When Weeds aren't Weeds

by Tim Kroeker

My wife loves to garden. I like to garden. We spend a lot of time in the vegetable garden. She does almost all the brain work and a lot of the brawn work. I put in the odd request for a particular vegetable when the garden is being planned. After that, I mainly weed.

My idea of a garden is straight rows of veggies - carrots, corn, peas, etc. and my idea of weeding is to pull out any plant that my wife tells me to. Janet's idea of a vegetable garden may or may not have straight rows. We've had beds and groupings of one sort or another, curvy lines and what not, and she likes to explore the fringe flora - like arugula. I'm a linear thinker and she's imaginative and experimental. Occasionally we clash, but I lose because she's the garden boss.

So, my latest capitulation involves weeds. In the last few years, weeding in our garden has changed dramatically. I still do quite a bit of it, but the approach is completely different. It's taken a bit of time and persuasion on Janet's part, but I'm mostly reoriented and retrained. No longer is portulaca Enemy #1. Pigweed is now my friend. Lamb's quarter used to be a nuisance - not any more. Even dandelions are looked upon kindly.

Why? Because it turns out that the "weeds" are as good or better for you than the veggies that your mother insisted that you eat (or at least try!) The weeds taste great if you pick them while they're young and sweet. And as we all know, there is no shortage of young weeds in the garden, pretty well all the time. They just keep coming.

What passes for a salad on our table, when inspected closely, contains not only the usual lettuce, spinach, cucumbers and green onions, but also dandelion, pigweed and lambs quarter leaves and succulent portulaca. Add in various exotic greens that we actually sowed in rows, and the tomatoes (in a couple of weeks), and we need to get out the industrial size salad bowls. What a great time of year this is!

You don't have to hold your nose when you take in these greens either; the wild salad additions are every bit as tasty as the domestic. Check the nutrition charts and be amazed by how superior the vitamin, iron and calcium content is compared to many of the conventional components. That scientific data, and my wife's persuasive powers, got me to open my mouth and my mind to the new possibilities. After that, the "weeds" sold themselves.

Forget what you learned in your youth - those endless hours in the garden with a hoe or on your knees. Portulaca is not the devil's own plant. Pigweed isn't just for pigs, if it ever was. Dandelions are more than a pretty face. Nature provides these and other plants in abundance. We simply haven't recognized the gift. Check out a website or gardening book to make sure you recognize what you're after. Pick the leaves while they're young and tender. Enjoy the taste, the goodness and the feeling of revenge against your garden "enemy", or if you like, the satisfaction of making peace with them.

And if you really do enjoy weeding, as I do, don't worry; there'll still be lots of them to hoe and pull when you've eaten your fill.