by @Faith_Juma, Seed Bank Manager, ECHO East Africa
In the previous post, I talked about spiderplant and how it’s bitterness is misunderstood.
Today I’m reminded of another plan that many people uproot often from their farms.
Launaea cornuta — bitter lettuce, or mchunga in Swahili, meaning “very bitter.”
Most call it a weed.
But growing up, it was food and still is food in some places!
I remember seeing it grow wild along the edges of our farm no one planted it, no one irrigated it. It simply survived. When my mother was diagnosed with diabetes, it began appearing more often on our plates. It was believed to help regulate blood sugar and had many other medicinal properties.
And yes, it was bitter if cooked alone. Not the kind of taste you crave as a child.
My mother cooked it mixing with Bidens pilosa (mashona nguo) and sometimes vegetables from the Vigna family (cow peas leaves mostly) to soften the bitterness. Slowly, what felt medicinal became normal and familiar.
At home, we also soaked its leaves in water to help treat coccidiosis in chickens. One plant giving food for the family, support for livestock.
Launaea cornuta is resilient, nutritious, and medicinal, one of the many NUS quietly growing around us.
What other plants/weeds did you grow up eating?