Growing Ill Weeds as Good Vegetables 
HOW BY CULTIVATING THE WILDERNESS SIDE OF THE GARDEN ONE CAN SAVE ON THE 
PURSE AND ADD TO THE MENU—MILKWEED SUBSTITUTED FOR ASPARAGUS, YARROW AS 
SALAD, DOCK AS SPINACH—A REPETITION OF THE TOMATO’S RISE FROM NOXIOUS WEED-DOM 
by Mary Hamilton Talbott 
Roots of golden thistle cook up to taste not unlike 
salsify 
I T seems only the 
other day that 
the French alone ate 
frogs’ legs, mush¬ 
rooms, and toma¬ 
toes—“love apples," 
as the last were 
called in England 
and America, grown 
like flowers for pur¬ 
poses of ornamenta¬ 
tion, but thought to 
be poisonous, and 
hence scrupulously 
avoided as a food— 
now market staples, 
so why should we 
not expect soon to 
be eating what we 
now consider 
weeds, especially as 
Uncle Sam is rec¬ 
ommending them . J 
‘'What we call 
weeds are no more 
so than other plants 
that we term vege¬ 
tables,” one of the experts of that bureau says. "Weeds are 
vegetables, and our so-called vegetables were once upon a time 
no more than weeds. The classification results from a matter 
of habit. We are slaves of habit, and because we are so it 
has not occurred to us that we could eat anything but just the 
old list of vegetables our ancestors have eaten for generations. 
But now we are beginning to peer into fence corners and back 
yards and wild pastures for new and wonderful foodstuffs that 
we have heretofore regarded as just weeds. It is a bit morti¬ 
fying that because of this preconceived idea we have let most 
nutritious foodstuffs go to waste under our very eyes. ’ 
Perhaps one of the most delicious vege¬ 
tables known is milkweed. Rich in nutri¬ 
tious food values and with a flavor like 
asparagus, it could readily be substituted for 
this always expensive vegetable. In Eng¬ 
land it is now being cultivated in gardens 
where the stalks grow to pro¬ 
digious size from fertilizing, 
and the large, thick leaves are 
marvelously tender. It is 
cooked like asparagus and 
served with drawn butter. 
The tender tips of the leaves 
of this weed make a salad 
with a taste so unlike any¬ 
thing now used for this pur¬ 
pose that those seeking new 
sensations will enjoy it. Af¬ 
ter the middle of June the 
mamms 
The young shoots of common yarrow put tang into 
a salad 
Though looked upon as an outlaw, the yellow dock is superior to spinach or kale 
wild milkweed be¬ 
comes too tough and 
is not good in flavor 
after the blossoms 
appear, but when 
cultivated it is good 
until fall. It is very 
easy to raise. Like 
peas the brown 
seeds—so familiar 
to us all in the late 
summer—should be 
sown in rows, at in¬ 
tervals, and the ten¬ 
der shoots will be 
available all sum¬ 
mer. 
Another weed 
which resembles as¬ 
paragus in looks and 
taste is the poke 
shoot or pigeon- 
berry weed. These 
shoots are often 
found in our mar¬ 
kets among the 
country folks who 
crowd about the outside of the market house. They should be 
cooked and served the same as asparagus; on toast with melted 
butter or drawn-butter sauce. They should not be used after the 
leaves begin to uncurl. In foreign countries tender blackberry 
shoots and the tender sprouts of brakes or other ferns are used 
the same way, especially in Japan. The first shoots of the straw- 
bell, or bell wort, are a good substitute for asparagus, and the 
roots of this plant when boiled are very good. 
The wild yellow dock, whose long and curly leaf distinguishes, 
it from the short, thick-leaved dock, which is not edible, is one 
of the most troublesome of weeds, something to be rooted up and 
destroyed, and yet this vegetable outlaw 
is one of the most nutritious of food sta¬ 
ples. The tender leaves when well 
cooked and daintily served are far supe¬ 
rior to either kale or spinach. A spicy 
flavor that is most tempting will be added 
to them if the crisp and tender leaves of 
the common horse-radish, which grows 
in every country garden, is cooked with 
the dock. Cold cooked dock makes a 
splendid salad when served with either 
mayonnaise or French dressing, its slight 
bitterness being very pala¬ 
table. 
In England, where the dan¬ 
delion is comparatively un¬ 
common, it is raised carefully 
in gardens as a potherb and 
salad-plant, and yet in this 
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