05/29/2022
25% OFF ALL PLANTS
Purslane is one of my favorite wild edibles! 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
Purslane sprouts from sidewalk cracks, invades gardens and earns contempt from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which classifies it as a "noxious w**d."
It also happens to be a "superfood" high in heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids and beta carotene, one tasty enough to spread, like the w**d it is, to farmers' markets and fancy restaurants.
This terrestrial source of Omega-3 fatty acids has added appeal at a time when buying fish has become so complicated that consumers have to consult their smart phones for the latest health and environmental bulletins.
Known formally as portulaca oleracea, and informally as little hogw**d, purslane is a succulent herb that looks like a miniature jade plant. A more colorful description can be found in seed catalogs, which note that in Malawi, the name for the fleshy, round-leafed plant translates to "the buttocks of the wife of a chief."😂😂🍑
The moisture-rich leaves are cucumber-crisp, and have a tart, almost lemony tang with a peppery kick. But taste is not the only reason to eat it.
The plant had the highest level of Omega-3 fatty acids of any other green plant
Early Americans appreciated it, too. Martha Washington had a recipe for pickled "pursland" in the Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats, the collection of hand-written family recipes she received as a wedding gift, according to mountvernon.org.
But the plant fell out of culinary fashion here until its recent rediscovery by food-foraging, w**d-eating epicures.
