When we buy and plant packets of common flower, vegetable, or herb seeds, we spend a lot of time, energy, and water in our efforts to get those seeds to germinate and grow. But when a plant that we identify as a weed grows in our lawn or garden, out comes the trowel and hoe (or, for the ruthless and impatient gardeners, weedkillers such as RoundUp). We may spend the entire growing season keeping these opportunistic and resilient plants at bay in order to have neat and tidy garden beds and uniform lawns. And it's too bad, really, as many of the common garden weeds require few resources and are not only edible and nutritious but can be a great homegrown (and free) addition to our meals.
Weeds are widely believed to be a gardener's arch-enemy. They stifle crops, steal water, hog sunlight, and create what some deem an eyesore in otherwise impeccably groomed flowerbeds and lawns. They're not all bad, though: Edible weeds, it turns out, are exceedingly useful.
Instead of burning your abundance of dandelions, chickweed, or wild amaranth—or worse, spraying them with toxic weedkiller—take the zero-waste approach and repurpose them into dandelion tea, amaranth seed polenta, or chickweed pesto.
Here are 16 edible weeds and how to incorporate them into your diet. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
