What a pleasant week it’s been, hearing from readers who have offered opinions on the culinary delights of lamb’s-quarters. Last week I accused the weed of being a menace, this week I stand corrected.

“I do have to comment about this past week’s column,” a reader from Searsport wrote. “When I started to read it, I said to myself she can’t be referring to my beloved poulette grasse. This is a very favored weed along The [Saint John] Valley. As children we always looked forward to the first pot of soup made from this weed. Ummm … This spring I collected it from my yard, made soup and froze some. It has a very delicate taste compared to dandelion. If the weed is young (just a few inches) you can use the stems also, otherwise just use the leaves.

“Those weeds do have some benefits. [They are] full of vitamins, minerals, etc.,” the reader continued. “Remember that adage, `if you are given a lemon, make lemonade?’ Next time you are given a weed, make soup. For myself, I love those freebees from nature.”

“Hmmm,” I thought as I read an article from “The Complete Book of Herbs and Spices” that reader referred me to. “There’s more to this weed than meets the eye.” The article said the leaves of lamb’s-quarters “have been eaten as a potherb since prehistoric times and are exceptionally rich in iron and other minerals, proteins and vitamins. The seeds, which contain fat and albumen, can be ground as flour or gruel, and make a nutritious poultry food. They were included in the last meal eaten by the Iron Age `Tollund man,’ whose perfectly preserved body was discovered in a Danish peat bog in 1950.”

More readers had opinions to offer.

One neighbor called and told me lamb’s-quarters were sweet, that she boiled them and added just a bit of salt before serving. “They do seem to come up in newly broken ground,” she said. “One neighbor had a ton of them come up in some fill they’d brought in. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”

Another reader called after reading the article and said when I picked up the phone, “They’re edible, you know!” I knew that, I said. I just failed to mention it. I got going on about sheep and lambs and associated plants, and forgot to make mention of that fact.

“Have you ever tasted them?” my caller inquired. “No,” I replied sheepishly, with more than just a tinge of guilt in my voice. I have written before that lamb’s-quarters can be eaten, but really had no intention of actually sampling them myself.

“Well,” she said, “you should. They are just delicious!”

“Your 7/27 column on the weed you love to hate — lamb’s-quarters, a/k/a garden spinach or pigweed greens,” wrote one East Machias reader, “left out the best feature of the weeds. They are wonderful when picked while small and cooked like the best green. I much prefer them to spinach.

“Euell Gibbons says the seeds are the very finest food for caged birds,” he continued. “I was sorry to read that one of my favorite summer dishes was referred to as “nasty. You should boil up a mess and see how great they are,” he offered.

So after several letters and a half-dozen calls of this nature, curiosity got the better of me and I did just that. I headed to the weed patch with a small bowl to harvest a mess of lamb’s-quarters.

I soaked the blue-green leaves in water to clean them while I boiled water in a small pot. Then I dumped the bunch of them in, (still a bit skeptical, I must confess) and watched them boil, their leaves changing to a deeper green.

“Boil them less than five minutes,” my neighbor’s words echoed in my head. After about 4 minutes I drained them, added a dash of salt and plunged in my fork.

“Mmm,” I thought. Not bad. Sweet, something like a very mild spinach. Quite good, in fact. And strangely satisfying. Was it that the minerals and vitamins had hit the spot? You know how it is, the produce from your garden, your soil, is always more satisfying. Whatever the source, I surely did enjoy my first sample. My thanks to those who encouraged me to do so.

Your questions

Another piece of reader mail inquired about other names for the beloved lamb’s-quarters:

Q. Isn’t the same weed also called pigweed? I’m surprised to hear so many people misidentify or misname it. — A.D., Lincolnville

A: Although lamb’s-quarters is sometimes called pigweed, another weed, botanically known as Amaranthus retroflexus, is also commonly called redroot pigweed. Both plants have for eons thrived under the similar environmental conditions and both are common in gardens and agricultural fields. Here, as is so often the case, the same common name is designated to two different species.

Thus, the best way to truly identify a plant is through its botanical name. Luckily, both plants in question are edible and have traits that easily distinguish them from the other. However, you would be ill advised to ingest a plant without properly and positively identifying it as an edible species.

Diana George Chapin is the NEWS garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, c/o Maine Weekend, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.