foraging

I love to look for wild edibles...but I need to increase my knowledge so I have more variety! Our CSA offered a fabulous walk & talk with a visiting expert on the subject 2 summers ago, but of course I had to go and have a baby and miss the whole thing. Bother!
Recently I have been enjoying blogs like The 3 Foragers. They are also from New England, so what they find is similar to what is in my local area.
So this week during school vacation I will focus on what spring has to offer here in the way of FREE food!

I began in our yard, right next to the house...





















The top 2 pics are chickweed, very easy to identify once you know how. I have no idea what the bottom left plant is called, but I have been picking and eating it for literally as long as I can remember; I used to call it "sour grass" as a kid as it is very sour, reminscient of SweetTarts candy to me! Does anyone out there know its name?? Bottom right is obviously dandelions. All of the plant can be used, but I started with just the greens, best when young without a thick rib down the middle.

Not quite as wild, but often overlooked...

Rhubarb doesn't need
any attention to do its
thing. Just let it grow
and pick when the stems
are pink/red. Though it's
a vegetable, rhubarb is
usually treated like a
fruit and used in desserts.
It is also quite tart and
needs sweetening. Just
remember that only the
stems are edible.

There are many varieties
of violets, but the delicate
ones growing in yards and
roadsides and in forests are
easy to identify and pick. The little flowers add some nice
color to salad, and can make a lovely embellishment for desserts!

Now maybe there are some of you out there more expert than me on the subject. I've got a few books on my Amazon wishlist, but have yet to purchase anything.





















I've heard that some varieties of sedum (top left) are quite tasty, albeit peppery. And what is this groundcover on the right? Or how about the lower left that carpets the forests in the area? Or the weed on the lower right that is EVERYWHERE around these parts? Even if they're not edible, I'm surrounded by them and would love to know the names of some of these plants.

After washing the greens
in a big bowl of water, I
stuffed them all into the
food processor with a bit
of salt and chopped them
up. Then added the rest of
my usual tofu quiche
ingredients.

I cooked up some onion
and bac-un strips and
mixed everything together.
Normally I probably use
about 1 cup of greens, but
I had at least 2 cups of
packed greens and I used
them all.

The result was VERY green,
and a bit strong, but Nate &
I loved it. The only person
who didn't finish his was
Ryan. I served it alongside
some potato & carrot home-
fries, with a touch of ketchup.

Pajama Day

Day 5 of school Spirit Week is Pajama Day. I found it unacceptable that the school principal was NOT directing drop-off traffic in pjs and bunny slippers...how rude! Anyhow...what better food is there for a pajama party than pizza! We ordered pizzas from Gianni's last night and had a few slices leftover. So I cut one down to bento size...Ryan's lunch, top tier: leftover spinach, mushroom, black olive pizza; snap peas...bottom tier: vegetable potato chips; orange slices; carrots; meatless meatballs.

Ryan wore his winter
animal pajamas. The
5th grader next door
was flaunting big dog
slippers. There were
lots of plaid flannel
pants seen lining up
for school this morning.



Nate has followed his brothers'
lead and has started picking me
flowers. AJ already picks me
dozens of dandelions daily, while
Ryan has made it his job to spread
dandelion fluff everywhere he can
via a new Dandelion Tag game he's
invented.


I'm sure our other neighbor
must watch from inside
hyperventilating that one of
the dandelions will seed itself
in his all-green dandelion-free
yard.

stamping on food

Monday:
Armed with some new soy paper wrappers and edible ink markers, I got out a rubber stamp set and prepared to decorate some onigiri rolls. I'd never worked with soy wrappers before. They soften easily on damp rice, but the image I'd stamped on them didn't bleed at all. So I will definitely use this technique again. But I still want to think of more edible surfaces to stamp on in the future.
Ryan's snack: sports-themed onigiri; spinach; grapes; a strawberry.
I've discovered that AJ doesn't always care for food that LOOKS like other things! When he saw his snack he declared "oooh! My favourite!" with regards to the stamped onigiri, but then he chewed off the ends at school but left the balloon image alone. I'll have to not make such an effort on his snacks. Oh well! Ryan loves them.
AJ: onigiri roll; broccoli; grapes; spinach.
My husband's lunch: various onigiri w/furikake seasonings; leftover general Gao's "chicken"; spinach; strawberries; an apricot.

Ryan has been picking
lots of dandelion greens
from our yard. Our poor
neighbor with the
monoculture golf course
lawn doesn't know what
he's missing! Ryan
insists I include his
harvest in our meals. So far I've blanched it with spinach, and added it with some green beans to our ramen noodles. Next he wants them added to his favourite tofu dish.

Tuesday:
Ryan loves all sports, so I made his bento look like a pool table...a bed of brown rice; barely blanched spinach leaves (patted dry); edamame pockets; a pretzel cue stick; a white chocolate chip cue ball; a triangle I made out of melted chocolate and froze the night before; various fruits, veggies, & beans cut into circles with a metal frosting piper nozzle.

Lunch was orzo pasta
with chopped fresh &
sun-dried tomatoes,
garlic, walnuts, salt,
pepper, & olive oil.



The boys helped to
plant the azalea bush
they got me for
Mother's Day. Ryan
dug most of the hole
and added compost
from our compost pile.



Wednesday:
Ryan: oriental rice crackers; an apricot; bean salad; cucumber salad.

A "picnic" lunch for the boys: whole wheat bagel pizzas made w/Veganrella cheeze; grapes; strawberries; peanuts; carrots; celery.

Dinner: pickled beets; steamed baby purple potatoes; spicy baked tofu; steamed broccoli; corn.

Friday:
AJ and Dada's lunch: rice; mini pumpkin muffin; steamed baby purple potatoes; honeydew melon; spicy baked tofu; mini zucchini muffin; steamed broccoli; cantaloupe; 2 white & dark chocolate ducks.

AJ needed something to share with Dada on his preschool field trip to Boston to visit the ducks and ride the Swan Boats in the public garden. A few days earlier I melted some vegan chocolate and made various shapes, including these ducks.
A great award-winning book to read for kids is Make Way For Ducklings about a duck family's search for a place to live in Boston.