To eat grass?

[Nowisthemonthofmaying]

Please settle a dispute between me and DH!

Sitting in the garden, I started pulling out stems of grass from the lawn and nibbling the young tips.

DH looks at me as if I've gone completely mad and said I'm being weird.

AIBU? Surely this isn't a particularly unusual thing to do?

Perhaps 'tips' was the wrong word - you pull out the sort of inner leaf so the bit you eat is the bit that was inside the plant. Yes, that's normal.

No, it doesn't taste "grassy". Mostly it tastes sweet. Sweet vernal grass, one of the earliest to flower, is noted for tasting like sweet vanilla.

I used to do that when I was a child.

It's absolutely ok. It's just that it's not in a form of overpriced shot of wheat grass, but as a normal grass from your garden that will make people cringe

I use bit of clover and lots of nettles in my stuffing, haven't dared to try dandelion leaves in salad yet, but the flowers make great syrup. If you are not using weed killer, you can much away on majority of stiff in the garden!

Yes, my granny showed us how to do that when we were little. It's sweet and... green.

She oldi used to eat the tips of new nettles and I think new hawthorn leaves.

She's 90 now and from a very small rural community, her granny taught her hedgerow foraging.

So it's a forgotten skill OP, be proud!

YANBU. Most kids used to do it when I was little. The inner stems are really sweet. You don't chew or swallow it, just mumble at it a bit.

I still do if I'm lounging around on long grass at any time.

Veg hating DD1 told me she ate grass at school

She had Julienne cut spinach with her next dinner, I told her I picked it from the garden

I used to do this as a kid - haven't done it for years though! Nibble on :)

Yes I still do that sometimes. Nothing odd about it.

How funny - I was doing this yesterday and suddenly thought anyone seeing me would think I'm weird! Uou have to make sure you only nibble the soft bit - like asparagus you don't want to get the tougher woody bit.

I also pick the flowers off dead nettles to sick out the nectur. You don't get it all the time as bees get there first but very yummy..

Suck out*

Yep OP, I do it all the time and I was most excited to pass this little bit of joy onto DCs.

Yep, the juicy bit at the bottom. Perfectly normal.
The trick with dandelions is to blanche them. Identify your target early on and put an upside down flower pot over it with the hole blocked with a stone or something.
Leave a few weeks and harvest when pale yellow /anaemic looking. Removes the bitterness and tastes like endive.
Young hawthorn leaves are called "bread and cheese" -also edible.
And nettles - young tips, treat like spinach ( cooked, don't chuck them in a salad raw!).
Cow parsley is also good but be very, very certain you know the difference between that and hemlock!

I do!

two words: slug slime.

Still enjoying that grass?

Always done this, never really thought about it to think of it as weird. Also suck clover for the pollen, eat young nettles, young beech leaves, pine tips for making syrup, wild garlic leaves in salad dressings, eating beech nuts. Loads of stuff like this. Brought up in the countryside in the 70s and 80s.

Also love making elderflower syrup and elderflower blossom pancakes when the season is right.

I read a fascinating book about North Korea recently. Many ate grass during the famine. As well as tree bark. It was incredibly difficult to digest and the doctor's advised people to boil it for ages.

I love grass. I also add daisies and dandelions to salads

I did this as a kid but as an adult I'm too squeamish about the potential wildlife poo and wee on it.

Yes this is completely normal I used to do this as a child. As others have said it's the sweet bit at the bottom and it's wrapped in grass so the chances of anything being on it are slim!

Which part of daisies do you eat?

Flowers, but I suspect all the parts above ground taste the same (like carrots).

Grass is really bad for your teeth. It contains loads of silica which wear your teeth down. And your stomach also can't digest it so it can give you horrible stomach ache. But it's not toxic so there's that at least.

But we eat loads of stuff that we can’t digest, it’s what the appendix is used for in other mammals. Also, I doubt very much that the OP is eating enough to warrant chewing it like goats do and wearing down teeth! Literally one piece now and again makes no difference.

Well, that’s a new one for me. I grew up in the countryside, but never knew anyone eat grass (nettles, elderflower etc, but never grass).

I used to eat grass at school and still do it now if I sit on it for a long time. It's quite tasty but it's such a little morsel each time!