How was bread made from
lamb's quarters?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
February 16, 2004
White goosefoot or lamb's quarters (Chenopodium album Linnaeus) is an annual growing up to three meters (10 feet) in height. It is considered native to the Northern Hemisphere--Europe, Asia, and North America. The leaves are thick, toothed or shallowly lobed with white mealy trichomes especially on the lower surface.
Lamb's quarter quickly colonizes manure heaps near barns and animal pens. According to Mrs. Grieve (A Modern Herbal, 1931), this preference for manure piles gave the plant such names as Midden Myles, Dirtweed, and Dirty Dick.
Tender, young leaves of lamb's quarter have been eaten as pot herbs both in the Old and New Worlds. Mrs. Grieve mentioned that in England,
"Myles" was considered a "good dish" served boiled and chopped with butter. Being common around farms, the plant was used to feed poultry, pigs, and sheep.
Charles Millspaugh (American Medicinal Plants, 1892) wrote that Native Americans, especially those tribes of the Desert Southwest ate the leaves either boiled alone, boiled with other vegetables, or raw. The plant was useful in treating painful menses, muscle spasms, and hysteria.
In the U.S. Agricultural Report of 1870, J.R. Dodge wrote of the nutritious bread made from the seed. Apparently, Dodge had a problem with the bread's color. "The seeds of this plant are gathered by many tribes, ground into flour after drying, and made into bread or mush. They are very small, of a gray color, and not unpleasant when eaten raw. The peculiar color of the flour imparts to the bread a very dirty look, and when baked in ashes it is not improved in appearance."
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Fisheries of British Columbia has three great photographs of lamb's quarters--the mature plant, the seedling, and the flowers. To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/weedguid/lambsqua.htm
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