Shot Weed - as Local as it Gets

Meet Shot Weed!  The new darling of weed season.

These are the guys in the summer that get a thin, wiry stem with seeds
that shoot themselves all over your yard when you try to pull them out.

I bet you have this in your yard.  And I bet it drives you NUTS!  Guess what.  You can stop hating it NOW.

Why?
1. It is edible. (whoopee…. so what?)
2. It is tasty - a local water cress taste alike!  (It is a brassica sp. - that is a broccoli, cabbage and mustard relative).
3. It has a shallow root system, so if it growing in your garden, it makes great green mulch, protecting your soil without stealing water from your deeper rooted veg.

So would I really eat it?

Yes!

SO-o-o-o-o-o good with the roast beef sandwich.
The pretzel roll made it extra good.

How to harvest?

Pull up the rosette, bring all the branches in.  Twist them off the root near the base of the stems.
Give them a wash and a spin.

Goes great in salads as well.

Sure, pull them out of where they don't belong, but don't let them make you crazy any more.  Eat them up.

Where did you learn about this?

From the informative and interesting Melany Vorass Herrera and the Front Yard Forager
This is exhaustively researched, and the Bibliogtaphy has lots of material if you'd like to follow up.  But color pix are helpful… AND recipes.  My kind of book.
http://www.amazon.com/Front-Yard-Forager-Melany-Vorass-Herrera/dp/1594857474