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.

spring projects

Our house is small, but we
have an awesome yard. There's
this super cool tree with a kid-
sized doorway. I've finally
eradicated all the poison ivy within
the yard--knock on wood--and now
I have big plans. Through this
natural arch I'm going to make a
secret picnic spot, with a
fieldstone patio and this picnic
table. It's been out of stock since
I saw it online last summer, so
I'm impatiently waiting until the end of April when it's supposed to be available again. It will seat 8 kids, plenty of space for my 4 plus some friends. I'm hoping they can enjoy summer snacks and meals outdoors and give the grownups a little space at the big picnic table.

Some of my other ambitious projects will be a large stone sandbox, stepping logs, and of course landscaping for the lot. I'd like to connect our property to the rail trail with a japanese-style garden bridge, plant more berry bushes, and get a stone or wood bench. I'm going to try to find my own stone (like I did in Vermont when I built a stone garden wall, hauling rocks off the mountain 1 or 2 at a time), transplant my ever multiplying hosta, lilies, and lilac bush (that I planted when Ryan was a baby, now taller than me and requiring much pruning).

I'm taking it upon myself to maintain a section of the railtrail, starting with some pruning and poison ivy spraying. We've already made a path up to the school playground fence that the boys call the "war hill" despite my insistence on it being called something more benign like "adventure hill". I'd like to find a nice bench and trash receptacle for the nearby brook that can be enjoyed by any of the trail's denizens. Add the purple marten birdhouse that my mother-in-law donated, more digging to drain the swampy area near the brook, and continual purchases of mosquito dunks, and maybe we can survive without our maintenance-money-pit Mosquito Magnet.

My husband wants fruit trees--not sure where we can put them though. I've already abandoned our garden in anticipation of a new garage in its place (when we eventually have the money for such construction). Maybe I'll get some of those nifty spire apple trees that don't take up much space--we only have 1/2 an acre.

What are you doing to improve the outdoor space in your part of the world?