Living with "weeds"

[JennyC]

As I was weeding my peppers today, I found myself keeping as many of the "weeds" as I was disposing of. Some of you have patiently watched me get more and more into foraging wild plants, and I've discovered that a lot of what we call weeds is edible. So there I was, pulling out the yellow sorrel only where it really, really shaded my peppers, and otherwise collecting carefully without disturbing the roots so it'll grow back. I'm getting really fond of yellow sorrel "lemonade tea," made by steeping the sorrel for ten minutes, sweetening slightly, and icing. The plant is also good for salads, which is nice since there aren't many traditional garden greens in the heat.

There are new shoots of poke salat coming up everywhere in the garden, too, wherever I've been weeding and in the paths between beds where I haven't mulched yet.

I've also got amaranth (not native, but so naturalized it almost might as well be) in my garden beds. I'm pulling only where it shades stuff I've planted, again. The leaves are salad or cooked greens, and I'm letting a bunch of plants get big so I can collect the seeds (amaranth flour is just these seeds). And if amaranth isn't a good companion with squash, then I must have mutant squash, because both are as happy as can be in one intensive bed (I planted intensively, just squash with a few radishes and marigold).

So, I find myself almost cultivating my weeds, which I suppose is a whole new slant on permacultural practices.

[applestar]

Jenny, can you post photos of the "weeds" at the stage when you pick them to eat? I'm most curious to see if I have any of these in my garden....

Thanks for the tip on when to pick greenbriar by the way -- I had some in my omelet the other day

[koonaone]

I find myself doing the same thing jenny. Yesterday I was planting out brocolli starts and I just about turfed 2 pots with just "weeds" in them but caught myself in time and just adjusted my spacing and planted them. I wish I had amaranth, maybe I'll get some seed. Strawberry blight makes up for my horticultural deficiencies in one of my plots.

My garden soil is very silty and puddles into an air impervious surface layer easily. chickweed solves that problem and is easy to manage when it starts to get out of control, and the chickens love it. I have developed an eagle eye for field bindweed on the other hand which is the bane of my life in the beet patch this year.

yours douglas

Organic Water Hemlock Tea ... "The first tea that's guaranteed to reduce your impact on the environment!"

[JennyC]

Glad you liked the greenbrier! How is it cooked? I've never yet gotten it past the salad bowl because I like it so much raw

Amaranth (often called pigweed) is something I didn't know. In fact, I posted pictures on the board here asking for help in identifying it when it first started coming up. Since then, I've read more, seen multiple pics online, and watched a couple of big plants to the point where they started making seeds, so I'm sure now that this is it (I've also eaten the greens without any ill effects). This one is probably too big for raw greens in a salad, but it would be fine for cooked greens.

[img]https://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll138/crispwriting/PICT0163.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll138/crispwriting/PICT0162.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll138/crispwriting/PICT0022.jpg[/img]

Here's the yellow sorrel after it spent the night in the fridge -- you need about this much to make two quarts of "sorrelade." Note the little pods at right angels from the stalks. The tiny closed flowers are yellow (hence the name) -- they also close up in the heat.

[img]https://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll138/crispwriting/PICT0014.jpg[/img]

Here's some in my garden -- I only found one flower open in the shade because it's so hot. The picture is terrible, sorry. Ignore the grass The sorrel is the clover-looking stuff. Far right is another amaranth; the yellow sorrel flower is dead center. There are a coulple of the pods, but they may be washed out by the sunlight.

[img]https://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll138/crispwriting/PICT0037.jpg[/img]

I'll post some pics of other plants later; time's getting short on me now.

[JennyC]

Douglas, must've been posting at the same time as you.

Organic Water Hemlock Tea ... "The first tea that's guaranteed to reduce your impact on the environment!"

I wish I had chickweed, but I don't. On the other hand, I'm glad I don't have the bindweed!

[opabinia51]

Yes, chickweed is a dynamic accumulator so it's good for the soil and it is great in salads.

[applestar]

Tried eating some baby milkweed pods today.
I have to admit I forgot about parboiling them first although I had intended to. The 4 pods were 1.5"~2". I quartered them lengthwise and sauteéd them for omelet with sliced white mushrooms, chopped 2" garlic mustard leaf, and seasoned with just salt. The bigger pods had somewhat spongy texture like okra. The smaller pods were chewy like green beans. Spongy/chew texture were comparable to the mushrooms so I thought they went well together. I've heard that the flavor of the milkweed pods are like green beans -- they reminded me of *something* but I don't think it was green beans, more like green peppers, maybe...

There was a slight tingly feel to my tongue afterwards, so I really should have parboiled them first. I'll let you know if I feel any worse effects

Here's an informative link
https://www.foragersharvest.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=2
I want to try the silks in rice next.

[JennyC]

Thanks for the cool site, Applestar! I have one probable variety of milkweed here, but I don't think it's what he's talking about (he says his milkweed doesn't grow in the deep south).

On the bright side, I now have tons of lamb's quarters in the pasture. My greenbrier is about to give up on putting out new shoots, I think, but I have a salad of dandelion, lamb's quarters, and yellow sorrel for supper.

We have tomatillos growng wild, too, and today I found a wild black cherry tree -- much bigger and jucier fruit than my chokecherries -- I may have to make a pie. I've been cooking with elderberries, too, and keeping an eye on the nuts, which aren't ready yet (hickory, black walnut, and pecan, plus a bumper crop of acorns).

I still haven't taken my "mystery mint" down to the Extension office, so I guess that's a project for Monday.

[hendi_alex]

Weeds are now an integral part of my naturalized annual flower garden. The weeds contribute toward a much more diverse environment that supports a very wide array of fauna. As others have posted before, the garden started out because of my love of flowers and plants, but now has become increasingly special as appreciation for the vast array of critters that the planting supports has grown. That more holistic view makes the activity all the more satisfying and elevates flower gardening to a greater height. It also sets the stage for accepting more and more plants that were previously thought of as weeds. The garden belongs to the critters; I am simply the care taker of the plot.

[koonaone]

I envy you folks all your yummy edibles in your southern climes, but make do with what we have. Speaking of ornamentals.
We have Hookers rough fairy balls (Disporum trachycarpum hookerii) native here. Normaly this is

[applestar]

A while back I posted about some mystery moth caterpillars on what I thought was milkweed, and NEWisc ID'd the plant as Dogbane. So I can say *LUCKILY* I have Dogbane growing in my front yard so I have ample opportunities to compare with the Common Milkweeds in my back yard and learn to differentiate them!

Jenny, I wish I could come visit and have a nickel tour of your property! Here I am, with stacks of books to research, plan, and PLANT an edible forest on my postage stamp-sized property in a scraped-of-topsoil-and-bulldozed-flat-cookie cutter-development, and you seem to have it ready-made! I'm quite green with envy, but I love hearing about your "discoveries".

[JennyC]

Applestar, we are very, very rural, which also has its drawbacks. Just wait until winter when I complain about being cold all the time! I'd also have to drive over thirty miles to see a movie, but I'm not at all sure I see that as a drawback. I wouldn't trade it. Are you in the city? Some of my finds have been off the farm in the countryside. My daylily hoard came from a roadside (the county doesn't spray; couldn't afford it if they wanted to).

I did have a tragedy of sorts the other day -- our neighbor's field was a blackberry paradise, which of course means his cows were getting no use out of it at all. I went up there on Friday to check out the progress of the passionfruits growing among the brambles and discovered that he's sprayed the whole field with a very effective broadleaf herbicide.

His propperty, of course, but I'm glad it was a long way from my garden. Actually, he was obviously very careful to stay away from the fenceline altogether, which was considerate given that the field on this side of the fence is fallow.

So, I don't have much in the way of the passionfruit I was looking forward to trying, and I'll have to work harder to get my blackberries next year; they're on the property here, too, but they're much more scattered.

[koonaone]

Did you solve the deer concern, Jenny?

douglas

Hah! Peak oil? Try Peak water, and Peak Land at the same time. Overgrazed is more like it.

[JennyC]

Douglas, if you mean the deer that seem to sleep in the garden, we're still coexisting peacefully. We'll ahve to see if that pattern holds as my fall crops start coming up, but they didn't eat my spring crops when there were fewer alternatives.

[NatGreeneVeg]

Definition of a "weed": Any plant growing where you don't want it to

[soil]

I love weeds. well I guess if I love them there not weeds anymore, by definition at least.

here we have dandelions, chickweed, amaranth, mustards, blackberries all kinds its great.

they all have good use in the garden as well.