Okay, before I even begin here... I am NOT a doctor, herbologist, botanist, or any other kind of 'ist'.

Take what I have to say with a grain of salt, do your own research, and make your own decisions!

That being said, let's get into it!!

Does this plant look familiar? It might. It is known by several names, including 'wandering Jew', 'inch plant', or 'Tradescantia'.

This is a popular houseplant in the spiderwort family. It is a very fast grower, growing about an inch a week, sometimes more! It is also extremely easy to propagate. All you have to do is break off a piece, stick in into dirt or water, and BOOM, it will grow!
 
In fact, all the wandering Jew I have is descendant from a single, wilted piece that we picked up from the ground at Walmart, several years ago.

Now, being such a quick growing, easy-to-propagate plant, I thought to myself, 'what if we could EAT this?! This could be a good food-source!

Now, the internet is not bursting with information about the edibility of this plant. People will say it 'won't harm you if you eat it, but it is mildly toxic externally, and may cause skin irritation'. After tons and tons of researching, I DID find a page that talked about how in Mexico, they make a summer beverage with the leaves of this plant. That's about the extent of the info I have found!

Well, I decided to experiment a little. I fed some to my goats and chickens.

They scarfed it down and seemed to really enjoy it! After quite a few feedings, with no ill effects whatsoever, I talked it over with my husband, and we decided to give it a try! We added a few leaves to our salad. No ill effects. We added more leaves. No ill effects! It doesn't have a remarkable flavor, tasting like most greens do, but it is quite pretty! Being dark green and purple, like most greens of this color, we are assuming it is chock full of antioxidants and nutrients. It has been several months now, and we add it to all our salads, and the more we prune it, (aka harvest it!), the denser and quicker it grows!

Like I said, I am no expert, but from my personal experiences, I would say this plant is safe to eat, and seems to be a great addition to the garden!

We have experienced NO ill effects from consuming this plant over the past months, even feeding it in salads to our kids. Shoot, we have not even experienced the 'mild skin irritation' that several websites talk about! I harvest and chop it almost every day and not a single irritated finger to speak of.

This plant is staying on my list of plants to grow for salad greens. It is, indeed, a good food source.

Thanks for stopping by to check out what we've been munching on! Would you try some 'wandering Jew' if you had it growing? Or is it not for you?

Have a blessed day! ♥

This work by @SquishySquid is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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