Thursday, May 29, 2008

eating out of the yard

we've had a book for years that one of scotty's brothers left behind. it's called "Lawn Food Cook Book (Groceries in the Backyard)" by Linda Runyon. i've always been intrigued by the idea that you can eat your lawn. last year i started learning a little bit about foraging but didn't get much further than purslane. so i notice in our yard we have tons of a particular "weed" that looked like it might be broadleaf plantain. the reason i was initially trying to identify it was because it said in one of the guinea pig books that they like it. then i got to remembering it was also listed in the edible wild plants section of a survival book we have (an army issue guide). which reminds me it's also in the lawn food book. but i was a little hesitant about eating it as i am unsure of my identification skills. and just a careful person in general. well, we saw our good friends CG and clan on tuesday and they assured me that it was indeed plantain.

so yesterday, as i was coming back up from the compost bin, i decided to grab a big bunch of it. had it not been raining like crazy i might've gathered more...but i got a good bunch anyway. i washed it and sauteed it with garlic oil and the green onions from my garden that i had recently picked, salt and pepper and an egg on the side. this meal would have been perfect had i used the eggs i bought from CG...but knowing hers were fresher than the ones i already had, i opted to use those up first. it was really amazing. so good, a little tough as i picked the larger leaves, but still so good. the kids had been eating already and so i just made this little meal for myself but i gave them a taste and they liked it. wow. yeah for more free food that my kids will eat!!!

i took some pictures too!!!

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2 comments:

CG said...

Yeah! There is so much wild edible this time of year, particularly greens. I had my annual mess of locust blossoms. I mean to harvest some nettle soon.

Ren Allen said...

I'm still trying to figure out what exactly the plantain is! I have some plants I THINK are the right thing, but not sure. The rabbit will eat it anyway...so maybe it's safe for me to try.:)

I love your pics! Very cool.