When I lived in a remote area in the mountains in N.CA purslane grew wild all over the place, including my yard. It is sort of little rubbery stems that spread with tiny leaves on the stems, that are also sort of little rubbery leaves! It is more like a ground cover rather than an upright growing plant.I ate it in salads in smallish quantities. It was good mixed in, but was not something that you'd be wanting a bowl of alone, as I experienced it and I love salads and raw veggies. I also had yellow dock growing all over the yard wild and loved that as it has a distinctly lemony taste and I like the leaves alot in salad. However, it is high in oxalates, so moderation is in order.

I raised chickens at the time and they ate the purslane like crazy. It should be very easy to grow. If anything, it can get out of hand growing everywhere and is treated by most people as a bit of an invasive weed.

I find there to be a difference between wild and cultivated purslane. In my experience the cultivated is softer and lovely in salads. The wild is quite yummy in smoothies not as good in salads. I like the lemony taste it has with berry smoothies very much.

Great question!

I grow purslane in containers. I eat it raw, or toss it in the skillet or pressure cooker, with anything I wish. I like how hardy it is, how easy it is to grow, and that is a perennial. The young leaves and stems are, of course, more tender, than the older ones.

I like its crunch, tangy flavor, and enjoy having it as one of my perennials. It's nice with parsley, basil, mint, oregano, or lemon thyme, as well as savory.

Here is a link to purslane at Horizon Herbs. I have been very pleased with the seeds I've bought from them. And their customer service is especially kind. :)

http://www.horizonherbs.com/product.asp?specific=673

I've realised that we have lots of it in my garden, mostly where I dont' want it. Its one of those plants that if you miss a bit replants itself and is hard to get rid of. I live in SW France and I think it's one of the hedgerow plants that you see our elderly neighbours picking on their walks. I've also seen the odd rather wilted bunch being sold in the market. The problem with many of these plants is the sheer quantity you would have to pick to make even a decent sized salad. I think the locals pick whatever edible leaves they find and make a mixed salad or soup. This French site has some good pictures and info about it, with a link at the bottom to a recipe for soup (soupe de poupier) but you would need 1.5kg of it. It also mentions using the seeds for flour, but again they are quite small so I can't imagine how much you would need to make a useable amount.

http://garrigue-gourmande.fr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1136&Itemid=125 Thankyou for the question it led me to that site which has lots of clear pictures of local edible plants, I normally only risk pissenlit (dandelion) because I definitely know what that looks like.

Wow, this is a very "old fashioned" vegetable here in the Netherlands. It used to be eaten a lot, like in 50's, 60's and ended up in the forgotten vegetables section. Nice to read it' quite healthy too, i'm going to try it our for sure!

We can buy it from our farmers' market, and have in the past, but that was until we realized it was the same stuff that was growing as a weed in our backyard. It's OK. The stems are interesting--they almost have a succulent quality to them, unlike a lot of things one would consider greens. They're decent in salads and also quickly sauteed with garlic and sea salt (and what green isn't awesome with that treatment, really?).

I LOVE purslane aka pigweed! Really funny soft and tender floppy leaves and thick stems for crunch, it's really a lovely lemony-tart flavour. I eat both raw and cooked. The omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin a levels of this little buddy contain are off the charts.

Yes, it's a weed but kind of the best weed ever - and there are a ton of different types cultivated.. not sure if one type holds more nutrition than the others, tho. It falls into the "hard herb plant" variety which means it doesn't need much water, likes sun, doesn't require the best dirt to thrive in, and spreads out more than up. You would just need to keep an eye on it so it doesn't go wild.

You should totally grow it.

It grows wild here in southern Oregon, comes up in my garden every year actually...but usually is infested with leaf miners which is the larvae of a type of sawfly....these same insects get my Swiss chard and beet greens but since those leaves are larger I can easily cut off the damaged parts of the leaves....with purslane it's too much trouble since the leaves are so small. Yuck.

I bought some seeds for purslane a month ago, I'm waiting for Spring to plant them. The kind of omega-3 purslane and flax contain aren't very usable in the human body, but hey, why not try it, right?

It started popping up in my back-porch container garden; when I figured out what it was I started eating it and letting it grow. Careful tho, it's prolific!

I made a really awesome potato salad last summer with red potatoes, shallots, homemade curried mayo and lots of coarsely chopped purslane. Sooo good.

No Greek salad is complete without it.... :)