Ah yes, the joys of spring. Scilla, crocuses, tulips, leaves coming out on the trees… and weeds. Weeds evvvvverywhere.
Is your yard overrun by dandelions? Purslane? Don’t despair. Enjoy the free food!
Dandelions trying to take over? Put them in your salad!
Yup, you can eat them! Here are some great places to start for the novice home forager.
Edible Weeds: Dandelions
Dandelion greens work as pizza toppings, in salads, in stir fries. Here’s a tempting recipe for pesto! (And some salad suggestions from Eating Well. Even a recipe from the Splendid Table for a dandelion flower cookie!) Sarah at Nature’s Nurture has a wonderful collection of ideas for using dandelions in an impressive array of recipes. If you’re feeling really ambitious, you could roast the roots for a coffee-like drink.
Though usually seen as exceptionally pesky weeds, dandelions are versatile and very nutritious. The flowers are also important early food for bees, so if you want to help out our pollinators, try to leave some dandelion flowers in your yard in early spring, when there’s not much else for them to eat.
Wood sorrel, or lemon hearts
Edible Weeds: Wood Sorrel
Wood sorrel, which I’ve heard referred to as lemon hearts (love that!), is one of the next edible weeds to appear. It has delicate heart-shaped leaves that taste vaguely lemony. Great in salads, or to nibble on while you’re working in the garden. Kids love them, and my 5-year-old will happily pick herself a snack while she’s keeping me company. Sprinkle them on your salad or let your toddler nibble them while you dig up dandelions.
Violets have filled in as the yard has gotten shadier. Pretty, low maintenance, AND edible!
Edible Weeds: Violets
I’ve always been a big fan of violets, which spread nicely to shady areas and make a great groundcover. After all my failed attempts at vegetable gardening in the front yard, they have been a welcome takeover. Imagine my delight when I discovered you can eat them as well! They also have some appealing medicinal uses. Find out more about using violets here.
Purslane: weed or superfood?
Edible Weeds: Purslane
I’m eagerly awaiting the reappearance of my purslane, a rockstar of the weed world. High in vitamin E and other nutrients, it’s also one of the best plant-based sorurces of omega-3s. Check out my recipe for a delicious and healthy purslane-pineapple-ginger smooothie. Apparently purslane is also good in stirfries, though I’ve never had enough left over from smoothies to try. Read more here.
Other Edible Weeds to Forage
- Lambsquarters, a relative of amaranth and quinoa, is another nutritious green for spring salads and cooking.
- Nettle is not only a super-nutritious green, it makes a soothing tea thought to boost your immune system and alleviate allergies.
- Plantain, one of several “weeds” and weed-like plants that are excellent additions to your home remedy arsenal.
- Chickweed is another nutritious option, as Michelle from Seeking Joyful Simplicity explains in her post on chickweed pesto.
- Even creeping charlie can be cooked like spinach and brewed into a healthful tea.
- Though it doesn’t grow in my region, kudzu (the weed that ate the south) is also edible. If you’ve tried it, leave a comment and let me know how it is!
These weeds are everywhere. Go harvest yourself some free wild vegetables you didn’t even realize you were growing!
These are just a small selection of some of the edible weeds you might find in a yard near you. If you want to explore more, my go-to resource for foraged edibles is Wildman Steve Brill. Check out his comprehensive list of edible wild plants you might find in your yard (as well as his amazing recipes using wild foods. Cattail soup anyone?). I also love the information at Eat the Weeds and Edible Wild Food.
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Follow my foraging Pinterest board for lots more tips on finding free wild foods!
This is my favorite part of Spring! We’re renters, and we usually move during the winters (just finished a move last month!), so it’s always fun venturing out in our new neighborhood the next Spring to see what edibles are growing around our yard, nearby parks and trails, etc. Great info here, and we LOVE Wildman Steve! 🙂
Sarah, that’s awesome! What’s to eat where you are? The very first dandelion greens are just starting to appear here, and I’m looking forward to some tasty salad. After I wrote this piece, I was thrilled to discover that even creeping charlie (which grows abundantly here) has edible uses. And it’s one of the first plants to get going. Charlie and dandelion green salad is definitely on the menu here next week!
Hey Susannah! Just taking a much needed minute to myself to sip some coffee and read something I WANT to read rather than all the stuff I feel I have to. I’ve read your stuff about edibles before, but it was a great re-read as winter turns to spring and cravings for stew turn to dreams of delicious salad. We’re moving to the woods of northern Minnesota in the next couple of months and between my garden and what grows in the wild, I am hoping to reduce my expenditures at the local supermarket by quite a bit. Have a great Earth Day!
Happy spring, Rachel! Hope you have fun foraging and growing this season. I always look forward to the return of fresh food. Good luck with your move!
Hi Susannah,
Great post and so much valuable information. I love your title too. Nature provides us with so many valuable tools to stay healthy if only we utilize them. What we think as weeds are God’s nutritional powerhouses. Thanks for sharing on Real Food Fridays. Pinned & tweeted!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing, Marla! Hope you find something healthy to nibble growing in your yard also. 🙂
Hi Susannah,
Just a note to let you know that I have chosen your post as one of my features for this weeks Real Food Fridays blog hop that goes live every Thursday @ 7pm EST. Thank you for being part of Real Food Fridays mission and helping to make this world a little bit healthier every week.
That’s lovely news — thanks so much! I’m so happy I discovered your site and linkup! Looking forward to reading and sharing lots more real food posts there 🙂
Such a fun post! I just spent the afternoon reading through one of my favorite wild food books, “Edible Wild Plants” by John Kallas. Lately I have been obsessed with making cupcakes and “banana-like” bread using fresh picked dandelion petals, but this next week will be all about wild green salads and stir fry.
Thanks so much for the informative and inspiring post!
Those sound amazing, Andrea! Anyone else reading this, here’s a great recipe from Andrea plus more details on dandelions: http://www.forestandfauna.com/dandelion-lemon-paleo-cupcakes/
This is SO interesting. I knew about dandelion leaves but didn’t realize there were so many others. I just pulled a bunch of weeds out this weekend when I was cleaning up our flower garden bed. Thanks for this helpful information!
Glad you found it helpful, Angela! Hope you enjoy some delicious new finds next time you’re out doing yard work!
Clever post with priceless information! Thank you for sharing with us on the Art of Home-Making Mondays at Strangers & Pilgrims on Earth! 🙂
I just tried dandelion tea for the first time about a month ago. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t too weird tasting. 🙂 I wasn’t aware humans could eat wild violets as well. We just got a pig for the first time this week and he LOVES them!
So does our resident groundhog! (But he leaves some for us, too.)
Good Monday to you! Just a note to let you know that this post has been *FEATURED* today on “The Art of Home-Making Mondays” at Strangers & Pilgrims on Earth! Thank you for joining us and we hope to have you share again! 🙂
Thanks so much for featuring this post! And thanks for hosting a terrific linkup!
I’ve never eaten kudzu leaves, but mother-in-law and I used to make gorgeous pink jelly from the kudzu blooms.
Awesome! What did it taste like?