Eat your WEEDS!

When living mobile, and needing a good source for food, make sure you are familiar with as many edible weeds as possible! If you Don't have a garden, knowing what to eat (and how) can make the all difference! Here is a list and some descriptives I compiled over the past 2 years. But PLEASE do NOT eat ANY plants on the roadsides!

Edible Weeds:

Amaranth

Chickweed

Lambs quarter

Mallows

Purslane

Medicinal Herbs:

Burdock

Wild Onion

Queen Anne’s Lace

Dandelion

Nettles

*Amaranth (like spinach)

*Chickweed (also made into essenc

e) *Lambs quarter

*Mallows

*Purslane

ANNUALS

Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus)

Young leaves, old leaves, even non-woody stalks are delicious as a cooked green; chop and boil for 30-40 minutes. Serve in their own broth; freeze leftovers for winter use. Use instead of spinach in quiche (you may never grow spinach again). Collect seeds throughout the autumn by shaking seed heads over a lipped cookie sheet; or by harvesting and drying the entire seed head. Winnowing out the chaff is tedious but soothing. There is a special thrill that comes when you toss the chaffy seed in the air, and the breeze catches it just-so, and the seeds fall back into your tray, while the prickly chaff scatters "to the four winds." Amaranth is good combined with Watercress,Parsley, Chicory, Dandelion, And Lambs quarters for Anemia rich in Folic Acid



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.Pour boiling water over chickweed, apply warm plant to the eyelid of affected eye, leave on until it cools, throw away plant after use. Poultice up to 4-10 times a day, eye will be clear within 48 hrs.



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. Good for constipation.



Mallows

(Malva neglecta and related species)

Leaves of any age and flowers (the closely related Hibiscus flowers too!) are delicious in salads. Roots are used medicinally.Calcium Rich



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.





BIENNIALS

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.Bitter Tonics for emotions on even keel.

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.

Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota) (AKA WILD CARROT) Use 1 tsp. seeds daily as birth control

Leaves finely chopped in salads. Flowers are beautiful edible decorations. Roots of non-flowering plants, harvested in the fall, and cooked.



PERENNIALS

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis) supplies more than 100 grams of calcium than milk! 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.



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. Strengthen the kidneys and adrenals. Tonic for hormonal system use Infusion increases fertility. VIT K = infusion , ease leg cramps, diminish pain after childbirth. prevent hemorrhage after birth, reduce hemorrhoids , increase breast milk supply.

Yellow dock (Rumex crispus)

Roots pickled in apple cider vinegar are tasty and a boon for enriching the blood. Leaves, especially young ones, are eaten raw or cooked. use Comfrey or Yellow Dock for swelling, stop bleeding, and ease pain.



Dandelion greens (good before they flower)

The site below says you can boil and eat the roots also. We could season them with wild onions or garlic. I'm not sure which one we have but there would be plenty of that too.

Other common weeds in our lawn are narrow leaf and broad leaf plantain, sheep sorrel, wild dock, poke and once in a while I see Lambs Quarter.

Chicory is edible too. I've never seen it in my own yard but it grows along the roadsides in town. I think it must like asphalt. It has pretty blue flower.

Wild Johnny jump ups, Wild rocket,

Cattails

Morels

Wild Violet

Commonly found:

Lamb's Quarters

Sheep Sorrel

Green Briar

Wild Grape (leaves and fruit)

Dock (leaves)

Wild Carrot (young leaves, deep-fry blossoms, seeds for seasoning

Plantain

Cinquefoil

Cleavers or Goosegrass Mint

Chamomile

Feverfew

Ground Ivy

Cat Tail

Evening Primrose

Honeysuckle

Mustard

Purslane

Mallow

Poke Salat (must be cooked twice)

Yucca

white clover

red clover

spider wort

Edible Weeds:

Amaranth

Chickweed

Lambs quarter

Mallows

Purslane



Medicinal Herbs:

Burdock

Wild Onion

Queen Anne’s Lace

Dandelion

Nettles

*Amaranth (like spinach)

*Chickweed (also made into essence)

*Lambs quarter

*Mallows

*Purslane

Wild Johnny jump ups, Wild rocket,

Yucca white clover red clover spider wort daylillies lambs quarters mallow chickweed plantain Jewel weed chicory violets elder berry mulberry sunflower wood sorrel Virginia creeper wild onions grapes asparagus cat tails gooseberries raspberries strawberries comfrey mullen black walnut Poke weed lambs quarters mallow chickweed plantain Jewel weed chicory violets elder berry mulberry sunflower wood sorrel Virginia creeper wild onions grapes asparagus cat tails gooseberries raspberries strawberries comfrey mullen black walnut Poke weed courtesy is owed respect is earned love is given

Hype...or Help?

It's not about the hype, because life changes from hype are not long lasting.

It is about the HELP.



Help your neighbors when a storm has knocked out power. Help your friends when they are unemployed, help your children understand quality of life, Help your self to be healthy from hard work and healthy foods.



While many of us make healthy changes (Say, in January) how long do those last? Why not start each day with a resolution to do what is best for YOUR family and YOUR health right now?

Yesterday in the garden I watched as the weeds encroached upon my squash and melon plants, they were almost undetectable. So I dug in, with tools and hands and sweat and effort I rid those weeds, even though they were lovely little purple flowers on each of those weeds, I knew it was better for my plants if they were not competing for nutrients with those lovely little flowers.

Of course there are places I allow the weeds to grow, because many of them have wonderful, medicinal purposes. But for here, in my lovely bed of zucchini, yellow crook neck and cantelupe I do not let them flourish.



What has encroached into your life that needs to be thinned out? What is making it so you do not have the nutrients to flourish and grow? What can you do to change that?

I put that challenge to you, see if there are any lovely little purple weeds in your life, that may make it so you are NOT your best self.

Go ahead. Try it!

Spring has Sprung and the grass is growing!

I will share with you our little garden of Eden. We have been growing and spending our mornings in the sunshine. What a blessing to be able to produce our own foods! The secret to a harvest? PLANT and then pant again...and then plant YET AGAIN! We are also as a family working on a sustainability project for a West African community, for any who would like to join us, leave a message and we will add you to the email list! This project will include: sustainable growing of produce, herbs and medicinal plants. Providing local workers the opportunity to sew and make maternity pads, and newborn diapers. (need to provide a foot operated sewing machine) and facilitate an adult education program where they can learn technical skills including mechanics, carpentry, computer skills, and basic business.