Can you eat grass?

Earlier this year, we posted a video all about the worst weed we’ve encountered in our deep mulch garden: Quackgrass (AKA couch grass, twitch grass, witch grass, devil's grass, etc.)

In this video, we decided to test out it's claimed edibility, and made some quackgrass rhizome tea.

[paintedgoat]

Dehydration also helps to break down cell walls to allow for more access to nutrients.

[AB-wfek]

When my dad bought his first house in the states the neighbour complained because he didn't know dandelions were considered weeds and he let them cover the yard.

In China they're considered a delicacy and people often harvest them as soon as they appear so that it's actually rare to find them.

It's funny to think the reason certain weeds become a problem is because we don't see the value in them.

[bellydancingdog]

I absolutely love your videos. While amazing and educational, theyre very relaxing because of how you talk and narrate. You're very talented and having grown up doing some basic front lawn gardening and many years at an outdoorsy very green minded summer camp, these videos always make me feel so nostalgic and warm inside. Long story short, thank you for sharing and letting us be a part of your experiences!

[BackToReality]

Hey guys! First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)
Second... after uploading this video the first time (about an hour ago), I noticed a glitch part way through (there was 18 seconds of black screen - sigh), so I pulled it down temporarily to fix it. We're back up and running now though! Sorry for the confusion!

[nzmermaid]

I recently looked into "free edible weeds etc" and found that all grass SEEDS are digestible if they are sprouted like you sprout alfalfa or clover seeds. They are very nutritious as well.
So when you see the seed heads collect them & sprout in a glass jar as you would any sprouts.
I have also heard you can juice the grass in a blender with a little water, & then strain the pulp out to be nutritious & drinkable.
I actually did this when one of my pups was off color & she lapped it up. I didn't give her much, but she liked what I gave her.

[dingdong]

Your videos are always so calming to sit through

[BalticHomesteaders]

I was watching the video and then my wife was watching over my shoulder. She said during 'soviet times' you could harvest these like you have and the local chemist would pay you by weight. She thinks they dried and crushed into powders to sell perhaps as tea ingredients but maybe other herbal remedies. Latvia and indeed the Baltics are still quite in touch with herbal medicine benefits and still retain a lot of wisdom. We'll ask about and if we find anything else out will come back to you.

[paulsmart]

Happy new year to you both. Heres to a good 2021. May your garden be bountiful and your endeavours be rewarded. Be safe, be happy!!

[weirdowsos]

I got curious and searched if grass has any nutritional value and learned so much interesting stuff

[fadetounforgiven]

I'm no expert in tea whatsoever, I can't even remember the last time I had a cup of tea, but using logic I think that the drying part is somewhat important. I guess one of the reasons is conservation and another one would be weight (no water means less chance for mould and easier to transport). But also, I think that once you've removed water, you're left with "the good stuff", so when you apply hot water to make your grass-tea, it's that hot water that extracts the flavours and there's no extra water in there which, to me, kind of makes a more concentrated tea, more flavor, although not as "fresh".

Those are my two cents.

[JustTheBasicsJS]

I have heard that all grass is basically edible. But when talking to an organic farmer in my area whole grew and sold wheatgrass, he said to always filter the wheatgrass because the fiber isn’t healthy to eat, and we can’t digest it anyways. So you know, if you’re not in an emergency at the moment, the best way to consume it is probably to juice it, like you juice wheatgrass.

[MrAllan]

Good to know, we may be eating grass in the near.

[Sraccoon]

Much to you's also, a great new year Paula and Derrick!
Psst, if you's EVER need more of them roots for more tea, your both more then welcome to take everyone of them things outta my backyard. Oh and totally at no cost! 😝

[joshthehomesteader]

Just found your channel and have been devouring all your videos. Just in time to because I was able to set up my first ruth stout beds before the first snows. I found out the buried logs in my raised beds actually have a name, and I love your experiments with building solutions to problems. From zone 6b in the states keep them coming!

[christopherstein]

Eating Quackgrass to gain nutrition << Eating Quackgrass to assert dominance and to celebrate it's demise

[michaelpcoffee]

Grass has been our staple for 14, 000 years.

[GrzegorzJanoszka]

Hi, in the country where I grew up it is popular to drink all kinds of herbs as tea. While in western countries most people know only chamomile and/or mint tea, I used to drink at least 10 more sorts of herb teas - each one with unique flavor. Of course you don't have to buy them, you can also harvest and prepare them yourself.
Dehydration is only for long storage, fresh tea is even better. You can make seasonal mixes of almost anything you find around the garden. Try St. John's wort (goatweed), lime tree (baswood) flowers, sage, mulberry, milk thistle, horsetail (snake grass), wild pansy, lemon balm and so on, and so on :)
Happy New Year!

[scott]

When I was younger I used to chew grass to hide the smell of smoking. I never used to swallow the pulp but the juices that came from smaller varieties of grass were quite sweet the taller grasses were not very tasty at all.

[meepandteep]

The production quality is amazing, your channel will definitely grow well if it keeps up!

[marypaino]

Have to share a contrary to the norm observation of this devil grass, A community garden had an abandoned bed that had become overgrown with the grass and catnitp. This was a very hot dry summer and few tomatoes to be had but that abandoned bed, come to find out, had a huge cache of plump plumb tomats and in addition the bed was hardly watered