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Lamb’s quarter (Chenopodium album)
This common annual weed produces greens for my salads, greens to cook, and edible seeds as well. It is one of my favorite weeds. The taste of the cooked greens is rich and satisfying. Like spinach, beet greens, and chard, lamb’s quarter greens need to be cooked (or eaten) with a calcium source to offset its calcium-binding oxalates.
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Yellow wood-sorrel (Oxalis stricta)
Another annual rich in oxalates, in fact, the compound is named after this genus. But since we generally only sprinkle a few leaves of this lovely, lemony plant in our salads, I don’t worry about it. There are edible oxalis species everywhere, from the redwood forests of California to New Zealand. |
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Pale violet (Viola striata)
I could hardly believe my eyes when this violet began to flower the week before solstice, when I think of violets as resting. Not this beauty. She is hard at work bringing a smile to my face and a sweetness to my salads. |
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Hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale)
Linaeus, the father of botany, considered this an official medicinal plant. John Lust uses the tea of the whole plant as a diuretic, expectorant, and stomachic. Gardeners seem to loath it for the very reason I love it: its abundance of delicious leaves, its abundance in general, and its willingness to grow everywhere. |