Edible weeds.

I enjoyed the article on weeds in the May/ June issue. Four of your list of 10 are edibles.

My mother used to send us children out with a foot tub (the younger generation won't know what that is) to pick lamb's quarters. She cooked it, and we ate it--and were glad to get it. It's sort of like spinach.

Every part of the purslane is edible, including flowers, and it's often added to salads as a garnishment. It also has medicinal value. The wild lettuce is edible, and the young leaves make a good salad ingredient or pot vegetable. And, the curly dock, Rumex crispus, and its little "brother," Rumex acetocella, are edible as greens, either in a salad or stewed. Pick it early, when the foliage is a rosette, before it stalks. These four, at least, may not be unwanted weeds to some!

LARRY TREKELL

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