I also have been eating the purslane. I have tried the lambsquarter and it is ok but the purslane seems to grow and taste better. Try watering it.

I also thought that no pests were bothering the purslane that is until woodchuck. But he is gone now.

I'm looking forward to trying the Dill pickle recipe with purslane soon.

--Rick in CT

So... Purslane is probably my most productive "crop", so how do I start? I admit that I am prejudiced against the unwelcome groundcover. Pick off the most succulent leaves? Steam for a couple of minutes? Can they be too overdone?Can I throw some in with green beans and mix them with the butter?

Actually, I cooked mine with a couple of green beans that were already big enough. I steamed them for a few minutes, probably a little less cooked than most people like them, and ate them with a sprinkle of salt, bc I wanted to see how the purslane tastes with nothing else on it. The stems were still pretty firm, but neither stringy nor tough. Next time (soon!), I'll try a slightly larger quantity, sautéed with butter, garlic, etc. My cats ate a non-salted piece too, and seemed to approve.

I would say that you should just experiment. We can compare notes here.

Rick in CT

Why cook it? I just nibble away as I garden and toss it in with the other salad veg.

Nutrition: it’s one of the best vegetable sources of omega-3 fatty
acids and some suggest it should be considered a super food. “It is a
good source of Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6 and Folate, and a very good
source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium,
Phosphorus, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.”

I eat purslane raw in salads, saute it up with other veggies in a hash (with or without potatoes), and add it to any number of other dishes including soups. I dehydrate some of the leaves (takes a while), and add it to the mix of green flakes I use all winter for sneaking vitamins into food. I take the leftover stems and pickle them, and add those at the last minute to any dish that needs a punch of flavor and crunch. I also added the chopped stems to last year's pickle relish in place of some of the cucumber, and find that it adds nutrition and crunch without changing the taste. Years ago I experimented with pickling and eating just the seed pods - it was yummy but took far too much time for the tiny amount of food.

Lambsquarters I find less useful - I do add it to salads and cooked greens, and also to my dehyrated mix of green flakes.

I do find that the leaf miners love purslane, so I pick it young before they get a chance to start eating it. If I miss some and let it mature, I usually have to pick off many of the larger leaves because they will be affected.

I have said before that we (spoiled Americans) will rip out and throw away nutritious native plants that will grow without care, call them weeds and then try to grow non native plants that need special care to grow in our climate and soils. How special we are.

I add that I tried to grow a named variety of purslane, more erect and with larger leaves. It did not work in my garden, but if your garden has a lot of it, you might as well seed the better variety, or practice a bit of old fashioned selection by spreading the seed of large leaved plants and chopping off the small leafed ones. It does act like a low ground cover, preserving moisture, so it is a good weed to have under virtually all vegetables.

<it is a good weed to have under virtually all vegetables.> My thoughts exactly.

While last year I tried to spread some seeds collected when rinsing off the greens before eating that didn't seem to work.

What I have noticed this year is the purslane growing in pots and soil where I have good amounts of compost the leaves are much much larger. I also think watering does help even tho the plant will sustain without.

I'm looking for wild

Purslane seeds. Anyone have any??

Last year was a banner year for purslane in my garden... and I noticed what appeared to be a considerable amount of genetic diversity. Some plants were densely covered with small leaves, while others were "octopi" with long, thick stems, and large leaves. Some had green stems, some had reddish-purple. These variations were often side-by-side, and distributed over a wide area... so they were not caused by different soil or environmental conditions. I'll remember this thread, and try to save seed from some of the monsters this year.

Oh, and about lambs quarter. If I have a lot of it, I harvest the young plants while weeding, and mix the leaves with the wild amaranth which is usually in the same stage of growth. If I blanch the lambs quarter, then finish cooking it in a fresh pot of water, it seems to be more palatable. These are very nutritious greens, and some of the first pot herbs of the year... but as my dear departed uncle used to say, "you dasn't eat too much". ;-)

Brian, I didn't save any seeds since they didn't take for me the year before. The wind seems to scatter them about in my yard/garden.

I did see some rather large ones growing in the McDonalds parking lot last year.

Brian, most people will not have any seed since the purslane is a heat loving plant. If you ask later I would be glad to send you some. They have very small seed.

As far as taste goes for me I prefer lambs quarters above purslane. I love how both these plants just grew with out much work. No tilling or composting required. They just popped up in my garden for free.

Of course I'm blessed. Everything I grew this year I just dug out a spot. Planted. Wattered. That's it. No nutriets or compost added. Well and weeded a bit of course but once the yellow flowered lemon flavored sorrel took over as ground cover no other weeds came up. Very happy with my garden this year and hopefully the sorrel will continue to provide good ground cover next spring. We shall see

I never thought there was much taste from Purslane. I eat mine raw either in a salad or on a sandwich. For me the lambs quarter is much tougher, chewier and may need cooking?

It's funny how different people's tastebuds are. My purslane was high in malic acid. Tasted like Apples. The key for yummy purslane is to keep it in near drought conditions.

Purslane has 2 metabolic pathways for watter. One wich it uses when watter is scarce produces malic acid and the other I forget. Lol silly me

I agree about lambsquarters. More mature leaves are tough. But i find the taste incredible

You know...I've noticed that if I want LQ or purslane, it won't grow except where I definitively don't want it to. I do have some LQ volunteering about the yard..but I need more ;0

If you are into wild edibles, try daylily buds. Not the garden daylily hybrids, but those wild orange ones growing everywhere. This year, i served several dishes made of daylily buds at the outdoor party and they were a big success. These are two of them:

Daylily Fritters served with dipping sauce

Sautéed Daylily Buds with edible flowers (nasturtium and runner beans)

I prefer raw lambsquarter to any lettuce I've ever had. Also called wild spinach, I eat it as I weed my flower beds.

Lambsquarters are far more nutritious, lettuce is empty of most nutrients.

<try daylily buds. Not the garden daylily hybrids, but those wild orange ones growing everywhere>

The other thing I like about them is they grow w/o any care or watering, at least they do in my yard.

I found purslane EVERYWHERE after our near record rains and heat last year! I had been weeding it out. Then I saw it at the farmers market when you could pick it pretty much everywhere? Nancy

I use both! And are so good, this year i got a lot of lambs quarter! Man i im enjoying this green stuff! I thank God for it ! Yeah amen! I'm a Jesus follower! ✝️

In a previous garden, there was a healthy population of both lamb's quarter and wild amaranth (pigweed). Didn't like either of them raw, but cooked together as pot herbs & seasoned with butter and salt, they were very pleasant. Normally I would just harvest them as young plants while weeding; but I let an amaranth plant go & just kept harvesting the young tips. It went most of the summer before it started going to seed & I had to pull it.

Lamb's quarter & pigweed make only rare appearance in my present gardens. My worst weeds now are mostly inedible: crab grass, knot weed, mallow, ground cherry (plant them once & have them forever) and creeping jenny. After 2 years when the garden was fallow & could not be cultivated, purslane went to seed - and I have it EVERYWHERE. Last year was so bad in my rural garden that I had to mow between rows - and it clogged the mower! We made a point of not letting it go to seed, and it is more manageable this year.

Purslane is very nutritious eaten as a vegetable, but I'm not fond of the flavor. I wonder, has anyone ever tried juicing it? It looks succulent enough to provide juice, which could then be mixed with other juices to make it more palatable.