Purslane? Yes, please!

I've been told time and time again by plant people that purslane is edible, but in spite of being encouraged to eat this common weed in the past, I never have.  It was a surprise and a delight to see purslane, (quite possibly a cultivar of Portulaca oleracea),  in this last week's share.  Now, at last, I could taste what I was missing.

Firstly, I should say of course that the purslane we enjoyed this week was very robust and succulent.  I'm not sure that eating sidewalk purslane would be quite the same as the share portion, but I might still give it a try.

As I alluded to last week, my go-to way of cooking greens is a simple stir-fry.  That's how I first tried purslane, whipping up a quick hot dish with olive oil, scapes, purslane, squash, and salt.  The first time I cooked the purslane I threw away the stalks, thinking they would be tough.  This was a mistake!  The second time around I realized that the stalks have almost the consistency of asparagus, complimented by a sweet, spinachy taste from the leaves.  I savored the rest of my stalks throughout the week.

I haven't explored many ways of cooking purslane, but this so-called superfood appears to be as common in foraging blogs as it is in the landscape.  I hope for more purslane in my share this week, but, if not, I might hunt some sidewalk weeds now that I know what I've been missing.



Pictured: Portulaca oleracea L. Clark, G.H., Fletcher, J., Farm weeds of Canada, t. 18 (1906) [N. Criddle] from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, courtesy of the University of Alberta Libraries.

Note: Never forage and eat any plant that you can't identify with absolute certainty, be aware that without testing, you can't tell if the soil in which a plant is growing has been contaminated with metals, and, finally, chemical levels related to both poison and nutrition are different from plant to plant--a so-called "healthy" plant might not, in the wild, contain all of the nutrients you'd expect. Forage responsibly and with caution.  See Leda Meredith's great book Northeast Foraging for more information about foraging.