Edible Weed Garden "Free Food, Little Work"

I don't consider them weed, but wild spring edibles.
To add more to the lists, Annual sowthistle, Burdock, Goutweed, Allium Canadensis, Chicory, Dandelion (volunteers).
Good perennial edibles are Bigleaf aster (started from seed), Heartleaf aster, Cup plant, and Cutleaf cornflower.
I took a few seedlings from the park and populated them in the garden.

Photos from Canal Park, the last one is the photo of Poison hemlock with Cutleaf Cornflower. Not the Cowparsely, I avoid parsley family from wild.

Looks great Jeesun,
That reminds me of what all the doctors I am listening to are saying about the variety of plants that we eat.  Your microbiome becomes more resilient and able to deal with more, the more diverse it is. It is able to create more nutrients.   And the more diverse your diet, the more diverse your microbiome.  Dr. Terry Wahls also talks about her recovery from MS as partly due to an extreme variety and quantity of vegetables.  The more we forage, the wider our net, and the better our microbiome and health.

John S
PDX OR

Most of the plants in the Eastern Agricultural Complex of crops started out as annual weeds before being fully domesticated by the peoples of eastern North America. The crops that started out as annual weeds that grow in disturbed locations included pitseed goosefoot (Chenopodium berlandieri), marshelder (Iva annua), erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum), little barley (Hordeum pusillum), maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana), common sunflower (Helianthus annuus), wooly bean (Strophostyles helvola), and maybe the wild ozark squash (Cucurbita pepo). I am currently in the process of growing a test batch of these lost crops in an experimental garden bed.

Other common weeds I've collected and grown intentionally are eastern black nightshade (Solanum ptychanthum), common lamb's quarters (Chenopodium album), redroot amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus), wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum), and wild chicory (Cichorium intybus). Currently, I've planted some wild foxtail millet (Setaria faberi) this past Winter to test how well it grows as a grain. The wild foxtail millet has not sprouted yet, but I expect to see it sprout by the end of this month.

Some other weeds I've collected but have not yet intentionally planted include the common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), purslane (Portulaca oleracea), yellow wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta), and curly dock seed (Rumex crispus).

It seems that a lot of crops originally started out as weeds of disturbed areas. Some other examples outside of the Eastern Agricultural complex include foxtail millet (Setaria italica), parsnip (Pastinaca sativa), carrot (Daucus carota), field mustard and turnips (Brassica rapa), lettuce (Lactuca sativa), radish (Raphanus sativus), radicchio (Cichorium intybus), rye (Secale cereale), oats (Avena sativa), barley (Hordeum vulgare), and einkorn wheat (Triticum boeoticum).

I ate some henbit once that upset my stomach.

I think part of it was "red thistle" possibly:


https://eattheplanet.org/henbit-the-elegant-and-nutritious-wild-edible/

There's two "weeds that commonly grow in my garden every year. Henbit and a plant that has flowers that look the same.

I ate both; get a stomach ache and constipation.

I've been prorogating poke weed, but have never eaten any of it.

Nobody taught me how to cook it.

But my grandma used to have a sculpture of it so I propagate it.

I keep planting the berries.

What I've been told is don't eat the leaves near purple stems. Boil it, drain it, boil it drain it....

That's not enough information to EAT IT.


What's the truth on poke weed?