Article -Weeds in Your Garden? -- Bite Back!

[Guest guest]

Posted here with permission from Susun Weed

Edible weeds!

 

*Smile*

Chris (list mom)

http://www.alittleolfactory.com

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Weeds in Your Garden? -- Bite Back!

c.1999 Susun S. Weed

 

I always say the gardener's best revenge is to eat the weeds. I've been

doing it for thirty years and can testify that my health and the health

of my garden has never been better. Here are a few hints for gardeners

who'd rather eat their weeds than hate them (and for non-gardeners who

are adventurous enough to try out nature's bounty).

 

View your weeds as cultivated plants; give them the same care and you'll

reap a tremendous harvest. Harvest frequently and do it when the weeds

are young and tender. Thin your weeds and pinch back the annuals so your

weeds become lushly leafy. Use weeds as rotation crops; they bring up

subsoil minerals and protect against many insects.

 

" Interplant " (by not weeding out) selected weeds; try purslane, lamb's

quarters, or amaranth with your corn, chickweed with peas/beans, and

yellow dock, sheep sorrel, or dandelion with tomatoes).And, most

importantly, harvest your weeds frequently, regularly, and generously.

Dandelion by Durga Bernhard '88

 

Overgrown radishes, lettuces, and beans are tough and bitter. So are

weeds that aren't harvested frequently enough. Give your chickweed a

haircut (yes! with scissors) every 4-7 days and it will stay tender all

spring, ready to be added to any salad. If you forget a patch for two

weeks, it may get stringy and tough and full of seed capsules. All is

not lost at this stage. The seeds are easy to collect - put the entire

plant in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for 2-3 days and use the

seeds that fall to the bottom of the bag - and highly nutritious, with

exceptional amounts of protein and minerals.

 

Unthinned carrots and lettuces grow thin and spindly, so do unthinned

lamb's quarters, amaranth, and other edible weeds. Wherever you decide

to let the weeds grow, keep them thinned as you would any plant you

expect to eat. Here's how I do it: In early spring I lightly top dress a

raised bed with my cool-method compost (which is loaded with the seeds

of edible weeds). Over this I strew a heavy coating of the seeds of

lettuces and cresses and brassicas (cultivated salad greens), then

another light covering of shifted compost.

 

Naturally, weed seeds germinate right along with my salad greens. When

the plants are about two inches high, I go through the bed and thin the

salad greens, pull out all grasses, smartweeds, cronewort, clear weed,

and quick weed (though the last three are edible, I don't find them

particularly palatable) and thin back the chickweed, mallows, lamb's

quarters, amaranth, and garlic mustard and other edible wild greens.

 

Keep those annuals pinched back. You wouldn't let your basil go straight

up and go to flower, don't let your lamb's quarter either. One

cultivated lamb's quarter plant in my garden grew five feet high and

four feet across, providing greens for salads and cooking all summer and

a generous harvest of seeds for winter use.

 

When a crop of greens has bolted or gone to seed in your garden, you

pull it all out and replant with another crop. Do the same with your

weeds. We eat the greens of garlic mustard all spring, then pull it out

just before it bolts (making a horseradishy vinegar from the choicest

roots) -- often revealing a generous crop of chickweed lurking

underneath.

 

Here are some of my favorite edible weeds:

 

.. Burdock (Arctium lappa) Roots of non-flowering plants harvested after

frost make a vinegar that is deep, and richly flavorful as well as a

world-renowned tonic. Petioles of the leaves and the flowering stalk are

also edible; for recipes see my book Healing Wise.

 

.. Chickweed (Stellaria media) Young leaves and stalks, even flowers, in

salads. Blend with virgin olive oil and organic garlic for an

unforgettable pesto. Add seeds to porridge.

 

.. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis) Leaves eaten at any time, raw or

cooked, but especially tasty in the fall - not spring!. Roots harvested

any time; pickle in apple cider vinegar for winter use. Dandelion flower

wine is justly famous.

 

.. Garlic Mustard (Alliaria officinalis) Year-round salad green. Leaves

used in any season, even winter. Roots are harvested before plant

flowers. Seeds are a spicy condiment.

 

.. Lamb's quarter (Chenopodium alba and related species, e.g. Chenopodium

quinoa). Young leaves in salads. Older leaves and tender stalks cooked.

Leaves dried and ground into flour (replaces up to half the flour in any

recipe). Seeds dried and cooked in soups, porridge.

 

.. Purslane (Portulacca oleracea) The fleshy leaves and stalks of this

plant are incredibly delicious in salads and not bad at all preserved in

vinegar for winter use.

.. Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella) Leaves add a sour spark to salads.

Cooked with wild leeks or cultivated onion and potato they become a soup

called " schav. "

 

.. Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) Young leaves cooked for 40-45 minutes

and served in their broth are one of my favorite dishes. Seeds can be

used in baked goods, porridge.

 

For more information see my book Healing Wise

 

Written by: Susun S. Weed, POBox 64, Woodstock NY 12498 1-845-246-8081