~Chills

Only other edible weed I see around here is chickweed, and I hear it's a good salad ingredient.

And for those drug majors in the school system............
They do some jimsonweed projects on standby.(on their freetime of course)

As a bonus, under those conditions they don't flower much if at all, so they remain a localized patch that doesn't bother anybody.

I do dig them out of my actual flowerbeds, but the dug-up ones still get fed to the hens.

kristin

I've read that all of those are edible (or at least that have parts that are). And I think I have 'em all competing with my lawn and garden! It'd be nice to know which ones I can use in my kitchen and which ones are worth the trouble.

(I rarely use herbicides, and on the rare occasions when I do - e.g., as a last ditch effort to control my Himalayan blackberries and morning glories, I just apply Round-Up to the growing tip of the plant in question. But I haven't even done that in a year or two.)

Genie

Some ask why take a chance eating a plant that may still contain small amounts of some toxins even when harvested young and cooked properly, when there are many safer alternatives available. I'd say for some people it's a matter of economics and convenience. Why go to the store and pay for chard or spinach if a substitute is growing on its own outside your window?

Plus, I'm certainly no expert on specific "toxins," but I do know that many substances that are toxic in larger concentrations are harmless or even beneficial in small amounts.

So is the jury still out on pokeweed/poke salad?

I am about to purchase and try to grow some more unusual wild edible plants I have sourced.There are so many people have almost forgotten about.I am trying to collect the oldest seeds (from the 1800's)I can before these are lost.
And I have not even begun to look at the native plants here,which are completely undeveloped by humans.It is difficult to get hold of unusual seeds here as the quarantine restrictions and limits on what is allowed are prohibitive compared to the rest of the world.This is to protect the crops presently grown here that are currently disease-free.
And because of the above I am doubly fascinated to hear of anyone growing unusual plants.
I am presently trying to get some red huckleberries to germinate,which will be quite a feat here in Perth if a success, given the much warmer climate, so here's hoping!

For pickled dandelion buds, get a quart mason jar. Chop garlic, ginger and onion and put a layer of those about an inch deep in the jar. Add unopened dandelion buds (not just those that have opened and closed up for the night) until it half-fills the jar. Add apple cider vinegar and a shot of soy sauce, leaving an inch of head space. Let sit for 3 weeks or longer. The reason you don't fill the jar completely with dandelion buds is so the vinegar isn't too diluted to act as a preservative.