Foraging 101

I am a forging novice.. so this is foraging 101. One thing Mom & I meant to do but didn't before we headed out was get good book on plants - native, edible weeds, foraging.. yk. I keep hearing about how all these weeds, herbs and plants that grow all around us are so good for us. They are some of the best greens nutritionally, not to mention that they are easily found, free and abundant. When we got to Judy's, we discovered that she had lots & lots of books on everything nature related - just as you would expect from the queen on the universe.. not that I realized where I was going at the time.. sometimes you just never know where you headed (not to mention that many of us do not even realize where we are - or the abundance and beauty we are continually surrounded by)

ok, so I knew about dandelions. I can find these foraging in the grocery stores and markets.. but I am just starting to dare venture outdoors. I feel like a domesticated girl going wild - getting reconnected. But I just found out how good plantain is.. and it grows everywhere!

pic - Upper left - lambs quarters
Upper right - plantain
Bottom right - horseradish
Bottom left - ?? I forget. (I still plan to go get a book ; )

Collander of mixed greens (weeds). They were getting ready to go into our green smoothie. Judy says "This gives weeding a whole new meaning!" Most of these we picked while weeding out her strawberry plants.

We had so many wild berries also. This was one of my favorite.. they got different name by different people. I liked the name Indian plums.. even though they were more the size of large blueberries. They would turn very dark, almost black when ready to eat.. and had the most amazing flavour. Think blueberry, plum and the finest wine you have ever drank. They grow on small trees, approx 6-12'. How did I manage to miss these when I was growing up? .. once I discovered these I saw them all over.

More wild greens from top left going clockwise: lambs quarters, red clover, we think this is mexican tea leaves which we looked up & found out were quite toxic. (I was skeptical, but Judy felt quite sure and since she is wayy more knowledgeable than me, we didn't eat these) & also btw, its very, very few wild greens that are toxic - but looks like we manged to find one. Yikes, I forget the next one.. Mom?? Then plantain & dandelion.

Purslane is another common one that I recognize.. Mom purchased seeds from the Boutenkos last year - purslane, red clover and lambs quarter seeds, which she sent to me. I don't see the seeds on the website, they may not carry them any more.

I liked the advice that I read in one of her books that said you can only learn so much from books..the best way to learn is to get outside, to look and discover and spend time in nature.. and that it doesn't take long. Even short bits of time will teach you lots. Think a half hour here & there. Just go outside and look round, its really amazing!!

Going against nature - lawns, fertilizing and weeding

A couple days ago I was websurfing and came upon an interesting blog by Pari.

"We take it for granted the rich variety of plants we can have in India. In the average middle class home you may find many of these trees: coconut, mango, almond, banana, guava, papaya, jackfruit, gooseberry/amla, neem, gulmohar, ashoka, curry, drumstick, orange, lemon, and all large variety of flowering plants - jasmine, bougainvillea, orchids, aloe, frangipani, and creepers. What do we have around a house in the US? A full time activity of the average American homeowner is maintaining the lawn (the Europeans observe it as an obsession) - forced to be green and devoid of any other plant life through repeated chemical treatments, twisting, warping, and sanitizing nature to conform to standards (see the link on allergies) instead of appreciating nature as it is."

Hmmm, it's an interesting thought that the most common way of cultivating the earth around our homes here in Canada & the US is also the most unhealthy.

Shortly after reading this I was reading from book 4 of the Ringing Cedars series - Co-Creation (p 157-160) and Anastasia is describing how to create a living Paradise around your home, from building a living fence around it - shrubs and trees to cultivating the land and building a home on it. She talks about how weeding and fertilizing are not necessary if it is thought out when planted - you will have abundant crops without the need for a lot of work "Everything around you will serve you with great pleasure and with love through many generations."

"Vladimir, right now you are in the tiaga (forest). Look around you, how high the trees are, how mighty their trunks! Along the trees herbs and bushes are growing. There are raspberries, and currants... indeed a whole lot of everything grows right here in the tiaga for Man's use. And over thousands of years not a single person has fertilized the ground. But the land remains fruitful. What do you think: how has it been fertilized and by whom?" ..

"Here in the tiaga God's thought and God's plan are not interfered with to the same degree as where Man lives today. In the tiaga leaves fall from the trees, and little branches are torn off by the breeze. And those leaves and branches, along with worms, fertilize the ground in the tiaga. And the grass which grows all around regulates the composition of the earth. The bushes help it clear away excesses of acids and alkalis. None of the fertilizers you are familiar with can substitute for the leaves falling fro the trees. After all, leaves include any of the diverse energies of the Universe. They have seen the stars, the Sun and the Moon. And not only seen, but they have interacted with them. And even any thousands of years from now, the ground here in the tiaga will still be fertile."

Vegetable gardens can be set up to be little work or aggravation. "Among the herbs, just the way everything grows here in the forest, you could have the most splendid tomatoes and cucumbers under cultivation. Their taste will be much ore healthful and appealing for the body than when they are grown simply on a patch of bare ground."

She says there is nothing useless in nature.. "there are no purposeless weeds. Neither are there any beetles that are harmful to Man."

Vladimir asks about locusts & the Colorado beetle which eats away at potato crops in the fields.

"(they are) thereby showing people how their ignorance is eating away at the self-sufficiency of the Earth, contradicting the designs of the Divine Creator. How can people keep stubbornly ploughing year after year in one and the same place, torturing the ground? It is like scraping an open wound, at the same time demanding benefits from the wound. Locusts or the Colorado beetle will not touch the ground-lot you and I have outlined. When everything grows together in one grand harmony, the fruits accruing to their owners are also harmonious."

& if we have no more weeding or fertilizing, and everything just grows by itself, Vladimir asks "then what is there left for Man to do?

"Live in Paradise. The way God wanted us to. Anyone who is able to build himself a Paradise like that will come into contact with the Divine thought and produce a new co-creation together with Him."