If you've developed a community garden from an empty lot, you probably know the Horticultural Society's Sally McCabe. She teaches neighborhood groups how to bring life to abandoned ground so they can have the pleasure of planting. On a recent walk from her office at 20th and Arch to the falafel truck a block away, McCabe made mental notes of the edible plants she saw: burdock, dandelion, calaloo.

"All this stuff has blown in on the wind or been dropped by birds," says McCabe, "along fence lines where mowing doesn't reach."

And all of it can be eaten.

Don't make that face. You know that pricey bag of "wild greens" from the local farmer's market? You can find the same stuff growing between the cracks of your sidewalk and around the street trees. The only trick is knowing how to tell the weed from the chaff. Wild edibles are everywhere you look. And if you feel reasonably sure they haven't been sprayed and aren't growing atop a Superfund site, McCabe recommends that you glean away.

Chicory Photo By: Louis M. Landry

"You pay a big price for the burdock root at Essene!" says McCabe. Spying some burdock in somebody's side yard, where the owner may consider it a nuisance, means plenty of good eating.

Dandelion is also plentiful, though greens are best in the spring, when it is among the earliest wild weggies. Dandelion wine, made from the blossoms, is a labor-intensive delicacy, with a flavor unlike anything else. Some people like the blossoms in salads as well.

Calaloo, also called pigweed, is a species of amaranth, beloved of Liberians and many Caribbean peoples, frequently appearing as a cooked green.

Purslane is thought to be a weed by many people. It grows abundantly in this area and if you were in Mexico you'd buy it deliberately cultivated for a green vegetable. You can usually find it growing wild in lawns along fences and sprouting up through cracks in parking lots. (Just don't pick where cars have been leaking fluid.)

Dandelion Photo By: George Rembert

Chicory is everywhere this time of year, with its bright blue flowers calling attention to the plants which will be good eating again as the weather cools, bringing a second season of new, tender leaves. Yes, this is the same chicory that gives up its root for the famous Louisiane coffee with chicory. (Simply chunk up the root, roast until toasty, grind like coffee, and mix with your favorite coffee.)

Trial and error is OK, though McCabe warns that you should never pick wild mushrooms unless you are with an expert. Otherwise, she enthuses about the joys of the Internet, with a universe of sites offering photos of plants in all stages of development. One site she recommends in particular (www.wilderness-survival.net/plants-1.php) explains how to teach yourself plants in the wild, quoting directly from the U.S. Army Field Manual.

Perhaps the best way to learn about wild edible plants is to be taught by someone who already enjoys them regularly, and who can answer all of your thorny questions. McCabe says her hero is Bruce Pollock, the renowned painter who leads classes in wild food and herbs in the NoLibs community garden, Seedy Acres. Pollock takes up the commentary with a warning: He has learned the hard way that gleaning is forbidden in Fairmount Park. It is getting harder to find reliable places to forage in NoLibs due to all the building, but he says it is worth the hunt to find abandoned lots — wild edibles love disturbed soil.

Calaloo Photo By: Louis M. Landry

"You have to eat your weedies!" Pollock says. "They contain minerals you can't get anywhere else." He notes that after heat and dryness you can't just grab a handful of lambs quarters, as the large leaves have gotten tough and woody. But, if you don't mind picking only the small, new leaves, you'll still get a dandy salad. Add some red clover blossoms, wood sorrel (which adds a lemony flavor) and chickweed for variety. He would dress it with a vinegar he made of something like a jar full of chopped mugwort or perhaps wild berries, steeped for three weeks before the liquid is decanted and the spent plant material composted.

McCabe says, "One definition of a weed is a plant growing where you don't want it." Frugal and health-conscious readers will take advantage.

Bruce Pollock has agreed to gather names for upcoming classes. E-mail him at Pollock777@aol.com. Also, Peter Kurtz, the nature specialist at Pennypack Environmental Center, teaches weed eating. Contact him at 215-685-0470.