I did the same thing with the vinegar. I was lucky they had the apple cider vinegar on the bottom shelf.

How do you can your lambsquarter? I havent eaten it for a few years but we do have a bumper crop this year.
Lynn

I probably shouldn't tell you this...but I got so dang tired of cleaning the many bushels of lambs-quarters that I came up with a short-cut that you'll laugh at.

The way I grew up doing it was get up before sunrise the morning or two after the first spring rain (in high desert Texas) and go look in ditches for the young tender lambs-quarter. Lambs-quarter later in the year is just too tough in Texas..but in Wa. State you can harvest them till hot weather if you like the lanky ones that grow up here.

Take home and then pinch out each and every blasted growing tip (that's where bugs like to hide) then soak and wash...then take each and every plant and slap slap slap against your hand to dislodge the sand sticking to the underside of the leaves (lambs-quarter has a sticky tendency worse than spinach). Then soak and wash 2 more times. That is the way my Grandma and Mother taught me and I had the blistered hand every year to show for it.

OR...clean your clothes washer out good...and put 2 bushels of lambs-quarter in and wash those suckers and spin them and pretend you don't know a thing about those few bugs that might have stuck to the growing points. (LOL) Protein is a good thing. The greens come out a little bruised but clean as a whistle and no sore fingers and blistered palms.

My Grandmother thought I was touched in the head when she came over to can at my house for the first time. I usually helped her can whatever we happened to be picking that day...then went home and did mine the way I wanted to. LOL!

Then I proceed with a hot pack for collards or mustard greens. Generally...I put whole plants (minus and roots you might have accidentally acquired) into large canner for precooking...then use a knife to "cut" tenderized greens into fairly large chunks. This takes care of the young stems. You don't want to chop them up like the stores do with frozen greens. I only pass a knife thru 5-6 times and call it good.

Best part of lambs-quarter is the fact is you get more Qts per bushel as compared to other greens...or at least that is my experience. This was very helpful feeding our family because all the kids would eat lambs-quarter but not the other greens.

Growing up..lambs-quarter was a necessity back when you just couldn't get much green produce in the winter due to transportation of produce back then. On good years...we would can 2 or 3 years worth...just in case the next year was a bad year for lambs-quarter. We kept it in our tornado shelter/root cellar so it was fine for years. My great grandmothers were Comanche and Cherokee so it was an event each year for 3-4 generations to gather lambs-quarter for our families.

BTW...did you know that you can somewhat domesticate lambs-quarter to grow in your garden? My aunt did this and each year the greens got more and more purple tinged and they loved the extra love and produced well for us...plus they handle hail storms better than other greens.

Wow, and I thought I was the only one who ate lambsquarter. I eat purslane too, I figure if they grow in MY garden, I'm eating them. (grin)

I never canned it, though, I guess I never thought of it. Now I'll have to try, so thanks!

Annie

I've eaten both but never canned them. Considering "weeds" are some of our best crops, I should.

You'll have better luck searching this forum by doing a Google Advanced Search and limiting the search to this site. Then it won't bring up other web pages, only here.

Then once you find what you want if it's a long thread hit Ctrl+F on your keyboad and enter whatever term you're specifically looking for. A lot of time threads digress into different topics and the Find function will locate exactly which posts discuss the topic you're interested in.

Carol

Now that I live in the Pacific NW I find the lambs-quarter is a bit sparse with the branches of each leaf set far apart...whereas in Texas the plant was a much bushier plant that seemed to just pop up over night after the first spring rains and you had a very short period to get it. In the NW where it is cool and rainy till at least mid July...you can keep picking it depending on the elevation. It doesn't get bitter like it does in Texas when it starts to bolt.

I like to eat raw just the leaves and even the growing points...I just sort of graze them till I feel guilty about them being in the garden and pull them up. I do can them up here (NW) if I can find a good patch in sandy soil on the edges of cornfields BEFORE the farmer sprays his field. But the yield is much much less. I tend to get more stem and less leaves...but the stems are tasty canned...sort of like an asparagus...but without the falling apart that happens when you can asparagus. (I don't can asparagus anymore since I can get it fresh now days)

I have frozen left over a "mess" of lambs-quarter to eat at another meal and it is fine. I just prefer canning it...and saving my freezer space for all the berries I plan to pick thru the season.

BTW....you MUST splash on some cider vinegar as you plate the lambs-quarter or some green tabasco pepper vinegar to make it really great.