Random Farm Knowledge: Part 2

This is my second installation of Random Farm Knowledge, where I detail things I've learned at my internship on the University of Minnesota's Student Organic Farm. It's crazy how much this internship is teaching me about food and farming. Writing it all down is almost necessary so I don't forget it all! Many of my discoveries at the farm revolved around weeds you can eat.

1. Purslane is something I've been pulling out and throwing away, never knowing it was so tasty! We actually harvested the huge amount we had growing around our tomato plants and sold it at one of our farmers market stands. It sold out, so I would call that a success. The Barefoot Food blog has a great post about Purslane that talks about all the great nutrients that are packed into this one little plant.


2. Palmer Amaranth, also known as pigweed, is edible as well. It tastes best cooked as you would cook spinach. An awesome article just came out called "This weed is taking over the planet! On the upside, it's delicious!" that talks about the benefits of eating amaranth. One of the articles it links too talks about the "weed mindset" that we have and how these greens are underutilized as food crops.

Over at our student organic farm blog, I recently wrote a post about our friends the edible weeds. We have so many of them that we'd love to have volunteers come out and harvest some of their own. We also can show them what plants they should be looking for, since no one should eat plants that they can't properly identify. Check it out here.


3. Broccoli and kohlrabi leaves are edible too. Generally they make a good cooking green and are often large enough to wrap around other ingredients and grilled that way. Here's a good post on broccoli greens.

4. Dill can be used for different things at different points of it's life. Obviously before it flowers it's good for fresher eating and seasonings. After it flowers and seeds, however, it's still good for pickling. So don't worry if your dill is flowering and your cucumbers aren't ready for pickle making.

5. Lastly, more of a personal discovery, I LOVE trying fresh herbs and greens with cottage cheese. My favorite combinations so far are basil and cottage cheese, and purslane and cottage cheese. Yum. :) Every week on Thursdays our farm has a potluck lunch and I've found so many new foods and food combinations that I like!

Did you learn anything new in your garden this week? Let me know!