When I’m at wellness fairs, I introduce myself as a Biblical Natural Health Coach offering wholefood as medicine that might be growing outside your front door. This isn’t just a saying! The tiny “lawn” patch that came with the pad we rent, is a literal power-patch! I create a poster now each spring of what it appears will be growing there.
Today was the third harvest since that poster went up, and. . .
This pic shows most of the result: 1 long tray of mustard weed, the equivalent of 2 trays’ worth of horsetail, a tray of pineapple weed, 4 trays of prickly lettuce, and 3 trays of dandelion. I have at least one tray’s worth of broadleaf plantain waiting to be hand washed, but the washing machine is using the tap right now. When the spitting stopped outside, I did the weed wacking, knocking the height down to roughly 6 inches or so across the yard patch. We might get goldenrod growing out there! Not sure yet! Once the weather knows what it is doing, that stack of trays needs to go outside and spread out over the courtyard.
We forgot to take pics yesterday, but we did some foraging on a nearby trail for catnip, peppergrass, and did a bit of wild husbandry as well, to break off sprigs from chokecherry bushes that had been attacked by tent caterpillars. Nowhere near as many infestations as last year, so last year’s apparent drastic efforts seem to be paying off this year.
We brought home enough catnip to fill all 8 slots of the herb dryer, and enough peppergrass to fill 3 trays.
The skies are clearing, so maybe we’ll get trays out onto the patio yet. We’ll see. Today’s forecast calls for 60% chance of rain and/or risk of thunderstorm.
