Late Season Purslane Saves the Day!

green chili huevos rancheros with purslane - YUM

If you follow my blog it should be no surprise to you that Dan and I enjoy purslane any chance we get. I'm pretty much obsessed with purslane. 

When we got home from our outing to Tombstone, we didn't have time to go to the store to get a veggie for dinner.  Then I remembered that I had some growing in my front yard! I simply added purslane to some leftover spaghetti sauce and heated it up. While I was at it, I also grabbed some moringa to add even more nutrition. I use just the leaves of the moringa, but I chop up the stems and leaves of the purslane. 

Note: The purslane in the pic has seed buds - which means it would be more woody. I generally look for ones that haven't gone to seed yet. 

moringa (left) and purslane with leftover sauce

This is actually late in the season for purslane, but the purslane that I planted from seed has grown and spread. And new plants are springing up after the rain! 

If you're wondering where I got the seeds... I rinse the purslane off into bowls (usually 3 or 4 times) and the seeds go to the bottom. I simply pour the water with the seeds where I want them to grow. The best place is somewhere you already water. You can see they spread very well in the gravel.   

I got up early to clean up a nearby lot and I still didn't get to the store. So I harvested more purslane for breakfast!

I had a little left over green chili sauce and tortillas that I needed to use up, so I decided to make green chili huevos rancheros with purslane. Yum!  Thought you might like to see how I make 'em. 

The tortillas were thin and crumbling, so I decided to fry them to make them firmer so they could hold up to the sauce. (If they are thick, fresh tortillas I skip this step.)  

Then I cut up the stems of the purslane and sautéed them with the leaves. (Sometimes I will sauté onions and add them to it but this time I really wanted to taste the flavor of the purslane.) I poured the green chili sauce into a big sauce pan, and laid 2 tortillas in the sauce. Then I ladled purslane onto the tortillas and grated cheese on that.

I covered those with tortillas and heated them up on both sides (until the cheese was melted.) Finally, I topped them with a fried egg. 

And my baby and I enjoyed a yummy huevos rancheros with purslane brunch... 

...with a beautiful view of our yard - unseasonably green from the last rain. 

Prompting Purslane Season

This summer has been the driest on record so far, with less than 3 inches of rain, and hot, with several days over 110 degrees and often remaining unseasonably hot late into the night. Not so good for plants!  I have been watering my recently planted pollinators every other day to keep them alive until the start of monsoon. I've even had to water my little veggie garden before going to bed at night to keep it going until morning.

Our first purslane usually pops up after two monsoon rains. But this year we never got the promised big monsoon. I was watering the area under the bird cage daily - in hopes that some sun chokes I planted last year would return. No go. But purslane came up instead. Last year I had planted some as a cover crop and they had spit out seeds.

Here it is on July 28th with the little yellow flowers which means it is going to seed. 

We harvested the purslane for breakfast five times so far, washing it over a bowl to catch the seeds. Then I poured the seeds where I was already watering. 

You can see where I left the roots and a bit of the branches to grow back. And the seeds have spread beyond the cage. Yes, I water my weeds. 

They grew big enough to harvest...

After washing them, I added the leaves and stems to some sautéed onions. 

Note: they shrink like spinach.  

I made a yummy breakfast scramble to celebrate the purslane season I had prompted. 

While it took some effort to keep my purslane alive, a large patch of it popped up along the side of a nearby restaurant. AC condensate off the tile roof? I grabbed a bag full before the landscapers could poison it with Roundup and planted it in my dry rainwater basin.  I hoped it would go to seed and spread like the round-leafed horse purslane had on rainy years.

I have been watering it daily to keep it going during this scorching weather. 

I found a big clump on Speedway that I carried home and planted.  I was looking forward to it spreading a lot of seeds. After watering it, it was already getting yellow flowers. 
 

But then I looked out the window and saw a flock of birds going to town on the seeds. 

I thought about rushing out to scare them away. But we had really built this basin for the birds. Besides, I was having a great time watching them. (These pics through the window don't capture the frenzy. lol)

I guess the birds took the Plants for Bird sign literally...

And the bunnies... Don't forget the bunnies. 

More about purslane: 

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2016/06/obsessed-with-purslane.html

Celebrating Small Blessings

After a challenging month trying to grow food while conserving water, it is nice to celebrate the little blessings. It definitely has been a challenge this May...Oh my gosh! Will it ever rain!? But I've learned the best thing I can do is to maintain our native edible plants in our food forest with as little water as possible. For example, our prickly pear. After enjoying some yummy Nopales, I decided it was only fair to finally water the drooping prickly pear. I also only watered our desert hackberries once. So far, I haven't had to water my mesquite or palo verdes at all. In the way of full disclosure, I do deep-water our drought-tolerant jujubes once a week.  And we have been rewarded with our first baby fruit! 

click on pic to see the baby jujubes 

My daughter-in-law and I did plant a few summer plants from seed: sunflowers and cowpeas. The lizards chowed down on the cowpeas and three of the sunflowers. So we decided to cover the last of the sunflowers with some old shade netting to keep the lizards off.

Fatima constructing a fortress to keep out lizards 

We are enjoying an unexpected benefit. Volunteer purslane has popped up and is thriving in the shade and water I give to the sunflowers. And the netting keeps the lizards from eating it! If you've followed my blog for a while, you may be aware of how obsessed I am with purslane. It is definitely my favorite green. This morning I harvested some for a quick scramble. Popped some in my mouth too. Citrusy deliciousness! I even called over our neighbors to try it.

I removed the wooden shish kabob skewers and rocks holding the netting to the ground.

harvesting the purslane 

I hold the stems while I cut off the yummy top branches and leaves. See, if you leave the stems and roots in the ground they will grow back in a day or two. 

I pull out a few blades of grass that are getting in the way...

I wash the purslane over a bowl to catch the little black seeds. Then I pour the seeds under a plant I already water to grow more purslane for the lizards. lol 

Purslane has a unique flavor when cooked.  I wanted to make sure I could taste it this morning, so I left off the usual pesto and added some fresh tomatoes to compliment it. I quickly sautéed them with 3 eggs. Next time I'll pick a little more purslane, since it tends to shrink when cooked. But today I wanted to have plenty left for one of my favorite dishes: potato and cucumber salad. 

CHEERS! 

Click this link and scroll down to read more of my purslane posts and recipes!