I braved the wind and chill today to work outside while it wasn't raining, pulling weeds and planting plants.
I wonder if some wacky psychiatrist would say that a person's love of gardening comes from a deep-seated, unconscious desire to be in control of life and death?
Hm.
Anyway. The ground is soft and soaked, and the weeds come out easily. That doesn't happen often with the hard clay I've got around here. I took the opportunity to get some deep-rooted dandelions out of my newest flower bed which I have just started filling with pretty-pretties. I looked at this pile of dandelions --crisp and juicy and fresh-looking, and um, muddy-- and I just couldn't waste them. But I really don't want to eat them, either. Not really my favorite wild food, but they sure are nutritious, especially first thing in the spring, and good for digestive and liver troubles. So I brought them all in and have been soaking and swishing them in sinkfulls of cold water, trying to get them clean enough for a nice, strong, tincture.
Now, to procure a big bottle of vodka, of which I am forever running out (and not because I drink it. I can think of many more enjoyable things to drink...).
I also went out and picked a bunch of fresh oregano for my spaghetti sauce, some chocolate mint to flavor my red raspberry leaf pregnancy tea, and a little bowlful of violet greens (and a few flowers, too) to sweeten our salad.
I told you, I just love all the green.
Oh, and the LILACS! There simply are no words.
I adore them. I fill my kitchen with them and they fill my kitchen with their fantastic scent. There is nothing like it. And they're such a short-lived treat. I could just stand out their under the lilac bushes all day.
Excuse the blur here, but I just had to share this. Our new layer chicks arrived in the mail today, and my nice brooder box out in the barn is currently occupied by the mama ducks who took it over for nesting.
So the chicks are in the house, peeping their heads off constantly.
Evan, amazingly, has NOT tried to explore the peeping box yet, but Jonah was very sweetly showing him the new babies and helping him touch them without squashing their fragile, little bodies.
Very cute.
Sigh. It's spring. It's wonderful.
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Awwwww!!
ReplyDeleteWe are still a while before the lilacs bloom! Can you believe it? They are just starting at church which means two weeks until mine bloom!
Lilacs! So beautiful! Those don't do too well down here, so I can only imagine a kitchen full of them.
ReplyDeleteI went out yesterday to harvest some dandelion and couldn't find any true plant. We have what is called "false dandelion". I can't find much information on them. Anyway- I wanted to make dandelion jelly from the flowers. Have you seen this? It is so pretty!
Aha! An advantage to living in the north! I get lilacs!
ReplyDeleteI have never seen dandelion jelly. Sounds interesting!
I'm guessing your "false dandelion" is what we have called "chicory". I can only really harvest dandelions in the spring when they're blooming because the rest of the year, it's really hard to tell them apart!
Rhubarb isn't good for you raw? I ate a ton of it raw when I was a kid. Eep. What has it done to me?
ReplyDeleteMy mother used to send us out into the back yard with a little dish of sugar. Yank out your stalk, wrench off the dirty end, dip it in the sugar, munch away. (Don't touch the leaves, which are poisonous, or so we were told.)
I love all the pictures in this post. Beautiful!
Raw rhubarb probably won't kill you, unless you're prone to kidney stones, I guess. It's very high in oxalic acid, as is spinach. Both are better for you cooked to reduce/neutralize the oxalates.
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