Gourmet Food or Weeds

As I am reseeding the lawn this week, I was looking around at the various weeds in my yard/garden and a smile came across my face. I remembered an article I read in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year. In this article, the author discusses the ironic nature of our battle against weeds at home and the data which indicate that consumers are spending premium prices for these very same weeds at the market. The author pointed out that dandelion greens were selling for $9 a pound in a local market. This caused me to remember a funny story from my past. While shopping at the market for a dinner party, I was looking for a unique addition for the salad course to liven up the presentation. I settled on edible flowers and proudly took them home for the dinner. When I got home, my wife asked which flowers were in the package. I had to laugh as I read the contents…we were growing these flowers in baskets outside on our patio!

By not knowing these simple flowers were edible, I wasted good money buying something I already owned. In our modern society, we have become too insulated from the food we eat and the natural cycles of seasonal growth. Led by gourmet chefs and culinary magazines, we are rediscovering simple, peasant foods which are full of nutrition, flavor and color. And happily, we are learning that many of them are right in our backyards and gardens.

Like many new home owners I struggled against nature for a lush green lawn and tried everything, watered during the hot summer months, you name it. Over the years I, gradually, learned to accept certain things as inevitable. The grass will brown out during the dog days of summer, but will green up again when the rains come. Certain weeds will find their way into your yard and garden no matter what you do to prevent it. This knowledge paved the way for my change of heart on certain weeds as free food sources.

First, let’s look at the definition of a weed. A weed is any unwanted or nuisance plant. So if you are growing flowers and purslane (or pigweed) shows up, then the purslane is a weed. Purslane is a virulent weed which can spread quickly over a large area. It just so happens that purslane is also one of the great culinary plants. Purslane contains more Omega-3 fatty acids than any green leafy plant. Yet, we pull it up or blast it with weed killer to destroy it. What a shame. We should put it on salads or add it cooked dishes and enjoy the nutrition and flavors.

Motivated by this article, I began to use dandelion greens and purslane from my yard in salads. They were tasty and a nice break from the “usual” salad participants. Dandelion greens, like lettuce or arugula, are best in the cool months. As the hot weather comes on, the leaves get more bitter and piquant.

Now this tale comes with warnings and serious consequences. The Wall Street Journal article I read contained detailed information from my area on edible “weeds”. The online version had a companion video which helped me properly identify which weeds I would be harvesting for consumption.

Don’t just pick and eat random flowers, mushrooms or weeds. Some are poisonous, some have only certain parts which can be eaten and some, prepared improperly, are poisonous. Seek out experts from your local nursery, herbalist, university or government environmental agencies and learn which to harvest and which to avoid.

Don’t eat weeds from your yard if you use lawn treatment services or self applied chemicals. You open yourself up to toxins that could make you or your family sick. The same rule applies to a local wooded area, unless you know for certain that no chemicals have been applied, don’t eat the plants.

Learning to harvest naturally occurring “weeds”, flowers and plants, can provide us with free, highly nutritious food. These days, anything free and nutritious shouldn’t be overlooked.

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