It was such a delightful surprise. Ever since I took Janice Schofield's wild plants workshop, I've been searching Valdez for lamb's quarters. This unassuming little "weed" is vitamin-packed and delicious, and during the workshop we used it as a primary ingredient in several recipes. So, I searched as I pedaled out Dayville Road and along the Richardson Highway, and hiked up Solomon Gulch and behind my house. I couldn't find any lamb's quarters anywhere.
Last summer, I made two big planters in my yard out of old skid-steer tracks. Typically, I never got around to transplanting my few perennials to them. I have, however, been trying to keep them weeded so they won't be to hard to work when I finally get around to planting. A few days ago, I pulled all the little plants out of one, and then walked over to the other. As I reached for the first weed, I thought, "Wait a minute. Those look like...." I pulled one up to compare to the photos in my copy of The Boreal Herbal by Beverly Gray. (Sorry, Janice, my copy of Discovering Wild Plants is still lost in the shed somewhere.)
Sure enough, the second planter was home to a healthy crop of lamb's quarters. I nibbled on a few sweet leaves and made plans to make pesto. Since I still don't have plans to plant "real" plants in the bed anytime soon, I decided to snip the lamb's quarters stems off above the lowest leaves so that maybe I'll be able to get a second harvest out of them this year.
I'd never made pesto before, not even using the traditional base of basil, so I looked up and compared several recipes on-line. I even found one made from wild greens. (I misplaced my workshop notes, so I couldn't use the recipe Janice provided, but I think it was basically the same.) Since most of the recipes were essentially identical, I made up my own comparable one.
Sharry's Lamb's Quarters Pesto
4 cups fresh, washed lamb's quarters leaves
~1/4 cup chopped chives
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
Puree all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. (Many recipes say to use a blender for a smoother puree, but I found mine wouldn't get all the leaves, even if I kept pushing them down.) Note that the leaves will feel a little powdery - this is perfectly normal. Most recipes also call for grated parmesan cheese, but if you're going to freeze the pesto for future use, it's best to wait until you use it to add the cheese.
Okay, that was the basic recipe. I learned a little along the way. First, I'd wanted to use a mixture of wild greens, and was planning on fireweed and dock leaves, but both were to bitter when I tasted them. Chickweed is another good addition, but I didn't have any in my yard. Sticking with the "store outside my door" theory, I stuck with the lamb's quarters, and threw in a few chives because they were handy.
Second, when I tasted the original puree, made to the above recipe, I found that it tasted very green and was overwhelmingly garlicky. It burned my tongue. I decided to dilute it by doubling everything except the garlic; I didn't add any more of that. Much more tolerable when tasted plain.
The doubled recipe made about two cups. I set aside some in a half-pint jar to give to a friend who wanted to try it, left out the amount I needed for dinner, and froze the rest in an ice cube tray. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get those cubes out. I think I should have followed my first instinct and sprayed Pam in the tray. Oh well, live and learn.
Onto dinner. Mixed salad, grilled fresh red salmon, pesto pasta - what do the rich people eat? I added parmesan cheese to the pesto. Okay, okay, I got carried away and dumped in too much, but you can never have too much cheese, right? Once the spaghetti noodles were cooked, I mixed about 1/2 cup of the cooking water to the pesto to thin it so it would toss with the noodles more easily. I had about a cup after I added the water, and thought it would be too much pesto, but it was just the right amount for one pound of pasta.
One more lesson learned. After tasting the pesto on pasta, I determined it was delicious, but could have used the original amount of garlic. Thane and Rowan agreed on both counts. The strong "green" flavor of the pesto when I tasted it straight was also moderated a lot, a good thing in my opinion. I will definitely make this again (hopefully those plants will regrow), and next spring I will try it with some new-growth fireweed, dandelion, chickweed, and whatever else I can find. Watch out - I may be raiding your yard for weeds!
