When the winter rains come, the brown, dry hills surrounding our little farmhouse bloom into brilliant, rolling peridot landscape. It's such a stark contrast against the gray of the clouds, and sometimes, after looking out against the horizon, I can close my eyes and still see the impression of the colors, like staring into a lightbulb for too long (which I don't recommend one do).
Currently, the lawn surrounding our house is lush and overgrown. Our lawnmower is broken and until we get it fixed (hopefully, very soon), my 2-year romps through knee high grass and weeds. She doesn't seem to mind though, because the wildflower bloom is also that much closer for her to pick.
One of the many blessings of the countryside is learning about the different plants that are grow wild on the property. The girls take walks with their grandmothers and each has a wealth of knowledge about the lovely little green things and their uses. It's slowly rubbing off on me, and when I have a chance to sit down and study, it's quite exciting to think about the possibilities literally growing right at my feet. I'm still more apprehensive than my daughters are. I know what a dandelion is, obviously, but living in the city, I never really picked them because they were usually growing on the side of the road, and I wasn't sure how clean I could get them and what chemicals were in them from the asphalt and city grime. But country dandelions make an excellent horta salad (Greek salad made from boiled dandelion greens). I also still have the fear that I'm going to accidentally poison my family with something I picked thinking it was something harmless---because, I'll be honest and admit that I still can't identify poison ivy or poison oak or poison sumac, even though it's been pointed out to me several times. My eyes. They can tell apart bones and arteries and tissue samples, but apparently, fail at botany. My mom says that the majority of things growing are safe to eat, but with my luck, I would find the inedible.
But my daughters are fearless. And much better at plant identification than I am.
Today's foraging adventure with my mother brought in a wonderful harvest of things:
Miner's lettuce grows in abundance everywhere nowadays. I love its rounds leaves and the spinach-like taste and texture of it in salads. On our walks, the girls pluck the leaves out of the ground and munch on them, fresh. This morning, they picked a large garbage bag of miner's lettuce to deliver to our lovely neighbor who has been sharing her duck and chicken eggs with us. Apparently the birds like them as much as we do.
I believe in this picture, the miner's lettuce is sitting in the middle of some quickweed and wood sorrel ---don't quote me on that. That's probably wrong.
See my uncertainty?
Now that the rains have filled in our seasonal creek, the watercress is growing strong as well. Another thing that I have trouble identifying, but the little ones burst through the doors of the house, clomping through in muddy boots (a no-no in our house. I'm Asian. No shoes... but they were very excited with their harvest), and flinging raincoats off to present armloads of watercress to eat with dinner.
My mom says she can plant them for us in our garden. I just have to build her a water bath, and then we can have watercress all year round, instead of just during the rainy season. I am quite attached to this idea because a wonderful addition to Korean barbecue wraps is watercress! Food. I am always food motivated.
This also goes wonderfully in spring rolls. We're out of Thai basil at our house, and I haven't had a chance to go to the store to buy any to root because of the quarantine, but this served as a suitable texture substitute.
The last of their foraging discoveries was a hearty bunch of plantain. A couple days ago, one of our dogs got an unfortunate cut on his hind leg and needed to get stitches. My mother informed the girls that plantain is good for helping wounds heal, and so they brought home bags full of the stuff that they found on their walk.
To use, grind up plantain and mix with a little bit of yogurt to make a paste and then apply to the wound.
It's great for skin irritation, for little cuts, and bug bites/bee stings. If you're out and about and don't have time to make a poultice, you can just take a leaf and chew it up and apply directly.
Pretty nifty, yes?
Alpha (the dog in question), is doing much better now. Stitches have healed nicely, and we now have a store of plantain in the fridge in case anyone else gets injured... although the storage isn't super necessary because this lovely weed just grows everywhere.
I'm not a very granola crunchy-type person. I don't know anything about essential oils and less about herbalism/naturopathy, etc. I do like learning about what is around me, though. Especially since we aren't traveling in to town as often right now, and trying to make the small steps to develop a more self-sufficient homestead farm, these things are good to know.
My mom made the kids young thistle and apple smoothie which was delicious and apparently, incredibly nutritious. And the pineapple weed flowers coming up makes for a fun snack to just pop in your mouth. I'm learning more and reading more, and hopefully one day, I'll make a better country girl than a city girl. Thankfully, I have some enthusiastic kids and wise mothers to help me along the way.
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