MR says: Find out why this Mormon not only plants weeds on purpose, but how he turns them into appetizing snacks!
There are weeds in Mike Wood's small backyard garden that he planted on purpose.
"A friend of mine across the golf course here called me one day and asked if I'd help out with (a presentation on wild edibles for) an Iowa City re-creation for the kids that were going on trek," he said. "I didn't know about that stuff at that time and I said, sure, I'd love to and so I started researching. I was stunned. I was astounded at what was here in the desert that was edible."
Now, what other people call weeds, Wood calls lunch.
A brief stroll through an empty lot in his Eagle Mountain subdivision yields a spice called "poor man's pepper," edible flower salsify and a crunchy snack of wild grass seeds.
Wood spies dried sego lily flowers and starts digging for something that helped sustain the Utah pioneers.