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Weeds: If You Can't Beat'em … Eat'em
| Article
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16463 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
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5 / 1989 |
2,378 Words |
| Author
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Michael F. Havelin
Michael F. Havelin is a writer and nature photographer living
in Takoma Park, Maryland. He is currently publishing a book
entitled Exploring Nature's Uncultivated Garden. |
Dine on weeds? Cattail hors d'oeuvres, dandelion sauté, and cream of broccoli with burdock are a few of the herbivorous dishes created with wild plants. Some of these plants are much richer in nutrients than are foods grown on factory farms, trucked cross-country, and sold at the local supermarket.
Although city dwellers and farmers alike dread these garden invaders and have purchased herbicides by the boxcar to kill them, others are joining the ranks of weed-eaters, citing reasons of taste, nutrition, and practicality. Let's examine a few of the more common edible wild plants and some ways to prepare them.
Dandelion
Everyone is familiar with the ubiquitous dandelion. The dandelion is no snob. It grows in wild places and in cultivated places, even having the nerve to encroach on the well-tended White House lawn. For centuries Italians have recognized this little vagrant as an edible morsel. Today, many are savoring the dandelion as a salad green of high quality, packed with vitamin A, thiamine, riboflavin, and ascorbic acid, calcium, sodium, and potassium. America's frontiersmen and pioneers also recognized its value as a general tonic.
In the spring, the tender younger leaves that first appear in a rosette rising from the head of the taproot can be gathered and used in salads. The best-tasting dandelion leaves grow in moist, shady places. As the season progresses, the leaves become more bitter, but the bitterness can be leached from the leaves by a short
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