THE DELICIOUS LILIES

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The ingredients for a memorable summer meal are probably just waiting to be collected from your back yard.

Although you've no doubt noticed the riotous display of color that can often be found in pastures, woods, and fields at this time of year, you may not know that there's another way to enjoy summer's wildflowers ... in tasty dinner dishes! Many members of the lily family in particular—several of which bloom in late summer—offer quite edible and delicious) food to the alert forager.

The classification Liliaceae—an enormous and diverse family-provides an especially rich variety of wild food ... in addition to such domesticated delicacies as leeks, onions, garlic, chives, and shallots. The group includes the so-called "true lilies" (members of the genus Lilium ) and many other genera as well. (Even though some of the 20 Lilium species native to North America are being threatened by the expansion of agricultural land or by excessive harvesting for ornamental purposes, not all lilies are in danger of extinction ... and the abundant varieties can tempt foragers with tasty bulbs, shoots, leaves, and blossoms.)

A LILY A DAY

The familiar day lily (one decidedly unendangered species) will make a delicious contribution to any meal of wild foods. Chances are there's a bumper crop of the flowers within a short walk from your home ... so why not use the surplus plants to enliven your family's dinner menu? Such thinning won't hurt the flower stand at all, since the hardy plants reseed and spread quite readily.

Hemerocallis fulva is a perennial herb—native to an area stretching from New Brunswick to Ontario, then southward across much of the United States—which bears long, swordlike leaves and trumpetshaped orange blooms. Day lilies are a "double-barreled" food source, too ... since they have edible portions that can be harvested during both warm and cold seasons.

The early spring shoots are delicious when eaten raw in salads ... and, some months later, you can gather the nearly full-sized unopened buds, cook them in boiling water, add butter and seasoning, and serve them like green beans. Furthermore, the fully opened blossomswhich, because they last only one day, give the flower its name-make delicious fritters when dipped in a rich egg batter and quickfried to a deep golden brown. You can also add the flavorful buds and blooms (or even the withered flowers) to soups and stews.

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