Having brought my baby home last Saturday - and doing my reading...has led me to a renewed interest in weeds.
I have dusted off my weeds books, including my Edible and Medicinal Plants of Canada...and am rather surprised to find out that almost everything in our very weedy yard is edible...and most are on the 'good for Hermann's ' list.
I will have to double check on some I am not sure of, but we live on a sandy, saline, patch of the earth - so weeds love it here. My garden sucks for almost anything I try to grow...and does beautifully for weeds.
So outside of lots of dandelions we have a LOT of purslane, redroot pigweed, prostrate pigweed, lamb's quarters, Shepherd's Purse...I will have to double check on chickweed and a host of others.
There are lots of thistles growing in the ditches and at the edges of farmer's fields.
And for some reason I can grow petunias reasonably well...so I can harvest petunia flowers during the summer and add those to the diet.
This should make dog walking more interesting too...we can all stop periodically and smell the roses...
So now for my beginner questions:
1. Can I feed wild rose? Leaves? Hips?
2. Can I feed yarrow? It also grows well in the garden.
And...3. Can you freeze any of this for the winter? Chop it up and freeze it in ice-cube trays? Use it to supplement the fresh diet?
I have dusted off my weeds books, including my Edible and Medicinal Plants of Canada...and am rather surprised to find out that almost everything in our very weedy yard is edible...and most are on the 'good for Hermann's ' list.
I will have to double check on some I am not sure of, but we live on a sandy, saline, patch of the earth - so weeds love it here. My garden sucks for almost anything I try to grow...and does beautifully for weeds.
So outside of lots of dandelions we have a LOT of purslane, redroot pigweed, prostrate pigweed, lamb's quarters, Shepherd's Purse...I will have to double check on chickweed and a host of others.
There are lots of thistles growing in the ditches and at the edges of farmer's fields.
And for some reason I can grow petunias reasonably well...so I can harvest petunia flowers during the summer and add those to the diet.
This should make dog walking more interesting too...we can all stop periodically and smell the roses...
So now for my beginner questions:
1. Can I feed wild rose? Leaves? Hips?
2. Can I feed yarrow? It also grows well in the garden.
And...3. Can you freeze any of this for the winter? Chop it up and freeze it in ice-cube trays? Use it to supplement the fresh diet?