PURSLANE

Purslane originated in India and Persia. It is a succulent plant. It is prised garden vegetable in much of Europe and Asia, but you won't find it on many American tables because we think of it as a weed

It is a ground hugging annual that seldom reaches up two inches, although it may be more than a foot across. Each plant has several tender stems radiating from the center of tender plant, forking freely as it creeps along the ground. The stems are about a quarter in in diameter inch in diameter near the their origin and reduce in size at each forking. The tiny yellow flowers are found in the forking of each stem and open only on sunny mornings.

Purslane is probably most often served by boiling for about ten minutes. Season with salt and butter. You may also fry several small pieces of bacon, drain off excess fat, dump in about 1 Qt. of Purslane tips and fry in the drippings for about seven or eight minutes.

You can also pickle and freeze this nifty little "weed" vegetable. As in all greens from the garden, thoroughly wash before preparing and eating. You can find a few recipes on line, but it it is not a well known foraging plant in America. You can also find seed if you want to grow "domesticated" Purslane in your garden. It isn't picky about the condition of the soil and makes it's home in your home garden. It was years before I knew what I was "weeding" out of the garden. If we only knew what to look for, less people would go hungry.

Today I went to Lowe's and bought a window air conditioner for my kitchen which is unbearable at this time and it is getting hotter around the edges. I had to put it on a card, something I really hated to do as I am trying to stay out of debt.

the worst thing is...I have no one to put it in for me. Sometimes you have to grit your teeth and do what you must, especially if I am to do canning in the fall.

We has had a little rain-very little. Rain makes it easier to pull weeds though, and the garden to grow. While I am hot and bothered, in upstate NY, near the Vermont boarder and Seranac Lake region, the temperature are in the 30's at night. Not very good garden weather for this time in June.

My computer problems are still not resolved, but tomorrow I will call Balkan who's router I have. Cuss, cuss, cuss! Or darn, darn, darn!

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