Monday, January 22, 2018

One man's weed ....

.... is another man's meal.
 
Around here, pigweed is a scourge. Supposedly imported with turkey litter for fertilizer from somewhere, it now infests many a field during the growing season. It is prolific and aggressive. A garden or an acre of peanuts can be overgrown with pigweeds in a matter of days if you are not vigilant.
 
A perennial, you can't just plow it under. You need to hand pick it and move it. Some farmers used to use pesticides to rid their fields of it, but it has become resistant.
 
We have fought the pigweed in our small gardens (seeds carried from neighboring fields) and more intensively when we leased several acres to grow peanuts or sorghum.
 
A few years ago we were helping cut down some trees at the Missionaries of the Poor house in North Carolina, when I noticed they were growing pigweed in their garden on purpose!
 
Sure enough, Amaranth is grown for food around the world. Here's more proof from my own pantry.



We actually have fed pigweed removed from the garden to our pigs, and they eat it up. But I don't think I will be growing it for our consumption any time soon....

Oremus pro invicem!

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