Posted: Tue Mar 29, 05 12:38 pm Post subject: Fat Hen
A few of you expressed interest in growing Fat Hen, I've got some saved seed, if you'd like any please let me know.
For those that don't know what it is Fat Hen is a relative of Spinach and Orach and was commonly used before the introduction of spinach. Nowadays considered a weed it can be found all over the place. In my opinion it's much tastier than spinach and is very easy to grow.
The seeds I saved were from a spectacular plant in my garden that I left to go to seed, it ended up over 7 feet high.
The odd thing about fat hen is that you HAVE seen it, it's just that you haven't noticed it. More often than not it lives its life as a little plant in the hedgerow, not bright enough or big enough to be visible. But if there's good seed and recently turned, fertile ground it can get five feet high and really take over!
At it's worst, it's still a shallow rooted annual, so if you garden you've most likely hoed it down thousands of times and never spotted it.
The dried dead ones on my new plot, the ones I had to pull out, would have been about five. The one I cultivated in our garden last year, even in a shady spot, got to about that height too.
But the ones I tend to pick wild rarely get to that size.
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