Having Weeds For Lunch Today?

So your lunch is coming up and you want something fresh and green.  Does that always mean a trip to the grocery store? Or can you have a garden of edible weeds?

If you think everything in your yard that isn't grass must be a nuisance, you're missing out on a free lunch. Those pesky weeds are loaded with antioxidants, vitamins and protein, sometimes even more nutritious than what you'll find at the grocery store. Here are some suggestions for finding free munchies in your backyard. Just remember to identify them with a credible source if you're not plant-savvy. There's even an app for that! Download the Wild Edibles app to your smart phone created by Steve Brill, a botanist who gives edible-plant tours of New York City's Central Park, and get foraging!

Dandelion

Dandelions are perhaps the most familiar lawn weed of them all, may also be the weed that's most known to be edible. In fact, the reason it exists in the U.S. is that European settlers introduced it as a salad green. You can buy dandelion greens at some specialty food markets, but odds are, there are some growing, for free, a whole lot closer to you. They have a slightly bitter taste when they mature, so harvest the tender leaves that appear in early spring and in late fall, when they're sweetest. The flowers are edible too and have a mildly bittersweet flavor. And eat them up! Dandelions have more beta-carotene than carrots.

Kudzu
Kudzu, the weed, can actually be eaten. This highly invasive weed covers over 7 million acres of the Southern U.S., giving you an unending supply with which to experiment in the kitchen. Southerners have found dozens of ways to eat kudzu, including making jams and jellies to pickling the weed's flowers. Steam or boil the roots until they're tender and add soy sauce or miso, as is done in Asian cooking, or brew a kudzu tea by chopping up a cup of leaves and boiling them for about 30 minutes to treat allergies, colds, fevers and indigestion.

Red Clover

Red clover has been used for ages as a folk remedy for cancer. It contains the phytoestrogen genistein, which, although controversial, has been found to have a protective effect against colon and prostate cancers. However, because there's some evidence that phytoestrogens can have the opposite effect on breast cancer, go easy on the red clover. But if you have some growing in your yard, an occasional meal of red clover flowers sprinkled over rice or cooked in soy sauce is a good way to clean up your yard. In addition to being potential cancer-fighters, clover flowers are high in protein. You can also eat white clover, but it's not as nutritious or flavorful as red.

It doesn’t matter to us whether you want desert landscaping, lush lawns or some type of landscaping in between, we can help.  We serve businesses like yours all over the Phoenix Metro Area. To find out how give us a call at 623-848-8277.

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Greens Keeper Landscape Maintenance, LLC
623-848-8277
http://www.commerciallandscapecare.com
greenskeeperllc@cox.net