bunnyjadwiga

So, I picked a medium-sized bunch of lamb's quarters (chenopodium/fat hen/goosefoot/pigweed) yesterday, pulled the leaf sprigs off the stems, cut up the stems, and washed the stems and leaves in two changes of water; then put them in a deep bowl with a little water in the bottom, covered the bowl with good plastic wrap, and microwaved it for 3 minutes.

The result was very good, like spinach but not as bitter as adult spinach can be. There were a few small stems that stayed tough, I'll have to look for them next time. I wonder what it would be like with garlic, or, contrariwise, with a little mint.

I wasn't sure whether this weed (which I knew from childhood but had no name for) was the one that was referenced in the books until I asked my grandmother about it. She said that when she and my grandfather were first married, they knew a couple who came from (some other country) and they were invited over for dinner. The lady cooked this for them (she called it pigweed) and my grandmother was worried she wouldn't like it. As it turned out, it was delicious and she liked it so much that every time after that that they visited, the lady would make sure to cook it for her.

Laurence Pringle. Wild Foods: a beginner's guide to identifying, harvesting, and cooking safe and tasty plants from the outdoors. New York: Four Winds Press, 1978.

I picked Wild Foods up while researching my Wildly Weedy Herbs class. If you are interested in harvesting non-traditional edibles, this would be both a great place to start and fun leisure reading. Only a few, easily identified, plants are covered: Maple, Dandelion, Plantain, Japanese Knotweed, Poke, Cattail, Wild Strawberry, Sheep Sorrel, Watercress, Elderberry, Milkweed, Wild Mint, Wild Raspberries and Blackberries, Daylily, Lamb's-Quarters, Purslane, Wild Blueberry, Sumac, and Wild Grape. Many of these are old world; some are new world. I, personally, never eat Pokeweed, but I do know that it is possible to eat the young shoots safely, and the author gives all appropriate cautions.

The book has got a number of good features. It scores over other similar texts in the intriguing recipes: Dandelions in cream sauce, Cattail corn on the cob, Wild Strawberry no-cook jam, Sweet and Sour Lamb's-Quarters, Purslane soup, among others. While I wouldn't necessarily use these exact recipes (except for the directions for preparing cattails), but they show how the plants can be used.

In addition, a chart shows when which plant parts are likely to be harvestable, and there is a section on preserving the wild foods (by winter gardening, freezing, drying, etc.) The author covers similar-looking poisonous plants and gives clear instructions for differentiating. The clear and simple drawn and photographed illustrations help identify the plants, and the author gives good harvesting and cooking advice (for instance, how to blanch plantain plants; why you don't boil your maple sap indoors; don't wash or boil sumac fruit for best flavor).

The author's writing style is chatty but not memoir-like, and the reading and cooking level are well within the range of a young teen with adult help. (Recipes kindly include both lists of ingredients and lists of equipment). This would be a good book to share with others the family, and to use as a basis for family wild-foraging expeditions.