Cell - A - Brating Spring Foraging
It is April 23rd (Happy Earth Day yesterday!) and I am patiently awaiting Dandelion greens, Wild Violet leaves & flowers, and Wild Leeks (heading out, soon, to see if they are popped up enough to dig). It has been a long winter and a hard won Spring for us Waaaay Northern New Yorkers. Today is day 3 of sunshine and no snow floating down. The ground is finally bare save for a few pockets of the "white stuff" here and there on the northern sides of trees, hills, etc.
Clockwise from top: Dandelion greens, Wild Violet, White Pine, Wild Leek shoots.
It is April 23rd (Happy Earth Day yesterday!) and I am patiently awaiting Dandelion greens, Wild Violet leaves & flowers, and Wild Leeks. I am heading out soon, with my yogurt quart container bucket and trowel, to see if the mighty Spring Leeks have popped up big enough to dig.
It has been a long winter and a hard won Spring for us Waaaay Northern New Yorkers. Today is day 3 of sunshine and no snow floating down. The ground is finally bare, save for a few pockets of the "white stuff" here and there, on the northern sides of trees, hills, etc.
*After a long winter of heavy foods, our bodies long for light and fresh. Our body cells crave the nourishment from the Wild Ones in our lawns.
The 4 plants surrounding Mother Earth (image above):
Dandelion is a liver lover. She helps to promote bile flow from the liver into your gall bladder and on into the small intestine. This bile helps digest food, keeps you regular, helps balance gut microbial health, and so - so much more. Bile is a good thing. Dandelions are a good thing too. This Spring: enjoy the greens raw or saute' very-very lightly, eat the yellow flowers, and learn about the root for harvesting and use in fall and winter (Shhhh, forget I said that naughty word). Dandelion is loaded with chlorophyll and beta-carotenes.
Wild Violets are Springs gift of flavor, color, and Vitamin C. Our bodies love vitamin C after a long, dark, cold winter. This is why I love citrus fruit by the time February rolls around. No, citrus is not local, but sometimes a girl has got to do things to survive. Vitamin C is a scrub brush for the body, a bit of Spring cleaning for you cells to perk things up, get firey Spring into Summer metabolism revving, and boost the immune system after the cold, dark days. Feel free to eat the greens and flowers in salads. See below for *sustainable harvest info. Always leave plenty for reseeding and regrowth year after year.
I just read a blog post on Wild Violets and how they are the bad ass weeds of your lawn. (From the post: One of the most difficult weeds to control in the lawn is wild violet. This native plant may look cute and dainty, especially in the spring when it produces pretty purple flowers. But in reality it is an aggressive weed with an unusual flowering quirk that results in thick mats of leaves that can choke out your lawn.) Yes, I was and am laughing quite loudly. An aggressive weed?! Look out folk, the violets are coming to get you! Seriously people, violets (and dandelions) are pretty color in the sea of green. Who wants a perfectly groomed, institutional like lawn. Nothing like some wild flowers to break up the never ending grass AND violets only grow to a low height... no mowing needed where violets take over. Seems like a win win to me: color, food, no mowing required.
White Pine: Placed here because I Love White Pines. They are a Tree of Wisdom. Pines are evergreen, like I need to tell you that. Their green-ness all winter long keeps the landscape colorful and is the hope of the Spring green to come. Their needles are high in Vitamin C. Harvesting to make winter tea (be gentle when you make tea, keep it covered while steeping. See link above.) is a dose of Vitamin C.
Wild Leeks: I will keep this info quick & simple. I love Leeks. There is much info on Leeks here on my blog, just do a search (Dandelion as well). These Spring beauties are a gift to digestion, the intestines, the liver, cellular health, and life in general. Eat raw, saute' very gently, add to soups and stews (I add Leeks after the soup or stew is made and the heat is turned off). Just enjoy them, bad breath and all.
Please do so with extreme consciousness of only harvesting what you need for right now's meal. Do not ever over pick - over dig the Leek patch. Go to a different patch for your next meal. I really freak when I see people harvest huge pails of Leeks (or any wild plant) with no regard that they just destroyed the whole patch. Be kind. Take only what you need right now.
My April 23rd Waiting For The Wild Ones Spring Tonic
- 1 organic lemon
- handful of fresh, organic cilantro
- local, raw honey
- well water (no chlorine or flouride)
- Juice lemon and place juice in blender. I scrape out the lemon peel with a grapefruit spoon and add to blender.
- Add 2 cups water to blender. Carefully rinse citrus juicer and add liquid to blender. Do not waste anything.
- I eat a chunk of the lemon peel. Good nutrients here and anti-cancer antioxidants.
- Add the handful of cilantro leaves and stems to blender.
- Add 1-3 tbsp. local, raw honey.
- Cover and blend to liquidy consistency.
- Let settle a minute or two and pour into a quart canning jar. Rinse blender carefully & slowly with gentle low stream of water, from top of blender down, to save every bit of goodness and pour the "cleaning water" into your quart jar. You should have a quart now. If not, fill the quart. Enjoy.
I do not add ice cubes to the blender in Spring. We are trying to warm digestion as we move into the warmer weather. Iced drinks squelch digestion and contribute to poor digestion, reflux, etc.
Relaxing by the Raquette, reading a book sipping my Cilantro Lemon Aid, and deeply grateful for the Sunshine of Spring!
*Please harvest very responsibly and never take more than 5-10% of the patch of wild foods. Other beings need to eat. The patch needs to be able to restore itself for sustainability for the next 7 Generations. Nature is not providing just for you. Be kind. Be gentle. Be conservative, caring, and Love the Earth's bounty.
Wild Leek Soup... Yummy!
Wild Leek, Herb, & Local Veggie Soup
Simple and took me about 20 minutes to make, including the cleaning time for the wild leeks.
Early in the day I put out to thaw about 1 1/2 cups of each of these frozen veggies from my winter veggie CSA :
- broccoli
- red, orange, and yellow pepper pieces
- orange cherry tomatoes
I brought 4 1/2 to 5 cups to a boil and poured into my Vita Mix blender.
Add the white parts, set green leafy tops aside for later, of 15 or so wild leeks and blend into a puree.
To the Vita Mix liquid add:
handful of fresh rosemary sprigs from the window sill herb pot
handfuls of sage & oregano and the leaves off a long sprig (5-6 inches) of thyme - all herbs in the garden that are up and ready for use
Blend all this green stuff into the wild leek liquid.
Pour green liquid back into pot on the stove. Do not turn on heat again
Add in the completely thawed veggies and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. unrefined sea salt.
Cover pot and leave until dinner time. I made it about 1 1/2 hours before dinner so the flavors could meld together for a short while.
Tomorrow night I will add a can of organic chickpeas to the leftovers to change it just a little bit.
Optional add ins:
- fresh chives scattered across the top after you ladle into the soup bowls.
- garlic chives blended into the broth.
- any fresh herbs you have in the garden. I have parsley but I did not want to disturb the small patch this early in the season.
- fresh, tender dandelion greens.
- wild violet leaves from the yard?
- harvest wild violet flowers just before serving and sprinkle across the top with the chopped chives. Violets add in some awesome, local Vitamin C for spring rejuvenation!
- I would have added frozen sweet corn kernels and cauliflower pieces but I seemed to have used all of those frozen CSA goodies.
Serve with whole grain bread, butter, & cheese. If you are lucky, and we were, serve up a local baby green salad. Spring pleasure food!
Grab what you have on hand and create a simple spring soup to enjoy in this untimely hot weather! Share what you threw together and tell us if it was yummy!
Spring Fling with Nettles
Stinging nettles poking out of the ground, 4/16/15.
I grow nettles in the "flower" bed up against my home. I have been asked on many occasions: "What person in their right mind would plant nettles in any flower bed and the bed right up against the house?" The answer is obvious to me; I am not in my right mind and who wouldn't plant nettles so close to the house? They are oh so close when I need them for soups. stews, stir fries, pesto, tinctures, medicinal infusions, etc.
Now here is the double edged sword with this situation: they are close at hand but these 'lil buggers like to run and take over the world just like mints. They create this under soil runner that, well, just runs, and runs, and runs spiraling out of control. I spend the spring pulling the renegade nettles out of the rest of the flower bed in front of my home. When I planted them, 5 years ago, I politely asked them to stay in their space on the side of the house. I even dug down into the soil and planted sandstone pieces to deter them from running. They out smarted me.
As aggravating as this can be, I do have a steady supply of spring nettles that I do not feel guilty about pulling. I snip the leaves to eat and plant the runners along the yard's edge hoping for yet more nettles to eat and make medicine with.
My bowl of nettle tops and leaves.
A close up of 2 nettle tops ready for dinner.
Nettles in the pan, a gentle saute' in butter is all that is needed.
The stems that I gently cooked first; why waste the nutrients?
Cooked nettles waiting for me to consciously devour them.
The finished salad with nettles scattered across the top.
I have made mention of my Spring difficulties around food. All winter I graciously and gratefully eat local cabbage, root veggies, and squash. I save my frozen local summer veggies to tide me over when I can no longer stand the thought of a root veggie and cabbage slaw. Yes, it does happen. (My winter leftovers are waiting to be made into sauerkraut when I can dig enough wild leeks to enhance this kraut batch.)
I yearn for local food: asparagus, greens, fiddle heads, peas, strawberries...
To survive until the local food is bountiful once again, I buy food from California. There, I confessed. The above salad is Romaine lettuce, celery, carrots, and juicy red peppers from California. I also buy non-local fruits: mango, banana, kiwi, citrus, and canned organic pineapple. I am desperate for neatly gift packaged sunshine to tide me over to the local food scene. A ripe mango has a serious amount of sun waiting to burst out of its skin. I bow my head in gratitude to the people, the trees, and the soil that brings me these gems to keep me happy.
I plopped the above salad down in front of my kids, minus the nettles of course. They would have flipped had I expected them to eat Nettles! (They did each have a small spoonful that they chucked into their mouths and barely chewed before swallowing. Someday they will appreciate the things I have exposed them to...) Here was my salad response:
"Finally, a real salad. No more nasty cabbage - root veggie slaw! Yay!"
Poor kids, they suffer so.
"Wow, Mom broke down and bought something that didn't grow within 20 miles of our home."
When do they learn to not harass the person keeping them in food?
Tip for the day: Get outside. Snip some nettles. Hey, dig some wild leeks and saute' them together, ever so gently. Enjoy the taste sensation, the local wild food, and the spring nourishment for your body. Oh yeah, don't bother sharing with the kids!
To create your own female energy spring fling:
Join the Female ♀ Moon Cycle Wisdom Training
Tuition, this year, stays at $72 Bucks in honor of My Mom,
an awesome female, & her Birthday (April 17th)!
Longing for the Wild Ones: Nature's Medicine!
Every year I find myself in this same space: longing for the wild foods of spring. Above I am digging leeks on 4/16/13 and the field of leeks and box of leeks pictures are from 2014. I am anxiously waiting for the leeks to pop their 'lil green heads up again this year.
The return of the leeks means many things to me:
- spring IS here,
- summer will follow sooner than the wait from winter to spring (so grateful for this!),
- more wild foods and flowers will be popping out of the ground daily, and
- my body is in sync with nature!
Wild leeks are nature's medicine. (Who am I kidding? All wild plants are nature's medicine!) They have similar healing qualities of garlic: immune boosting, good for blood pressure, a blood and spring tonic, cold and flu remedy, and the leaf and bulb juice is good for ear aches and infections.
Wild foods are the gifts that our bodies need after a long cold winter. They provide green food, vitamin C (and so many more vitamins and minerals), stimulation of the liver to open and cleanse the heaviness of winter out of our digestive tract and ultimately our body cells, and vital life force energy to up our internal level of vibrancy.
Soon to look for:
Violet leaves and flowers
Violets are rich in vitamin C, a much needed vitamin after a long winter. Vitamin C helps in the spring detox and the upward movement of life force energy. Violets are rich in enzymes, chlorophyll, vitamin A, carotenes, rutin (helps maintain blood vessel strength and integrity), and many more nutrients.
Young Nettles
Nettles are, by far, my favorite plant (and I love all the plants!). It is one herb I would add to every herbal healing blend for its nutritive properties. Nettles nourishes each and every body cell, helps to build strong bones, nourishes the glandular system, aid the reproductive tract (pms, migraines, prostate, libido builder), great for allergies and asthma, and just about any and every ailment I can think of. This is because of nettles high nutritional value; when the body is nourished the body heals!
Young Dandelion
Um, Um Yum... dandelion greens and think liver. Dandelion is a bitter tonic for the liver helping with digestion and helping with the spring cleanse out of winter heaviness in our cells and life force energy. Dandelion is very high in nutrients (again, good for cellular health and build bones), is a mild laxative, and is good for skin conditions to name but a few of dandelion's virtues. Spring brings us this flower and the leaves to eat at just the time our body needs it. Nature is so wise!
Sorrels: Sheep and Wood sorrels
Sorrels are from the genus Oxalis. Oxalis means "sour" and is named due to its high oxalic acid content. Oxalic acid is considered "toxic" when consumed in large quantities because oxalic inhibits the absorption of calcium. Oxalic acid is not considered a problem when consumed moderately and with a varied diet. Many domesticated vegetables, including spinach and broccoli, also contain oxalic. People who are challenged by gout, rheumatism, and gallbladder and kidney stones should avoid it.
Sorrel is rich in vitamin C (the sour and vitamin C again contributes to the spring cleanse of winter's stagnation in the body). Traditionally it has been used to treat scurvy, fevers, urinary infections, mouth sores, nausea, and sore throats.
If you have never been one to grass your front lawn or the fields and woods near your home... I encourage you to find a good guide book with pictures, descriptions, and healing information and get foraging.
Remember the forager's ethical principle: take only what you need and make certain to leave plenty of plants so they can reproduce and repopulate the area you are wild harvesting from. If you take all the plants you are creating a micro-extinction in that area.