Ribes lacustre

Ribes lacustre

This entry is about another member of the gooseberry/current genus. Ribes lacustre is commonly known as swamp gooseberry. But some people call it swamp current, even though it has spines like a gooseberry.

It is a small spiny shrub, with smallish maple-like leaves and black berries. The flowers come in clusters of 5-12, not all of which will get pollinated and turn into berries, but you will see several black berries along with some empty stems. It looks a lot like Ribes montigenum (Mountain Gooseberry), except that the berries are black and the upper leaf surface is shiny. It also prefers wet areas, whereas Ribes montigenum prefers drier ground. I usually find Ribes lacustre next to streams, not in swamps. ("lacustre" refers to lakes.)

The taste of these berries is unfortunately rather bitter. I have occasionally found a bush with sweet berries, or with some sweet and some bitter, but most of the time they are bitter. I even searched them out at the very end of the season, when they would be the most ripe. Most of the berries had fallen off and the leaves where fading and starting to turn colors, but the remaining berries were still bitter.

I will try these berries when I find them to see if I get lucky and find some sweet ones, but generally I do not recommend them because of the bitter taste.

Amaranthus retroflexus

Amaranthus retroflexus is, depending on which sources you believe, either a highly toxic plant, or a highly nutritious plant and a staple of some traditional diets. The "toxic" sources seem to prefer the common name "redroot pigweed", while the "nutritious" sources just call it amaranth. Which are you going to believe? Obviously, I'm biased towards the "nutritious" side, but it's possible that they could both be true.

I notice that most of the "toxic" sources are from agricultural sources, and report toxicity to cattle, pigs, and even goats. Amaranth is known to be able concentrate nitrates in its leaves, and in areas where there is heavy usage of chemical fertilizers which have high levels of nitrates, amaranth may have high levels of nitrates. For this reason, I would recommend against collecting your amaranth from the borders of agricultural fields. My own garden, where Amaranthus retroflexus comes up every year voluntarily, does not get these kinds of chemical fertilizers, so I'm not at risk for that type of toxicity.

Amaranth is well known for its edible seeds, which are often used similarly to grains. I have not tried collecting the seeds yet.

The leaves are commonly used as a potherb. While they can be eaten raw, I find them to be rather tough. I don't like the leaves raw much at all, but as a potherb, it is one of the best I have tasted. Boiling them for 5 minutes makes them tender, and also improves the flavor, which is like a mild spinach. Young stems (if they are still flexible) can also be eaten, and soften up nicely from the boiling. Mainly you want stems which have not formed seed clusters yet. The plants I pick often have small clusters starting to form, but I just break those off and throw them away. The small prickly bracts in those clusters do not soften when boiled, so you would want to avoid including those clusters in your pot, but if a bract or two remains from the base of the cluster, they are hardly noticeable.