Purslane: The international vegetable

[Pontormo]

At one of my area's markets, there is a stand known for its galvanized steel buckets full of greens, piles of beets and baskets of herbs. The farmer who oversees market days confirmed that they have never sold purslane at the rate that they have since the NYT published Marlena Spieler's article...5x more than before, she estimated. People come up to her asking for it before they read the signs.

This past Sunday, Les Dames d'Escoffier, a peer-elected associated of professional women in the local culinary world hosted a special weekend-long event called Green Kids. While children were given fun things to do and learn, the chef demo was kept simple: a salad of tender mixed greens with goat cheese and blackberries. Copies of Spieler's article were held in place by the bowl of the purslane.