Edible weeds or simply "greens" as they are now known to Dawn Bayly and her family, have become a part of everyday cooking in her busy household in Port Macquarie on the New South Wales north coast.
A staple on their kitchen bench is a bowl of sourdough which is the basis of snacks throughout the day. At one point, one of her children comes up and grabs a glob of dough out, rolls it in some chopped greens picked fresh from the garden and fries it in a sandwich press with a sprinkle of cheese and some butter.
"I really got excited about using wild greens because I want the children to be healthy and well," Dawn says.
Dawn and her husband Luke have seven children in their care.
In late 2020, Dawn and Luke found themselves out of work. Dawn left her role as a school teacher and homeschooled her children, and lockdowns affected Luke's building consultancy firm which he hasn't returned to.
While the family were able to live off some initial savings from Dawn's long service leave pay, the family had to look for ways to reduce costs.
"During COVID, we all got shaken up, and we really wondered where our money was coming from," Dawn says.
"The price of lettuce and spinach, cooking for 10 most nights, that's a lot of food, and you can get stuck in the white experience — white rice, white bread, pasta. How do I utilise healthy foods?"
To reduce the costs of their grocery bills, they turned to food banks and looked into different ways to become self-sufficient.
"I really value utilising food banks. I am amazed at how much food is thrown out at our large stores," Dawn says.
"It's just a matter of learning how to process the food.
"We can't just have a casual garden [anymore], we have an opportunity here, we can save a lot of money. We don't have to go out and get fresh food, we can grow it ourselves.
"I might not have lots of money or resources, but I can learn."
With time to slow down, Dawn says she read gardening books and watched Youtube videos and, with her children, began exploring what wild greens they had growing in the garden.
"My whole yard is filled with dandelions. I am surrounded by food that's full of vitamin A and vitamin E."
Dawn uses weeds such as nettle, dandelion, plantain and chickweed in most of the family meals.
She also buys dandelion seeds online: "And when I see the stems come up and big seed pods I say, 'Quick kids! Blow them through the yard'."
Nutritionist and dietitian Catherine Saxelby says wild greens are safe to eat raw if they are consumed in moderation to begin with, to allow people's systems to "get used to" the oxalates.
Oxalate is a natural substance found in many foods such as spinach, beetroot and rhubarb. Cooking or soaking foods high in oxalate reduces the substance.
For urban forager Anna Gibbons, a walk in the local park is also an opportunity to find ingredients for dinner.
"Just like fibre, we recommend people start slowly increasing it so they don't get symptoms such as bloating or farting or increased stool weight which would otherwise put them off," Catherine says.
She also recommends people drink lots of water to counter these effects.
"Purslane, chickweed, mallow, dandelion, wild olives, those things are very safe to eat, provided you don’t eat too much of them in the beginning, " she says.
"Half a cup [of wild greens] is recommended to begin with … they are full of vitamins and nutrients. Then gradually introducing more over the week, especially for pregnant or breastfeeding women."
Catherine says wild greens are also very nutritious because they have not been bred for size or their ability to transport well.
"They can grow wherever they want, so they're high in beta carotene, vitamin C, folate, so they're very nutritious," she says.
"It's extremely important to have them in your diet, but not to have by themselves.
"I would mix them raw into a salad with other lettuce and mixed greens and vegetables from the supermarket."
Catherine recommends going foraging with an expert for the first few times.
One risk of having too much oxalates in a person's urine is the formation of kidney stones and some leafy greens are poisonous in very large amounts.
Dawn says her children were involved with growing the greens and have learnt to identify them. She says the kids are therefore more inclined to try the weeds in food.
One way she gets them involved in the kitchen, is to show the children three plants they could add to their two-minute noodles.
"We have 'fix-my-noodles night': Here are the noodles, here's the egg, go see what you can find [in the garden]'".
"And yes, I'm out there checking that they are picking things that are safe. Checking they've boiled them down properly."
Dawn says one of her favourite moments is when other children come over and her kids will show off what they know and get their friends to try some edible flowers or garden 'treats'.
"Then I've won the argument with my kids: 'Is this edible?' Yes, and it's palatable, and it's good for you, and it's fun!"
Get our newsletter for the best of ABC Everyday each week
ABC Everyday helps you navigate life's challenges and choices so you can stay on top of the things that matter to you.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.