Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I just discovered in Mars's thread that I have edible purslane growing in my garden. Let's post pics of edible weeds here so we can identify more of them.

Any excuse not to weed is great to me!

*warning: I should probably put this disclaimer to be careful about any wild foraging, as some poisonous plants can look just like edible ones. So only eat it if you're sure. At least, this is what I've read. I'm a novice at foraging, obviously.


This is an imagine of purslane from google. It looks just like stuff I've weeded out of my garden.

Hmm. Pretty sure I've got chickweed


almost definitely lamb's quarters


maybe even some plaintain


I wonder what the chances are that any of these weeds are actually something else I shouldn't eat?

The purslane is a resilient self seeder because the seeds spill when they are removed from the soil. The seeds are super tiny and look like poppy seeds.

that's definitely plantain. as for the lambs quarters, i can never seem to find any, so can't tell.
as for chickweed, if you know any deserving guinea pigs or cockatiels, ours love it. i can never get enough to eat that's not mixed with something else like grass, and i don't have patience to sort it, so i give it to our animal friends instead.

Sergei Boutenko has some stuff about wild foraging on youtube, i believe.

I'm fairly sure that even if you do make a mistake it's not usually too bad of one, especially for ground weeds. Maybe eating leaves off of trees is another thing, but when they say something is non-edible it often just means some indigestion. Actually badly poisonous is more rare. I'll post some 'Do not eat's here later when I have more time.

Here are some 'Do eat!':
Miner's lettuce


Red Sorrel

We can't forget Dandelion! You can eat the leaves and the root.

There are some very poisonous ground weeds out there, so I'd definitely nix the idea of eating something you can't identify. Some of the toxic weeds in and around my veggie garden are native, others came in on the wind or from animal dispersion, and as escapees from area gardens. I have everything from nightshade, foxglove and poison hemlock to a small, weedy euphorbia that has toxic sap that can blister skin.

Aubade, you've id'ed your plants correctly, but I've not heard of anyone putting plantain into the top rank of edible weeds. Lambs quarter is fabulous though!

Oh, none of those pics above are actually from my garden. I just read through this article
Top Ten Edible Weeds for the Kitchen, looked them all up using google images, and posted ones I thought looked like things I'd seen in my garden. Plantain is actually mentioned in that article.

Sure enough, I checked today and I'm 99.9% sure I've got quite a few plantain and lamb's quarter plants. I didn't see any purslane, but I think that's because I already weeded them out. I'm sure they'll grow back. Didn't see any chickweed either, but I think that's because they're tiny and mixed in with my tall grass, which really needs to be mowed haha.

Some of my lamb's quarters have purple dots on them though. Does anyone know if that's bad?

Plantain leaves are a bit tough unless they are very young. You can mash the leaves and use them as a poultice against bug bites, though. The seeds are edible, and apparently laxative. Here's a nice summary blog post about it:

http://wildfoodgirl.com/edible/plantain-seeds-can-lower-ldl-cholesterol/

Oh I never meant eat things that you can't identify, I just meant from all that I have read, if you are 96% sure, it's pretty damn safe. That extra 4% isn't really necessary, more because ground weeds don't tend to have a lot of really good look-a-likes. Unlike mushrooms.

So I went out in my yard and got some pics. Here are the plantains (with some wild violets mixed in, that lived in my yard when I moved in):


You can't see them too well, and they're kind of wilty because it was early afternoon on a hot day, but turns out I've got a huge lamb's quarters patch:


This is what the lamb's quarters look like when they get the purple dots I mentioned:

I also have a ton of plantains. I'm not really interested in eating the leaves, but am curious about the seeds. Do you dry them out, grind them, and use them like psyllium husks?

psyllium *is* the seed of one type of plantain, but i have no idea how to tell them apart. the wikiped page has some photos.
i did see a Renegade Health show about making a plantain facial- if i remember right plantain has a lot of silica and is supposed to be really good for your skin.

Regarding the red spots the lambsquarters, it is probably beet leaf spot. Lambsquarters is related to beets and an alternate host. I see the spots somewhat frequently myself. I am guessing that it may not be healthy to eat infected plants, but don't know for sure.

I am rescuscitating this thread because i found an old email from the Boutenkos- there is a free online app (you need to register) to identify herbs here
http://sergeiboutenko.com/wildediblesapp/
you can also buy the iswag app at whatever place you get that stuff from (info is on that site)

and a very very cute video about not eating unidentified weeds (puppy cuteness at :58)



and although the video gets tedious (but is damn fun if you envision the boutenko kids as being age 5 and 7, respectively), there are links to Sergei's other plant ID videos.

be careful with dandelion. around here there is a plant that is very similar known as flat leaf... dandelions should have sharp points to their leaves and only one flower per stem, and they aren't all that hairy. a good herb book should have your edible weeds in it, please don't eat weeds without first having a really close look at the leaf structure and other distinctive features. i know people who've eaten flatleaf instead of dandy, tropical chickweed instead of regular chickweed, wild violets instead of gotu kola and ornamental ginger thinking it was galangal! there are more, but these are the ones off the top of my head.

FYI, purslane is a good source of omega-3, and if you have a nice mature crop, the stalks are excellent pickled.

Torque that video was awesome!! I never thought I would see edible weeds and breakdancing together. Hilarious!

Lamb's Quarters 4 Lyfe! One of the best parts of cleaning up my garden plot is the bags upon bags of Lambs's Quarters. Cook it up with some oil and garlic, oh my heavens, that is some nice stuff. Like super powered spinach.

recipe, mr. dog?

We own a 100 year old house that has a plantain patch near the kitchen door. Wonder if any previous owners knew what the plants were and used them for cooking/medicine? I know a doctor built the house and had his practice here. The backyard was also used for shoeing horses. There's also lot's of wild violets and other unidentified 'weeds' growing in the back.

I didn't know that's what lamb's quarters looks like! Ohhh, and the miner's lettuce is so pretty! I would eat that! Haha! And the red sorrel...isn't actually red?! This is all exciting to me, my daughter has been after me to help introduce her to foraging, and I love it, so really should get doing it! Also, you can eat young tumbleweeds, when they are green! Very tasty!

I need to pay closer attention to the weeds in my backyard. Maybe they were planted there for a purpose long ago and now grow wild from re-seeding.

I used the one in the joy of pickling, which, if you ignore the very brief chapter on pickled meats and eggs, is otherwise vegan.

Also, that's Dr. Dog.