Weeding my garden and most of what I pulled out was purslane.
Having the purslane in hand took me back to the summer of 2020, when staying at home as much as possible, social distancing, and mask wearing were part of everyday life.
Many farmer's markets did not open for the summer of 2020. My friend debated whether or not to open hers but she made the decision to do so. Quite a few of her regular employees did not want to come to work due to the uncertainties and fears from COVID. A few of us did come to the farm. Fresh air, sunshine, fresh veggies, talking to people through our masks, people showing appreciation, people sharing stories about what they were going to do with the veggies they purchased.
One of my favorite stories came from purslane.
Purslane is a pesky garden weed but one day it brought about a fun multi-cultural exchange.
An Iraqi woman came to pick eggplant that is grown on the farm. She came back with her basket full of eggplant and purslane. Steph asked what she was going to do with all those weeds and she said, "This is berbeen. I cook with it. It is very good for you." At the same time a man was at the counter buying some vegetables, saw the purslane, and jumped into the conversation. "My wife is from Turkey and she calls this semizotu. She won't let me pull it out of our garden because she uses it in her cooking, too."
Purslane...berbeen...semizotu. This little succulent brought three corners of the sorld together in one delightful conversation.
Food...the ultimate social agent!
A weed, is just a plant that is misunderstood. Kind of like some people.
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