I’m trying something new – spreading my weekly dose of hopefully pleasant history tidbits a little more widely across my social media, not just my Facebook page!
Readers of The Countess Invention may recall that Cass noticed the amount of greens served at Roseford Manor when she visited for Christmas.
And readers of The Winter’s Night Princess, my free novella about Letty and Anthony’s childhood, might reasonably assume that they had to learn what they could pick in the forest around their village that would help keep them alive.
Known as “lamb’s quarters” in the U.S. and other places, Chenopodium album is called “fat hen” in England and was a staple part of the diet there from Neolithic times on.
It’s more nutritious than spinach, though we likely wouldn’t eat it today both because it’s got some compounds in it that are toxic if eaten it too large quantities, and because it can be contaminated by fertilizer runoff.
Anthony is on an adventure right now where all his old food-finding skills will come in handy!
(Getting Crown of Hearts ready for all of you…)
