Eat Your Weeds: Palmer Amaranth
Posted by kswanson56 on 03 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Organic and Natural Gardening
Palmer Amaranth, also known as Pigweed, or Careless Weed, is one of the most common weeds in Arizona and New Mexico. Both the leaves and the seeds are edible. We get Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) in a small patch in our yard in late summer and early fall.
Rather than dig it up, we harvest the leaves, cook them up, and eat them in a stir fry. They are a little bitter, but make a good green for salads.
The website the The Firefly Forest warns:
“This plant can concentrate nitrates in the leaves when grown in soils high in nitrogen, such as those polluted by agricultural runoff or where nitrogen fertilizers have been used. Such high nitrates are unhealthy, so the leaves should only be used when the plants are found growing in low nitrogen soils and in nitrogen fertilizer-free areas.”
Lots of great pictures on their website as well.
More info on edible weeds to come!