Good king henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus)
Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus)
Good King Henry is an ancient vegetable, grown in many a cottage garden by our ancestors and now making a come back.
A plant which has acquired many names over the years, such as goosefoot, Lincolnshire spinach,(where it was widely grown and commonly called markery or marquery) and poor-mans asparagus...so as the names suggest there is no excuse for not finding Good King Henry
a place in your perennial, or any vegetable garden for two very good reasons.
The young leaves makes a very good spinach and the flower stems can be cooked like asparagus, both these need to be picked when young and small or they can be a little bitter, though soaking for half an hour or so in salty water should remove it if need be. After the plants have flowered they produce another crop of tender young leaves which if picked regularly will be available right through the summer.
Easy to cultivate, it will even succeed in shade and requires nothing special in the soil department, though the richer that is then the more leaves will be produced. It can be forced in the late winter but being perennial it will be one of the first leaves available either way.