Something to chew on

By Kath Gannaway
OVERRUN with onion weed, clover or wandering trad? Badger Creek gardener and forager Doris Pozzi may have a solution!
Doris, who moved with her family two years ago from the inner city to a rambling former nursery in Badger Creek, is an advocate for edible weeds.
Doris’s Italian heritage led her down a path that was always going to see the value in plants most gardeners spend a life-time trying to eradicate.
Foraging was part of life for her parents who grew up in Italy and the family always had a vegie patch and fruit trees.
“We used to forage, mainly things like blackberries, mushrooms and chestnuts,” she said.
Four years ago she did a permaculture course and that awakened her interest in foraging and led to her writing Edible Weeds and Garden Plants of Melbourne.
Many of the weeds (plants that we have not worked out a use for yet) in her book can be found in abundance in her many garden beds.
Doris runs edible weed walks through her garden and complements the walk with cooking classes using the great variety of ingredients her ‘students’ see along the way.
Among the vegetables (presumably weeds for which we have worked out a use for) are warragal greens, three-cornered leek – a type of onion weed, purslane, fat hen, cape gooseberries, sorrel, water chestnuts, nasturtiums, lemon balm … and more edible weeds waiting for a recipe.
Doris will share her enthusiasm and knowledge of edible weeds at a talk at Healesville Library on Tuesday, 24 April. Bookings are required on 5962 4423.
Her book will also be available on the day at a special price, or visit www.hellolittleweed.com.