Letters from Katy Newman: Quack grass lore

It’s been a tough growing season for farmers hereabouts. Katy Newman and I have been discussing options, in the event that my first CSA share consists largely of quack grass.  She went online in search of recipes for quack grass soup, but found this instead.  Here’s her email:

a poem in itself…..

Quack grass

Aliases: couch grass, dog grass, twitch grass, wheat grass, cough grass, cutch, quitch grass, quake grass, scutch grass, chandler’s grass, durfa grass, durfee grass, Dutch grass, Fin’s grass, Scotch quelch, devil’s grass, witch grass

Agropyron repens (Beauv.), Triticum repens (Linn.)

Family: N.O. Graminaceae

Distribution: everywhere

Charges: Pernicious and troublesome behaviour, garden terrorism

The accused:

Mercy. Miss Sadie and the Cowboy were intrigued, though. “Dog grass? Cough grass? Sounds like something we could really get into!”