Spring Foraging Fun - Chickweed!

I just learned how to identify chickweed - lobed leaves, starry white flowers(buds in my case!), fine hair on one side, and lack of sap when stem is broken. It is a bit tricky to pick it out among all the other weeds, but not too hard. I just gathered enough for a batch of sun/moon powered tea. Right now I am drinking sun/moon violet tea (from dried violets a friend got me from a middle-eastern store) and the taste is SO superior to the boiled water version. Chickweed contains natural saponins (you can use it as soap) which break down bacteria (and some people say fat cells too) and other nasties, a general nutritious detoxifying herb.
Today I also made cinnamon rolls - the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, but with stevia/erythritol and I added raisins. They were delicious!

How things are going (and growing) . . .

Well, it is almost September and my tomato plant (yes, singular) is finally producing three beautiful yellow flowers. Knowing the weather around here, I might get a few tomatoes before it gets too cold. This one I actually started from seed . . . outside. That's why it isn't making tomatoes yet, because I planted it outside in late June. But I've never had any luck with starting seeds indoors. Trust me, I tried.
Other things in my garden: chammomille container, sweet potato hanging bucket, and purslane planters. I cheated with the purslane and just transplanted some wild weeds of it into containers with potting soil. Hard to believe they are a succulent, considering how plump and juicy they get with lots of water. I will probably only get enough chammomille for a few cups of tea, but it will be extra special because I grew it myself. The picture up top is how much dried chammomille I have so far.
As for other things, well, good news. I don't actually have schizophrenia. Just anxiety and depression. This is such good news! Glory to God! Nowhere near as disabling! We all hope I can go off the Geodon, me included of course! And I am working on the purple section of a handspun orange, red and purple knitted shawl. I dyed the yarn with Kool-Aid, and the orange came out a bit orangey-brown, since the wool was gray to start out with. There are a couple mistakes, so maybe I can keep the shawl if I can't find anyone to give it to. And the local apartment complex crabapples are getting ripe, so maybe my sister and I can go PICKING tomorrow!

Foraging fun - shotweed!

I saw a lot of plants growing in my apartment complex that looked suspiciously edible. I thought they might be chickweed. So I brought a sample into the house and compared them with images of chickweed. Well, nope. Not chickweed. But I still didn't give up. I googled "edible plants" and came up with the answer - shotweed! So I picked a bunch, pulled the leaves off the stems, and washed them. They are apparently related to mustard and have a pleasant, bitter, spicy taste. Even my veggiphobic brother tried a leaf (he said he would eat it if he was starving, but only then). All parts of the dandelion plant, young plantain leaves and many other plants are edible. So next time you weed your yard - think twice before throwing ALL the weeds in the compost!
This post is a part of Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.

Foraging fun - crabapples!

There are two crabapple trees growing in my apartment complex, and it is hard to resist going 'crabapple picking'. Yesterday I did just that, and laboriously chopped up the apples to make applesauce.(This is not for the faint of heart. But it is worth it in my opinion!) A batch of coconut-crabapple muffins is in the oven even as we speak, a strange combination of local/foraged food and imported tropical food. :)
This blog post is part of Fight Back Fridays.