Virginia Pepperweed would taste distinctly peppery, not grassy.

You'll know when it flowers. IMPE, it's the seed pods that are peppery, the leaves, not as much.

If you don't know what it is, how do you know it is safe to put in your mouth?

The flowers/seedpods are quite distinctive - no need of tasting to tell.

I know the appearance of mature Virginia Pepperweed. I want to identify these immature whatevers.

You may just have to be patient.

At least now you have a photo record for future reference.

I will say, it looks likely to be what you think it is.

Now mature. Case closed.

Capsella bursa-pastoris as I suspected. There are no poisonous herbaceous plants in Brassicaceae, so if one recognizes a plant as being in that family it's perfectly safe to taste it, or if you're the type that can eat anything poisonous and it won't harm you. Shepard's Purse. A butterfly host plant. If you don't have any other host plants that feed the same species of butterflies and moths, you might want to keep it. It's easy to scuffle away the surplus seedlings. It won't take over the world.

I do not think this is Sheperherd’s Purse. That species has unbranched flowering stems with very little foliage and the seed pods are a very distinctive sharp angled heart shape, not oval. Unless of course, the species has taken on a very different form in N America from how it manifests over here.

What other species could it be? I haven't learned of any look-alikes. Capsella bursa- pasoris doesn't have any subspecies or varieties. You are much more knowledgable about Brassicaceae than me, so I defer to you floral.

I don't know what else it could be, not having much knowledge of American plants. But I do know Sheperd's Purse. It is extremely common here and was one of the first plants my mother named for me ... at about 3yrs old. It featured in a popular children's book too. The Shepherd’s-Purse Fairy - Flower Fairies

Lepidium virginicum.

Lepidium virginicum.

That species totally slipped my mind.😳🙊 You're getting good four.

Floral, I have Shepard's purse and mine usually have a flat rosette of basal leaves and then they push up a tall flower stem. I don't have Lepidium virginianum in my garden, but it's common around here growing in the wild and it's a pioneer of disturbed soil. I enjoyed the Shepard's Purse Fairy poem, and then I saw the Lady's Smock Fairy. I've never heard of Cardamine pratensis being called Lady's Smock. And I was expecting the Dog Violet Fairy to be holding Erythronium blooms but they are Viola. Isn't Viola riviana called the Dog Violet? Our's is actually called Dog Tooth Violet.

This is the trouble with common names. Here Dog Violet refers to Viola riviniana. 'Dog' refers to the fact it has no scent ie is considered a bit inferior. Erythronium is not native here so we tend to call them Erythroniums, not having a traditional name. Some sellers, however, considering the public too stupid to cope with the proper name, do call them Dogtooth Violet, especialle E dens-canis. The Flower Fairy books were some of the first plant books i ever had. Another source of accurate illustrations were the Beatrix Potter books. This was long before I owned any actual botanical books.

Yep, I had my mum's Flower Fairy books and have dutifully passed them all down to daughter and grand-daughter. I certainly credit them with my love of flowers.

You were expecting a taste like black pepper? The description 'peppery' can be misleading because it can mean a black peppery taste, or a warm, spicey Brassica taste, that's more comparable to horseradish and wasabi. Perhaps Capsicum can be included as peppery, since they are peppers? Watercress and nasturtiums are said to have a peppery taste. The flower buds of Lady's smock are said to taste particularly peppery. Not all Lady's smocks have flower buds. Some have pandas or Spongebob Squarepants or kittens.😆

I would say a cabbage core taste mildly peppery.

More tasting. Young leaves have strongest taste. Old leaves too taste of peppery cabbage, maybe somewhat less intensely than young leaves. Seed pods that became tan are not peppery, and taste only faintly of cabbage.