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I tend to forget what others consider weird. Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) are good. They're actually native American.

Lambsquarters are BIG on our list for tasty, dependable vegetables. Again, if they're not native...they certainly think they are! They're practically foolproof.

I haven't made refried beans from scratch myself. But I suspect one adds some sort of fat to them. I'd have to research that. Did the beans cook up well? In what way did it bomb?

George
Tahlequah, OK

I need to try those two! I love sauteed greens sprinkled with lemon and eaten over a steaming pile of rice. I hear lambs quarters outdoes spinach.

The beans reeked of bitter onions. I did not put any broth in. Other than the missing broth, I'm not certain what went wrong. Whew... those were awful. lol

Seaweed. I LOVE seaweed. Unfortunately, my backyard provides a less than ideal growing environment. :(

Where would you find a lambs quarters plant/seed? I did a quick google search and nothing turned up in my quick glance.

The native kind is everywhere. If that is what you are looking for just learn what it looks like and go did it up. It comes up in my garden, around the edge of the yard, even along the edge of the driveway.

Bon, I don't think that I eat any veggies that are extremely unique, but I love eating veggies that are unique colors: purple,red or yellow carrots, black or yellow or orange tomatoes, purple, pink or bicolor (green streaked with red, for example) green beans, yellow cucumbers, red or blue sweet corn, blue or purple potatoes, etc. Since the pigments that give these veggies their colors are linked to compounds that provide antioxidants, a naturally colorful diet is more healthy than one that has fewer colors.

I don't care much for lambs quarters, so of course, this evil weed sprouts on every bare inch of ground here. (One person's weed is another person's favorite green.) I could raise a whole garden full of lambs quarters without even trying. Ditto for pigweed, which I think can sprout and grow in concrete.

My husband likes to eat dandelion greens in late winter and early spring, and he is welcome to eat my share too, because I'm not eating them.

Usually when a person's pinto beans taste bitter, there's a couple of reasons why that occurs.

1) The beans are a little old. The darker the color, the more likely it is that the beans have been stored longer and for some reason the older beans can develop that bitterness you mentioned.

2) The water in which they are cooked may be high in naturally occurring minerals that contribute to the metallic flavor. Some people who have this kind of water are happier with the flavor of their pinto beans when they use filtered water, using something like a Brita water filter to remove the metallic-tasting compounds from the water.

3) You also can help rid the beans of the bitter flavor by soaking them before cooking them and then discarding the soaking water and cooking them in fresh water. I don't know why this works, but it seems to work for most people. Everyone's taste buds are different, so beans that might taste bitter to one person might not taste bitter at all to someone else, so you have to keep that in mind too.

4) Finally, some cooks find that adding just a pinch of baking soda to the water in which the beans are cooked keeps them from developing that bitter flavor.

As George said, the beans need some sort of fat to help flavor them. When I was a kid, we always used bacon drippings. I don't know if the fat helps eliminate a bitter flavor, but I've never had bitter beans, whether homecooked or otherwise.

Trees, Since the rain returned a few weeks ago, we have lambs quarters sprouting everywhere. To me, the very young plants have leaves that look very similar to the leaves of very young catnip plants, though that similarity vanishes as the plants grow on and their leaves elongate. After we moved here, it took me a long time to learn how to distinguish between tiny catnip sprouts which I wanted to keep in the garden for the cats and the tiny lambsquarters sprouts that I definitely didn't want. Once they are a couple of inches tall, you can tell the difference in the leaf shapes though.

To grow lambs quarters all I have to do here is break up the ground and I have a forest of lambs quarter plants in the blink of an eye....not that I want any of them at all!

Dawn

I should be able to go out and harvest lambsquarters seed about now. If anyone would like a small packet, contact me and send postage (two first class stamps). I'll send them some. I'll have to check. But I'm pretty sure the seed is ready now.

Bon, our favorite way to eat lambsquarters is steamed or boiled and then sprinkled with soy sauce. They are tender and, oh, so tasty! I really worked at putting frozen lambsquarters away for the winter. Now I'm very glad I pushed on it. All our beans and other greens flopped because of grasshoppers.

George

okievegan, I got such a giggle from your post. hehe I cannot imagine what seaweed taste like. I've never even seen it. I hear it's unbelievably nutritious.

Dawn;

You nailed it. How do you do that? Being frugal there was no hesitation by me for using old beans. I'll use your suggestions because most of my pintos are old! That being said, fat must do something. When I cook these old beans in a pot-o-beans and ham for Bill it's not an issue. Well, I put a lot more meat in for his beans than most recipes call, so I guess it makes sense.

It might be a good idea to plant some next year. Back to the drawing board.

I read that lambs ear has an issue with nitrate. Given my untested soil potentially being too rich, caution is due. We have A LOT this year with the rains, but some are diseased or infected and others are growing in areas I'm not too certain about not unlike Larry's.

Thanks to George for the tip, I'll check for seed so I can control their soil and growth next year for edibles. Yep! Looking forward to trying Jerusalem artichokes if i can spot them next year.

LIke George, we love lambsquarters. I used to put up a lot of it mixed with spinach and mustard family greens in the spring and still eat it in the spring. Now with the greenhouse, we have spinach, chard and bok choy for most of the winter, so this past spring I didn't freeze as much. We sprinkle vinegar on it or pepper sauce. Another of my favorite greens is water cress which is ready in March. I am lucky enough to live close to two springs, which have watercress growing in their outflow. My father loves polk, so I always pick a couple messes for him and Mom, but DH hates it and won't eat it. It's not my favorite green either, but I can eat it with scrambled eggs and vinegar.

We also love Jerusalem artichokes--or Sunchokes. George gave us some a few years ago which we harvested the first year. Then the second year, some critter got them. Ate them all off the bottom of the plants. This year another friend gave us some and we planted them in a tub. Haven't dug them yet. They grew 8 ft tall and bloomed so we're hoping for a good crop. Next year they will have a deeper tub.

Arugula isn't too uncommon, but when we first grew it several years ago, it seemed quite exotic to us. I love the roasted-sesame-seed-dipped-in-hot-mustard flavor. And it self seeds so prolifically that I always have it. The same with cilantro which we love in fresh salsa.

I didn't think I liked basil, which smells to me like licorice, which I hate, until a friend made me pesto as I watched. She said, "I know you don't eat cilantro straight. Well, you're not supposed to eat basil straight either." Now I freeze pesto so I have it all winter.

I have in the past eaten daylily buds, battered and fried and locust flowers fixed the same way. They're ok. With Euell Gibbons as my guide, I tried several things in years past that didn't become staples in our diet. I may try these again next year. (The hardest thing with the daylilies is getting any; the deer love them.)

Dorothy, not all basil tastes or smells like licorice. I love sweet basil, but can't stand the licorice tasting ones.

Poke is my biggest weed in my garden and I hate, hate, hate, cilantro. I mostly just like the normal grocery store type greens. I just don't like the bitter taste that some of you enjoy.

grandmom

I have some poke growing in the cracks of the concrete this year. I haven't seen pokeweed since I was a child. I guess it doesn't like the soil type in the open areas.

I'm not very fond of bitter brassacae tastes or just bitter leaves, myself. I try to cook it out or cover it up. I've really enjoyed this Red Russian Kale growing in my planter. It's tender and not very brassy-tasting. Makes excellent kale chips.

I'm surprised my husband doesn't like the bitter leafies with his umami taste buds.