When I told my husband I was planting purslane in the garden, I suspect he thought I’d lost my mind.
No doubt he was thinking back to the years when I fought furiously to tug the tenacious weed from my garden beds.
These days, I know better. Portulaca oleracea is a delicious, versatile green that – as you might have guessed, given that it’s considered a weed – practically grows without any help at all.
Did I mention that it’s incredibly good for you, too?
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Writer Michael Pollan even described it as one of the two most nutritious wild edible plants, along with lamb’s quarters, in his book “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.”
You can grow purslane year-round as a microgreen, and all summer long as a vegetable.
In fact, you might find the hardest part of cultivating this tangy green is keeping it from growing a little too well.
There are lots of things you can do to ensure a rewarding harvest, including selecting the right time of day to pluck the leaves for the best flavor.
You’ll also need to know how to use the greens once you’ve harvested them, so let’s dive in.
What Is Purslane?P. oleracea is an annual succulent that has been considered both a useless weed and a powerful medicinal plant at different times throughout history.
Also known as little hogweed, pigweed, fatweed, and pusley, it’s gained recognition in US popular culture more recently for being a nutritional powerhouse.
Purslane contains lots of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals – it even has seven times more beta carotene than carrots.
The Portulaceae family also includes the ornamental wingpod purslane
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