There are actually quite a large number of edible weeds. I don’t like many of them – I dislike the taste of dandelion (though I do use it as a medicinal herb), and the texture of a few edibles is less than enjoyable (mullien is just too fuzzy, thank you anyway). I like Plantain, but can’t find it growing here. I’m pretty sure the prolific weed in our flower beds is Mare’s Tail, but there are so many similar weeds that I am not absolutely sure if my identification, and not quite confident enough to toss it in the bowl or pot until I am certain.

Last night though, we walked outside our front door, and looked in an area we’d previously ignored (being hidden by our neighbor’s cars), and found chickweed. A lot of chickweed. Some of it is in an area we would not want to use it from, but there are a couple of really lush plants in the corners that I am going to transplant, and put to work. When I showed it to my neighbor, and explained what it was, she said, “I’ve been trying to kill that!”. This is actually kind of funny, because she has been trying for years to get something “edible” to grow in that spot. I suspect she may decide to serve up the Chickweed with dressing instead in the future.

Edible weeds are terrific because they are tasty, free, and they grow exceptionally well without any special care. Many are very high in vital nutrients – more so than more popular cultivated greens. Some have special properties that will aid in recovery from 21st Century illnesses.

Chickweed is just such a plant. Proliferates easily, healthy for most people, and has some special attributes.

It has long been associated with weight loss. It contains saponins, which aid the body in breaking down and releasing fat. This means that for certain people, overconsumption could be a problem. Our neighbor’s husband has difficulty retaining weight, so he’d not want to be chowing down on chickweed every day. Because of this attribute, and how the body rids itself of excess weight, people with liver or kidney ailments would need to exercise caution in consumption as well. A cup or so of fresh leaves a day is MOST likely safe, even for people with medical problems of this kind. You just don’t want to go hog wild on it and try living on chickweed salads if you have this kind of medical issue.

Along with purslane, and Lamb’s Quarters, chickweed is another plant that we’d do well to stop fighting, and start using. Every part of the plant above the ground is edible – stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds. The roots are sometimes used medicinally.

The leaves and flowers taste “green”. There is no other word for it, they just taste green! The stems are crispy, the rest has a texture more like leaf lettuce.

It is valuable not only as a food crop, but as a forage crop for animals. It is an aggressive seeder, so gathering seeds from it in the fall means you can easily toss out seed to extend the range of this friendly weed. Poultry loves it, and it is good for cattle and goats, and of course, pigs love it.

If you absolutely cannot find any near you, there are sources for seed online. It will thrive in a pot, or pretty much anywhere. It does well in poor soil (sandy or gravely, even clay), and bursts forth in lush green each time it rains. It produces tiny white flowers which are enjoyed by bees and butterflies.

Definitely something of worth, which should be rediscovered and appreciated.

There are a surprising number of weeds that are edible. Two of the most common everywhere are Lamb’s Quarters, and Purslane.

Once you learn to identify these weeds, you’ll realize you’ve pulled them out of your gardening beds for years. I remember pulling both from the gardens as a child. If only I’d known they were good food, I’d have told my mother to let them grow and harvest them with the lettuce!

Interestingly, both of these weeds may also be known as Pigweed. They also have other common names in various regions of the world.

They are both drought tolerant, and will grow in poor soil, and heat does not make them flinch. Purslane is a succulent, and stores water in the leaves and stems (the image above is of Purslane in a pot – it grows flat to the ground and spiders outward from the center when grown on the ground, and the stems are typically more red than what is shown above). Lamb’s Quarters uses a different tactic – sending down a long and tough taproot (this makes it a valuable plant for helping to keep good deep soil condition).

Both plants are highly nutritious for both people and animals. Purslane could be classed as a superfood, for the amount of Omega 3 alone.

I scored some Purslane in a pot today. Funny thing about Purslane. If you have a garden, it will pop up pretty much anywhere there is bare ground. When you are not looking for it, it is everywhere!

But if you live where you do not have access to much bare ground, it can be hard to find. Some garden stores are now carrying it as a drought resistant ground cover, or as an edible herb, and a few online sources are carrying seed.

You won’t find anyone doing that with Lamb’s Quarters. But it seems to grow everywhere too.

Both can be grown from seed – you can save it from plants one year to seed in the next year if you feel the need. Both are such useful plants, it just may be worth it to do so.

They are both annuals, so they require reseeding each year.

Purslane will also easily root from cuttings. It roots faster than just about anything else, and doesn’t even need to be buried in soil to root! As long as it stays on top of damp soil, it will root just laying there. It will root in a few days in water. If you break off a branch to root (or eat), it will branch and come back stronger than ever.

Now, what do you do with them?

Lamb’s Quarters is edible raw or cooked – in general, the younger tender leaves can be used in salads, while the older tougher leaves make a good boiled green, just like spinach (only they need to be boiled longer – 30 minutes is recommended). This is a high calcium green.

The seeds from Lamb’s Quarters are also edible, and may be used like Quinoa (in fact, they are from the same plant family). The plant produces an impressive seed plume, similar to amaranth, but far coarser. Each plant will produce enough seed to be well worth the effort.

As an animal feed, it is also excellent. The greens can be fed to pretty much any farm animal. The seeds also make a great grain replacement for poultry. The plants can be harvested and dried, and bundled for use in the winter, either before they send up seed stalks, or after but before the seeds mature. Free animal food. It doesn’t get easier than that!

Now, what about that Purslane?

The entire leaf and stalk is edible, and so are the flowers and seeds. It is crisp in a salad, but may also be cooked, and is sometimes used in stir fry where it is just barely cooked. It has a tangy flavor, but chances are if you add it to a mixed salad you won’t even notice a difference in flavor, though you might run across a crispy piece now and again. There are actually recipes from a wide range of cultures which call for Purslane.

It is also a useful animal feed, though it is so small that it may be difficult to gather enough to make a significant difference if you have a large number of animals. Ducks and chickens absolutely love Purslane, and treat it as candy! Deer and goats also like this crunchy treat. It is good for rabbits, but they don’t seem to be as crazy about it as the ducks are.

Summer is coming, so watch for these two useful weeds, and make them work for you instead of spending all your time fighting them!

There are many other edible weeds as well. I spotlighted these two because they are so common, and so easy to recognize.

There are an amazing number of things you can grow from the grocery store, and a surprising number which can be grown from scraps that you’d normally throw away. A lot of these, you probably know about already. A few were surprises to me.

There are three kinds of foods that can be grown, and only one is technically “scraps”, but the others qualify under certain circumstances. This list is not comprehensive – you’ll likely think of a few of your own as you read.

If you have a compost pile, and have ever had volunteer plants come up, you’ll already know that some things thrown out will still grow and produce.

Seeds – Almost any food that you buy that is fresh, or sometimes dried, which has not been chemically treated, or canned using heat, may contain seeds that are viable.

Tomato, fig, strawberry, and other small seeds with stuff clinging on them can be fermented for 24 to 36 hours, and then the seeds can be separated out. Some require chilling or a rest period before you sprout them, some do not.

Not all will bear fruit, but generally, even with those reputed not to, a certain percentage WILL. Many seeds from plants that are propagated by cuttings or by grafting (figs, apples, pears, peaches, etc) will not breed true – that is, the seeds will have a high percentage of marginal plants (some of which may not bear fruit at all), some which will bear poor fruit, some which will bear acceptable fruit, and a few that will bear good or very good fruit. Hybrid tomatoes, cucumbers, etc, will also have this issue, but are likely to produce some edible food. This is how plant breeding and pollination work, just like your kids, there is a lot of genetic variation in the offspring. They are included because the potential is there, and the experimentation can be fun.

I recommend that you Google about growing any of these from seed, and find out what it takes to actually bear fruit. In almost all cases, determination gets the job done.

• Avocado
• Papaya
• Mango
• Pomegranate
• Persimmon
• Apple
• Pear
• Peach
• Figs
• Pepper Seeds
• Tomato seeds
• Strawberry seeds
• Pineapple seeds – yes, some pineapples do have seeds! Some do not, but many do. They are in the flesh, close to the rind. Small black seeds, close to the size of sesame seeds, black or dark brown in color. Surprisingly, there is a lot of info online for growing pineapples from seed.
• Raw Peanuts
• Raw Almonds
• Many herb and spice seeds – coriander, dill, celery, caraway, etc. Any whole seed is worth a try. Some may be heat treated. Lower cost ones are more likely to be viable. They can even grow when many years old – we had a wonderful winter crop of dill grown from dill seed that had to have been 7 or more years old, scavenged from a kitchen cupboard where it had been neglected for years.
• Many grains and legumes – lentils, garbanzos, black beans, black eyed peas, wheat berries, etc.
• Seeds from squash, pumpkin, cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe etc.

Bulbs and Tubers – Any one of these bulbs or tubers, and most others, can be re-planted. Now… some of them will bear more of themselves, others will need to go to seed to do that. A few, like onions, depend upon the variety.

• Potatoes – cut old potatoes so that there are two eyes per chunk. Let dry overnight. Plant.
• Sweet Potato – Google “grow sweet potato slips”. You can propagate from most sweet potatoes, even if they look too withered to eat.
• Ginger  – A nice chunk of ginger root can be planted, and will grow. It is a tropical plant, and it usually takes quite some time to show growth.
• Jicama – Can be replanted, and will grow and produce seed. Google for info on pollination.
• Onion roots – Onions can be done many ways. Multiplier onions will divide and propagate. Top multiplier onions will produce more bulbs at the top, for you to plant. Standard large onions may sometimes divide, but may need to go to seed for you to expand them. Green onions may either divide into more, or go to seed, depending on the variety.
• Carrot Tops – Actually, any carrot can be planted and left to go to seed. Many fresh food fanatics like eating the green carrot tops as a salad green. The top of a carrot can be replanted, it will root and grow green tops, which can then go to seed. Carrots from the store need only have some visible remains of the carrot top – if they have just a circle, and no green foliage (even very little is enough), then they won’t work.
• Horseradish – pieces of horseradish root can be grown into new plants.
• Jerusalem Artichoke – These bulbs, which resemble more compact ginger roots, are prolific, and once planted, will come back year after year. They may be hard to find in stores. They are excellent animal feed, both roots and tops.
• Turnips – Turnips will produce edible tops if replanted, and if let go to seed, will produce more turnips.
• Garlic – Virtually any kind of garlic will grow if planted. Break apart into cloves, plant each clove, and they’ll divide.
• Shallots – Shallots are multipliers, the bulbs will divide fairly prolifically. If you purchase shallots in the store, the bulbs may have the beginnings of the division process. You can divide any bulbs that are starting to divide, and plant the pieces separately.

Really Truly Scraps – These foods are typically things you would throw away. Replanting gives you another crop from them, sometimes many more crops.

• Celery bottoms – Save the bottom of the celery from the store – I leave the smallest ribs in the center. Set them in a bowl of water (shallow water) for 1-2 days, then plant. Just make sure the bottom of the plant is covered sufficiently to retain moisture at the base. Keep well watered for the first few weeks.
• Potato peels – Depression era potato growing. Thick potato peels with the eyes were used instead of potato starts.
• Lettuce bottoms (best with roots) – Two ways to do this. One is the same as celery. The other is to buy hydroponic lettuce that has the roots on it, and replant that. It will send out many small side heads. You can also let it go to seed.
• Pineapple tops – they are actually specially designed to grow! Pull off the rest of the fruit. Then slice the stem, in thin slices, until you see a circle of brown dots around the edge of the stem – don’t worry, when you see it, you’ll know! If you pull away the leaves, you’ll see some brown roots curling around the stem. Pull off some more, about an inch up. Let it dry for a few days, and then plant it. Keep the soil moist for several weeks, and then settle in to a once a week watering schedule. Yes, you can get them to bear fruit. There is an abundance of information available online for doing so.
• Mushroom stems and scraps – bury mushroom scraps (chop into small pieces) in damp half finished compost (for Portobellos), or in damp hardwood sawdust (for shiitake). Keep damp, but not wet. Google to learn how to induce them to fruit.
• Cabbage bottoms – Cabbages work the same as lettuce.
• Onion bottoms – the bottom root portion of an onion, if cut off just above the solid part, can be planted. Just set it in a bowl of water for a day or two, then settle it into damp soil – no need to cover it. It will send up greens from the middle, and form more bulb.

You can do these items in potting soil, or in dirt. Or in home grown compost, or a mix of all of those things. Whatever you have.

Now, you don’t have a choice of varieties. There is an element of gambling here. Also, due to modern food handling methods, sometimes it just won’t work – maybe the potatoes have been sprayed with sprout inhibitor (some are, some are not), maybe the seeds have been heat treated, or maybe the food has been irradiated or chemically treated in other ways. You don’t know. But if you NEED to grow food, this is worth a try. For sheer survival, it is a great experiment, and if you ARE in a survival situation, chances are at least half of what you try is going to work enough to justify the effort.

If you are on food stamps and want to grow a garden, this is one way you can get a garden going with foods you normally buy. Quality may vary, but there are still many things you can grow this way which will work nicely to produce more food with less money.

Update: Our book on this topic is now available for download! Get The Scavenger’s Garden: Growing Food from Groceries and Scraps for even more kinds of foods you can grow from groceries or scraps, and factors that influence whether they will grow and produce food.

“Buy gold!” they say. But the more I think about it, the less logical it seems. Oh, it makes good sense for the gold dealers now, making record sales percentages based on record high gold prices. But if you DO invest in gold, what are you going to DO with it in a crisis?

There are two major issues with gold. The first is vulnerability, the second is usability.

If you buy gold, there is a record of it. If things get dicey, there is a good chance the government will confiscate what it knows about, and make it illegal for you to possess it or sell it if they do not know you have it. Gold is still tied to our financial system, even if not strongly. There is a precedent for confiscation of gold, by the government. It has happened twice in history before. And this time they have a big motive. Central banks have “leased” their gold reserves. They have them on paper, but they no longer have the actual gold. The leasees have SOLD that gold. At today’s (or tomorrow’s) prices, they can NEVER buy it back. The government is all too likely to confiscate the gold of private citizens to stabilize the havoc that particular bit of slight of hand is going to cause. This one item means that if you are going to invest in metals, go with silver or platinum, not gold. They are highly unlikely to confiscate those – especially silver, as it is so bulky in comparison, and not tied to the monetary system anymore.

If the government does not confiscate it (which I kind of doubt), SOMEONE knows you have that, you are on a list somewhere, that list WILL get out, and SOMEONE will come after it. Gold makes you a target. A bright, shiny one, for people who see it as the ultimate route to power in a meltdown. It isn’t… but they will still think so. Gold makes you very vulnerable to people who are a whole lot more determined to GET that than you will ever be to KEEP it – they are willing to not only kill, but to torture and harm your loved ones to get it.

If you manage to keep it, it may not actually be usable! In a national or global economic crash, if currency is not longer worth anything, people will NOT automatically turn to gold. For one thing, most people simply do not have it. Those who do may find it impossible to actually USE. Your average farmer who might sell you eggs or milk is simply not set up to do business on a gold standard – if there were such a thing. In an economic collapse, there won’t be such a thing. He wouldn’t have any idea how much to charge you… or how to USE what you have.

Say you have one-ounce gold coins. How do you spend two dozen egg’s worth of that? Carve off a piece?

Money is nothing more than an agreed upon unit of trade. My labor for a valuation which can then be exchanged for things I need.

When money goes away, people do not replace it with gold, which they can no more set a value on than any other useless thing. The currency of trade, becomes BARTER. Goods or services for goods or services. When money goes away, it just goes away, and is not immediately replaced.

Those eggs have more value than your gold.

You can’t eat gold. You can’t use it to stay warm.

You only really have one security. Don’t invest in gold. Invest in land. Paid for, free and clear.

Then USE the land. Get it producing. Get it to produce something that people will always need. Food, clothing, shelter. Things people will be willing to barter for in times of desperation.

Learn how to barter. Not just how to barter this thing you have for that thing you want. But how to barter this thing of value for that thing of value to barter again for another thing of value and finally barter for the thing you want.

Invest in tools of self-sufficiency. Keep a few spares.

Invest in a food storage, but don’t rely on that to save your bacon. Food storage runs out. Gardens don’t. Food storage does not reproduce. Animals do! Get your continuous supply system set up and operating. It will always have value.

The more you can do for yourself, and the more surplus you can produce, the better off you’ll be if things do get really hard. They haven’t yet – they only hint at really hard.

Don’t expect gold to save you. The land can do that much more effectively. If you feel you must invest in some kind of metal, silver is likely to be more liquid in a crisis, and while it is bulkier, it is easier to fly under the radar with it. Even then, silver is not a highly spendable item in a crisis – it is more a means of keeping your money THROUGH a crisis, until it is over. Just something to use to store funds that you don’t want to trust to the banks, which you don’t want to sink into land and other usable items.

UPDATE: Our book Growing Microgreens for Home and Farm is now available on Amazon for Kindle, or in PDF format from our Firelight Heritage Farm Books website. Learn how growing microgreens can help you save money on vegetables, and feed your animals.

Ever notice how we get told about salmonella outbreaks in peanut butter whenever the economy tanks? There’s a reason for that. And a simple solution!

Apparently, the oil and low water environment of peanut butter can make salmonella stubborn to kill in the processing factory environment. Heat sealing won’t quite kill them all. Usually only a few stubborn beasties are left though, and only on special occasions.

So why is it that these little buggers show up every time the economy gets bad?

When things are hard, people buy more peanut butter.  Peanut butter sales are sort of the mercury reading of economic health. Good times, people buy meat and cheese. Hard times, they eat more peanut butter. Especially families with lots of children. No criticism there, my kids ate a lot of peanut butter, it is good food.

But when things are hard, and peanut butter sales increase, peanut butter spends less time in storage, between the factory and the table. Turns out, that creates a problem.

Salmonella can’t survive well in peanut butter. It can’t multiply there, and has a hard time even living. Somewhere between two and six weeks after bottling, any salmonella in peanut butter is gone from natural peanut butter and unsweetened peanut butter by the time it hits the store in almost every situation.

Some ingredients help the salmonella survive longer. Sugar is one of them. Some other sweeteners act the same as sugar, giving the salmonella a carbohydrate fix that helps it last a bit longer. More sugar, longer living salmonella.

Even so, within about 12 to 20 weeks, the salmonella is completely gone (even in cooler temperatures which prolong the life of the bacteria). And here we have the reasoning for salmonella outbreaks when the economy is in the toilet…

It means that our peanut butter reserves in warehouses have run short. The peanut butter is spending less time in storage between packaging and the store. It isn’t having enough time for the salmonella to completely die off.

This is a bit alarming when you think about it. If the economy is so bad that we are down to a few weeks supply of peanut butter in our nation, then things are worse than they may appear on the surface. Peanut butter doesn’t lie.

So, what does this mean to you, and how can you be sure you are eating safe food? It has nothing to do with the government – there are a few simple things you can do to make sure your peanut butter isn’t going to make you sick.

1. Buy natural peanut butter. Peanut butter without sugar is best.
2. Keep natural peanut butter sealed, at room temperature, for 2-3 weeks before using.
3. Keep sugared peanut butter sealed, at room temperature, for 6-10 weeks if you can, before using. This means having a supply on hand to use from.
4. If you make fresh peanut butter, do not add sugar, and store it at room temperature for three weeks before using – the salmonella comes from the fresh peanuts, not from the packaging systems. Give it time to die.
5. DO NOT REFRIGERATE UNOPENED PEANUT BUTTER! Store at room temp, NOT in a root cellar or cold storage. Salmonella survives LONGER when refrigerated.

No need to recall “contaminated” peanut butter, just set aside unopened jars for use later. Truth is, probably a lot of what comes to your table was contaminated at one time – but the salmonella has had time to die in storage, and is no longer a risk.

The problem here is not that peanuts can be contaminated. We will never be able to stop them from being contaminated, and we won’t really be able to stop some of those little beasties from surviving the hot bath of processing and preserving.

The real problem is that our economy is so badly damaged that people are using far more than is being produced, resulting in a depletion of stored supplies. Under normal conditions, the commercial storage and distribution system has a built-in mechanism to ensure that the peanut butter is safe by the time it reaches your home. It is only in this kind of hard times when that falls apart because of abnormally high demand.

The long term national solution is to elect a man who actually cares about fixing the economy instead of re-electing someone bent on destroying it further. A reduction in government regulations, which allows businesses to flourish and hire again, will solve the problem of the peanut butter – no new regulation is needed (quite the opposite).

The personal solution is much simpler. Just make sure your peanut butter is old enough to be safe.