Edible Wild Plants

A Free, Healthy, Marketable Food Source

- Ed Cuneo

When I was a young lad, it seemed like I spent my summer days perpetually hoeing weeds in the acres upon acres of canning-house tomatoes my family raised.

Hoeing gives you bountiful amounts of time to think. Imagining what new record album I'd buy with my work money was great. But the constant drudgery of that chore eventually lead me to an interesting question: What if I could sell these weeds just like the tomatoes and peppers they shared the ground with?

That spark of insight led me to learn more about those "weeds." To my delight, I found you could eat many of them as much as any cultivated plant.

This was quite a different experience from the one many grew up with, where mulberries, blackberries, honeysuckle and "lemon weed" (dock) were devoured with true culinary devotion. When Mom kicked you out of the kitchen before supper and you were "hangry," you headed for the nearest mulberry tree and took it out on the sweet juicy berries that left a telltale stain on your face. (This got you a "licking" from Mom if you didn't eat all your supper.) Then there were the wild cherries that my neighbor, Rocky, had.

Here, I'm going to talk about common plants - a.k.a. "weeds" - growing in your backyard that can be used not only for food but as a sellable delicacy for people who are just discovering these foraged foods.

Plants like nutsedge, dock, purslane, dandelion, and lamb's quarters - the stuff that Scotts Company, LLC, and other herbicide makers made a fortune killing.