Amritsar Bathua Wild Spinach Winter Harvest

Bathua, Chenopodium album, grows wild in the wheat fields of Amritsar and surrounding districts as a winter crop companion and is harvested by village women between November and February. Farmers cook bathua saag by boiling the leaves with garlic and ghee or mix it into paratha dough for bathua paratha, a staple cold-weather meal. Rich in calcium and iron, bathua is valued as a free nutritional supplement for farming families and is sold in Amritsar's vegetable mandis during the rabi season.