{"id":2167,"date":"2019-10-09T05:24:59","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T05:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/?p=2167"},"modified":"2019-10-09T05:26:37","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T05:26:37","slug":"sow-thistle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/09\/sow-thistle\/","title":{"rendered":"Sow Thistle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Sonchus <\/em>species<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Asteraceae<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These useful food plants are more\nclosely related to the Lettuces (<em>Lactuca<\/em>) than to other Thistles. They\nare nutritious (rich in vitamins A and C) and no species is poisonous, so any\nwith tender foliage can be eaten. When growing in chemically fertilized soils,\nthey may accumulate toxic amounts of nitrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leaves: The mildly flavored young leaves are a good potherb\u00a0and can even be used for salad if their spines are trimmed off. Native Americans rolled the leaves into small balls to crush the spines and then ate them. Older leaves sometimes get bitter, but can be eaten after cooking in a change of water. They can also be blanched to reduce their bitterness, by covering with a bucket for a few days to exclude light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Flower stalk: The succulent flower stalks can\nbe eaten until the flowers appear. Peel and eat raw or cooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coffee substitute: The roots of some species\ncan be used as a coffee substitute. Prepare like Chicory <em>Cicorium<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Animal food: The seeds are important food for\nbirds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Weeds: All of these species have the\npotential to become weeds, but the worst is the Creeping Sow Thistle (<em>S.\narvensis<\/em>). This species is a serious weed of gardens, fields and grazing\nland, as it spreads by means of creeping roots, as well as airborne seed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Best\nspecies include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>S. oleraceus<\/em> \u2011 Common Sow\nThistle&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>S. aspe<\/em>r \u2011 Spiny Leaved Sow&nbsp;\nThistle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sonchus species Asteraceae These useful food plants are more closely related to the Lettuces (Lactuca) than to other Thistles. They are nutritious (rich in vitamins A and C) and no &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/09\/sow-thistle\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-useful-weeds","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Sow-Thistle.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2170,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions\/2170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}