Many people complain about the rain, the cold and the weeds. I say "screw you all" 😼 . It's been a cold, wet [always is] spring in Ontario. We need the rain. We need gratitude! Many floods...but what do you expect when you pave over forests, plains, swamps...all places the water would have gone into and been absorbed!.Too many people using too many resources and not thinking/caring. We need to examine the destruction and act to change NOW. Time to get "political" as right-wing governments that worship money and destructive jobs are devouring the land, water, air.
Anyway, the plants are happy! So am I! Free nutritious food is popping up everywhere!
So what is out and edible now? In the pic we see dandelions, garlic mustard, violet flowers, fiddleheads [ferns] and nettles. These are all very nutritious. For e.g., garlic mustard is super high in Vitamin A and has the constituents of garlic and mustard: both with fight cancer. Nettles are high in iron and great if you have allergies. Be careful...they prickle. You may feel the sting for hours after handling. Hence they are called "stinging nettles". Both grow in disturbed areas. GM also grows in forests and may damage the tree roots. Mustards are known to "sterilize" the soil. Some are used to help kill nematodes in the soil, such as the garlic nematode.
Dandelions, also high in Vit A feed bees and many insects in early spring. Foolish people spray this wonder-full plant and medicine. It is great for the liver also. Bitter is good for you. Our stomachs, like our tongues have sensors that detect bitter, according to Jeffrey Bland, the "grand-daddy" of Functional Medicine. You can make wine from the flowers, eat the leaves and make a coffee substitute from the roots!
Violets feeds insects with the flowers. They are also great if you have a cold [so are the leaves].
Fiddleheads grow in sun and sun/shade in gardens and forests. Be sure you know which are edible. There are many types eaten all over world. They are all toxic to some degree. When cooking the ostrich fern, discard the steaming water. Watch for my fermented FH recipe. These fight cancer and have antioxidants and Omega 3/6 fatty acids. See article on foods that fight cancer in this blog.
Remember to not go off paths to collect any plants. These are all in abundance so no issue with picking too many. GM needs to be picked. Watch this blog and here for a video on making PESTO from GM! Yum.
En-joy the free, nutritious food! If you have land, you can plant all of them. But not the GM. Unless that is all you plan to grow! According to medical botanist James Duke, they can produce 100,000 seeds in 1 sq. m!
Beware! But it may be better than useless/destructive foreign grasses that stupid men are brain "washed" to love, protect and worship. Better to grow something that feeds the real world of nature [of which we are part of!].
