Eat The Weeds: Episode 93: Tumbleweed, Russian Thistle

www.eattheweeds.com/salsola-ka...
Learn about wild food with Green Deane. In this video, we'll look at a supposed western classic, the tumbleweed aka Russian Thistle.

[@stephenstruman7235]

As a kid I was able to catch a wild chucker by chasing it into a giant pile of tubleweeds. It had gotten tangled up as it tried to go deeper into the pile to evade me. Until it had gotten so tangled that I could get my hands on it. I took it home to show off my catch and my dad thoroughly impressed tried to convince me that they were good eating. I wasn’t interested in eating it and released it in the same area I caught it in a few hours later. I always thought my dad was so strange for suggesting we eat that bird and here I am the same age my dad was and considering eating the tumbleweeds.

[@GoingGoneGalt]

They look very different in the southwest desert. I just harvested my first ine of the year. I pull.up the whole plant when it is about the size of a football, strip the spikey leaves off of the stems, wash, and throw them into a salad or fry them in bacon grease. Yum!

[@qualqui]

hmmm...back home in se utah, bunches of tumbleweeds,...but here in mexico,...like i may have seen some but not sure,....one thing for sure, what we know as quelites and verdolagas, grow wild, come up with the rains and mighty fine eatin', the quelites taste similar to spinach and the verdolagas have a tart flavor, rich in vitamin C.*****

[@cutlerylover]

Ok, Thanks for the reply Dean...

[@debtbully3]

When i was a kid growing up in N.M. my friends and I where in the Tumble Weed club we had a fort.

[@EatTheWeeds]

@Dayadasi If you mean the onopordum acanthium, yes, parts. It is very bitter but young stems and receptacles are edible after cooking.

[@odin422]

MAN your a wealth of knowledge!!!

[@EatTheWeeds]

Check it out. That woudl be the right place as the originals were in south south Dakota.

[@qualqui]

Wow,....i'm impressed, you sir are a man of GREAT KNOWLEDGE! I'll be checkin' your channel out for interestin' vids.= )

[@kryptiea]

I have seen tumbleweeds in oklahoma the size of a Volkswagen. Dont think it was this kind.

[@EatTheWeeds]

Good. Make sure it is a S. kali or edible relative. I pick the tips by hand to make sure I get tender ones.

[@mohammadahmad934]

EatTheWeeds It's in Pakistan punjab Bahawalpur and we use it after flaying it's very useful plant i know who to process it and it is use for many madcian also my family is processing it since 1903 i know about it

[@EatTheWeeds]

I think what you are referring to is portulaca oleracea, purslane.

[@MadBadVoodo]

Five Stars!!

[@rodneyjohnson6313]

What about the seeds are the seeds edible?

[@aomimezura11]

My favorite is purslane. It tastes like apples!

[@boomer1579]

with okra consistency

[@rvrandy1710]

Please allow captions for your hard of hearing subscribers :-) thanks Dean ! Just subbed :-)

[@greendeane1]

I would but I have no idea how to do that.

[@rvrandy1710]

@@greendeane1 me neither lol... I think it's a setting some where 🤔 thanks for your Channel Deane, your videos are great !

[@EatTheWeeds]

Well, that is the problem. The word "thistle" is used so loosely. The instructions in the video are just for the Salsola species. However, all Cirsium and Cardus are edible trimmed of their spines.

[@EatTheWeeds]

@p4h10oso Not that I am aware of. Silica is a different issue, however.

[@cutlerylover]

Does that go for all thistle varieties? young shutes and tips..Or just this Russian strain?

[@Lxk3ez]

Hello

[@shinigami117s8]

Can it be ground into flour when dried and eaten safely?

[@ModalSoul]

You can make flour from nuts! Flour is fine grain. If it's edible and you can grind it, consider it flour.

[@odin422]

ha tons of those around here!! moslty dead and rollin' ha

[@ModalSoul]

What are "young shoots"?

[@ModalSoul]

Anybody wondering, I ate a whole green tumble weed that wasn't ready to tumble. I stayed in Southern California. I plucked the entire green-redish thistle from it's root and I brought a pot of water to a boil, and I boiled the weed for atleast 5 minutes to kill anything in it. Yeah, there were bugs in it. Not too long because the longer you heat vegetables the more you destroy their nutrients.. After Boiling it to softness I added mustard.. You might have accesses to chicken, vegetables spices and fruits. Whatever you want, add it! I only had the plant itself and some mustard spice. The thorns on the plant were kind of present in taste, but not as harsh.. Like super thin bones in a chicken.. If I had boiled it longer they would've been softer. The plant was like spaghetti with softened thorns on the end after I had cooked it. Wasn't much flavor to it but the mustard. In this video when he says "the very young tips" are edible he is not wrong, but to eat the entire plant you must soften it by boiling it because anything else but the tip is very hard. You could chop it before boiling and include it with anything you imagine. My advice, Chop Chop Chop, boil for 5-10 min and go wild.

[@purespirit9]

@qualqui you mean sir you are a man of great species...Hahahaha...just playing with ya so don't turn green >:O...XD

[@TreyNitrotoluene]

They only grow in sandy poor soil. Good top soil management would kill it off.

[@Simpateeko]

I allways think of plastic shopping bags as modern day tumble weeds:)

[@EatTheWeeds]

Make sure it's the right species....

[@EatTheWeeds]

I imagine it was too good of an image to ignore, and who on a film crew (other than Louie L'Amour) would think to make sure the plants were historically correct (what irritates the %$#@ out of me in the moving media is to see "musicians" playing instruments backwards or upside down, or actors pretending to be conductors and conducting with their elbows....

[@Pyrus335]

So, how ironic would it be to consider hundreds of tumbleweeds flowing into a walmart parking lot that are seen as trash or errant garbage? It's almost as if god was trying to feed us and we had no idea...

[@purespirit9]

You eat these and you'll turn into a Russian Thistle...LOL Just having me some laughs that's all. :P