Purslane

Purslane is an edible weed. In previous years I've had to yank it out of my garden because the deer love it so much they'd jump my fence and eat the purslane and my roses. I had always wondered what was so appealing about purslane that the deer would brave a large jump over a high fence for this weed but not brave it
on a daily basis for the roses. I had tasted a bit of it because I did know that Europeans ate it. It was okay, tart and crunchy, but nothing special. I threw it away. I was recently searching for garden plants with large amounts of Omega-3 fatty acids and the winner was- Purslane. Here's a Wikipedia entry about purslane:
"Purslane contains more Omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid in particular^[4]) than any other leafy vegetable plant. Simopoulos states that Purslane has .01 mg/g of Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). This is an extraordinary amount of EPA for land based vegetable sources. EPA is an Omega-3 fatty acid normally found mostly in fish, some algae and flax seeds. ^[5] It also contains vitamins (mainly vitamin A, vitamin C, and some vitamin B and carotenoids), as well as dietary minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron. Also present are two types of betalain alkaloid pigments, the reddish betacyanins (visible in the coloration of the stems) and the yellow betaxanthins (noticeable in the flowers and in the slight yellowish cast of the leaves). Both of these pigment types are potent antioxidants and have been found to have antimutagenic properties in laboratory studies."

Wow, who knew? The deer, of course. Purslane can be rather invasive...and it doesn't need much water. Which makes it a perfect container plant. It is absent at my new garden, possibly due to the altitude. I found seeds for it (yes, I laughed at buying them) at Cook's Garden . The seeds are for a "Golden Purslane" which should be quite pretty. If the dark wild kind shows up then I'll interplant them.