photo credit: a. venefica

A new eco friendly fade is eating weeds.  Dandelions greens, stinging nettles, purslane are starting to show up at farmer’s markets and high end supermarkets.

“The interest in weed cuisine also taps into the current movement toward organic and local foods; as lawn owners have long complained, weeds are hardy and require no pesticides and little water to thrive. When picked in the wild, weeds also offer frugal consumers the thrill of foraging…

The wild plants and the weeds were more commonly eaten until World War II, when they were seen more in disdain and processed foods began to move up”

Some warnings before picking your own weeds:

• Identifying plants is challenging with several looking similar.
• The entire plant may not be edible
• Some plants need to be cooked to be edible
• Some weeds may be hard to swallow