Lambsquarters

(Chenopodium spp. [mostly C. album])

(Not germination tested*) Many people consider this a weed. It is admittedly self-seeding, prolific, and fast growing. But we love to eat it until we turn green and lambsquarters is an annual which is easy to kill by hoeing, so we look at it as a wonderfully easy-to-grow food rather than a weed! We basically always eat it blanched and drained to leach the anti-nutritional oxalic acid. We dehydrate bushels of leaves for winter use; they’re indistinguishable from the fresh-cooked dish. One can also harvest the seeds as a grain. It’s time-consuming, but they have a fascinating texture when cooked which makes them a worthy occasional delicacy in our opinion.
You may already have lambsquarters in your garden; if so, just eat that and don’t buy seed from us! If you don’t have it and think you can keep up, add it.
Other common names include pigweed, fat-hen, goosefoot, bacon weed, and muck hill weed.
So widespread that it’s hard to know where it might be native.

*Wild seeds tend to have a high proportion of “hard” seed which will not necesarrily germinate even under favourable conditions. Some will never germinate and some may germinate in future years. Partly because of this, we have not germination-tested this variety. It is fresh seed from the past growing season.