Yes, the watercress that has grown in your pond is perfectly fine to eat compared to watercress that grows in the wild.
You can boil watercress and eat it in soup, which is a lovely and nutritious dish, or you can eat the watercress raw. If you’re going to eat it raw, simply swish that watercress you are going to eat around in Milton (a sterilizing agent), and then rinse in clean water.
Watercress can be invasive if the pond conditions are conducive to growing watercress.
We don’t advise eating wild watercress because of the potential for contamination by grazing animals. In fact, the grazing animals can transmit liver flukes to people through the watercress.
If you have a home pond with no grazing animals around, the watercress harvested from that pond is safe for human consumption.
However, it would be a good idea to grow your own watercress in your vegetable garden so that you have a constant, safe supply.
Good to know: Watercress is a nutritious plant containing important vitamins, including vitamin B and C, as well as potential anti-cancer compounds. Watercress also helps balance ions and minerals in the body which contributes positively to its value as a food source.
The Risks Associated with Watercress
Watercress grows in many places, but it is not wise to eat wild watercress for many health concerns.
Grazing animals can contaminate the water and transfer liver fluke to humans, and the water also contains snails that serve as hosts for the parasites’ life cycle.
Liver fluke eggs can be located in ponds and streams where watercress can grow.
Liver fluke infections can lead to chronic abdominal pain and if untreated may cause death due to the complications of treatment.
Liver fluke can be contracted by consuming watercress, especially in poorly cooked, or poorly harvested, wild watercress.
Although liver fluke infections are ubiquitous in the Far East, records exist in Europe and the United States.
However, watercress can be consumed if harvested in a stream, provided you are aware the water is not contaminated, and that it is free of grazing livestock and snails.
However, these instances are rarer, and you should not always gamble on this due to a lack of certainty about the purity of the stream.
You have to prioritize your own health, and protecting it means avoiding those nutritious food plants when grown in dubious locations.
If you discover people who have been eating wild watercress from a stream for many years, then you may be able to eat the same.
Nevertheless, you should always have caution, even when others seem to have little care for their own well-being and consume questionable wild watercress.
Why You Should Grow Watercress In Your Ponds
Determining the safety levels of watercress that is retrieved from streams can become complicated.
Hence this is why it is advisable to grow them in a pond to lessen that complication.
At home:
- Vacuum packing will ensure your watercress maintains its quality and nutrients.
- You can use either store-bought watercress or grow your own in a pond.
Whatever the case, you should always properly cook your watercress.
So you can find watercress in grocery and supermarket store but you will find it very hard to get a dry and safe option because watercress tend to perish very quickly.
How to Grow Watercress at Home
Cultivating watercress at home can be somewhat difficult.
The reason for this is that constantly moving water is necessary to constantly fill your little pond with at least 6-8 inches of water. Stagnant water will kill the plant quickly, as well as soil coverage completely drying out.
So a simple way to cozy in the watercress is to simply put it into a pot or container submerged in your pond. Before submerged, you would want to add some gravel small rocks to the container first and once that is in the pot you would put in your soil and fertilizer.
Watercress do grow in alkaline conditions, so you would even consider add some kind of limestone to your pot.
In this way:
- You want your pot to be in a location close to a water source (tank or tap) so it can easily be topped up and refreshed.
- You also plant to keep the pot out of direct sunlight and in a shady area’s.
You can buy sprigs from farm shops and pop them in water until they develop small roots.
The other option is to find wild watercress from streams and prepare them in the same way. In the fall or summer, you can always get wild watercress from your local streams, it tends to thrive during these times.
You can also create at least a large watercress bed in your yard, or make a pond and grow it in there.
Constant running water is a key requirement for optimum watercress growth and flourishing, you could run a pump or integrate solar equipment.
Liver fluke exists in ponds and you need to ensure the pond stays clean, especially with regards to animal interaction and water-snails.
You also need to ensure you create enough depth to have running water and soil depth for the watercress roots.
From experience: while ponds growing watercress is common now-a-days for most homes it can be demanding even when the water is free-flowing. It also is a pleasurable and sustainable activity.
Final Thoughts
Even though watercress can be good and tasty, it is best to be careful when you prepare to eat it.
Generally, if it is from your pond, then it should be safe. There is less chance of something contaminating it.
However, never eat wild watercress unless you can verify versus infection.
That is, it can be contaminated with liver fluke from grazer animals, which can contaminate the waters. There can also be snails in the waters which complete the parasite’s life cycle.