Wednesday, July 11, 2007

"Thanks for the Weed!"


A year ago, I was introduced to purslane. Well, I've been pulling the weed for a long time, but I didn't have a name for it, and I had no idea that it was edible. A gardening friend clued me in. It's a flavorful green, but hard to describe. I like it. Apparently, it's good for me, too. High in Omega-3s, among other nutrients.

Greengirls posted about purslane yesterday. This evening, I took a little to share with a neighbor. She liked it, and offered some to her 4 year old son. He really liked it. I suggested that they come to my garden to see the plant in the ground, and to get a larger helping. The boy was excited when I pulled an entire plant up for him. I wish I could bottle up that joie de vivre.

As we left the garden, he turned and gave me a hearty, "Thanks for the weed!"

3 comments:

kris said...

LOL - I hope we don't hear that comment from him in a few years!! I have never heard of this edible weed before - but tomorrow I'm going to check out my garden - lots of weeds, so maybe I'll get lucky!

Peter Hoh said...

Kris, yeah, my neighbor and I had a good chuckle that I was turning her kind on to weed, man.

Purslane leaves are much thicker than the leaves of ordinary weeds. Look at the Wikipedia article for more info. The scientific name reveals that it is in the Portulaca family.

kate said...

That's a good one - thanks for the weed. I had no idea that purslane was edible. Thanks for that tip ... I definitely have several thriving plants in my back garden!