Thanks for the quick reply. The one that's definitely purslane bloomed this morning... tiny yellow blossoms. It's really pretty big and tons more is coming in. There are places that I wasn't sure what it was and let it grow. It's getting bigger daily and looks like that's what it's gonna turn out to be definitely. I'll be trying to give it away should that be the case. I hate to throw it away and there is just soooo much of it. Ok, back to the topic... We've just moved here recently and I don't have my camera unpacked yet so am using cell for pics. (I know I should be doing boxes instead of playing outside. lol) I tried a close up and sharpening it a little (cause it was a bit blurry) so hopefully you can see it better. Another question too please. There is a courtyard type area that is nothing but dirt. Where I've made flower beds and out in the vege area is where all this purslane is coming up. Can it take light foot traffic if I put some in the open areas? I need some green and don't really want to plant grass there. It's too small to have to mow I think. Sorry for such a long-winded post. So... Thanks again! :-) http://picasaweb.google.com/111287269748650703221/Garden#5495363503531805218

OK, so now I've gone from yanking this out of my yard to being a HUGE fan. I have been eating salads of raw baby purslane and they're delicious! It has more nutritional value that spinach and is a great source of Omega 3s, Vitamin C and E. I've just used the leaves, and I give my stems to my parrot and he loves eating them too. Did I just find the fountain of youth growing in my back yard!? This stuff is great. I found a recipe for using it in salsa that sounded excellent also.

Congrats on the radishes! That's true about the rest coming soon! Since I'm so far south, my harvest always is ahead of those of you who are further north, but once your first radishes are producing, then everything else should be following closely behind. We're now in a mad dash down here to keep up with the harvesting, eating and preserving of the asparagus and cool-season greens. As our temperatures crank up into the 80s over the next few days, the spinach is going to start getting unhappy, so I need to harvest it quickly. It doesn't last long once we get hot, and we've had too many hot days already. On the bright side, once the spinach is done, that leaves an open space to plant a warm-season succession crop. Since the asparagus started producing a month early because of the winter that lacked true winter weather, I'm thinking it will end early as well, so I'm trying to keep up with harvesting it in a timely manner, which is hard to do as my focus is now shifting towards planting more warm-season crops. It is hard not to enjoy all the early warm and hot days we've had this year already, but they can push the cool-season crops along almost too quickly. I noticed yesterday that one lettuce plant is trying to bolt already.....maybe it was that 88 degree day we had a week or two ago. I have a gazillion little lettuce plants in flats, though, to use as succession crops, so today I'll just harvest it and then pop a new plant into its space. I planted my first lettuce plants in January, so they are aging now, but we've had a good harvest from them for some time and younger plants are coming along in different spots too.

I have no problem with picky eaters if there is a reason behind the pickiness. But when kids reject something without trying it with an open mind, or stop eating things they liked before, but suddenly want to go along with some crowd and reject it, that bothers me. My dad was picky for a reason, things bothered his stomach, but now it's part of his anxiety disorder and the aging process, he's getting more and more rigid in all aspects of his life . . . My brother and a few others had food sensitivities. Years ago one of my "picky eater" friends found out she was allergic to all fermented foods, which includes vinegar which is in all kinds of condiments, and also soy and glutens, which are also in lots of stuff. She said she learned early on that certain foods made her feel unwell, but nothing visible so for years she was just labeled "picky." Same with my brother. He's also sensitive to acid foods, which is why he called tomatoes "poison apples." And certainly why he rejected ketchup!! Another friend discovered why her youngest was always so cranky--he was suffering from a gluten intolerance problem . . . his tummy was upset a lot of the time. I love the part of the article where the role of personality is explored, and control issues. The kid only liking macaroni and cheese if he could eat it on bread, his own creative idea. His mother ended up having the same experience when she learned to like food concoctions of her own. I learned to like raw tomatoes one day when I was starving for lunch with little food in the fridge, and improvised a cottage cheese and tomato sandwich, which I ended up really liking. For a while I only ate tomatoes that way, but gradually expanded my liking of them . . . So anyway, I totally get about giving kids control over their environment and developing problem solving skills so they can come up with their own foods. Just wondering where the intersection between that and "frugal" come in to play . . . .