Posted on 07/31/2009 3:09:46 PM PDT by appleseed
CHICAGO (Reuters Life!) - Armed with pruning shears and a paper bag, Nance Klehm walks along a Chicago sidewalk, pointing out plants and weeds that can make a tasty salad or stir-fry.
She snips stalks from a weed with downy leaves and white powder commonly called goosefoot or lamb's quarters.
"I collect a lot of this," said Klehm, 43. "It's indistinguishable from spinach when you cook it. I never, never grow spinach or other greens except kale. Everything else I forage."
Klehm is among a small group of urban foragers across the United States who collect weeds and plants from city streets and gardens to use in meals and medicines. Some are survivalists while others are environmentalists or even gourmands seeking new flavors for cooking.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Not all city folks troll sidewalks for greens for a salad. Those that have been in the sticks know how to take of things - Even if they are forced to live in the city.
I’d consider urban greenery a less than ideal source for a salad. Even if I could identify everything perfectly. At least I can keep the doggies from dooing on my garden.
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Eww. I understand that urban foraging is wildly popular in North Korea too.
Make sure you harvest from the sidewalk where the tubercular bums don’t spit on.
Having been a city denizen, I’d pass on those greens in the sidewalks.
Too many dogs.
I have uromysitisis and I ALWAYS aim at weeds and plants when I relieve myself.
Yuck! I’ll pass on the sidewalk salad. I’ve got friends who are merchants in the poorer side of town, guess what they tell me about where the homeless potty?
LOL! Not to mention the incredible load of heavy metals from urban pollution these goofballs are ingesting. After all they don't call 'em brownfields for nothing.
Good grief, isn’t lamb’s quarter really high in oxalic acid?
I don’t think it’s a good idea to eat it regularly. hmm, or is the downy one known as lamb’s ears. Oh, great, now I’m trying to remember the difference between lamb’s ear, lamb’s lettuce, and lamb’s quarter..never mind.
I think I’d pass on the urban foraging covered in Gosh knows what, though. Isn’t stuff grown by motorways covered in benzene or something from the exhaust, plus the ick from dogs & homeless people?
Redneck in the city, eats raccoons and squirrels shot on a vacant lot. There’s a hint he goes after hawks and eagles too.
Like rhubarb, it needs to be cooked to get rid of the oxalic acid.
“There’s a hint he goes after hawks and eagles too.”
Eagle is very good if prepared well. The key is to soak with a good soy sauce based marinade.
Just bread with whole wheat pastry flour and corn meal.
It goes great with sweet corn.
Lol! I hope there are no pets near their “Crop”.
But is there a Kentucky fried version?
Those Lambs Ears belong to my dog. He marked them as his property! :-~
I would never eat weeds in the city. I do eat the weeds out here in the country much to the amusement of my 80yr old father-in-law. I’m sure he thinks ‘crazy city folk’.
They can top it with sewer sludge for all I care.
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