[Alex3917]

Interesting. Between farm labor automation and self-driving cars, do you foresee a point where it's cost effective to give certain foods away for free and monetize via advertising? Even if it's slightly offbeat stuff like dandelion greens and seaweed or whatever?

[prawn]

If anyone wants to eat thistles, I'll give those away... Oxalis too.

[Alex3917]

> If anyone wants to eat thistles, I'll give those away.

How do they actually taste? I know they're in the artichoke family, but I've never actually dug one up or whatever.

[prawn]

Never tried them, but they are a painful weed here, grow quickly and seed very easily. We used to give the seed heads to our canary once upon a time, but currently have hundreds of thistles to zero canaries.

Perhaps if they could be blended and used as a base for bread or cakes, but I have no idea if they're safe in large quantities.

[Alex3917]

> I have no idea if they're safe in large quantities.

Good point, for most foraged stuff you definitely don't want it to make up more than a certain percentage of your diet. Not only because of the plants themselves, but also because it's hard to know how much heavy metals and other toxins they absorb. You should be fine treating it as a normal vegetable because it's known to be safe in those quantities, I just wouldn't eat it every meal for a week.