We Eat Weeds
by Rashel Tremblay
 My
three children, now ages nine, four and two-and-a-half, are often seen picking
up green plants and eating them. People are always asking, “Are they allowed to
eat that?” “Yes, we eat weeds!”
We are a family that eats a plant-based, live-food diet and, on our many
adventures outdoors near rivers and in forests, we often wondered which plants
were tasty and safe enough to just pick up and eat in the raw. After identifying
a few plants considered “weeds” (i.e. Pesky and Undesirable) we began to see
them everywhere – near the library, in the parks, even poking out of sidewalk
cracks! Once I’d shown Faenin, who was then two- and-half, which wild greens are
edible, he always had to stop to have a little taste. As a result, we’ve had
comments like “Are you crazy?! What are you eating?!” and “Weirdos” when we are
all snacking on someone’s lawn!
In order to minimize potential contamination by pesticides (after all, weeds
are heavily sprayed in many areas) check with your local municipality for
regulations on where, when and if they spray, and only eat from areas you know
are not sprayed with pesticides (your lawn, a neighbor’s lawn, protected
wilderness areas) and always avoid roadsides, especially near conventional farms
where salt and pesticides run off into ditches.
Last summer, we were lucky enough to have some space to grow our own food in
my parents’ organic gardens, located in southwestern Ontario. We wanted the
benefit of pesticide-free food that tastes better and fresher than in the
grocery store. In the process of growing our own food, we also made friends with
the weeds. To our great surprise and joy, the wild greens we used to forage for
grew as volunteers – and prolifically, too!
A patch of newly-turned, composted chicken manure turned up a delight for
Faenin who exclaimed, “Look at all that big purslane!” We ate the purslane every
day but could not compete with the prolific patch. Lambsquarters grew abundantly
in the fertile garden soil and malva or mallow was found in an unused pasture
(as well as in our own yard).
All of these “weeds” have brought great flavor and healthfulness to our diet.
Edible wild greens are higher in vitamins and mineral content and contain
elements not found in conventional grocery store fare. And they are always
fresh!
Lambsquarters
Lambsquarters (Chenopodium album) is a prolific annual plant, with
as many as 75, 000 seeds on one plant. Originating in Europe, it can be found
all over North America where fertile soil has been disturbed. Lambsquarters is
one of the first greens to poke up out of the ground in spring and is available
all through summer, although it is best eaten when young. Fernald and Kinsey
(see the Learn More section at the end of this article) call it “one of the most
valuable, though promptly destroyed, crops of the garden before vegetables are
planted … nearly everyone who tries it, unprejudiced by the knowledge that it is
an everyday weed, is enthusiastic.” While weeding the greens we planted on
purpose, we munched on the lambsquarters instead of tossing it aside.
Sometimes known as wild spinach but regarded by many as superior,
lambsquarters has 309 milligrams of calcium per 100 grams of raw leaves and
11,600 international units (IU) of vitamin A plus thiamine, riboflavin and
niacin. Author Nelson Coon calls it “one of the most basically useful of all
‘weeds’.” The aboriginals of New Mexico grow it on purpose for food, it has been
used to fatten up pigs and chickens and it was even found in the preserved body
of a man thrown in a peat bog in Denmark over 1,500 years ago.
Purslane
Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is another prolific plant, with more
than 52,000 seeds found on a single plant. Native to India and Persia then
introduced in Europe and brought to North America, this low-growing, edible
green is the commonest of all weeds and one found most often as a garden “pest”
throughout most of North America. Fernald and Kinsey said, “The crop of purslane
has more potential value for food than the ignorantly nursed or neglected
planted crops.” And my family agrees.
On a hot and humid day nothing beats a
feast of purslane for quenching thirst, perhaps because it is ninety-two percent
water. A continuously growing plant, purslane can be enjoyed from June to
October. Many people eat the seeds and preserve the stems by pickling them.
Purslane contains 2,500 IU of vitamin A in 100 grams of leaves, 10 milligrams of
riboflavin and it is a great source of EPA, an extremely important long-chain
omega-3 fatty acid crucial for brain development and found only in fish oil or
Klamath Lake algae. Purslane is even mentioned by Thoreau in his classic book
Walden, perhaps for its many medicinal uses as well as being a common edible
weed.
Mallow
The mallows (Malva neglecta) are also called “cheese- weed” or
“fairy cheese,” referring to the disk of nutlets shaped like a round, flat
cheese; it is certainly not cheesy tasting but considered “safe and proper food
for the doll parties of childhood.” Indeed, my father first introduced me to
fairy cheese growing outside my home and told me that his father showed it to
him when he was a child. Another import from Europe, mallow is found in waste
and desert places all across North America. Malva pusilla or low mallow
will “overrun the country dooryards and village waysides.” Botanist Elmor
Merrill wrote, “This plant is possibly the richest in vitamins and minerals of
any plant ever analyzed in nutritional laboratories of the world.” We prefer
eating malva raw like spinach and, possibly because of its demulcent properties
(soothing to the bowels, kidneys and urinary organs), I crave a good meal of
malva when I feel a bit queasy. I have also rubbed mallow on my seven-year-old
to help take away the pain, inflammation and swelling from a wasp or bee sting
with good results.
We have enjoyed a wonderful assortment of edible greens and look forward to
trying some other new weeds this year, perhaps something like sumac lemonade,
dandelion tea or nasturtium salad.
Learn More
Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America by Merritt Lyndon
Fernald and Alfred Charles Kinsey (Dover, 1996)
The Dictionary of Useful Plants by Nelson Coon (Rodale Press, 1978)
Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Bradford Angier and David
Foster (Stackpole Books, 2008)
A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America
(Peterson Field Guide Series) by Lee Allen Peterson and Roger Tory Peterson
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999)
Feasting Free on Wild Edibles by Bradford Angier (Stackpole Books,
2002)
The History and Folklore of North American Wildflowers by Timothy
Coffey (Houghton Mifflin, 1993)
The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing
Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer (Forager’s Harvest Press, 2006)
Stalking The Wild Asparagus (special edition) by Euell Gibbons (Alan
C. Hood & Co, 2005)
Weed ‘Em and Reap: A Weed Eater Reader by Roger Welsch (Falcon,
2006)
Rashel Tremblay is a single mother who, with her children, spends time life learning and growing food on the shores on Lake Erie.
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