
Would you believe that the ugly sow thistle, that insufferable weed that overruns gardens and fields, is used as food around the Mediterranean, and is also used by nursing mothers to support their milk supply?
Sow Thistle – a New Super Food for Moms
While writing my book A Mother’s Garden of Galactagogues, I dove into the research on this totally neglected herb. To my surprise, I found that it possesses great nutritional value and is being studied for its medicinal effects.[i]
Experts in food production write: Sonchus species (Sow Thistle) are productive when cultivated on any type of land, home garden, or even roof gardens using plastic or earthen pots with minimum inputs and labor. Considering the global environmental changes, initiatives to develop new high-yielding and more stress-tolerant varieties, to extend its cultivation and uses, and to strengthen the commercial production of this novel vegetable crop, are now needed. [ii]
In other words—just as I describe in my book A Mother’s Garden of Galactagogues, sow thistle can be grown with little effort in containers on porches, terraces, roof gardens, balconies… they are a perfect super food for an uncertain world, growing everywhere, accessible to all, and they are perfect as a home-grown galactagogue.
To their nutritive value, the leaves are high in protein and fiber, and extremely high in vitamin C. The leaves contain high levels of potassium, copper, calcium, manganese, zinc, and phosphorus. They are a good source of the essential fatty acids: omega-3 and omega-6. These fatty acids, especially when untreated or processed, are essential to our health and a well-functioning immune system.
Sow thistle possesses powerful medicinal properties—liver protective, anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial. They are thought to help prevent kidney and heart disease.
Main use for milk supply: leaves and stems, prepared as a concentrated broth, or as food.
Requirements: Sow thistle grows in most soils. It grows best with some shade and regular watering.
Caution: only use plants from a garden that has not been treated with pesticides or herbicides.
Good to know: There are two sorts of sow thistles: the annual sow thistle has a long taproot (a single root that extends straight down, like a dandelion’s root); this kind is welcome in your garden. The perennial sow thistle grows from a rhizome that spreads horizontally beneath the soil’s surface, shooting up new thistles as it spreads. If you find this kind in your garden, dig it out, as it will otherwise be impossible to control.

Harvest: Varieties of sow thistle have differently shaped leaves. They may be soft with rounded edges (see the photos above), or tough and spiky-rimmed. The spiky leaves are tender when the plant is young, as in this photo, but as they age you’ll need to cut away the rim with scissors and soften the leaf with a rolling pin.
Food: Sow thistle leaves are delicious in early spring. They taste like sweet chard. They can be eaten in salad, boiled like spinach or sautéed in olive oil.
My neighbor, Graziano, who first taught me to garden, explained that sow thistle is grown in Sardinia as a vegetable. The tops are trimmed off to prevent flowering and the leaves are picked continuously to use in food.
The unopened buds are also edible; they taste like hazelnuts.
P.S. The photos here are of the initial “rosette” that forms before the plant shoots up tall. They were taken in February.
Forgotten Galactagogue – Simmer that Thistle
Lactogenic diet: The ancient Greek doctor Dioscorides, 2000 years ago, lists sow thistle as a galactagogue. The British herbalist Nicolas Culpeper described its use in his herbal from 1653: The decoction of the leaves and stalks causes abundance of milk in nurses. Today, the use of sow thistle as a galactagogue is still remembered by the older generation in Italy.[iii]
My suggestion: To make a “decoction” (a strong broth) simmer the leaves and stalks in water in a half-covered pot for 20 minutes. Sip a few teaspoons of the bitter liquid. Don’t overdo it. Repeat the dose some hours later. If you tolerate it well, try repeating the dose every few hours for a few days. If after four days you notice no change, this plant is not going to have the desired effect.
Does this information intrigue you? If yes, you will enjoy my book A Mother’s Garden of Galactagogues, available now on amazon. It is full of planting info but also full of rare dietary suggestions and information for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
[i] Xiu-Mei Li & Pei-Long Yang (2018) Research progress of Sonchus species, International Journal of Food Properties, 21:1, 147-157, DOI: 10.1080/10942912.2017.1415931
[ii] Xiu-Mei Li & Pei-Long Yang (2018) Research progress of Sonchus species, International Journal of Food Properties, 21:1, 147-157, DOI: 10.1080/10942912.2017.1415931
[iii] Geraci, Anna & Polizzano, Vincenza & Schicchi, Rosario. (2018). Ethnobotanical uses of wild taxa as galactagogues in Sicily (Italy). Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae. 87. 10.5586/asbp.3580.