{"id":1802,"date":"2019-09-18T23:28:33","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T23:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/?p=1802"},"modified":"2019-09-18T23:28:34","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T23:28:34","slug":"purslane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/18\/purslane\/","title":{"rendered":"Purslane"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Portulaca oleracea<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout                                                \nPortulacaceae<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purslane is native to the warmer\nparts of Eurasia, but has made itself at home in most countries of the world\n(including most of North America).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caution: Purslane is rich in vitamins A and C\nand iron and is one of the best plant sources of omega 3 fatty acids. It also\ncontains oxalic acid, so shouldn’t be used excessively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greens: Purslane is such a good\nfood plant that it is cultivated in many countries. Gather the tender new\ngrowing tips by pinching them off the plant. This will encourage the plant to\nput out more of the same, so you can take several harvests from a single plant\nin the course of a summer without harming it (though as a common weed you may\nwant to harm it.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nslightly sour tips are good raw in sandwiches and salads, or can be boiled as a\npotherb. In China they are stir fried, added to soup and pickled. If you object\nto the mucilaginous quality of boiled Purslane, then try frying, or baking the\ntender tips with egg and breadcrumbs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seed: Purslane seed can be\nground to flour and used alone, or mixed with equal amount of wheat or other\nflour, for gruel and baking, It can also be sprouted like Alfalfa. Though the\nindividual seeds are small, a single plant may produce as many as 50,000 of\nthem, so it is possible to accumulate a useful quantity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also a useful shortcut\nto gathering the seeds. The fleshy plants contain enough moisture to flower and\nset seed after being uprooted. In fact uprooting may actually stimulate the\nplants to produce seed. All you have to do is gather the plant tops and leave\nthem in a paper bag, in a warm dry place, until they dry up. You then simply\ncrush the seed heads and collect the seed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medicine: The leaves  have been used as a soothing poultice for\nburns, wounds and sore eyes. When eaten in quantity they\nare mildly laxative. Apparently they also contain a substance that kills\ndysentery bacteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultivation: Purslane has a long history of\ncultivation in its homeland and improved varieties are available. However in\nthis country most gardeners are only interested in eradicating it, the idea of\nactually planting this vigorous weed sounds downright foolish. There is some justification\nfor this, as it can be a bad weed if it gets out of hand. This is unfortunate\nthough, because Purslane is also a good food crop. It grows well with pretty\nmuch no attention and is as good as any food plant you are likely to buy. In my\nfirst garden it took several years of careful neglect before I had enough\nPurslane growing in my garden to satisfy my needs. In later gardens I have come\nto have a greater appreciation of its weed status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have a vegetable garden and warm summer weather, there\nis a very good chance you already have Purslane growing as a weed, or soon will\nhave. It appears in disturbed garden soil as if by magic, because the seed may\nlay dormant in the soil for up to forty years, waiting for suitable growing\nconditions.          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to controlling Purslane is not to let it set seed,\notherwise a huge bank of seeds will quickly build up in the soil. You can only\ndo this by regular and conscientious weeding. Don’t leave the uprooted plants\non the soil after weeding, as they will either re\u2011root themselves or set seed\n(or both). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purslane is easily grown from seed\nor cuttings and prefers full sun and rich, well-drained soil. The fleshy,\nmoisture filled leaves enable it to thrive with very little water. It can’t\nstand cold weather and in cool northern areas doesn’t even appear as a weed until\nmidsummer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New crop: Purslane has potential as a\ncommercial food crop, once people find out how good it is. I have seen it for\nsale at Mexican vegetable stalls at our local flea market. The easiest way to\nuse it would be in mixed salad greens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related\nspecies: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

P. retusa<\/em> \u2011 Western Purslane<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Used\nas above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portulaca oleracea Throughout                                                 Portulacaceae Purslane is native to the warmer parts of Eurasia, but has made itself at home in most countries of the world (including most of North America). … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-useful-weeds","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Purslane.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1804,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions\/1804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}