Day 229: Okay, who remembers eating Sourgrass when they were a kid? I certainly did, and even today, I will pick the occasional leaf to chew while I'm pulling great handfuls of it from my garden and yard. The tangy flavour is quite refreshing, and although the plant contains oxalic acid, it does not occur in sufficient quantities that you should be concerned for your kidneys. You'd burn out on Sourgrass salads before that occurred. Known scientifically as Rumex, acetosella, Sourgrass is related to buckwheat and is sometimes called Sheep Sorrel. Unfortunately, it is an aggressive weed when it gets a toehold, and flourishes in the acidic soils common to western Washington. It propagates via an extensive system of rhizomes which, from personal experience, I can attest may extend ten feet or more from the parent plant. In fact, when I'm weeding, I sometimes see how far I can follow the network without breaking the rhizomatous threads. I'm usually defeated when sunken flower pots, fence posts or the sidewalk bring the experiment to an untimely end.
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