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from Natural Life magazine, July/August
2009 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!”
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 ... To read the rest of this article, subscribe to Natural Life's online edition. Rashel Tremblay is a single mother to three children, ages nine, four and two-and-a-half. They spend their time life learning and growing food on the shores on Lake Erie, Canada. |
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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! 
