The Good and the Bad!

  Weeds are the bane of every gardener from those with small container gardens to those with acres and acres of field.  I can remember Pop telling us to head to the fields to hoe or weed almost daily.  My siblings and I had no choice but to obey regardless of the heat of summer or the icy cold of winter.  We weeded. Unlike kids of today who have no idea how to do such things, we worked the fields and are all the better for it. I still weed.  My idea of raised gardens did not help too much in the way of eradicating the weeds.   Seeds still find their way in among the veggies and spring to life almost overnight.  So...I weed.

  Now I find that some of the pesky plants that I have been pulling all summer should have been carefully cultivated and not ripped from the ground.  Purslane should have been added to my diet not the trash pile. This common plant is uncommonly healthy for you!  It is high in omega-3 fatty acid, vitamin A, vitamin B-complex, vitamin C, vitamin E and also has calcium, magnesium and iron! Purslane is packed with antioxidants that guard against heart disease, some cancers, memory loss and age related vision loss. This "weed" is a superfood!  It is also high in pectin which will thicken soups and stews.  Suddenly, my purslane sounds more like supper.  

Purslane...succulent stems and leaves.

  Purslane has long been consumed in the Mediterranean and in Asia. This makes me ponder why we consider it to be "no good".  When something this healthy grows so well, why not make use of it? I talked with Son about it and he said he was game to give it a try.  We have done this before and have found several other "weeds" to be of our liking. 

Thick reddish stems and succulent leaves...Good!

  Purslane is a succulent plant that has reddish stems that are quite thick.  It grows close to the ground never getting more than about eight inches in height.  The leaves are thick and oval-shaped.  The blooms of this plant are almost unnoticeable.  They are tiny yellow cup-shaped blossoms that are tucked far under the leaves.  The seeds are not much bigger than a grain of sand and are black.

Spurge...bad news!

Spurge...wiry stems, flat leaves and white sap....Bad News!  

  *Now...a word of warning!  While Purslane is healthy and quite delicious, another plant that grows in similar conditions does not play so nice.  Spurge can usually be found intermingled with Purslane.  It is not uncommon to find the two sharing a bit of ground.  Spurge, however, is poisonous!  It is similar in appearance but does not have the nice fat stems and succulent leaves. The stems of Spurge are more wiry and the leaves are flat.  An easy way to distinguish the two is to break a stem.  If it oozes white sap...steer clear!  That is Spurge!  Bad stuff!  Since the two do grow close together at times, be very careful not to inadvertently pick a few stems of Spurge when harvesting the Purslane!  While the Purslane is good for you, the Spurge may kill you!  Please get a positive identification before eating any plants!*