Penny Lane? Nah Purselane!

Welcome back to another terribly late episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. This time honestly the lateness has to do with the new job suddenly going from being part time (30 or less hours) to me suddenly having to do the work of several people and it being 40 plus hours. Since overtime is involved I cannot complain but besides that I had a plan for the two July episodes and decided to scrap both. The fact is in retrospect I noticed that the late July post wasn’t fully researched and the early one was flat boring. Honestly if any of you readers out there wanted to be bored you could just listen to grass grow or you know try to win a staring contest with your compost. I kid of course, we all know compost never blinks, you can’t win that one no matter what you do.

Portulaca oleracea - Common Purslane

This month’s topic however is one I've touched on quite a bit and I’m coming back to in light of some good photos of specimens in the wild.  The topic of course is weeds, but more so today we are going to talk about one very common weed that is completely edible with a nonexistent chance of ill side effects and no poisonous look-alikes. Surprisingly the cultivated form of this weed is often known by the scientific first name of the species and is also fully edible and remarkably drought tolerant. The plant in its cultivated form is called Portulaca, but in its ‘weed’ forms it is called Purslane. The differences between the two summarize with the leaf shape and flower colors and that the cultivated types have been bred for double flowers. but otherwise they have negligible differences. In both cases pieces of the plant can be propagated in water or the ultra-fine powder like seed can be harvested which has a high germination rate if you protect the seed from excessive moisture in storage. But of course, the real question is why should you eat Purslane? Well Purslane is a strong source of Vitamin A, enough such that 100 grams (3.53 ounces) provides 44% of your daily recommended amount. It also is rich in Vitamin C, a number of complex b-vitamins and it is noted to have dietary minerals like iron, magnesium calcium potassium and manganese. Additional research by [Proc. West. Pharmacol. Soc. 45: 101-103 (2002] indicates that Purslane contains two types of Betalain alkaloid pigments; the yellow b-xanthins and the reddish b-cyanins which have been found to have anti-mutagenic properties in lab tests.

Portulaca amilis - Broadleaf Pink Purselane

This does come with some not-so good news as it’s been noted that Purslane’s foliage bears naturally occurring oxalic acid which can give it a tart flavor. 100 grams of fresh leaves can contain 1.31 grams of oxalic acid which is more than spinach or cassava and thus those with the risk of oxalate urinary tract stones should avoid purslane. I should also note that if you heard the word oxalic acid, and thought it sounded familiar otherwise you are right to think so. When it comes to house plants some plants use oxalic acid as a defense to prevent grazing. The most common is the Dumb cane (Dieffenbachia sp.) which when chewed causes oxalate crystals to lodge in the tongue and throat causing you to lose the ability to speak and general discomfort. However, the Dieffenbachia isn’t the plant with the highest oxalate content in common cultivation, that title goes to Parsley (yes, the biennial in the carrot family), which by volume is 1.7% oxalic acid and can be eaten with no real side effects. If anything, the combination of organic chemical compounds in parsley makes it suited for flavoring and for the use as a breath freshener that can even nullify garlic.

Sources used for researching this article:
    1.    Stanford School of Medicine, Cancer Information Page: https://stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-clinics/cancer-nutrition-services/reducing-cancer-risk.html
    2.    Proc. West. Pharmacol. Soc. 45: 101-103 (2002) http://fikrat0.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/procwest.pdf
    3.    USDA National Nutrient Database

For note this is where the advertising starts because it keeps the Test Garden’s supplied and running tests so you don’t have to. If you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Barring bad weather, I’ll be there selling the following summer offerings.

Plants Available Now:

Peppers, Ghost – $3.00

Peppers, Aji Limon - $3.00

Peppers, Pepperoncini - $3.00

Basil, Sweet – $3.00

Sage, Common - $3.00

Stevia - $3.00

Santolina - $3.00

Tarragon, Texas - $3.00

Toothache Plant - $3.00

Coneflower, Pow Wow Mix - $4.00

Milkweed – $3.00

Milkweed, Whorled - $3.00

Oregano, 6” pot - $5.00

Hops, 6” pot - $10.00

Aloe Vera, Large - $7.00

Dancing Bones Cactus - $3.00

Polka Dot Plant - $4.00

Coming Soon:

Flowering Maple

Ornamental – Coneflower, Cheyenne Spirit

More To Be Announced

These days I am generally at Leclair’s General Store once a week, for the weekly Sustainable Neighbors meeting at 5:30pm through 7:00 pm. If you have questions then I will be there to answer your questions. Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to sign up for anything or join anything, you can come on in ask for us and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market or pay attention to what Sustainable Neighbors is doing at the link below.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

            This brings to a close the thirteenth LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 1st of August which is next Wednesday. As a bit of a spoiler, next week you are going to see first hand what kind of hot peppers I am trading to Fowler’s Restaurant on 723 West Roan Street In Fayetteville North Carolina, and this means the first pictures of the vaunted hybrid pepper I’ve bred and been talking about. Oh, the spoiler here isn’t what I’ve just said, it’s that said hybrid pepper is now being used in a hot sauce called “X-Man” because it’s so hot that you need to have super powers to endure it. I’ve taste tested it and it’s good, but even a few drops will burn for upwards of 48 minutes.