Skip to main content

Random thoughts and pieces - Spring is getting near.

    Over the past few days the temperature has been on a roller coaster ride as we hit peak highs and small dips that remind us that this is Western Pennsylvania and winter may not be over till April.  However the days are getting warmer and spring - once a faraway dream - seems to be sneaking in.   

    I was even able to open the windows a few days ago and the last of the snow; dating back to mid December, has finally melted away.   

    The other night I watch as a family of deer grazed outside my front window nibbling on the first green sprigs of grass, our youngest cat looking on in fascination.  Spring is coming.  The days are getting longer and I think about planting some flowers and seedlings obtained through the Mercer Country Conservation website.

    I'm thinking that the native wild flowers and grasses will make a nice addition to the home.  

    I plan on letting part of the yard go wild again this year, letting it be overrun with native plants, I'm even considering taking up food foraging.  I've always been interested in taste, flavor and texture and as I learn more about food, the more curious I am about how nettles taste or how to cook a fiddlehead fern.  We have fiddleheads growing in our yard as it is, why not take advantage of them?

    Plus I like the idea of having a new skill, and one of my favorite memories from college was a field botany class where the professor would often cook up what she had found out in nature for our labs.  Plus there is an economic component to this as well.  I am not becoming a miser by any means but with rising costs and other environmental concerns, learning to forage only makes sense.  

    How many of us as kids enjoyed the wonderful taste of wild blueberries or strawberries?   How many of us have enjoyed the taste of dandelions in a salad  or a spring of wild onion?  The odd taste of a wild apple pulled from some old ancient tree?  Just thinking about it brings me back to my youth. 


    So I sit here, wondering where I can learn to forage like a pro.  Where I can find some proper containers for a garden and will I actually do these things?   I am lazy and sometimes - most times, if I am being honest - my plans come to naught because of my laziness.

    After 55 years I have become conditioned to certain ways of doing things...and life will simply not allow for those ways anymore.   I know deep down that we can't stop climate change, but I have to do my part...to quote the poet "It's not dark yet, but it's getting there."  That's one of the reasons my diet is changing and yea, that's one of the reasons I want to have a garden too.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

What all the cool kids are reading.

The summer that I go to war

When I first moved into my house some five, nearly six year ago, one of the first things I noticed was that we had a tree out back that was nearly strangled by an invasive woody vine called Oriental Bittersweet.   At the time I didn't think much about it as other more pressing problems, like a new roof and insulated windows, came first.  Other problems and projects kept pushing that "little issue" back onto the corners of my mind.   Small "little issues" tend to become bigger ones.  Oriental Bittersweet That's the problem with home ownership, their is always "one more project."  One more bill. I was considering where to plant the Pawpaw and new Bur Oak   and this corner seemed to be a very good option.  That's when I noticed my problem,  I have several Multiflora Rosa growing in my "wilds" and one that somehow I've missed over the last few years, it's become rather well established.   The Oriental Bittersweet was reaching o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Digging in the dirt

In a lot of ways I feel rejuvenated.  It's a glorious morning as I am driving down to Pittsburgh with the local radio station playing a mix of old and new that elevates my mood, the sun shining strong through the sun roof.   I am on my way to buy plants.   I have a list in my pocket and I expect that I'll be coming home with a few of them.  I had hoped to buy spicebush and maybe serviceberry , in addition to what I did end up buying.  As I talk to people there, I use the term " food forest " because that's about the closest definition to what I'm trying to do, although it's also not the best one.     What I'm more interested in doing is creating a refuge.  A place for a weary traveler in the future to stop, rest under the trees and have access to wild strawberries and blueberries (which sadly didn't take last year), apples etc.   A place of respite rather than a place that can self maintain itself over time, although I do...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why didn't Erie, PA develop into a bigger city?

          Recently I had to travel up to Erie, PA for business.   It's about an hour north of me and is a rather small city, having just under 100 thousand people living in it.   It played an important role in the founding of America,  - where it was the headquarters for Oliver Perry's flagship Niagara during the battle of Like Erie in the war of 1812 .            It was also a important shipping center, being Pennsylvania's only access to the Great Lakes which was the easiest way to trade with parts of Canada at the time as well as move goods to the cities of Detroit and Chicago, which in the mid to early 1800's were just starting to develop.  It was also directly north from Pittsburgh which was a major industrial city at that time.     Yet Erie never really grew beyond it's humble beginnings and I wondered why.   Like any good sleuth I turned to the intern...
3 comments
Read more