In The Garden (including another wild edible tip for you!)

Oh, the color and texture of the late spring garden. I find myself sitting outside in the evening as the kids wind down their day, pulling weeds and touching the surface of so many leaves. Rough. Smooth. Waxy. Fragrant. Sharp. Fuzzy. I get lost in the minutia of it and feel the day slip away and a centered calm come in.

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sage

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pea vines

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green beans

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beets, kale, and chard

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brussle sprouts

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 zucchini

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red and yellow onions

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chamomile and lemon balm

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kohlrabi and a chinese cabbage who's name I forgot

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so many brassicas

The lessons of the garden are many. Among them are these:

1. For all the planning that goes into the garden, you never know what you'll get.

2. Inviting the kids to plant along side me is more important than straight rows.

3. No matter the season there will be successes and failures.

4. I'd rather eat a few bugs (or bug nibbled leaves) than pesticides.

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lamb's quarters

This season we hauled composted manure from two local farms (when I say "we" I mean "Pete". Thanks, babe.) In the compost have been plenty of surprise weed seeds of various species.

One that is especially prolific is lamb's quarters. Do you recognize it? The leaves are covered in a soft bloom and are thick and moist a bit like spinach. This is one weed that I won't be pulling! Lamb's quarters are a nutritious wild edible. And since my lettuce is bitter already, why not eat my weeds? As summer begins most of the tender wild spring greens are becoming tough and unpalatable. But Lamb's quarters are just beginning their delectable season. Use like spinach, raw or cooked. So delicious, and effort-free.

Enjoy!

 

12 thoughts on “In The Garden (including another wild edible tip for you!)

  1. sproutsmama says:

    Yum! We love lamb’s quarters. Super tasty!

    We’ve seen it in our CSA shares and at the farmer’s market 🙂

  2. Cassandra says:

    How fitting. We made the switch to mostly buying organics in the last few months and last night a baby slug rolled out of the lettuce. Never in my whole life have I seen a bug in my food so I freaked out really badly and refused to eat it. I knew WHY it was there and why would I want to eat something a bug wouldn’t want to eat, but it was the first time it had ever happened to me – need some time to adjust my thinking still. My husband’s cousin suggested soaking everything in salt water to make them abandon ship and die off in the water, rather than just rinsing off (which I had done and clearly did not work).

  3. Lori says:

    A few years ago I was lamenting to my mom – ah, mom the bugs are eating my lettuce. Oh, she said, you must have real good lettuce, if its good enough for the bugs to eat so it is for you (now i know that’s not true for everything ) but it gave me a new perspective on bug nibbled leaves 🙂

  4. kari b. says:

    Love all the green photos! Have you ever had battered and fried zucchini flowers? We don’t have fried food much, but we ate them in Italy last summer and they were quite a treat 🙂

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