A bowl of Goosefoot

What to do with a bowl of Goosefoot?

Goosefoot (Chenopodium album) a close relative to Spinach and Amaranth but still has natural goodness that hasn’t been bred out by centuries of industrial agriculture.

We grow it in several areas of the garden where it is a cut and come again crop for most of the year. The chooks are still deciding whether they like it or not but I sure do.

Being a ‘weed’ to many people, Goosefoot is tough and can get by on a seasonal water and local nutrients but, of course, it does a bit better with the TLC of a garden.

If it doesn’t come up from self seeding early enough within the garden, I wander out and dig up a wild seedling to replant in the garden. It always seems to come up earlier on the footpath and verge than in the gardens n proper, even though the seeds come from the same plants! Luckily, it survives transplanting well, as long as you get a good bunch of roots.

We grow it in one of our beds, in what permaculture folks call ‘Zone 1’. That’s where you grow the things that you’re likely to harvest every day. That area is also called the ‘bit by the front door’ at our place.

There’s also a big, lush one that grows near the front gate. That’s there to get folks talking about the weeds that we have in the garden and provides us an opportunity to set them straight and maybe encourage them to take a handful of leaves and try them themselves. We’ve had a few concerts that way!

Goosefoot is one of our ‘Wild Foods and Medicines’ and you can find out more about it and other, local wild plants that occur around and are used by us here at Ligaya Garden..