what does it taste like/

it never fails, when eating something wild at the lunch room soemone will ask "what does it taste like"? to which i always respond "chicken", even when its dandelion or other greens, take the other day, i had some jerusalem artichoke and you can see they are trying to correlate it to a potato somehow, or as often heard about rattlesnake tasteing like chicken.

I was in an advanced frst aid class recently and the medic was talking about when the red lobster opened up a few years ago in our northern community, he talked about how many had reactions to the food, not haveing been exposed to seafood very often, he talked about geographic diets, it got me to thinking about the 100 mile diet and about post teowaki and even 200 years ago. How or what did most folks eat? and how far did they have to go to get it, we have become accustomed to such a varied diet foods from all over the world and at any time of the year, i dunno something just doesn't seem right about that.

So last night while digging my gardens for my transplanted wild edibles i came across the perfect specimen of dandelion, a couple of leaves and a perfect root, so naturally i washed it off a bit and bit off a taste, first thought in my mind was that i didn't wash the leaves enough, then ate the root, smiled with satisfaction and continued digging, did the same thing with a lilly tuber root, small as they are i had some to munch on.

We have slowly become adjusted to our wide ranging multi cultural diet, how hard will it be to go back to local natural foods. I even think of collecting acorns, just a 20 minute drive up the road but what if no vehicle then it becomes an all day affair to ride the horse or bike and collect and bring home as much as possible.

Just things that i think about, oh and by the way, what did it taste like? well the lilliy tuber tasted like lilly tuber and the dandelion tasted like dandelion, i mean what where you expecting anyways? chicken?

growing my own food

so just had lunch with lydia, a nice cream of nettle soup, obviously stining nettle some garlic and onion and potato, then creamed in a blender ad drizzled with cream and some crumbled cheese, and then homemade bread and a wild salad, homemade shake and some homeade chips.
funny i always say homemade but from now on if you follow this blog just assume everthing is homemade unless otherwise pointed out.

so lydia gave me a big jar of wheat, now i just have to figure out how to use it, also gave me some johnny jump up plants and orphine (aka live forever) this goes along with the stining nettle from last week ans some mouse eared chick weed and winter cress i dug up from my inlaws.

So yesterday was planting day, i live on clay with a small layer of top soil, so i dug down about 18 inches and then made a mix of horse crap, sand and clay for my soil, i made my garden 3ft by 3 ft for each individual plant with 2ft between each garden, being that these are wild plants i do not worry about frost, i just worry if i can sucsessful transplant these weeds. my regular garden i wil start digging the next few weeks ready for the end of may planting. Should be a good learning year.

why do i do it

so at times i wonder why i study so hard at learning wild edibles, the thought occured to me the other day whule in line at the mill cafeteria, the running joke from the lunch girls is no v word on my plate, v word being vegetables, so why study wild edibles, evry thing in the spring seems to always be compared to asparagus and spinach, neither of which i ever i buy at the store, although i do like the wild versions, but i think to myself, i am not a vegetarian, i am just learning to cook from the basic staples, which can include wild edibles.

No, the reason i do it is because tonight while out walking a trail just off the pasture i noticed a little white drooping flower, and as always the mind wondered what it was, so i paused on bended knee and looked at this new plant and observed several parts of the plant,observations i really wasn't capable of years ago, studying plants has taught me how to observe nature to see the smallest detail, then i was able to come home and look it up in my wildflower book, a great triumph.

This is a hobby of mine that i never loose interest in, year round i am parousing thru a plant book, something i find humourous for someone like me, given my past hobbies, but identifiying plants is a challenge that i completley enjoy, and i am thankful for this intersest.

I often refer to myself as a student of the bush, and being able to observe nature fully is something that gives me great pleasure.

So what was that plant? Hepatia americana from the buttercup family-round leaf hepatia