Why Don't More People Eat Lambsquarters?

Back on the farm we used to call this chickweed, because the chickens loved it.  I used to hand feed the tender young shoots of this plant to the hens, and especially to the chicks.   I always ate a bit myself, too, even though this was then considered a weed and not cultivated in my parent's garden.  In fact, they required us kids to pull it out of the garden, and I always wanted to know why they thought it was a weed and why we didn't just eat it instead of the harder to grow spinach, which to my kid taste was not any more delicious. 

The real chickweed, Stellaria media, is something altogether different.

The lambsquarters plant is a member of the goosefoot family, and there are more varieties than there are geese in a gaggle, but I am most familiar with three of them:

Chenopodium album
Chenopodium giganteum
Chenopodium quinoa

The seeds of Chenopodium quinoa are, of course, valued for the highly respected cereal, quinoa, but the leaves of the plant are also edible and nutritious, like amaranth. 

This is the "giganteum" variety also known as Magenta Spreen:

In Spanish this plant is called quelites, but that word can also refer to almost any edible green, even spinach.   When Spanish speaking people in my community refer to quelites, however, this is the plant they mean, either the Magenta Spreen or White Goosefoot (aka Fat Hen or Pigweed), the Chenopodium album which, as the name suggests, has a powdery white in place of the lovely red found on the inner leaves of Chenopodium giganteum:

If you look hard enough, before long you will find some reference to toxins in connection with just about every healthy and delicious edible green, even spinach.

But they are not referring to "toxins" in the tradition dictionary sense of "poisonous."  Like edible amaranth, chicory, purslane, and a host of other greens including spinach and chives, lambsquarters do contain oxalic acid.  They also contain saponins.  In reasonable quantity these should be of no consequence to people who do not have a special sensitivity, but moderation is advised, as with any other food.  It is not a brilliant idea to go picking these plants in the wild, running them through the juicer and guzzling.  For one thing, there could be insecticide residue on the wild stuff, and for another, you could be ingesting a different kind of chenopodium.  A  few plants in this family are poisonous, even fatally. 

I purchase lambsquarters seeds came from a reputable company and grow them organically indoors in liquid nutrient solution.