“All three of these plants are fundamentally what would be called “weeds” by most folks, but edible weeds, and highly nutritious”
My Mother said that during the Depression my Grandmother (Babcia) picked weeds and used them to make soup when there was nothing else to eat.
You need to be very, very, very careful doing that.
Last year, there was a woman in Tacoma who did just that. She was some kind of recent Chinese or Filipino immigrant who spoke little or no English.
She must have been attracted to the smell, because the plant has a very savory odor that is very herb-like and would make one think it would be an excellent addition to a soup or salad.
It was the last soup she ever ate, because she put Hemlock in it, and Hemlock, even in very very small amounts is DEADLY DEADLY DEADLY!!!
Almost impossible to eradicate, grows in my garden right next to the carrots.
Polk Salad Annie
Some of you all never been down South too much...
I’ gonna tell you a little story, so you’ll understand where I’m talking about
Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods and the fields,
and it looks something like a turnip green.
Everybody calls it Polk salad. Now that’s Polk salad.
Used to know a girl that lived down there and
she’d go out in the evenings to pick a mess of it...
Carry it home and cook it for supper, ‘cause that’s about all they had to eat,
But they did all right.
In the early sixties we picked a bunch of lambs quarters and cooked it like spinach. A neighbor turned us in to DHS who showed up and tried to take us kids away. My mother met them at the door with a baseball bat. We where not taken away!