Life out here feels like one of those PBS speeded up films of flowers opening. I don't walk by a plant for a few days, and then when I do, it seems a foot taller, or all of a sudden busted out into flower. The edibles' seasons come and go and several have gone by since the last newsletter.
While the garden supplies us with many delicious greens, nature also does her share. In fact, in the garden there seem to be almost as many Lamb's Quarters (Chenopodium album) as crops sometimes. This relative of the spinach is nice, especially when young, though the leaves be eaten until it gets to be bush sized and flowering. Or if you're lucky you might stumble across some Purslane (Portulaca Oleracea), a mildly acidic succulent plant that runs along the ground with rosettes of fleshy leaves and red stems. Speaking of acidic, a nice accent green is Sorrel (Oxalis spp). The plants look like three leaf clovers, with yellow five petaled flowers standing upright. The whole plant is good, but don't eat too much at once, because the oxalic acid in it blocks absorption of calcium.
The garden and orchard are not yet providing us with much fruit, but those wild plants provide us with sweet berries before the peaches are more than little fuzzy hard balls. First came the Wild Strawberries (Fragaria spp.), out in the fields. It's best to find them when they have their showy white flowers, because the red fruits are small and hard to find with the grasses grown up around them. When the wild and domesticated strawberries started to wane, the Mulberries (Morus Rubra or Alba) were waxing. The red mulberries are common (and hand staining), but I personally love the white mulberries, with their pink blush and full flavor. The best way to harvest mulberries is to lay sheets on the ground or hold them under the trees and shake the branches. It's like magic! There is a time of overlap between the seasons, allowing us to make some killer strawberry mulberry cobbler.
Then it's on to black raspberries and blackberries (Rubus spp.). The black raspberries ripen first, with their pretty little hollow caps that come off easily in your hand. Then come the blackberries, in abundance. The little juice- filled berry segments stain the hand, and clothes, intentionally or not. When picking both, I suggest wearing long pants and long sleeves, no matter how hot it is, to avoid being scratched by the brambles. Even though they are not as sweet as the rest, I like best the Black Cherries (Prunus Serotina), which ripen in mid-summer. The fruit grows in a long cluster, so you can run your hand along it and harvest a dozen of the small fruit at once. They are mostly seed, but I love that cherry taste.
Last time I wrote about what a kick I get out of eating flowers. Now I get to eat the biggest flower of the whole year, the Day Lily (Hemerocallis Fulva). We pick the flower buds and cook them up in stir fries. They can be dried too, for a winter treat. Another flower from this time of year is Wild Chamomile (Matricaria Chamomilla), which looks much like its domesticated cousin. When you walk past a patch you get a nice olfactory surprise. This year, our herb garden has more chamomile than we can harvest for tea, so I am enjoying "harvesting" the smell too.
Speaking of hot beverages, we are going to experiment this year with making the seeds of Cleavers (Galium Aparine) into a coffee substitute. Cleavers are a kind of bedstraw. It is a common plant with whorls of leaves on a long thin stem that lies along the ground. The stems leaves and little round seeds all have little hairs making them stick (or "cleave") to clothes, skin and dog fur. We are going to slow roast the seeds, as the edible book says, and grind them to see if we can make a tasty drink.
Wild Edibles Tip
This issue's tip is, as tempting as it is, to not eat wild edible from roadsides, especially highly trafficked ones. The lead from gasoline settles on plants and in the soil. Lead poisoning leads to mental health problems, especially in children. So put on your long pants, brave the ticks, and head out into the fields, woods or marshes, and enjoy!
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