Lambsquarter: Wild Spinach in Your Yard

Thirty some years ago, I lived on a farm in Reynolds, Missouri. Every Thursday I would go help an elderly neighbor woman — Mrs. Glore — old enough to have outlived three husbands. She taught me that most of the weeds we would be pulling out of the garden were useful and edible plants and that rather than getting rid of them, we should incorporate them as the evening’s dinner and thus double or triple the yield of our gardens.

Wild foods are plants nourished by rain, sunlight, moonlight, and wind. Learn to enjoy the freshness of a salad that was collected five minutes before being eaten when much of the produce bought at a store, was growing a month ago! Learn to eat local, native and cut down on grocery bills. Many of the foods one buys in groceries are descendants of wild plants. In times of survival, we can be all the more prepared by recognizing the wild things around us.

Lambsquarter (Chenopodium album is a member of the Chonopodiacee (Goosefoot) Family and a relative of spinach, quinoa, amaranth and beets and much easier to grow!