Purslane--it's annoying and it's edible

The main summer weed in my garden is purslane. It starts so innocently as a tiny purple tinted sprout and soon grows into a spreading, whorl of succulent leaves on a reddish stem and a tiny yellow flower whose seed pod soon opens to drops tiny seeds for next year. The first year I gardened, I discovered it was edible and suggested to my visiting father that we could eat it. His reaction was typical for someone raised in the depression who had to eat "weeds". We tried it pickled and as a salad green and were mostly unimpressed. A friend of mine ordered purslane seeds from a catalogue with her other garden vegetables, not realizing until it grew that she had it in abundance all over her garden.

The following years of gardening, I mostly pulled it out. You have to get it out of the garden because it lives on after being pulled from the ground and wills till drop seeds for the next year for you to pull again. One plant can produce over 50,000 seeds. One gardener who should know said that it provides tons of nitrogen for the garden if you till it in and I sometimes do that also, although it is warm weather crop and the nitrogen is leached out here by the winter rains.

Purslane originated in India and was supposedly it was Ghandi's favorite plant. Since I have the usual abundance this year, I'm going to try it in the green bean salad. Supposedly it can be used as a substitute for spinach in lasagnas and pasta dishes. It has very high nutritional values being full or omega 3's, and very low in calories,

At Organic Golden Purslane - 500 Seeds - Veggie

August 18, 2010

Purslane--it's annoying and it's edible