Independence Days Week #4

Plant Something:
- head lettuce starts, oak leaf lettuce seeds
- dill, chives, cilantro
- pole beans
- started soy bean sprouts

Harvest Something:
- still more nettles!
- dandelions
- violets
- Gill-over-the-ground
- chives
- soy bean sprouts
- Dryad's saddle mushroom, morels

Preserve Something:
- dried nettles, Gill-over-the-ground, violet leaves
- made violet syrup and vinegar

Reduce Waste:
- compost, compost, compost! (keeping coffee grounds and egg shells separate for specific garden use)
- stewed apples that were about to go bad
- saved water from blanching spinach, for stock
- set a goal for myself to no longer buy tea, rather I will grow, forage, dry and store all my own

Preparation and Storage:
- from the Great Glebe Garage sale: peat pots, larger seedling pots, two terracotta strawberry pots (I will use them for herbs), harvest basket, food scale, two large jars with flip top, sealing lids (these are going to be perfect for making infusions, sun tea, sumac lemonade...)
- learned to identify chokecherry, wild grape, mallow, yellow wood sorrel, Gill-over-the-ground, chickweed, cleavers, elderberry
- found a patch of wild asparagus!!

Build Community Food Systems:
- met some more allotment gardeners, including someone else who is interested in bringing people together for garden parties!
- The ADGMD and I stopped to pick violets and Gill-over-the-ground on our way out of the garden. The patch we found was near a garden where a couple and their young daughter were working. Curious, the mom asked what we were up to. I explained that we were picking violets and what they are useful for. The mom went back to work in the garden and a few minutes later the daughter came over and we spent the next fifteen minutes together. I told her all about violets and she ate some leaves and flowers. I showed her how to identify and use plantain for her mosquito bites. When we left the mom said thank you and explained that her daughter won't go near leafy greens and she thought it was impressive that she was eating violet leaves. I heard the daughter explain to her mom how to use plantain. It was a pretty special moment for me!

Eat the Food:
- dandelion fritters
- nettle tea
- soy bean sprouts