Edible Weeds

What are edible weeds? Some of you may not have heard the term. To most of us, weeds are looked upon as "bad" plants that must be eliminated. But not necessarily. What many of us call "weeds", others harvest for use in soups and salads. Many of them are also very nutritious. Of course, they must be grown organically. According to Professor James A. Duke, there are over 100 edible weeds in the United States alone (1992).



Imagine being able to harvest weeds and use them to feed your family; they're not just for the compost bin. You can learn more about edible weeds in this book, the Handbook of Edible Plants and Weeds by Fern J. Richie. (Take a closer look at this publication by clicking on the Amazon link.)
Many edible weeds are rich in antioxidants like vitamins E and C. Most of us are familiar with antioxidants' power to neutralize cancer-causing chemical agents known as free radicals. For example, one edible weed known as purslane (Portulaca oleracea) contains a number of antioxidants. It grows in all 50 states and Canada. It's loaded with ascorbic acid (vitamin C), beta-carotene (previtamin-A), glutathione (a common antioxidant compound that can even detoxify some pesticides!) and tocopherol (vitamin E)--not to mention its richness in the omega-3 fatty acids that have been linked with lower cholesterol levels. No crop that I know of is better endowed with a richer variety of health-protecting compounds. Purslane tastes a bit like spinach; in fact, beet tops, chard, lamb'squarter, pigweed, purslane and spinach all belong to a group of plants (technically called the Centrospermae) that share a similar flavor. And, like spinach, purslane is edible raw or cooked. Add tender shoots to soups or garden salads.

Edible weeds are great in salad, if you pick them when they are young. Most of the edible weeds used in salads - plants like chicory, cress, dandelion, evening primrose, garlic mustard, lamb's-quarter, pigweed, purslane, watercress, and wild garlic get tougher with age (as do cultivated greens).

Many edible weeds are tastier when cooked. Some don't taste good at all without cooking and some (like collard greens) need to go through two changes of water to appeal to those with normal palates. Burdock, chicory, dandelion and garlic mustard, to mention a few, are much improved by cooking to remove some of the bitterness. I am partial to steamed dandelion greens myself which, although slightly bitter tasting, are rich in nutrients. (Bitter greens are commonly known as liver cleansers.)

Lamb's-quarter (Chenopodium album) is another weed that grows in all 50 states. Lamb's-quarter comes up much earlier than purslane, but not as early as many of the edible wild cresses. Harvest only the young shoots shortly after they have unfolded, and discard the older leaves and tough stems. I have seen lots of recipes for lamb's-quarter, but some may prefer the boiled leaves spiced up with bacon drippings or bacon crumbs. (Use organic pork, of course!) Add washed leaves to garden salads and throw a few leaves of lamb's-quarter (or any edible weed) into soups.

You can substitute tender shoots of edible weeds in any recipe that calls for spinach or chard. And there's always a nice succession of wild plants to do this with. In the Northeast, lamb's-quarter follows the early spring cresses and is in turn shortly followed by pigweed, with purslane flourishing last (around June) in the heat of summer.

Burdock ranges from California and Washington to Alabama and Maine. When you smell the raw root or leaf stalk, you may not think that there's anything edible about this plant. But the cooked leaf stalks look similar to celery and taste better. In fact, the National Cancer Institute has expressed an interest in further researching the lignan compounds in burdock as potential cancer preventatives. Burdock is already an ingredient in some folk remedies used to treat existing cancers. Pick the tender leaf stalks in spring and early summer, and harvest one-year-old burdock roots from late summer through winter. It's important to harvest the roots before this biennial plant flowers. The roots and leaves should be cooked, together or separately, changing the water a few times. I've found great burdock root at my local co-op.

Chickweed - a cold-hardy plant used in salads. It has been used topically to treat skin irritations.

Dandelion - one of my favorites, dandelion greens are an acquired taste -- bitter-tasting and high in iron. Leaves and roots have been used to "cleanse" the liver.

Evening primrose of oil fame, is said to prevent premenstrual syndrome. It is the seeds you want here; they're available from August throughout the winter in most parts of the U.S. and Canada. You can bend the plant down over a newspaper on a windless day, then shake the seeds out of their capsules. They can be stored for years, and contain the nutrient gamma-liniolenic acid, or GLA. Seeds can be ground and added to just about anything. The seeds are also rich in tryptophan, an essential amino acid with many well-documented medical uses. You can't buy tryptophan in supplement form because of problems in the manufacturing process that contaminated the supplements and caused several deaths a few years back. Fortunately, the problem was with the manufacturing process only-in its natural form, the amino acid is safe. If you want the potential benefits of evening primrose's GLA and/or tryptophan, simply grind up the seed and add the result to your whole-grain bread mix before baking.

The Groundnut which also contains naturally occurring isoflavones, is a favorite root crop. Groundnuts contain nearly three times as much protein as potatoes, their roots and seeds can be collected all winter long, and they are delicious (like most legumes, they taste best when cooked). Use the roots just like potatoes-mash 'em or make hash browns; you can even try them raw. To use the seeds, grind them tip and add them to your cornbread mix before baking or soak them overnight and then cook them like lentils.

Nettle - Usually cooked, it is high in iron and calcium. It is also popular in teas and in hair products as a scalp tonic. A nice article that I came across recently is a Grist article on cooking nettle and other weeds, by Kurt Michael Friese. Click here to read it.

Violet - High in Vitamin C, violets are popular in soups or raw in salads. Both the leaves and the flowers are edible.



KNOW YOUR WEEDS

Novices to weed-eating should NOT go "grazing", or searching for edible weeds in forests. There are a lot of poisonous plants that a novice might confuse with edible weeds. You might want to attend a "foraging," "grazing" or "wildcrafting" field workshop with some local experts in your area if you are interested in doing this. But if you own land, you have the makings of an edible weed "feast" already.

If you are looking for weed seeds and other unusual seeds, you may want to visit the Dirtworks bulk seed website.

Click here to read about EDIBLE FLOWERS

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The Charm of Chickweed  Not rated yet
Just popped out to the garden to pick a good clump of Chickweed for a goat's cheese sandwich. For 15 years I fought an ongoing garden battle with chickweed ...

I'm eating a Nasturtium salad as I write this  Not rated yet
The full recipe:

First make a tomato/cucumber salad by chopping equal parts tomato and cucumber, about 1/4 part onion (red is best), and mixing them ...

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