On Purslane

Purslane is the latest of the trendy greens to hit the big time. First there were fiddlehead ferns in the spring, then ramps were all the rage, then lamb's quarter started popping up on cutting-edge menus. Now, purslane is poised to be the surprise favorite among foodies this fall. Why? Because it is essentially a weed that has been overlooked and persecuted for years, and as we all know, abjection is "in" this season. Plus, it happens to grow in Brooklyn, making it the indie darling of leafy greens.

Needless to say, when I get the opportunity to out-local the locavores, I jump on it.

The minute I heard that purslane grows in sidewalk cracks in Brooklyn, Lorenzo and I set out to track some down in Park Slope. Imagine finding this trendiest of indredients growing on my very own block! That would be like bumping into David Chang doing laundry in my basement.


Sadly, it turns out that Lorenzo is not really the vegetable-foraging breed of dog that I had hoped. Showing him pictures of purslane and then setting him free to sniff it out only resulted in squirrel-chasing, pee-marking, and one very upset neighbor. I had to take this urban-guerilla gardening upon myself, then.


Finally, after weeks of staring at sidewalk cracks on every walk with Lorenzo, we found what I believe to be purslane a few blocks from our house. Talk about local!  I would say that my method of bending over and pulling it out of the ground was quite sustainable, as well.

The problem was that I only had a few, anemic looking branches of purslane, with not that many leaves. Plus, I was not sure about eating something that grew in the streets of Brooklyn, even a particularly classy street. So, feeling that I had made my cultural point by finding and "harvesting" one branch myself, I set out to the farmer's market in search of other purslane, grown slightly less locally, and sustainably harvested by someone else.

I did find purslane for sale at the farmer's market, but was shocked and chagrined to see that it cost $4 for 1/4 lb! I lost no time in giving that farmer a piece of my mind. "Four dollars?! Are you crazy? I found this growing in a sidewalk, and I picked it for free! This is a crime! I will start a facebook campaign against you!"  The farmer gave it to me for $3. 

Anyway, I made a pretty delicious salad last night with the purslane and some ground cherries, lemon juice, olive oil, and parmesean. It tasted a lot like watercress or spinach, but with thicker, more "toothsome" leaves (I relish every opportunity to use that word). It made a nice salad, but I would like to see it in a pasta, or maybe battered and fried like sage leaves.


In conclusion, I am quite satisfied with my brief experiment in "small scale gardening". 

Up next: what to do with a bumper crop of tomatoes and eggplants-- 

idea #1: ricotta, tomato, thyme, and honey tart.