Lambsquarter.

[homesteader]

Some time ago I had thought about domesticating wild edible plants in the garden, and so two seasons ago I collected seed from wild lambsquarter and this past season planted a 4ft. x 12ft. raised bed of it. I harvested and canned 26 pints of the leaves and tops. It turned out as good or better than spinach and was a lot easier to grow.
It will now be a staple crop for us.
This next season I will be adding dandelions for fresh greens, blossom fritters and trying out the roots as a hot beverage.
If the dandelions work out as well as the lambsquarter I plan on adding several other wild plants to this list. The seed is there for the collecting and the lambsquarter out produced the wild ones by 50% or more.

 

[miss_thenorth]

That's cool. Dandelions are so beneficial, but such a pain to harvest, (in my yard anyways) I thought about specifically growing them for harvest. good luck!
Whereabouts in Michigan are you? I'm about an hour east of Detroit (in Canada). We were up by Auburn Hills yesterday.

 

[homesteader]

We are in midwest Michigan, Newago county and had a devil of a time last year as the season was really screwed up, late frost, early frost,late blight in our tomatoes and so on. The lambsquarter though did great, no pests and no disease and really is tasty.
We have harvested the wild dandelion and so am in hopes that it will perform similar to the lambsquarter plus the root will be a lot easier to dig in raised beds.