Eating Weeds

Since we had so much fun foraging mulberries with my mom here, I thought we’d give her a taste of lamb’s quarter too.  (Aka: weeds that grow in the back yard.)

We ate them like we did last year– creamed on toast with an egg.  It makes a really delicious meal.  My mom thought so too.

When I told her that lamb’s quarter is also sometimes called pig weed she said “Oh yeah” an told us that her dad talked about eating pig weed as a boy.  They would pick it along the creek.

I loved to hear that about my grandpa.  I love that the things Jeremy and I are learning about are old knowledge–what used to be common knowledge–and we’re carrying that on for the next generation.

We don’t eat wild all the time, but every once in a while.  It’s interesting and empowering.  And I’m sure–after seeing how irresponsibly non-traditionally we are living much of the rest of our lives–my mom can at least rest assured that with our ever-growing knowledge of wild food, at least we won’t let her grand children starve to death.

 

Trusting Chickens

We let our chickens roam free in our backyard almost every day.  They love to scratch all through our yard, eating bugs and grass.

We noticed last summer that there was a certain weed that they also liked eating.  We would pick them and hold them out for the chickens to eat.  And they would seek them out on their own as well.

A week ago I was reading a blog that identified (all the way down at the bottom) our mystery weed as lamb’s quarters.   I’d heard of lamb’s quarters before as a wild edible suitable for people to eat as well.  I guess we’ll have to give them a try sometime.

The scientific name is chenopodium album and lots of people eat it in any way they would eat spinach or other greens.  Some people even plant certain varieties of it where it doesn’t grow naturally.

I guess the chickens aren’t as dumb as people think–maybe we should pay closer attention from now on to what else the chickens are eating in our yard as well.