I've been really curious and into foraging of the land, and it's something I'm really starting to take more serious this year. I've been reading as much as I can find online and actually in the market for some great guide books if anyone has some suggestions.

My plan is to start a series (likely weekly) from a beginner as I find some food in my yard I can forage and eat. I'll try it let you know how it tastes and share some more information about it. I think it will be a fun way to learn together. I'm currently using this guide below which is a PDF published by ontarionature.org if anyone is interested.

This one I was super surprised to learn about, since it grows like crazy all in my garden. Actually it's almost the best growing thing in my garden...lol. I've always just considered it an invasive weed, but now I'm changing my tune. This is honestly growing everywhere in the yard where any dirt has be dug, where I planted the garden, planted trees and put in some stones.

It goes by a whole look of names according to wikipedia so you may already be familiar with it from another name.

Chenopodium album, Common names include lamb's quarters, melde, goosefoot, manure weed, and fat-hen, though the latter two are also applied to other species of the genus Chenopodium, for which reason it is often distinguished as white goosefoot. It is sometimes also called pigweed. However, pigweed is also a name for a few weeds in the family Amaranthaceae

The really exciting part about this is, it's actually quite good. I tastes very similar to spinach and something I'm willing to just eat a few leaves of while I'm wondering around the yard. It also works great in my smoothies. I've yet to try cooking it and probably won't as I'm not much of a fan of cooked spinach and expect it to be similar, but it is certainly a green I would add to my mixed green salads and also consider added chopped to sauces and soups. In fact I'll likely harvest and freeze some just for this purpose.

I'll share the right up from my guide here below

So it's not something you want to eat "alot" of due to oxalic acid, but good luck finding how much "alot" is. But if it helps some references clarify this by saying "don't eat in excess or "small quantities". This would be somewhere maybe someone more experienced could weigh in.

Here is a nutrition facts table also from Wikipedia, and actually if you follow the link there to the USDA Database entry it gives you some pretty exact details, including expanding micro nutrients and amino acids tables. Either way to me it looks like some pretty great stuff to be eating, not to mention just how readily available it is.

Of course I recommend double and triple checking exactly what you have in your yard before you consider consuming anything, and of course check some other resources, but once you satisfied this is definitely worth a try.

All photos used are from patches in my own yard, that I will likely eat in the coming days, (except that last one, since it's right off the front steps to my house and my son's new favorite place to pee!)

Hopefully you like the series and something I'm excited to research and continue

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