If I had a digital camera, which I may be getting shortly if there's money left from the tax refund, I would post a picture of a few marsh marigold plants, surrounded by glittering frost, beginning to bloom among the brush stubble and debris left from the crew that cleared the powerline right of way a few weeks ago just north of Sand Creek. Marsh marigolds are optimists, and survivors.
Other than that, it's been cold and rainy/snow flurries this week, not much new happening on the migration front. I ordered seed potatoes yesterday. Around here it's not too late to plant potatoes Memorial Day or later. I ordered Yukon Gold, Red Gold, Purple Viking, Desiree, Garnet Chile, and French fingerling. I'll have a colorful root cellar if all goes well! I still have to start a few more tomato and pepper seeds. Some of the ones I planted must have gotten the damping-off fungus, and some didn't sprout at all, but there are a few, notably Maskabec, that are looking healthy, about 3 inches high.
I cut some stinging nettles the other day for dinner, the young small leaves which are supposedly very nutrient dense. The first time I served steamed nettles, a year ago, Russ thought I was trying to do him in. He liked them the other night, steamed and served with melted butter. They tasted like spinach. I'm going to try fiddlehead ferns this spring; we have lots of ostrich ferns growing in the woods every year.
UPDATE: here's a good link for wild edible plants: Foraging with the "Wildman"
2 comments:
You do much wild food preparation? That's a skill I'd like to pick up. Where'd you get your learnin'?
I really don't know too much about wild edibles, I've just picked up a thing or two off of the Internet. I can't even remember how I learned that you can actually eat nettles, but now some seed catalogs sell them! I also make a "nettle tea" by soaking larger stems and leaves in water for a week or two, and this makes a good fertilizer.
I'll post links to some sites later if I can find them.
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