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Food on Fridays with Ann
You may recall that I started to forage. I tried Lamb’s Quarters (yum!) and pansies (bleh). Now it’s purslane.
I was able to properly identify purslane with help from Penny’s purslane post. Without Penny’s tips, I might have picked purge (which is poisonous), thinking it was purslane.
This is purslane.
This is purge.
Where I live, they can grow right next to each other. The two photos above? I stood in the exact same place and turned to the right to snap the purslane photo and to the left to snap the purge picture.
Again, do not eat purge, whose relatively flat leaves and stems spread out low and spidery, similar to purslane, which boasts fatter, more succulant-type leaves and stems. Penny’s tip is to snap the stem—if white liquid oozes out, it’s poisonous purge. Snap purslane’s stems, and you’ll see nothing.
Once you learn that trick, you’ll never be confused again. And that’s good, because this (purslane, below) can and perhaps should be eaten. After all, the National Institutes of Health reports purslane is packed with omega 3 fatty acids and antioxidants.
I picked some when I was out on a run. Carried it home and rinsed it thoroughly, sauteed it with pumpkin seeds, and ate it as a mid-morning snack.
Purslane’s flavor was pleasant, mild. I’ll eat it again. It’s handy, after all, to head out on a run and return with breakfast.
Englewood Review of Books posted a series of videos by Sergei Boutenko, which helps identify wild edibles. He also developed an Wild Edible iPhone app, which you can learn about here (I’d try it, but I have a droid).
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Photos by Ann Kroeker. “Pin” these images in a way that links back to this particular page, giving proper credit.
Smaller button for various uses
I have heard of purslane, but I’m not sure that I’ve ever tasted it. It looks really lovely. I’ve shared my Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake today. Thank you for hosting, Ann and have a wonderful weekend!
April, it’s pretty mild so not a bad entry into eating wild things. I liked Lamb’s Quarters better, but I’d need a lot more to make a meal of it.
I love the way you continue to model elegant, graceful hospitality. Thank you for the recipe. I clicked through and wished I were able to eat gluten and dairy, because the cake looks amazing!
These were taking over my scallion patch, and – yesterday – Hubby commissioned a good chunk to higher ‘green juice service’. Since we weren’t sure what it would taste like, we took the simple route – orange juice and purslane – and it was fine, but a few add-ins wouldn’t hurt a thing. It’s a lot milder than I thought it would be.
We had thrown out the excess, but now I wish we had left them in the garden. If they pop up again, I will have to try your stir-fry idea. 🙂
Ruth, I agree that it needs a little flavor boost. I forgot to mention in my post that I tossed in a big garlic clove (you can see it in the photo). I didn’t eat the garlic, but it did add flavor to the dish. We’ve pulled up tons of purslane, too, not knowing how healthy it is. That’s one thing I’m learning in this wild edibles journey–how, if I can discern which are edible and which are not, I will have access to some really nutritious foods. All for free, if I can find them! I’m grateful to Penny, whom I highlighted, for showing how to find great stuff and incorporate it into out diets. And those videos were helpful to me, too, since I didn’t grow up with someone helping me to identify stuff around here in the American Midwest.
What a cool find on a run! I’m not sure if we have any in Austin, but I will take a look. Seems like it would be lovely with toasted pine nuts too.
Trish, purslane pokes up out of sidewalk and driveway cracks and in dry soils. You could find it on the edges of the church playground or out on your own run. According to Penny, it grows in all 50 states. And Ruth (who commented above) lives in Jamaica and had it growing in abundance in her garden. Keep an eye open and maybe you can bring it back from your own morning runs there in the big state of Texas! 🙂
Several years ago I did a feature for The Star on a woman who offered garden plots to people on food stamps. Only one took her up on it, and they became friends. The woman brought her mother, who had grown up on one of the Caribbean islands, out to help, and the mother made her stop throwing away “weeds” because they were considered a delicacy on her island! I will look up my photos, but I’m pretty sure it was purslane.
That takes the idea of friendship gardens to a new level. I would love to have an expert helping me to identify what’s edible and what’s not. I’ve not yet chomped on dandelion greens, and before summer ends, I want to dig up some chicory, because a friend brews it up as a drink and uses it in various ways.
It may be too late in the season for dandelion greens–you want them in the spring when they are young and tender. That is something I had growing up, and they are like any other green–when they get more mature, there is a slight bitterness.
This is interesting and I know it must be very good for you. My husband tells me of watercress growing wild in a spring near where he lived in Tennessee. It made delicious salad and free too. Also polk salad was another free wild green that was good for them to eat. They poured hot bacon grease on it! Can you imagine?
I watched a video about watercress–the person making the video made a big deal about a plant growing near watercress and claimed one bite of the other plant (that looked a little bit like watercress), and you can die.
It kind of scared me, as you can imagine. So I’m going to just hike down at our nearby creek sometime to take a look, but I’m not going to taste test anything. I heard that pokeweed was poisonous…I’ll have to research more stuff, but I’m moving very slowly on all of this so that I don’t eat something dangerous. 🙂
Oh, I’m glad to see you’re trying the wild edibles too! You go girl!
We eat lamb’s quarters, dandelions, oregon grape (very sour!), black elderberry, miner’s lettuce, and my son’s newest edible? Grasshoppers!
Blessings.