Lamb's Quarters, You Are a Rock Star!!

June 15, 2019

Lamb's quarters with pinkish rosette

It's June, early summer, and pretty much the best time of the year. Why?

Lamb's Quarters! One of the mildest, tenderest of wild greens. The older leaves are triangular and gently toothed, and have a slightly powdery feel. The newer leaves that emerge with the plant's green flower are long, thin, and untoothed; they have a grayish, dusty coating that repels water. Sometimes the newest growth takes on a pinkish hue at its center.

Lamb's quarters repelling rain

The plant grows alongside roads and in fields, anywhere the dirt has been disturbed; it likes to be around people. You've almost certainly seen lamb's quarters in your garden. One plant left to go to seed will produce dozens of offspring! When I weed, I put these babies right into the colander to add to my salad. Raw or steamed, the younger, tender leaves and stems can stand in for spinach in any recipe: lasagna, quiche, you name it.

My friend Brian was once weeding, pulling out the lamb's quarters around his lettuce (munching on the lamb's quarters as he went along) when he wondered, Why do people throw away the wild green, in favor of the cultivated? The wild one is better for you, and more tasty.

Was Brian right? Let's do a quick nutritional comparison:

One cup of chopped fresh Lamb's quarters:*

• Vitamin A: 280% of RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance)

• Calcium: 46% RDA

• Vitamin C: 111% RDA

One cup chopped fresh spinach:

• Vitamin A: 56% RDA

• Calcium: 3% RDA

• Vitamin C: 14% RDA

Hey! Since we're at it, why don't we check out the nutritional value of iceberg lettuce?

One cup of chopped fresh iceberg lettuce:

• Vitamin A: 6% RDA

• Calcium: 1% RDA

• Vitamin C: 2% RDA

No wonder John Waters called iceberg lettuce "the polyester of vegetables"!

Lamb's quarters showing flowers in bud

Wild, foraged foods are almost always more nutritious than tame, farmed foods. Why? Because we've been breeding the nutrition out of our crops for centuries. Nature-grown veggies can be a challenge to modern palates; we often perceive them as bitter or sour. But that strong taste is the taste of phytonutrients!

There's a case to be made that eating cultivated fruits and vegetables, rather than wild, foraged ones, is one contributor to our contemporary crisis of obesity. We eat and eat--we fill our stomachs--but our bodies are not getting the nutrients we crave--so we eat some more. Here are two excellent articles that go into more detail about how and why we've bred the nourishment out of our eats (or just google "cultivated vegetables less nutritious than wild" for a host of others):

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/breeding-the-nutrition-out-of-our-food.html

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/09/health-benefit-eating-weeds/

Which is why I'm such a fan of mild greens such as lamb's quarters. If we can work Nature's goodness into our modern diets, without offending our wimpy modern palates, we're off to a good start.

*Thanks again to Leda Meredith's Northeast Foraging.