An unremarkable wild vegetable, its calcium content is 100 times that of tomatoes, making it a natural calcium tablet

In the summer and autumn of each year, a wild vegetable called mountain lettuce grows in the wild. Because it likes to grow together with ordinary weeds, in relatively moist places such as roadsides and riverbanks, it looks rather unremarkable, but it is a very nutritious green wild vegetable.

When I was a child, I rarely ate it. First, because I did not know its nutritional value, and another reason may have been that we were poor at that time, and cooking wild vegetables used up too much oil and seasoning.

And it is exactly this unremarkable wild vegetable that has extremely high nutritional value! Mountain lettuce is rich in minerals and vitamins as well as trace elements such as calcium, iron and zinc. In particular, its calcium content can reach 700 mg, while the calcium content of tomatoes is only 4-6 mg, more than 100 times more than that, making it a veritable high-calcium vegetable, and it can also be called a natural calcium tablet.

When eating mountain lettuce, the main parts picked are its tender stems and tender leaves, and it itself has a slightly bitter taste, so we also call it bitter vegetable, and it also has the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying. Generally, in July and August each year, mountain lettuce grows very lushly, and that is when it is most tender and fresh to pick and eat. By around October in autumn, its leaves and stems as a whole become rather old and even more bitter, and the taste is not as good.

If you want to eat wild vegetables, you can also grow them yourself. By digging up plants or collecting seeds, you can grow them in pots at home, and it is much more convenient to pick and eat them fresh. Mountain lettuce has strong growth ability and is also relatively drought-tolerant. For pot cultivation, it is advisable to choose fertile and loose soil for planting. As long as there is sufficient water, fertilizer and sunlight, it will grow especially fast, and if a warm environment can be provided, it can basically be planted all year round.

When potted mountain lettuce matures, it is recommended to start eating from its lower large leaves, leaving some tender stems and leaves to let it grow again, so that afterward it can be picked repeatedly many times.