Eat the Invaders!

[Behemoth]

From Audubon Magazine: link

I've foraged purslane and dandelions off my lawn a couple of times, but that's about as far as It's gone...

[chromedome]

Works for me, I guess, as long as I can find some palatable weeds that haven't got several generations of someone's damned weedkiller built up in their tissues...

I like dandelions well enough, but only pick them where I know for sure they haven't been sprayed. As for carp and nutria, well, if I ever spot 'em up here in the frozen North I'll be sure to eat them on your behalf.

[Arey]

I haven't had a problem with lambs quarters (chenopodium album) since I found out how tasty the tender young leaves are in a salad in the Spring time. Unfortunately the aphids usualy get to them before I do. I've had an over-abundance of purslane this year, but aside for nibbling on a leaf as I wander around the back forty (10 feet by 4 feet in my case) I don't use it for anything.

My lawn guys know that in the backyard, they're not to use any sort of chemicals. No herbicides, weedkillers, or anything. As I said to them this Spring when they wanted to spray or something for sod webworms "The webworms and I get along fine. They don't eat my herbs, I don't eat their sod and neither of us want our greens sprayed with anything except water".

[Behemoth]

At the risk of really annoying the neighbors, I must admit I planted the purslane deliberately, from my mom's garden. It's not a weed! It just grows like one! The point about weed killer is a very good one. I am extremely careful about that.

I love purslane in salads. Try it tossed with beets, or with grapefruit. Use a tangy dressing made with balsamic vinegar or pomegranate molasses. It can take lots of herbs. I recently came across a recipe in a Diana Kennedy cookbook for purslane with pork and tomatillos which I need to try. That only reason that plant is not as fashionable as arugula is because it is too common to cash in on.

As for dandelion greens, my typical preparation is blanched, then sauteed in good olive oil then topped with either lemon juice or caramelized onions, sopped up with warm pita bread.

I have also foraged wild fennel and oregano, mulberries, blackberries, blueberries (wild ones are incredible)....I would love to learn how to forage mushrooms, but I think people who do that are very protective of their stashes.

I generally have to buy my watercress, sorrel (unless my mom sends me some) and lambs quarters... I would love to be able to buy crawfish and wild boar in a supermarket. Maybe an eco dinner of garlic poached crawfish, followed by a wild boar and purslane entree...? Dessert would involve kudzu, definitely.

I have fished for my supper, though never for carp. I don't think I could handle skinning my own nutria.

Edited October 22, 2004 by Behemoth (log)

[chromedome]

I'd learned how to skin a rabbit by the time I was eight. I expect I could figure out a nutria quickly enough, if the need should arise.

I'd just have to make sure my daughter wasn't around, or before I could whet my knife the little bugger'd have a name and be living in her bedroom.

[Chud62120798]

I don't think I could handle skinning my own nutria.

Wat? I thought this thread was about new strategies for homeland security...

[Chud62120798]

From Audubon Magazine: link

it is about homeland security, in a subtle way....