My hands are caked with soil. You can call it dirt, if you wish. But it is soil. My seeds are planted in small pots to let them germinate. Last year, I started them in egg cartons but I don’t have any right now so small pots it is.
Yes, I am typing with grimy fingers because I didn’t want to forget that I wanted to write about how important it is to not lose your sense of humor. Truly, I don’t know of a place where you can get another one.
We need to honor our uniqueness because each of us is different. I will continue to repeat, for some of us the past year has been challenging. Perhaps you were lucky and didn’t really notice. But those of us, like me whose work world literally stopped, it’s been hard.
While I am Zooming toward my future, with heels dug into the ground (the soil), I am still moving forward. I have learned more than I wanted to and I am still learning. I feel confident enough to offer Zoom classes, even with tech glitches.
Why am I writing this? I feel called to do so. Somehow, sometime the philosopher in my keeps coming out, popping up and saying, “share what you know”. After 30 years as a dietitian and cooking and 15 years as a cookbook author, and many years prior as a freelance writer, I know a lot. Or a know a little about a lot of things.
This is the time in my life to share those joys and experiences with you. So…if you like what I do, hop on board. I am now writing a twice monthly newsletter which my husband says calls a time waster. I call it sharing the joy and love, which is what I am about.
My latest joy has been wild foraging: spring weeds such as stinging nettles (on the left below), Miner’s Lettuce, cleavers (both in the photo on the right), and wild alliums (onion grass).
Next up, I believe are sea vegetables and berries but we have to wait for those. Hopefully my little pots will yield little plants that will feed and nourish me (and I hope to do the same for them). I will continue to sprout seeds to eat because I know that I am successful with that. Watch for a “how to sprout” live class soon.
So, let’s plant the future together, one seed at a time, dirty hands and all…and work toward helping people change what they eat to be more in line with Mother Nature. It will benefit all of us.
I am always happy to hear your comments. Do you do any foraging?
I found that the plant growing under my Rhodies are stinging nettles, Can I make a tea with the leaves.
Yes but be careful picking the nettles. They can definitely hurt you but not once you turn them into tea.
It’s late for miners lettuce..Bees love it too and will defend it if you are in the miners lettuce during their “shift”. I think they also go for that drop of dew in the center of the cone..
Your blog makes me think I need to write more too!
I encourage you to write more. And perhaps it is the water that the bees are after.
I haven’t encountered many bees when picking miner’s lettuce. I am so happy to see bees doing their jobs.
Seaweed, aka sea vegetables are not only great to eat, but wonderful additions to your garden soil. Just collect the either while in the water, wading at the edge of water and sand or further up dried on the sand. Be sure to wash off the salty water and then incorporate pieces you’ve torn apart liberally into your garden soil. It will add tons of micronutrients into your soil to pass along to your plants and then to you.
Thank you Marilyn. Sea vegetables are part of what I feed my garden.
I often pick up drift for them, rather than the more choice edibles. I put them in a big bucket with water and let them sit around for a while. The plants seem to love it, kind of the way that I love adding kombu to my beans.