# Lambs Quarters



## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

Ready for a wonderful salad? Lamb's Quarters is up, (Chenopodium album). I didn’t see this growing the other day and ran a plow through it. Lambs Quarters is my favorite salad, just a few leaves and a vinaigrette. It has twice the nutrition of iceburg lettuce. Many people use it as a pot herb, especially in a quiche. Someone of fb posted a photo a couple years ago. The leaves were selling for $8 a pound at upscale Farmers Markets on the west coast.

It’ll grow all summer in any disturbed soil, as long as you water it. It’ll get chest high. I love it as a salad! Good Eats!


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## Pessimistic2 (Jan 26, 2017)

Cotton said:


> Ready for a wonderful salad? Lamb's Quarters is up, (Chenopodium album). I didn't see this growing the other day and ran a plow through it. Lambs Quarters is my favorite salad, just a few leaves and a vinaigrette. It has twice the nutrition of iceburg lettuce. Many people use it as a pot herb, especially in a quiche. Someone of fb posted a photo a couple years ago. The leaves were selling for $8 a pound at upscale Farmers Markets on the west coast. It'll grow all summer in any disturbed soil, as long as you water it. It'll get chest high. I love it as a salad! Good Eats!


$8 a pound? EIGHT DOLLARS a pound? Come on Bo, Lilly, we gotta dig out the consarned rototiller NOW! The upside is the sale price....the downside is "twice the nutritional value of iceberg lettuce." Iceberg lettuce has nutritional value? The human digestive system does not digest cellulose.
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/C/cellulose.html
http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/iceburg-lettuce
https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/seasonal-produce-guide/lettuce

:scratch:dunno:


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## tmttactical (Nov 23, 2015)

Cotton said:


> Ready for a wonderful salad? Lamb's Quarters is up, (Chenopodium album). I didn't see this growing the other day and ran a plow through it. Lambs Quarters is my favorite salad, just a few leaves and a vinaigrette. It has twice the nutrition of iceburg lettuce. Many people use it as a pot herb, especially in a quiche. Someone of fb posted a photo a couple years ago. The leaves were selling for $8 a pound at upscale Farmers Markets on the west coast.
> 
> It'll grow all summer in any disturbed soil, as long as you water it. It'll get chest high. I love it as a salad! Good Eats!


Cotton,
Can this be grown in hydroponic (aquaponic) setup? looks like a high profit margin, nutritious product?


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

The reason it cost $8.00 per pound may be that it takes so many plants to get to get a pound of leaves.

It tastes great and I've heard that it's as nutritious as spinach but if you let it get started you will be fighting it for a long time, several years ago I let it grow and go to seed in my garden and I cant get rid of the stuff now.

Keep it in wild areas, away from the garden and enjoy it as a foraged plant.


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

I like Lambs Quarters but my all time favorite Wild Foraged Food is Stinging Nettles. The young Leaves carefully picked and Boiled for a few minutes in Water, Drained and slathered with Butter and Salt is hard to beat.


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## phideaux (Nov 7, 2015)

Never seen it,

Does it have a particular flavor...

Anything to compare its taste to.


Lambs quarters, I swear I thought about Muttin.



Jim


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## Pessimistic2 (Jan 26, 2017)

Davarm said:


> The reason it cost $8.00 per pound may be that it takes so many plants to get to get a pound of leaves.
> It tastes great and I've heard that it's as nutritious as spinach but if you let it get started you will be fighting it for a long time, several years ago I let it grow and go to seed in my garden and I cant get rid of the stuff now.
> Keep it in wild areas, away from the garden and enjoy it as a foraged plant.


Hey, if it sells for $8/lb it can take over my whole property! I got sand, sandspurs, and a semi-swamp back by the creek! Have asked a couple of the roadside stand vendors, they never heard of it...WHERE do you get this stuff, and WILL IT GROW in sand? :scratch:dunno:


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## Pessimistic2 (Jan 26, 2017)

camo2460 said:


> I like Lambs Quarters but my all time favorite Wild Foraged Food is Stinging Nettles. The young Leaves carefully picked and Boiled for a few minutes in Water, Drained and slathered with Butter and Salt is hard to beat.


Camo2460...man, them things HURT, jeeez, how about something that doesn't fight back????


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Pessimistic2 said:


> Hey, if it sells for $8/lb it can take over my whole property! I got sand, sandspurs, and a semi-swamp back by the creek! Have asked a couple of the roadside stand vendors, they never heard of it...WHERE do you get this stuff, and WILL IT GROW in sand? :scratch:dunno:


Stuff will grow anywhere, yell at me in a few months and I will send you some seeds.


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## Pessimistic2 (Jan 26, 2017)

Davarm said:


> Stuff will grow anywhere, yell at me in a few months and I will send you some seeds.


:2thumb::beercheer:


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Pessimistic2 said:


> Camo2460...man, them things HURT, jeeez, how about something that doesn't fight back????


You have to treat Nettles like you would a Woman, Gently and with respect. A pair of Cotton Gloves will protect you while gathering, and the Boiling Water neutralizes the Stinging Hairs leaving some fine eating.


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

Pessimistic2 said:


> $8 a pound? EIGHT DOLLARS a pound? Come on Bo, Lilly, we gotta dig out the consarned rototiller NOW! The upside is the sale price....the downside is "twice the nutritional value of iceberg lettuce." Iceberg lettuce has nutritional value? The human digestive system does not digest cellulose.
> http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/C/cellulose.html
> http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/iceburg-lettuce
> https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/seasonal-produce-guide/lettuce
> ...


You are right on all counts, except the nutritional data not mentioned. The actual nutritional data puts Lambs Quarters in the same league as kale. Reference... Book by Dr. John Kallas... "Edible Wild Plants" an excellent book with 13 categories of nutritional data comparing wild plants with traditionally cultivated plants. I've posted about it before.

I've watched your posts for several weeks now. Question, can you point me to one of your posts where you actually contributed real information to members? I shot holes in iceberg lettuce and your links confirmed it. Great, you can do a google search! but your comments and links served to diminish Lambs Quarters with no information. Do you actually know anything about Lambs Quarters or are your comments limited to google searches about lettuce. What I'm asking... do you actually have anything to contribute to this group? If so tell us all about it, tell us how you grow and use Lambs Quarters... If I want good one liners I watch an old episode of "Mash". You don't have good one liners or information! 

Tell us what you grow or make! Do you have cattle, sheep or rabbits? Do you have anything to offer the group but cheap one-liners and google searches? Post us some photos that help the forum, if you can.


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## Pessimistic2 (Jan 26, 2017)

Cotton said:


> You are right on all counts, except the nutritional data not mentioned. The actual nutritional data puts Lambs Quarters in the same league as kale. Reference... Book by Dr. John Kallas... "Edible Wild Plants" an excellent book with 13 categories of nutritional data comparing wild plants with traditionally cultivated plants. I've posted about it before.
> I've watched your posts for several weeks now. Question, can you point me to one of your posts where you actually contributed real information to members? I shot holes in iceberg lettuce and your links confirmed it. Great, you can do a google search! but your comments and links served to diminish Lambs Quarters with no information. Do you actually know anything about Lambs Quarters or are your comments limited to google searches about lettuce. What I'm asking... do you actually have anything to contribute to this group? If so tell us all about it, tell us how you grow and use Lambs Quarters... If I want good one liners I watch an old episode of "Mash". You don't have good one liners or information!
> Tell us what you grow or make! Do you have cattle, sheep or rabbits? Do you have anything to offer the group but cheap one-liners and google searches? Post us some photos that help the forum, if you can.


1. Yep, me and Mr Google are pretty friendly. Beats going to the library and spending hours looking up things I can find on the Net in seconds or minutes.
2. I never HEARD of Lambs Quarters until it was brought up here...
Perhaps I didn't pursue Google far enough...the only nutritional value I saw was the "fiber" thing (roughage), which as we all know (I think) is needed for "regularity."
3. Contributions to group/actual information to help....Guess you'd have to ask the Forum members about that, see what they think of my previous posts in the threads I've posted in....what they think is up to them. I didn't join to "win friends and influence enemies.":scratch
4. Oh, yeah, I can act like the class clown, and probably not all that great a one, either.......little humor, or an attempt thereof, doesn't hurt, and may even be of some benefit??:dunno:
5. I have two dogs. No chickens, no cattle, no sheep, no goats, no hogs, no rabbits, and my sand garden doesn't grow doodly squat except sandspurs. (What livestock I take to my Retreat is still kind of up in the air...my current thought is chickens, ducks, goats, MAYBE some small pigs, the rest is still under consideration....will not be any cattle, horses, donkeys. I have to fly everything in, and that creates its own limitations.)
6. If you think I'm gonna post personal photos you are out of your mind.
You get photos of nothing, except perhaps the dogs once in a while, and that's it. You don't approve of that, that's your call....doesn't bother me a bit. You have no idea the level of my paranoia...half the time even "I" wonder what I'm doing on a "Forum."
7. As for "information," 99% of the 'prepper preparations/necessities" have been beaten to death in this, and other, Forums, and it is the "occasional nugget" that pops up that keeps me interested. And every now and then, yes, I think I have contributed something, or at least pointed someone toward what they were looking for. Again, you'd have to ask the other members their opinion....my evaluation of "me" would hardly be "objective."
9. You got a problem with me, take it to the Mods/Admin....if they don't feel I "belong here," I have no problem leaving. Being on this, or any other Forum, is not a matter of necessity. Informative at times, fun at times, but certainly not a necessity.
10. What do I make? I can handle a few cooking chores, that's about it. I'm not a carpenter, metal smith, mechanic, etc. I am retired, I "do" very little. I "buy," I don't "make." I can "replace parts," and that's about it. Which is exactly why I have external HDDs loaded with encyclopedias, medical texts, DIY stuff, parts manuals, etc., etc.,....when I head for the Retreat, if something MAJOR goes kaflooey, and it can't be "fixed" by replacing the parts, I am likely gonna be in sheep dip! What DID I make when I was "working?" Money, a LOT of money.

So you can go from here....you think I don't belong here, take it to the Mods/Admin. Have a nice day.....


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## Pessimistic2 (Jan 26, 2017)

*Cotton.....*

I will give credit where credit is due.....

When looking up Lambs Quarters, I hit 4-5 web sites, and basically they all said the same thing.....the human body does not digest cellulose, and therefore the greatest value of Lambs Quarters, like lettuce, etc., is as "roughage," which aids regularity. So, after 4-5 said the same thing, I left off. Went back this morning and pursued it a bit further, and about 15 websites in, found this....
http://wildblessings.com/plants/lambs-quarter/
Excerpt from article: "You are here: Home / Plants / Lambs Quarter
Lambs Quarter
Lambs Quarter at the dairy farm
Botanical name: Chenopodium album
Common names: fat hen (used for fattening poultry), goosefoot, pigweed, and wild spinach
Plant type: clumping 6-9 foot annual
leaf: diamond shaped, wavy teeth margins, pale green whitish underneath, alternate branching
Early leaves most tender, but can be harvested through till frost, collect seeds in the fall. lambs quarter leaves are best when eaten from a plant less than a foot tall, larger leaves are better cooked. Keep farming it to keep the leaves tender
Grows in back alleys, unmoved lawns, vacant lots
Leaves use as a wild spinach substitute, salads, stir fry, soups, casseroles, grind seeds into dark flour to make gruel or bread
leaves dry well and can be reconstituted - powder to make flour
Dried leaves make a delicious flour, mix with a bit of water to make a tortilla
Nutrition (per half cup)
Lambs quarter seeds
Protein 19.6 grams
Fat 4.2 grams
Carbos 57.7 grams
Fiber 27.1 grams
Calcium 1036 mg
Potassium 1687 mg
Niacin 3800 ug
Iron 64 mg

Lambs quarter Shoots
Protein 3.5 g
Carbos 5.5 g
Calcium 324 mg
Potassium 684 mg
Beta Carotene 3800 ug
Niacin 1000 ug
Iron 1.5 mg

Health Benefits
1. Use all parts as a pout lice for swelling, rheumatism and arthritis
2. Chew raw for toothaches
3. Gelatin capsules filled with Lambsquarter make a potent vitamin

FUN FACTS TO KNOW AND TELL
1. Lambs quarter is the second highest in nutrition of all wild foods. Amaranth is #1
2. The gritty feel is pollen&#8230;rinse well 
3. Lambs 1/4 seed is excellent bird feed
4. Dye color: bright yellow

A few CAUTIONS
1. Lambs quarter can absorb nitrate from contaminated soil so be careful where you harvest this plant
2. Lambs quarter has a poisonous look-a-like (Nettleleaf goosefoot) but it's rank odor reveals it's identity
3. Lambs quarter is a relative of spinach. Avoid too much raw consumption of plants with heavy oxalic acid content. Cooking will destroy some of the oxalic acid but for salad and smoothies use lemon juice to neutralize the oxalic acid and help prevent kidney stones."

WHY those other sites mentioned none of this, I have no idea.
1. While I'm still not thrilled with your post, I do have to admit I screwed up and didn't pursue the subject far enough. This is the drawback to using Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.....if you hit 4-5 sites and they're all giving you basically the same info, you have (or at least "I" have) a great tendency to then "drop it," and not pursue additional sites.
2. I have been doing web searches for nearly as long as there has been a "web" to search.....and it is VERY rare that you have to go further than 4-5 sites to get a pretty accurate set of data/info. However, apparently "Lambs Quarters" is one of those "rare occasions." I apologize for not pursuing it further....my mistake.....and in the future, if something comes up, and the first 4-5 sites are "counter/neutral" to someone's view, I will keep going, say, to 20 websites, just on the off chance it's another "rarity."
3. I am pushing 71, was RAISED on a farm until 10-11, haven't lived on a farm since, and I never even HEARD of "Lambs Quarters" until I noticed this thread, and thought "Lambs Quarters, well, worth a look." After reading, my FIRST thoughts were (a) selling for $8/lb, this has got to be worth looking into, and (b) Doesn't too much matter WHAT the "nutritional value" is, at $8.00/lb I'll sell people CARDBOARD if they'll buy it!
4. My "employment/work history" doesn't include ANY of the skills an outdoorsman needs for SHTF living on any kind of primitive or semi-primitive scale.....if I had to make a lousy coffee table, it would probably take 3-4 tries to "get it right!" I "buy," not make, and I get plenty of spare parts in case whatever I'm buying breaks down...I'm not a "fixer," but I can replace parts. My 45 years behind a desk, flipping property, doesn't qualify me for doodly squat in terms of "survivalism," except perhaps in locating property suitable for "preppers" who are looking for raw land or out of the way homes/land in rural areas. (Retirement sucks, you know HOW MANY old farms are on the market for a song now...Jesus!) 
5. OK, bottom line, you were/are correct in pointing out the shallowness of the "Lambs Quarters links".....so I ended up sticking my foot in my mouth. All I can say is that in 20 years of web searches, I've found it to very rarely require hitting over 4-5 links to get an accurate picture of whatever it is you're looking for, and that gets to be habit forming, and you just hit the 4-5 links and go on to whatever may be next.
6. As for the "rest," like I said, you got a problem with me, think I shouldn't be here, take it to the Mods/Admin......I have no problem with whatever they decide. Their call, and that's their job.
You have a nice day, too hot & muggy for me to work up a sweat!:wave:


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

I love Lambs Quarters! Sauteed with a little olive oil in the skillet. Yum!

I haven't got any big enough to pick yet this spring, but I did cook up some Poke Sallet in the skillet this morning, with butter, onions, and scrambled eggs!

Don't you love it when the first little spring herbs begin to appear.

_Be you diligent to know the state of your flocks, and look well to your herds._
_For riches are not for ever: and does the crown endure to every generation?_
_The hay appears, and the tender grass shows itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered._
_The lambs are for your clothing, and the goats are the price of the field._
_And you shall have goats' milk enough for your food, for the food of your household, and for the maintenance for your maidens._
~ Proverbs 27


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## DrPrepper (Apr 17, 2016)

Thank you for posting the picture of Lambs Quarters. The picture is so helpful for people like me who are trying to learn, but know very little about foraging plants. I've heard of Lambs Quarters, but have never seen or tasted them. I don't know if they will grow around here, but I will have to start looking for them!


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

DrDianaAnderson said:


> Thank you for posting the picture of Lambs Quarters. The picture is so helpful for people like me who are trying to learn, but know very little about foraging plants. I've heard of Lambs Quarters, but have never seen or tasted them. I don't know if they will grow around here, but I will have to start looking for them!


They grow everywhere in the continental U.S., wherever the ground is disturbed (like fallow garden spots). The first time I saw some in my garden, I went online and looked it up, and said, "So THAT'S what that is!" Now I can spot it when there is even a little sprout coming up in the yard.

Here's a photo I took of Lamb's Quarters:










What's amazing is that as I learn to spot wild edibles and medicinals, I start to realize nearly everything under our feet is good for something!


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

I've never seen them here. They probably require water. Lots of mesquite though, one day I will actually harvest some beans and try to make flour out of them.


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## marlas1too (Feb 28, 2010)

I have lambs quarters,chickweed,purslane,plantain,dandylion amd coltsfoot all over my land and also some ramps and wild garlic--wont go hungry


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

marlas1too said:


> keep your friends close and you enemy,s within knife range


I like your signature, marlas1too ^


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## 892 (Nov 15, 2008)

Here's an excellent video about lambs quarters - how to identify and ways to prepare them. It was very helpful to me.


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## ETXgal (Jul 12, 2014)

I had a friend in the past that used Lamb's Quarter in her vegetable lasagna. It was delicious.


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## Pessimistic2 (Jan 26, 2017)

*Nothing to do with Lambs Quarters, can't find the hog thread!*



Davarm said:


> Stuff will grow anywhere, yell at me in a few months and I will send you some seeds.


Is this fencing any good? Would they dig under it?

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/feedlot-panel-hog-16-ft-l-x-34-in-h

Specs: "This Feedlot Panel won't break down or collapse when cattle, pigs, sheep or other large livestock run into or rub against it.
Welded one piece steel construction
Virtually maintenance free
Sag resistant
Easy to erect, no stretching
The 11 line wires (horizontal) are 5 gauge
The stay wires (vertical) are 4 gauge and are spaced 8 in. apart."

Oh, and you said remind you about the seeds....consider this a reminder!!


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

Pessimistic2 said:


> Is this fencing any good? Would they dig under it?
> 
> https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/feedlot-panel-hog-16-ft-l-x-34-in-h
> 
> ...


I use the cattle panels for our tomato plants. It's the same material just taller and larger holes.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Haven't forgotten, the seeds aren't dry yet. If I bag em now they will likely mildew before they get there.



Pessimistic2 said:


> Is this fencing any good? Would they dig under it?
> 
> https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/feedlot-panel-hog-16-ft-l-x-34-in-h
> 
> ...


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## marlas1too (Feb 28, 2010)

hang the seed heads from the cealing and put a pan under it then you won't get mildew


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## kappydell (Nov 27, 2011)

phideaux said:


> Never seen it,
> 
> Does it have a particular flavor...
> 
> ...


Similar to beet greens.


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