Goosefoot, more than a weed: a leaf vegetable!

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Long ribbed stems carry pale to deep green leaves, each shaped like a diamond and serrated around the edges: goosefoot (Chenopodium) is eaten as a leaf vegetable much like spinach, its leaves high in protein and vitamins A and C. Keep it shaded and the soil consistently moist, and you can pick from early summer to mid-autumn.

Goosefoot is a leaf vegetable that’s similar to spinach. Its leaves have a high protein content, vitamins A and C, and contain many different useful trace elements. You can eat them either cooked or raw: their taste is delicate and much appreciated in gourmet cooking. From a medicinal point of view, goosefoot leafage also has deworming properties.

There are many species of goosefoot, among which you’ll find:

• Good King Henry goosefoot, a hardy perennial that stays in place for years, and another that’s called tree spinach which is a vigorous and very ornamental annual. These are the two species most grown in vegetable patches.
• White goosefoot is often categorized as a weed, since it tends to be very invasive.

Goosefoot has long and vigorous ribbed stems on which many pale to deep green leaves appear. Each leaf is shaped like a diamond or of course, goosefoot. They’re serrated around the edges. Young growth on the giant tree spinach are fuschia-pink when they appear.

Which goosefoot to grow?

The name goosefoot covers several species, and they behave very differently in a garden. Here is what the article says about each of them.

Good King Henry and tree spinach are the two species most grown in vegetable patches.

Sowing goosefoot

Directly in the ground is the way to go to sow goosefoot seeds. Do so either in spring, between mid-spring and late spring, or in fall from early autumn to mid-autumn. Always sow when the weather isn’t prone to freezing or drought.

First of all, amend the soil with compost and dig furrows about an inch deep (2 cm). Space the furrows by 20 inches (50 cm).

• Sow the seeds, but not too densely, and cover with a thin layer of soil mix. Press the soil mix down with the back of a rake.
• Water seedlings with a watering can that has an adapter that flows as a fine drizzle.
• Soil must stay moist until seeds start sprouting.

Once they’ve germinated, thin the seeds to keep only one plant every 20-24 inches (40 to 50 cm), and keep watering regularly to help the plants develop roots.

Growing and caring for goosefoot

Goosefoot particularly likes nitrogen-rich soil that’s deep and soft, with lots of humus so it stays cool.

• Shade is best for this plant since it protects it from drought.

Remember to water your goosefoot abundantly during the summertime, especially when the temperature rises, so that the soil stays consistently moist. If not, your goosefoot will very quickly go to seed. To keep the soil cool, spread a layer of dead leaf mulch. This technique will reduce the time spent watering.

• If you’re growing perennial goosefoot, add compost in fall: rake it into the first two inches of soil (5cm).

• 

  Remember to cut off flower scapes as soon as you notice them to promote leaf growth instead.

>> Watch out for self-sown seeds:

• Remove them whenever they spread to another spot of the garden, it’s important to keep your goosefoot contained.
• If you don’t, you’ll be overrun within months!

Diseases and pests

Goosefoot doesn’t get any diseases. Only slugs might be a problem, since they like eating young goosefoot leaves.

Harvesting and keeping goosefoot

Harvest your goosefoot leaves when you need them, anytime from early summer to mid-autumn.

• Eat them right after the harvest (within the day) because they don’t keep at all.
• However, if you blanch them in boiling salt water, you can freeze them.

• With cut-and-come-again leafy crops such as loose-leaf lettuce, chard, kale, and spinach, harvest the outer leaves and leave the central growing point intact, and the plant will keep producing new foliage.
• Harvest goosefoot in the cool of the morning, when leaves are turgid: like most tender leafy greens, cut shoots lose moisture and go limp quickly once they warm in the sun.
• After blanching, plunge the leaves into cold water, squeeze the water out firmly and freeze them in meal-sized portions.
• Like spinach, goosefoot leaves are rich in oxalic acid, so tip away the blanching water rather than keeping it as stock.

Cooking with goosefoot

Young goosefoot leaves are excellent raw in mixed or tossed salads.

Older leaves aren’t as soft. That’s when it’s best to eat them cooked, prepared as you would spinach.

Young goosefoot stems, and also any flower stems you remove, are also edible: prepare them as if they were asparagus.

• Goosefoot leaves collapse right down in the pan, so gather a large bowlful for each serving.
• Like spinach, goosefoot leaves contain oxalic acid, so blanch them and discard the water if you eat them often or are prone to kidney stones.
• Chenopodium giganteum, one of several plants called “tree spinach,” bears a mealy white-to-pink farinose bloom on its young leaves, which rubs or washes off readily; the unrelated chaya, Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, lacks it.