Click below to listen to my 2 min Garden Bite radio show: Edible weeds
Last week I talked about noxious weeds and discussed living with clover and plantain and dandelions, but what if you could just EAT your yard?
The lazy gardener’s veggie garden!
Many parts are edible (in fact all of them)… Dandelions are well known edibles. Every part of the dandelion is edible from spring to fall. The leaves are best when picked in spring before they become bitter. The flowers can be made into wine and the taproot can be eaten like a root vegetable.
Purslane is edible and apparently tasty, at least to one University of Minnesota professor. Mind you, he knows for sure it’s purslane and urges anyone that thinks they should randomly munch on things in their yard to be certain of what they’re eating!
Purslane leaves and stems are a nice addition to salads, you can also steam them or add them to soups and stews. Once again you need to know what plant you’re eating. Spurge sometimes grows near purslane, and that’s one weed you don’t want to eat.
Then there’s burdock, a plant that at first glance looks like rhubarb. It is not, however, you can eat it’s deep, beige, thick taproot like a potato. The leaves are not very tasty. The root is said to have a lot of nutritional value. Recipes from Eatweeds
Wildman Steve Brill has a LOT of weeds and recipes!
Clover makes a great tea.
Lamb’s quarter is a relative to spinach and beets. The leaves are loaded with beta-carotene, calcium, potassium and iron.
PS Always know what you’re harvesting. And don’t eat anything you’re unsure of.