If you have ever looked around the, even semi, wild part of your city then you will most likely have ran into the versatile wild cucumber.
Marah Macrocarpus
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Wild cucumbers, who knew?
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Category Archives: plants
Good Weeds # 2
Lamb’s Quaters or Goosefoot (Chenopodium Berlandieri):
This little known “weed” (to me at least) is of the same genus (closely related to) as Quinoa. It is part of the Eastern Agricultural Complex, a group of plants the Eastern Woodland Native Americans were foraging for as far back as 6,000 BCE. By 1,800 BCE they were cultivating/domesticating this and other plants.
The young plants are edible as baby greens in early summer, and till mid summer the tips of the plants. The leaves and nutritious seeds are also eaten. Here is some interesting historical information.
Good Weeds # 1 Intro and Filaree.
Good Weeds # 1
So I’ve realised that there is way to much info to put on just one post. Here is the first instalment of Good Weeds….
On February 27, I went to an awesome Urban Forage Event ran by Nance Khelm. It took me a long time to post this because of issues I had that day, and research that had to be done.
I’m going to put info on “weeds” that Nance shared with us, and later when I’m done with those I’ll post info that comes my way on Good Weeds.
Also, I’m no Herbalist nor registered doctor. This is educational ONLY! If you want to try some of this stuff, consult what ever kind of authority you wish.
That being said…..
Continue reading “Good Weeds # 1” »
Urban Forage Event
What a great weird day…
Last night I went to a friend’s new home. He, with his wife and newborn, just moved much closer to me. It was a “we got the key” party, so Erin and I went. We had a couple of drinks and a whole lot of laughs.
Today I woke up with a head ache, the Irish flu kind. But also I felt somehow weird. After laying in bed chatting with Erin for a while, I started making frequent emergency trips to the porcelain god’s altar. Now, I know what you are thinking, “that’s what you get when you drink to much”. Well, it wasn’t that type of feeling, this was more like a food bug.
All this made me feel like crap, so we missed the Farmer’s Market today. Specially annoying because I’m finally having some friends over to help out with the garden and there is a guy there that sells vegetable plants for a dollar each. I’ll have to do that part next week.
Now to the main reason for this post.
At about one p.m. I realised that today was the Urban Forage Event I put on my handy dandy blog calendar. Suddenly I was up against the wall. The options were, staying home feeling like crap and doing nothing fun all day, or going to the event and risking vomiting all over my fellow foragers and shaming the family name. By one thirty, I was dressed and ready to face the world.
I’m very glad I chose the later of the two options. I will to put all my notes and pictures together, then I’ll post all the awesome stuff I was learned there.
As an aside, one of the gentlemen there shared a link with me on a book written in the early 1900s about permanent agriculture. Enjoy this great read, I know I will.
Delicious Harvest!
After not going to my back yard garden for about two weeks, I was greeted by a small jungle. I’ve been having lower back pain, so have not been taking care of our supplemental food supply. Luckily, it’s been raining and my soil retains moisture well. So after beating back the intruding grasses I found some Jerusalem Artichokes, Purple Potatoes, one Sweet Potato, some Arugula that just keeps on coming, and a branch of Oregano that broke off. To all this my sweet soul mate added some more organic ingredients and made a delicious Indian inspired feast. I’m inspired to revive the garden to it’s former glory. Soon I’ll spend the day cleaning up back there and will post pictures of my little garden in all it’s glory. I’ll also post some of it’s sad state for good effect.
Organic or Conventional?
The Environmental Working Group‘s Food News page has a list we should all follow. The list contains 49 fruits and vegetables arranged to show the quantity of pesticides in them. When Organic is not available this list can help you make a decision.
Raised Field Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin
While reading my new awesome Permaculture Magazine I was struck by an article that spoke of an ancient Incan way of agriculture. This is called Raised Field Agriculture. People would dig up canals and pile the dirt to create raised beds. These canals help the plants by providing water most, if not all, of the year. This also creates a micro climate because of heat retention from the waterways, thereby protecting the plants from frost. If that is not enough to get you thinking of renting some heavy machinery… it’s reported that fish could have been raised there, creating a kind of aquaculture that at the same time replenishes the soil with some needed Nitrogen. Did I forget to mention canoeing?
For LOTS more on the subject, shoot on over to Clark L. Erickson’s page. Also About.com has some good info.
green slug
Elysia chlorotica. This little gem is indigenous to the salt marshes of New England and Canada. What makes this slug so special is that it is member of both the flora and fauna kingdoms. It claims this hybrid state by producing it’s own chlorophyll, thereby gaining energy from the sun’s rays. All the baby slug needs to do is have it’s first and only meal of algae to steal some chloroplasts and from then on it’s a life of sunbathing.
What do plants, robots, and pizza have in common?
Answer: This TED talk!
The speaker, Stefano Mancuso talks of plant intelligence. He shows some cool slow motion footage of plants “playing”, “sleeping”, etc. One of the things that sounded interesting was his assertion that plant root tips are individual brains. This forms a “networked” brain similar to how computers relate to the internet. It’s a vast network. Kinda makes me think of Avatar.