Get Wild – Eating Really Locally, And FREE

There is so much being written about regarding eating locally, both for saving money (not to mention the health bennies of fresh food) and reducing one’s carbon footprint. Did you ever consider the ultimate local money-saving way to eat, and it doesn’t cost a stinkin’ dime!

GO WILD! That’s right, pick some weeds and dig in. There are so many uncultivated foods just waiting to tempt your palate. I’ll be highlighting various edibles from time to time. Today’s wild food is the lovely and delicious Lambsquarters. Other names are pigweed, dungweed (since the plant grows in high nitrogen soil), and gooseweed. Lambsquarters grow in disturbed soil, so you’ll find it just about anyplace where someone has dug something up (roadsides, your garden, etc. You won’t need to look far). It’s a distant relative of the grain quinoa, and it produces thousands of tiny seeds which remain viable for decades. The leaves are a jagged diamond shape.

by looknfeel at flickr

Lambsquarters grow abundantly on my property. I am grateful to have them and let them enjoy themselves wherever they spring up. I don’t pull them up; I trim to harvest the leaves, and the plants keep growing getting bushy, providing my hubby and I with delicious free greens all summer long. They are a great source of many vitamins, including protein, potassium, vitamin A (helps prevent macular degeneration), and calcium (build strong bones and teeth). The mild flavor bears a resemblance to spinach, and the greens can be steamed, sautéed, or added to soups, pastas, salads, etc. I have frozen and dried these delectable leaves for enjoyment and nutrition in the winter months. Heck, I have even seen lambsquarters for sale at the farmers’ market.

When harvesting the lambsquarters, you can trim the growing tips with the baby leaves, or strip the leaves off larger stalks. The underside of the leaves feel gritty and powdery, but once you wash the greens you will not feel that texture when you are munching down on some of these yummy greens.

Try this recipe next time you find some yummy lambsquarters.

Pasta with Kidney Beans (adapted from Bush Beans)
half pound pasta (spirals, penne, etc.)
¼ cup water from cooking the pasta
2 tablespoon olive oil or water
1 cup thinly sliced onion
2 large (or more) thinly sliced cloves garlic
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (adjust to your preference)
1 – 15 oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
8 cups (6 oz.) lambsquarter leaves, rinsed
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half (or used diced tomatoes)
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese (optional)
1 tablespoon fresh parsely, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Reserve ¼ cup of the cooking water and drain the pasta and set aside.

Heat the oil or water in a large frying pan on medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic, and sauté for about three minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add the red pepper flakes, beans, and pasta water. Simmer until the lambsquarters are tender. Add pasta, tomatoes, and parsley, and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with cheese if desired. Serve warm.

Serves 4-6.


What are you waiting for? Go outside and forage some lambsquarters!

I think I just need to do this.

OK, so I came up with a fun little name for my blog and all kinds of big ideas. Then the writer's block hit me hard. Or was it all the great ideas swirling around my noggin? I was going to write this long dissertation about how I came to the blogosphere, organize by topic, amaze you with my common sense knowledge, and so on.

Know what? I'm full of crap. I think I'll just start jotting some ideas and see where it goes.

So here I go...

Hmm..

Well...

Sigh. I am going to get some water...

OK, I'm back. Let's see....

OH! I know. I like to garden. Right now it's summer here in the Southeastern US. The price of EVERYTHING is up, and people are growing food. I'm one of those people. I have a big property, not huge, but a good sized .81 acre. I can put a lot of space into food production. Each year, I try to increase the garden size and become more efficient. I'll post more on the garden as I go along in the days and weeks to come.

Garlic was one of the first things I've harvested this year. It's an easy, almost foolproof (at least for this fool) crop to grow. It was super easy to get started: Back in November of last year, I went to the local natural foods coop and purchased a few bulbs of organic garlic. I broke the bulb into the individual cloves and planted them, root (fat) side facing downward in the prepared planting bed. They were spaced about six inches apart in rows about six to ten inches apart. I watered and mulched with chopped up leaves, and waited... Spring sprung, and so did the garlic. I fertilized it a few times and kept waiting. My patience was rewarded with a bounty of garlic in mid June when the leaves started to die back. All I had to do was pull out the now big bulbs. I need to weigh it to get the final tally. Here's the freshly harvested garlic. I used some of the green parts for cooking, but the garlic cures better and keeps longer if the leaves are left on. Curing? What's that? Well, after the garlic is harvested, it needs to be kept in a warm, dry place for a few weeks so it will store and last a while. So, cure I did, on a large window screen that I picked up for free at a local trash transfer station (us folks who don't live in the city limits either have to pay for trash removal or haul to a transfer station and toss the trash into Dumpsters. The transfer station has a salvage shed, where you can leave things you don't want and others can take them for free. That's another post for another day). OK, this is getting fun! I placed the window screen on top of a clothes drying rack upstairs in my finished attic, which also doubles as a handy boudoir. Now, three weeks later, I have me some cured garlic. So, there we have it. Garlic. And, it does not smell strongly of garlic upstairs.

UPDATE: I just trimmed and weighed the garlic. I got 27 bulbs with a total weight of 2.75 pounds. That should keep me cooking for a while.

HELLO!

Hello, world! Well, I think it's time to jump in and add my voice to the wonderful buzz of the blog world. I have been reading a number of blogs and feel like it's time for me to join the party. I have learned a lot, and I think I can add a thing or two as well.

The title of the blog refers to my sweet pup, Maggie. Our "meadow" is our property, just under an acre. The goal this year is to grow and preserve a lot of our own food.