Are you bored with the usual flavors of common herbs and veggies? Eat weeds! These spontaneous plants can be a gardener’s nightmare, and a homesteader’s blessing! Foraging is fun, relaxing, and… Well, it’s free food for your table! Most plants are actually edible, and only a few toxic, but how about if you can’t tell them apart? If you get off lightly, you risk a bellyache, but if you pick the wrong one… So, you have a massive crop just down the road, and you don’t know what is safe in there?
Let me take you to a foraging trip that you’ll never forget, because many of the varieties we call “weeds” are delicious, nutritious, and even superfoods! Let’s get to know the top 10 weeds you can eat safely at close range.
When to Forage Weeds?
A little foreword first. When is it best to forage weeds? Because we pick most of them for their leaves, the ideal time is before they flower. Once they blossom, they divert energy into the blooms, and then the seeds or fruits.
But there are exceptions, of course… If you are after the flowers and fruits – well, you’ll have to wait for them before you forage.
So, having cleared a key fact, let’s meet our first edible weed.
1. Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica)
Stinging nettle grows almost everywhere, inflicting fear and awe on us, because, of course, it hurts! But it is also a superfood, literally, and according to some experts, the most nutritious food of them all!
Easy to recognize by touching it, it also has very clear leaves, they can be lance or heart shaped, or lanceolate, but with very clear and regular serration (teeth) on the margin, and very distinctive hairs, that actually sting you. The foliage grows into a rosette at the top, and it changes from bright to dark green as the plant ages.
But despite its menacing look and habit, it is rich in calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium and Vitamin B6!
You can use gloves to pick it, though expert foragers know two things: young plants don’t sting too much, and if you pick them from below the hairs won’t actually hurt you. But leave this to consummate nettle harvesters…
As long as you wash it, it will not sting you, and it is lovely cooked, in omelets, risottos, and soups. You can also brew it into a purifying tea, which is super healthy!
2. Purslane (Portulaca oleracea)
Like stinging nettle, purslane is a pioneer plant, and it can grow even through concrete. But there’s a secret about pioneers: they are all super nutritious. This is because they can grow in very difficult conditions, and Portulaca oleracea is super rich in Vitamin C, D, and B6, as well as sodium, potassium calcium, magnesium and iron.
Easy to recognize thanks to its shiny, dark green succulent oval leaves, small and growing on mainly horizontal stems, often reddish in color, and its small, but pretty yellow flowers.
I would suggest you eat it raw, in salads, because of the vitamin C content, and because it tastes better; and it’s ideal for stomach problems too!
3. Goosefoots (Chenopodium album)
Maybe it’s even growing in your backyard, because goosefoots seems to like vegetable gardens. And, trust me, it’s better than spinach, both nutritionally, and in flavor! Rich in iron, phosphorus, potassium and sodium, but especially calcium, it will also give you Vitamins A, B1, B2 and C! And it crops up virtually all over the world.
It’s easy to recognize, because it grows tall with dark green leaves, sometimes with bluish hues, and they are covered with an icing of white dusting. They are triangular and lobed, almost teethed, and… If you eat them raw, they have a wonderful nutty flavor, or you can cook it (it’s ready in a minute, literally), or use it for pasta sauces, rice and egg dishes. Or be creative!
4. Slender Sowthistle (Sonchus tenerrimus)
Slender sowthistle is very common on grassland, but it also grows in backyard gardens spontaneously, and its Latin name, “tenerrimus” gives you a clue: it means “very tender”, and it is. You can touch it and feel it, and you can taste it and prove it! Its long leaves are divided into roughly triangular leaflets, with lobed margins, quite frilly and pale green in color. When it matures, it produces daisy like golden yellow flowers, and, by then, it’s a bit late to forage it.
But catch it when it’s young, and it has a super fresh flavor, better than many lettuce varieties, though it is not very rich in nutrients. I suggest you eat it raw, because it almost disappears if you cook it, though you can try it if you wish.
5. Bermuda Buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae)
Despite its exotic name, Bermuda buttercup is quite common and it likes to grow under trees, but it can also crop up in your pots unexpectedly. This is a small plant, a perennial to be correct, because it is bulbous, even if it doesn’t look like it… In fact, its shamrock like leaves in three heart shaped leaflets, can form a dense mat in part shade, and then you will see lovely funnel shaped yellow flowers grow above this leafy carpet.
Both the leaves and the blooms of Bermuda buttercup are edible, but the flowers and their stems are much more savory… And sour, of course, lemony in many ways, and it’s because it is packed with Vitamin C, fatty acids and minerals, and it’s definitely food to forage and eat raw, giving color and flavor to your spring and summer salads.
6. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
For sure you can recognize a dandelion, and these weeds grow everywhere on grassy land… But maybe you don’t know that the whole plant is edible including the roots, and that this too is a superfood to forage safely!
You will recognize its long and dented pointed leaves, forming a rosette at the base, and then the long stem with a yellow flower packed with long and narrow petals. The sap from the stem is great to cure warts, by the way, while the bloom is edible, raw, while most people prefer to cook the foliage, though you don’t have to. It is only a bit hard on the palate.
But dandelion will add vitamins A, C and K to your diet, as well as folate, calcium and folate!
And the roots? Once they used to make coffee from them, and it’s actually quite a treat. Clean them, toast them, grate them and then brew them – you will enjoy a really tasty beverage! Or you can cook them, like carrots…
7. Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana)
Surely you have heard of horseradish, but maybe you don’t know that it may be growing in your backyard, cleverly disguised as a weed? True, it is also cultivated for commercial purposes, but honestly, you can find it anywhere in prairies, on the margins of fields, and in gardens.
It belongs to the Brassicaceae family, the same as cabbage, and, in fact it looks like it. Only it grows a dense tuft of broad, long and lobed leaves, which are quite “bumpy” and mid green in color. A lovely cluster of four petaled white flowers will tower above this leafy clump and they are edible too, ideal to put some bright color into your salads.
So is the foliage, which you can eat raw (better if chopped) or cooked, though the flavor changes a bit… But, of course, horseradish is famous for its long, thick and carrot-like roots. They are usually grated and put in sauces, sour cream, mayonnaise, and made into many sauces.
And how about the nutrients? Depending on which part you eat, you will get a good intake of sodium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium and Vitamin D!
8. Plantain (Plantago spp.)
No, I am not talking about those banana-like fruits, but that low weed with a rosette or tuft of lance shaped leaves that keeps cropping up in your garden, but also public parks, on roads and field sides, sometimes pushing its “realm” under trees, in part shade.
Plantain foliage is typically pointed and with clear ribs running lengthways, and of a mid and rich green color, but there are three main varieties, one, Plantago major, has really broad, almost “fat” foliage, the others are smaller, even thin. Actually, there are about 200 species, and they grow everywhere apart from the Antarctic!
Long spikes of flowers grow from the middle, and these are small, almost invisible, and greenish brownish, but here’s an exception; the leaves will keep most of their nutritional value even when the plant is in bloom.
And it is a superfood, rich in calcium, potassium, phosphorus and copper, and with medicinal properties too – ideal against stomach problems!
9. Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum)
Common in humid woodland, wild garlic is a very underrated weed to forage. Maybe because it does not look too much like its “market cousin”, or “sister”, as its leaves are not narrow, bluish and cylindrical, but broad, lance shaped and pointed, bright green in shade. But just like the kitchen star we buy from groceries, the whole plant is edible.
So, you can enjoy the savory bulbs underground, but also the lovely cluster of star shaped and white flowers that grow on a long and straight stem. And the stem too! Both raw and cooked, it can add lots of flavor to your meals, as well as calcium, phosphorus, iron copper and vitamins A and C.
10. Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata)
And we close with a classic weed to forage, that usually grows in mountain and coastal regions in North America: miner’s lettuce. You get from its name that it was once common as part of workers’ diets, but what makes it special is that you can harvest it really early in the year, starting in winter and into spring. In fact, it is also called winter purslane…
How do you recognize it? It forms a rosette of round leaves (though sometimes heart shaped), of a rich mid green color, and fairly glossy indeed. These grow on very long and thin petioles, to a maximum of 12 inches (30 cm), and it will form a cluster of 5 to 40 flowers, each with 5 rounded petals, and of the most exquisite pale lavender color.
The leaves are quite fleshy, so, delicious in salads, though the flowers and roots are edible as well.
How about your diet? It is super rich in protein (more than meat, much more, up to 37.1%), but also lots of ascorbic acid, Vitamin A and iron. No wonder miners called it “lettuce”!
Foraging Weeds – A Fun and Healthy Activity
Foraging is a really lovely activity. It’s a good day out (or a few hours), it adds new flavors to your food, and, as you can see, lots of nutrients. So, start with these 10 and easy to identify, common weeds, and you will soon add new varieties to your list!
But I have a final piece of advice for you: when you forage, don’t pick up all the plants, leave some, so they will grow back again next year…
Written By
Amber Noyes
Amber Noyes was born and raised in a suburban California town, San Mateo. She holds a master’s degree in horticulture from the University of California as well as a BS in Biology from the University of San Francisco. With experience working on an organic farm, water conservation research, farmers’ markets, and plant nursery, she understands what makes plants thrive and how we can better understand the connection between microclimate and plant health. When she’s not on the land, Amber loves informing people of new ideas/things related to gardening, especially organic gardening, houseplants, and growing plants in a small space.