Have you ever gotten hungry on your walk to class and wished that a food cart would pop up out of nowhere? Or maybe while weeding your Dad’s garden you realized you wanted to sample the produce? Well fear not, six of the most prevalent weeds that you trample on your daily walk around campus are actually edible and can make a great snack, salad or excuse to eat something dirty. Next time you see one, make sure to taste the sidewalk weeds.

Purslane

Probably the most recently celebrated weed, hipsters and celebrity chefs pay $9/lb for this sidewalk green. It pokes up between virtually every sidewalk crack around Fisk and at the base of every parking meter in Middletown. Its flat succulent leaves make a tasty snack or add some flavor to a salad. It’s also full of Omega-3s so instead of taking your fish oil capsules one day, just grab some purslane from under your feet. Not to be partial or anything, but this is definitely my favorite weed because it’s accessible and has a delicious and unique flavor.

Plantain Weed

This weed also grows along driveways and sidewalks, which proves helpful because in addition to its edibility, it also can be used as natural panacea. After crushing it in your mouth a bit, it can be put on a bug bite or scratch to stop itching, or a cut to speed up clotting and sooth pain. Whenever someone gets a cut from laying out in Frisbee, I always grab some plantain and press it on their wound because it grows in almost every field and is more readily available than a bandage. It has a mild taste so it can also be eaten in salads. The leaves are long (kind of well, plantain-shaped I guess) with the veins running parallel.

Dandelion Greens

Most people almost certainly know that the greens of this ubiquitous yellow flower are edible because they started charging exorbitant amounts for them at Whole Foods. The leaves of the dandelion can add a spicy edge to your salad as well as an interesting texture and the bonus of knowing that instead of paying high costs for baby greens from Weshop, you harvested them from your neighbor’s over-grown yard.

Yellow Wood Sorrel

Also known as lemon clover because of the sharp citrus flavor of the leaves, this heart-shaped clover grows in most fields and yards (look for it in the grass outside of PAC). It makes a great snack and I would often nibble on this weed during half-time meetings in high school lacrosse games. It adds a distinctive spice to salads and also is a fun and delicious distraction while you are searching for four-leaf clovers in fields.

Lamb’s Quarter

This weed also grows in disturbed grounds (along pathways) and the leaf has a very distinctive  shape, which makes it easy to identify. The leaves make a great base for salads because of their mild taste and soft texture, although they can also be sautéed like spinach. This weed tends to take over gardens, so some gardeners may actually pay you to uproot them, after which you can eat them yourself for dinner.