Have you ever walked by a vacant lot and wondered what types of plants were growing there. Many of these plants, referred to most people as common weeds, are actually edible and can add an interesting addition to your green salad or can be cooked and eaten like spinach. Swiss Chard, and other greens. Natural foods and plants expert Ewell Givens once said that he could exist for two weeks on the “weeds” that grow in the average vacant lot. Just to give you an idea what can be found growing in the average vacant lot, here are just a few of these plants and what one can do with them.
1. Several varieties of grasses, including Bermuda (both regular and African), wild oats and wheat, and that demon of many lawns, crab grass. Though most folk wouldn’t think of eating the same plants that cows and other hoofed animals seem to love, there are tender parts that can be either cooked or eaten raw in salads.
2. Common dandelions are often found in vacant lots as well in many yards. The Greens can be cooked if soaked a bit first in salt water to remove the bitter taste. The flowers can be made into dandelion wine, once a popular drink of our great-grandparents.
3. Thistles are actually cousins to the artichoke and their roots and parts of the flowers are edible.
4. Sheep shower is another common plant that has a sour taste and the leaves and flowers can either be eaten raw or boiled like spinach.
5. White Man’s foot or broadleaved plantain is a very common weed found all over the U.S.A. It was named White Man’s foot by Native Americans as it appears to have been brought over from Europe by immigrants who used the plant as a medicine to cure a variety of ailments ranging from epilepsy to ulcers.
6. Milkweeds, are called that name due to the milky white sap in the plant’s stems. Though non-edible, the flowers are an important source of pollen for bees to gather for making honey.
In addition to the above a number of plants such as wild cabbage and wild onion can be found in vacant lots, as well as several varieties of flowers including wild poppies, marigolds, and of course goldenrods and rag weeds, those plants which cause many people to be miserable in the fall when the plants’ pollen and seeds are blown everywhere.
American writer and early environmentalist Henry David Thoreau also described many of these plants and the animals which relied on them for food in his book about Walden Pond. Even he appreciated the value of simple plants that most people often take for granted.
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