Predictions about a massive future earthquake or devastating floods sometimes find me looking out into our lawn and musing, "At least we'll be able to eat the dandelions!"
It would be a good choice: dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are said to have much more vitamin A than broccoli and almost as much iron as raw beet greens. Seed of cultivated dandelion varieties is now easy to obtain.
Their main problem is bitterness - though this can be reduced by choosing young leaves and boiling or frying them. An alternative is tying up large dandelion plants so that the inner leaves are blanched.
But dandelions are only one of many delicious edible weeds. Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) are another favourite. These become stingless and as delicious as spinach after being boiled. As a child, it was my job in spring to put on my dad's big leather bee-gloves and pick stinging nettles for dinner.
Later, mother made me drink the water the nettles were boiled in. She said it would purify my blood. Apparently there's a lot of protein in stinging nettles plus vitamin C, A and iron.
Another spinach substitute is Lambs Quarters (Chenopodium album) which grows about 60 centimetres tall and has grey-green diamondshaped leaves with a white floury substance on the underside. The tiny green knot-like flowers produce immense quantities of seed.
Lambs Quarters leaves are very tasty when boiled like spinach, though, just like spinach and nettles, boiling shrinks them drastically. Leaves of spinach and lambs quarters tend to contain more oxalic acid than most other vegetables so it's not a good idea to eat large quantities routinely.
This is also true of sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella). Sheep sorrel is another salad green with a fresh taste that's somewhat acidic because the leaves contain oxalic acid. Sheep sorrel has fine, running roots and tiny red flowers like little bunches of knots up against the stem.
In early spring, chickweed (Stellaria media) grows rapidly into a mat-like groundcover in gardens with rich soil. The early leaves along with tiny white flowers can be used as a salad ingredient with a delicate, lettuce-like taste. It's best when grown rapidly, early and snipped into small segments before using.
Then there's garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) which has clusters of white, four-petalled flowers and wrinkled, bumpy-looking leaves with pointy edges. It tastes and smells of garlic and mustard.
But it's one of the most invasive weeds I've ever encountered. If garlic mustard is recommended to you by a friend, you might want to think again and choose cultivated mustard instead.
It's important to securely identify all these plants before eating them. Even when identification seems secure, it's safest to taste very small quantities at first. People with food allergies should be especially careful.
Anne Marrison is happy to answer readers' questions. Email [email protected].
