Wanting the Unwanted: Why Eat Weeds

I believe the premise to be false, while it is true that you can eat many different "weeds" I cannot find any methodology or theory where that doing so increases the efficiency of land use. There are some key things like nutrients in == nutrients out and digestibility in humans which is not a given.

That said, there were some interesting recipes for what are nominally weeds in the Foxfire[1], and Euell Gibbons books[2] which were certainly edible although nothing I've tried really struck me as exceptional. As Boy Scouts we got a merit badge for creating a meal out of locally harvested plants, that was fun.

[1] http://www.foxfire.org/thefoxfirebooks.aspx

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Euell-Gibbons-Handbook-Edible-Plants/d...

Something to keep in mind here is that once a viable market is found then the product will be fully commercialised and mass-produced. No longer will poor conditions be good enough when compared to the yield you get from ideal conditions.

Then we will start fertilising them, then tweaking the seeds etc etc etc. And before long it will be just like anything else grown on the land.

Right place, right time, right plant. Don't eat weeds from places where they may have been sprayed by pesticides or pets. I put dandelion (literally "teeth of the lion" or dans de lion in french) in my smoothies weekly. It's pretty bitter and tastes of the earth, so if you make a smoothie use copious amounts of lemon juice and/or orange juice to make it taste a little bit better. There are all sorts of little-known health benefits to dandelion. They are PACKED with all sorts of nutrients. People even grow them deliberately in gardens in Europe. Some people also make dandelion wine and dandelion coffee. Google this stuff - you might be surprised. In an abstract sense weeds are a bit like startups because they take unwanted resources (heat, light, soil, space) and 'add value' through unique processes e.g. photosynthesis to turn them into something else. In a strange way I find weeds inspiring.

One of my favorites is rucola/arugula - it's a weed but it's really quite nice in a salad. Very strong nutty flavor.

You can buy a cultivated version in in supermarkets here (NL) but it's nowhere near as strong.

Peppermint + spearmint are also weeds which are commonly grown for use in cooking or tea.

It is a very interesting topic beyond food.

When I first came to America, I was surprised and confused by the lack of diversity on vegetables in grocery stores. Around the small Midwest town I lived, there were many weeds that look edible. I had never heard any local Americans eat them, though. I thought it was simply because there were a surplus of food in America.

Many many years passed. In our backyard, there are many weeds that look edible. I have tried only two, dandelion and a kind of fern. I hesitate on the others, although some looks similar to what I had eaten before. I am concerned they might cause health issues, from minor stomach discomfort to serious food poisoning.

It is not like I had no experience in forage. I regularly foraged for weeds, ferns, mushrooms when I was a child. I love them better than carrots, celeries, cabbages, etc. They simply tasted better. But I hesitate at the weeds and mushrooms in my backyard.

Whenever I see some new vegetables in the fantastic Berkeley Bowl, I will get some, google recipes, and try them. Whenever I see these weeds in restaurant menu, I will order to have a try. First, because I love trying new things. Second, I believe it is sustainable, both from where I grow up and from my education. But I still hesitate at the weeds and mushrooms in my backyard.

One can explain it from the point of view of evolution. Somehow, I feel it is more than that.

Is there any good information about the nutritional content and popular weeds and what they taste like?

Pretty interesting, but you do have to be careful with eating a number of "weeds" that grow everywhere. A good friend of mine in high school ended up strapped down to a gurney for a few days after overdosing on jimsonweed. He was never quite right after that.

I know a fair number of old-timers that still eat dandelion greens and fiddleheads and pigweed. Fortunately, New England is a place with few very poisonous things, although it is important to check that you are picking fiddleheads and not wood ferns...

Here's a YouTube channel of a guy eating all sorts of foraged weeds and plants.

https://youtube.com/user/EatTheWeeds

The problem with eating weeds is that people spray them with toxins which aren't meant for things humans are going to eat. Do they wash off? Who knows? They haven't been evaluated for that use-case.

A fun little video I made of a foraged brunch I attended last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpvKl11FABk

"Open Source" Food is name only- they demand a $15 donation to see their field guide. Until then, good luck not eating something toxic.

The premise that weeds are a suitable food for humans is wrong. Most of these plants are loaded with toxins. You can't eat them in any quantity for calories without getting poisoned.

Cows and goats and sheep can eat these things, though, because they have more advanced digestive systems. The udder provides an added toxin filtration system.

In theory you might be able to design an efficient system to detoxify wild plants such as grass and weeds directly into a high quality human food. At this moment cheese is already an incredibly effective way to use wild forage to make human food.