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Vegetable Gardening

What's your favorite 'weed' for eating?

14 years ago

I really love wild purslane- delicious and one of the most nutritious greens out there. I also have tonnes of pigweed growing but I'm not too fond of that- supposed to be just like spinach when you cook it though.

Those are the two 'weeds' I know of in my garden.

What 'weed' do you like eating from your garden?

Comments (20)

veggiefaery
14 years ago
This year my hubby and I harvest garlic mustard to put in a soup. Garlic mustard is highly invasive so we figured we were doing our part to get rid of it.

A little later in the season my hubby and I are going to harvest the roots from burdock. It's a native weed that happens to be growing in our black raspberry patch.

My hubby also wants to harvest the wild grape leaves. Those really aren't weeds, but I find grape vines more destructive than most weeds.
glib
14 years ago
It's late for grape leaves. The best are tip leaves, while still very young (still a bit yellow), mixed in a green salad. Purslane is good, but unfortunately it comes at about the same time tomatoes, cukes and beans are in the garden. Best are corn salad, nettles, and dandelion, all very nutritious and all earlier than all common crops.
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vtgreenthumb
14 years ago
I love dandelion greens. I dig them out the soil just before I till it. Boil them, throw on some vinegar and dig in.
tn_veggie_gardner
14 years ago
wild onions
lisazone6_ma
14 years ago
We don't eat them (altho our grandparents did) but we harvest dandelion greens for our daughter's pet bunny! :)

Lisa
farmerdilla
14 years ago
Poke salet is the best, but most weeds are edible if you are hungry enough.
ania_ca
14 years ago
I'm not confortable enough in my identification skills to eat anything that grows wild.

I think we have pigweed around here and I know we have dendelions, but I've never tried them.
chakaz
14 years ago
Lamb's Quarters!! They are truly delicious (and a farmer at our market sells them for like $9/pound!! Talk about gouging...
mike1970
14 years ago
Chives. They come up EVERYWHERE in my yard. They are also one of the first things up so I mix a few in my potatoes in late March and it tastes just like spring. ;)

Mike
veggiefaery
14 years ago
Ania,

I agree you have to be careful about what you harvest especially if you aren't familiar with the different varieties of weeds and their look alikes.

I have cut and pasted a few web addresses about urban foraging and edible weeds that might help everyone out.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007438.html

http://boingboing.net/2009/01/07/short-documentary-ab.html
(documentary)

http://www.wisebread.com/free-food-in-your-yard-edible-weeds

http://landscaping.about.com/od/ediblelandscaping1/a/edible_plants.htm

http://oldfashionedliving.com/weeds.html
(Lots of good info on this website.)
greenthumbsj
14 years ago
Mustard. I used to think they were too strong and then I found that the taste is much milder if they are picked young. I planted about a dozen 5-6 years ago and they come every year... some of them bolt and seed and birds eat some and drop others in the ground and the cycle continues. I wish other greens were this easy.
meatysauce
14 years ago
Not sure of the real name, but we called it chow or chow chow. It's a sort of sour or lemony little plant.
DrHorticulture_
14 years ago
It's funny you mention purslane. Back in my home country (India) when I was a kid, my mom would make me eat it because it was a nutritious green vegetable, sold in the market just like spinach is here. So, I grew to dislike the stuff.
steelshepherd
14 years ago
purslane
l_james
14 years ago
I often nibble at some garden sorrel and wood sorrel when in the woods.
meatysauce
14 years ago
Haha I just looked through my books for like 45 minutes cause I couldn't remember the name of the plant I was thinking of in my previous post. Wood Sorrel! Very tasty. And I also learned about purslane. I pulled some of it today. Wish I knew of it then.
booberry85
14 years ago
I have two different types of sorrel that grow wild. I also have wild strawberries that are quite productive. This year the wild blackberries are larger than the ones I planted!
southgeorgiaboy
14 years ago
Betany is pretty tasty and my yard is full of it.
xxx1angel3xxx
14 years ago
Some consider it a weed so I guess this counts wild blackberries made two cobblers this year.
all that rain was good for them,
Your Friend,
Angel
sunnibel7 Md 7
14 years ago
Milkweed. Shoots, flowerbuds, and young pods ('though you do need to know how to treat it properly)! Better than the best asparagus!

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