It’s summer and that means 2 things, everything’s growing like crazy, and the weeds want to take over your garden.
If you live in a place you know is NOT sprayed with any herbicides, pesticides, or harmful fertilizers, this means you have front row, or backyard, access to some really incredible free superfoods all summer long.
I learned about this 8 years ago when I worked for Katrina Blair at the Turtle Lake Refuge kitchen in Durango.
Katrina is the weed whisperer, a wealth of information and inspiration about the wild world of wild plants. While working there I learned that many of the weeds most people think are a nuisance are actually mother earth’s sincere and bountiful gifts of abundance and health. Her book, the Wild Wisdom of Weeds, teaches about 13 of the most common and most nutritious plants growing in nearly every country. Did you know Dandelion tones the liver and stomach, reduces anxiety, is anti-inflammatory, and is a great source of magnesium, phosphorus, copper, sodium, choline, lecithin, biotin, and inositol, as well as vitamins C, D, E, zinc and manganese? (Blair 2014). And that 1 cup of Lambsquarter (aka wild spinach) contains 73 percent of Recommeded Dietary Allowance of Vitamin A, and 96 percent of your daily Vitamin C recommendation? (Blair, 2014).
So while you’re out there pulling weeds from where they’re not “supposed” to be, pull them into your kitchen and get a dose of nature’s most generous superfoods.
Here are some of the easiest ways to use them:
Green Juice:
Grab a big handful of any of the following: Country Mallow, Dandelion, Thistle (use gloves but don’t worry, the spines will strain right out and thistle is surprisingly mild flavored), Purlsane, Comfrey, Amaranth, Lamb’s Quarters aka Wild Spinach, and even young grass. If it looks dirty give it a little rinse, otherwise get a dose of natural probiotics by placing straight into your blender. Fill it up with water and blend on high for at least a minute. Pour it over a big strainer into a container, then toss the solids that strained out into your compost. Place the green liquid back in your blender. Add a squeese of lemon, a squirt of honey or agave, and blend it up again. Do a taste check and see if it needs more lemon or sweetener. That’s it! Now it’s ready to serve. Another way to sweeten is to add some apple or other fruit to the first blending and strain out the fruit fibers.
Smoothies:
With the exception of thistle, you can add a few of any of the previous weeds listed into your fruit smoothies for an extra boost of nutrition!
Salads:
Young leaves of Dandelion, Lambs Quarter, Purslane, Mallow and Amaranth can all be added to your salads! I usually mix them with other greens from my garden or the market like lettuce, spinach, or arugula.
As Katrina sings: “Don’t be afraid of the prickle of the thistle. Drink down the juice it will make you want to whistle. Like a wild seed winging through the air, waving its arms like it just don’t care. Put ‘em up!”