Look before you weed: some plants you are throwing out or composting might make a great addition to your diet.
Purslane and dandelion greens make a delicious addition to the other greens in my garden — chard, spinach, arugula, mache, lettuces, amaranth, etc. Instead of pulling the purslane and dandelions as invasive weeds when they are growing in between the bricks of my patio, I let them get big enough to eat, and then pull them to include in salads and stir fries. I also pull small purslane plants and relocate them into hanging pots along with my geraniums and into other little empty spaces. After having been encouraged to volunteer more freely for a number of years, the purslane is now appearing on its own in more places, mostly in places where other plants would not thrive without a lot of watering.
As both purslane and dandelions are volunteers (a/k/a weeds), they are free, hardy, prolific, and drought-tolerant. I find purslane especially attractive if kept picked as any other forking herb or green. Both purslane and dandelions are highly nutritious, especially purslane which is a great plant source for omega-3 fatty acids (see link above).
This morning, I threw some purslane into a warmed tortilla, along with avocado, sprouts (I am always sprouting something on the kitchen counter these days), a little local goat cheese, and a few slivers of vidalia onion. Densely nutritious, delicious, fairly good for the environment, and satisfying. What a great way to start the day.
