What do you do with weeds?
EAT as many weeds as you can stomach.
PRAY they don’t take over your lawn or garden.
LOVE them?
Weeds are some of the most powerful, vigorous, and nourishing plants on the earth.
Wouldn’t we all like to “grow like a weed’?
Eat Weeds:
If you bother to walk out to your lawn or garden; you can probably find enough weeds to solve many of your health problems.
- Dandelion leaves for example have much more nutrition than any of the lettuces you can buy in the supermarket and most of the other greens also. It’s at a great price too….FREE!
- Dandelion Root is considered one of the most useful herbs available in Chinese Medicine. It feeds and cleans the liver which deals with almost every function in your body. Clean up your liver and you will enjoy more energy, mental clarity and probably lose weight in the process.
- If you have heard about Resveratrol and thinking about all its benefits – you can forget about red grape skins. There is so little in grapes that you would have to drink hundreds of bottles of wine a day to get what scientist would consider a significant dose.
- There is MUCH more Resveratrol in the Japanese Giant Knotweed. This plant is so voracious that it can overcome just about any native growth in just about any growing situation. Farmers in Japan and the UK wage fierce battles with this plant which has been respected in Chian and Tibet as a medicinal herb for 200 years.
What weeds do you eat and why?
Pray For Weeds:
Actually , weeds are so vital they don’t need any help, divine or otherwise, to thrive.
Most of MY prayers are in the opposite direction: that they don’t overcome my lawn or garden before I can deal with them, whether by eating them or pulling them or what.
Of course I do not use chemical herbicides. (plant-killers).
My main nemesis in this category is the Canadian Thistle. I’ve tried to eat them – The Man Who Ate Thistle – I’ve tried to pull them – read: Good Weed Bad Weed – but they still remain out of control. The plant sheriffs in my farming region keep leaving nasty notices!
Which weeds do you pray for escape from?
Love Weeds:
Love is a strong word. In my case I am mostly referring to appreciation of these hardy souls.
You have to admire the energy and drive and intelligence of these plants.
Have you noticed how dandelions can read your mind?
They know if you are going to mow your lawn or not!
If you are going to mow they will grow very short but if you don’t mow that area they will stand tall.
Dandelion flowers also look so beautiful, especially when you are young, or when they are in someone else’s property.
I guess I have to admit I also love the taste of many different weeds as well.
Perhaps if we could learn to appreciate weeds more and adjust to their potential we could thrive as well.
Maybe if we could be more adjustable in general and not try to control our environments so much we could live better lives.
Which so called weeds do you love to have in your life?
Copyright ©Randy Fritz You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com or the direct link to this post.
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The leaves of lamb’s quarters (also called wild spinach), daisy flowers, wild garlic mustard, violet blossoms and leaves, raspberry and blackberry leaves (dry and make tea), Queen Ann’s Lace roots (also called wild carrot), leaves of jewelweed (it tastes like lettuce), wood sorrel, chickweed, stinging nettle leaves (tea), curly dock roots (tea, or if you can stand the bitter taste, cook and eat a little bit. Said to be a “blood cleanser” and good for the liver), purslane (the early Colonists ate it (raw or lightly steamed). Find a book at the library so you can learn to identify them.
Thanks a lot Jude! I hope everyone reads your comment. I assume this puts you in the EAT category!
Yay! Weeds! To add to those already mentioned there are also thistle roots, Fireweed (flowers, shoots, leaves, & sweet pith from the stem), clover, alfalfa, cleaver, shepherds purse (love it in chicken dishes), sheep sorrel (lovely sour taste)… While not technically a weed, another favourite is nasturtium. The flowers and leaves are edible, but the leaves are my favourite with their slightly peppery taste.
Yay Weeds back at you.
As long as you don’t buy it in the grocery store, we are interested in it for these articles. Diana will be doing an article on COOKING wild plants – many which are not considered weeds.
Hi Elizabeth
Wow – you are more into this than me so far. Thanks for the additions.
yea weeds for sure, thanks for the great article, mmm how to get this kind of stuff into elementry schools
When I used to work with the scouts the kids were great with this stuff. It was amazing to see kids who would turn their noses up at vegetables get into identifying and eating weeds.