Eating Weeds and Saving Money

Guest blog by Sergei Boutenko
When the sun is shining and the weather is warm I rely on wild edibles for nourishment and save mega dollars on food in the process. Wild food is plentiful, healthful, free, and available everywhere and for everyone. On a typical summer day I’m likely to kick-start my morning with a freshly made smoothie of chickweed, purslane, frozen berries, and ripe seasonal fruit. At lunch I indulge in a salad or wrap made from garden veggies and edible weeds. I finish my day with a hearty dinner consisting of dandelion pesto, quinoa patties (with common mallow), wild edibles salad, and coconut energy balls for dessert. These meals are enjoyable and provide me with hard core nutrition! During the spring, summer, and fall months, wild edibles easily account for 40 percent of my food. While I don’t abstain from shopping for food altogether, I go to the grocery store far less frequently and my food bill diminishes dramatically.

If you are new to foraging and would like to try it but don’t know where to begin, I suggest starting with your garden weeds. A healthy organic garden with a weed problem is filled with awesome unintentional food. If you learn to recognize plants like purslane, common mallow, and chickweed you’ll never complain about weeding ever again and you’ll start saving money on food. So let’s address a few safety tips and then dive in and learn how to correctly identify purslane, common mallow, and chickweed.

Sergei’s Simple Rules For Safe Foraging

• Don’t eat something if you don’t know what it is!
• When trying new food for the first time, eat a small amount to make sure your body reacts positively to it.
• Don’t mix wild edibles until you know how they affect your body.

Purslane
Purslane leaves are green, paddle-shaped, and have a reddish stem. The plant stem is smooth and succulent and will emit a slimy, okra-like juice when bent or broken. Hidden amidst the leaves of the plant are tiny, yellow flowers with five petals.

Edible: Leaves, stem, flowers, and seeds.
Flavor: Slightly sour taste
Uses: The whole plant can be eaten raw as a trailside nibble. Bring purslane home and see how it tastes in salads, smoothies, stir-fries, sandwiches, on pizza, etc.
Nutritional Highlight: Rich in iron, beta-carotene, vitamins A, C, folate, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, and riboflavin. Purslane is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which prevent heart disease and improve immune system functions.

Helpful Tip: The way purslane leaves are structured can make them tedious to harvest. I find it helpful to have a pair of scissors on hand so that I can cut the stem near the ground. I then take these “purslane branches” home and process them in the comfort of my home.

Common Mallow
Common Mallow is a low-growing plant with freely branching stems. Leaves are round with shallow lobes. Flowers have five petals and can be white, pink, or lavender in color. Flowers also display longitudinal stripes. Common mallow fruits are round, flat, and disc-shaped. Leaves and fruits are mucilaginous.
Edible: Leaves, stems, fruits, and flowers.
Flavor: Leaves, stems, fruits and flowers have a mellow okra-like flavor.

Uses: Leaves, fruits, stems, and flowers can be eaten raw, steamed, boiled, sautéed, blended, and baked.
Nutritional Highlights: Mallow contains the minerals copper, calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C. It is rich in beneficial mucilage, which helps relieve colds, flus, and coughs.
Helpful Tips: Common mallow is a relative of okra and thus has a similar sliminess. This makes mallow a very good binding agent for recipes that require a thick consistency. For example, in a smoothie, liquids may separate from the solids after blending. Adding a few mallow leaves to a smoothie will prevent this kind of separation.

Chickweed
Chickweed grows in a dense mat on the ground. Leaves are oval and grow in an opposite pattern along long, narrow stalks. Flowers are tiny and white, with five petals, which are deeply cleft, so it looks like there are actually ten petals. Chickweed has a mohawk hairline, which runs up the stem. This hairline is found between each set of leaves. If examined closely, one can notice that the hairline changes positions and alternates sides on the plant’s stem. This quality is unique to chickweed.
Edible: Leaves, stems, and flowers.
Flavor: Leaves and flowers are slightly sweet and juicy.
Uses: Chickweed is a mild and delicious plant that can be eaten raw. Try adding chickweed to your next salad, sandwich, or wrap.
Nutritional Highlights: Rich in copper, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, and vitamin C. Chickweed tinctures have been used to treat bladder, kidney, and urinary tract difficulties. It soothes irritated tissue, which makes it beneficial for cosmetic or topical applications.
Helpful Tips: Because chickweed grows in dense mats, it can be easily harvested with a pair of scissors. Simply grab a handful of chickweed in one hand and use your other hand to cut it near the base of the plant.

One of Sergie’s recent video releases; Common Weeds And Wild Edibles Of The World.