Really fed up with Common Orache. Thought it was fat hen but has reddish flower. It seems to cling into the ground with a mighty tenacity and then you try and pull it is simply breaks off and reemerges from the roots. Grows up to 1.7 metres tall. I has got to go. :o :o
Question is, can I eat it?
Yes, you can.
Steamed rather than raw.
Of course it IS fat hen, just a different colour. ;)
Not the same growing habit as fat hen. Fat hen much more upright for quite a long time this produces a low creeping plant which sheds anything you pull at very easily. Then it suddenly creeps up on you and there it is covered in flowers and you could have sworn you had taken all the weeds out. Fat hen much much easier to deal with. This thing just will not be pulled out of the ground.
I have at least four slightly different types of the same family. Goosefoot. There is another with a very attractive fig leaf, there is an oak leaved one but this is slightly broader one actually has the best taste of them all.
I think I have the national collection of fat hen and its cousins.
Gardeners World, here you come.