Providence of God

So I was up to the archives again today...

Here's two interesting snippets about eating weeds. The first comes from Manti, in a folklore context. The original informant wasn't named, and it looks a little suspect to me. Still, its the thought that counts:

"The place where the weeds were gathered was down on the south side of the stone quarry where the Mormons first camped. After each day a-gathering, there was none left for the next day. But like the food miraculously supplied to the Israelites in the wilderness, each day, just so the Lord provided for this supply of pig weed each day."

If I think back to the Israelites, the Lord provided manna, which was described as being sweet, and could be ground to make flour for bread. Also, they received quail, which could be prepared in any number of tasty ways. I hate to doubt this person's earnest faith, but couldn't God provide something better than pig weed? Amelia Young remembered gathering quail (divinely provident) in the first days after being expelled from Nauvoo.

But then, here comes this next quote right in the face of it all. John Hyrum Barton (1868-1944) quipped, "We considered pigweed greens a dessert." Being on the later end of settlement, perhaps he never experienced the extreme hunger as did the early settlers. Still, pigweed is no dessert. I dare you to try some this summer.