Carolina and Appalachian food, and Black families in those hollows and Piedmont farms gathered them as a free, vitamin-rich green at the very end of the hungry season. Mountain country stores still sell them by the bag in late winter, but the knowledge of where to find them wild was carried in families, not in any book.
A cold-weather brassica loaded with vitamin C and vitamin A — exactly the nutrients in shortest supply during late winter when families had been living on dried and cured foods for months. Like its cousin watercress, it carries glucosinolates that convert to isothiocyanates, compounds studied for detoxification enzyme support and anti-cancer activity. The peppery heat is the sulfur chemistry doing its work.
Pick the young rosettes from cold fields before the plant bolts and flowers. Wash grit thoroughly — it grows low and catches soil. Traditionally parboiled briefly then 'killed' with hot grease, or eaten raw in a wilted salad with hot bacon dressing. A little goes a long way because of the peppery bite.
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