Unstuffed: This gardening thing...

Thursday, June 4, 2009

This gardening thing...

There is dirt under my fingernails. My hands bear the scratches from raspberry bushes. My knuckles are tingling from the sting of nettle. My hair is a bit of a mess and I barely had enough time to change out of my gardening clothes and into something more appropriate for the office.

I'm at the office now, sitting behind my desk, looking perhaps not quite as presentable as I could, but I don't think it's too noticeable. It'll have to do.

I'll keep this short and get back to work, but I just wanted to share my trip to the garden early this morning.

Last night, our wild edibles teacher Martha was so generous and allowed us to dig up a few plants on her property if we wanted. I was thrilled to take some cleavers, waterleaf, motherwort and chickweed.

Eager to get them in the ground as quickly as possible, I made the early morning trip to the garden and found new homes for them. As I was leaving, I picked a few more spinach leaves and three radishes! I also took some time to harvest a little more raspberry leaves, nettle, creeping Charlie and violet leaves.

Once home, I quickly chopped up the creeping Charlie, pressed it into a jar and poured apple cider vinegar over it to start a medicinal tonic. I spread the nettle boughs, raspberry and violet leaves out to dry.

Time for breakfast!

I rinsed off my freshly picked radishes and spinach leaves. I checked my very first attempt at making yogurt using this method. It worked! I had left it a touch too long and it had started to separate into curds and whey, so I strained out the whey (and saved it for a later use) and was left with a thick and creamy yogurt. Next, I popped two pieces of bread into the toaster. I buttered my toast, covered it with slices of radishes and spinach leaves. I spread a nice think layer of yogurt over it all and sprinkled a bit of salt and pepper on top.

A strange breakfast you say? Maybe. A weird combination? Perhaps. Taste? Oh my god, you have no idea! Sooo good.

There is dirt under my fingernails. My hair is a bit of a mess. I raced to work on my bike to get here in time, and I couldn't be happier. Hmmm...this gardening thing is fun!

2 comments:

Wendy said...: Amber... I had no idea that you could do anything with creeping Charlie besides curse it! I wondered if you could post a pic of it, close up, and your recipe for the medicinal concoction? Or...Is there a way I can send you a pick of what I have here? Also.. I am curious as to what Stinging nettle looks like? Have you pics of Plantain? I have an ointment made from it and it is quite effective. The trouble with internet pics that are googled is that I have not found any that are close enough to allow amateur to identify the plant, Thanks!
Wendy; June 4, 2009 at 4:19 PM
Amber said...: Hi Wendy. I will be doing lots of posts as I learn about different herbs and things and will hopefully provide good pictures. In fact I think this blog will fast become all herbs and gardening all the time!

In the meantime if you want to email me at unstuffed at gmail dot com, I'd be more than happy to exchange pictures and share with you the little bit of information that I know!; June 5, 2009 at 10:09 AM

Raison d'etre

In 2008 I didn't buy anything new for the whole year. Food and basic toiletries (but not toilet paper) were the obvious exceptions (twice I broke my own rule). Used items were allowed, but I tried really hard to reduce consumption as much as possible.

I finished my year successfully, and along the way learned a lot about how much the world consumes, the waste we produce, sustainability, voluntary simplicity, climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, the water crisis, the food crisis, voting with your dollar, voting with your fork....

Now, I've transformed into a slightly nutty, very passionate, gardening, preserving, DIYing, simple living, nature loving, weed eating, backyard medicine making, urban homesteader, and I still don't use toilet paper!

With the help of the Awesomedudeguy (ADG), I'm continuing my exploration of living lightly and frugally, while increasing my self-sufficiency and resiliency, staying debt free, and preparing for a climate changed, resource depleted world, in uncertain economic times.

My nothing new restriction is lifted, but I continue to be a gentle, local consumer as much as possible.

My hope is that some of the information and resources I post about here will be helpful to others. Thanks so much for stopping by !

Yours in unstuffing,
Amber

"Forgive me if I never visit. I am from the fields, you know, and while quite at home with dandelion, make a sorry figure for the drawing room" ~Emily Dickinson

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that.... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature." ~Abraham Cowley

"The laws of nature are under no obligation to cater to our culture’s emotionally charged fantasies of perpetual progress and limitless growth." ~John Michael Greer

"Sometimes we think we are too small to make a difference in this big world. Our actions seem insignificant in comparison to global issues such as climate change and population growth. However, the reality is that action on an individual level is exactly how big changes are made. Without individual and family sustainability, there’s no community sustainability. And without community sustainability, there’s no global sustainability. In fact, earth-wide change is absolutely impossible without individual change.
It really does come down to you and me."
~From Living Sustainably: It's Your Choice

"The universal conspiracy of the silent-assertion lie is hard at work always and everywhere, and always in the interest of a stupidity or a sham, never in the interest of a thing fine or respectable. Is it the most timid and shabby of all lies? It seems to have the look of it. For ages and ages it has mutely laboured in the interest of despotisms and aristocracies and chattel slaveries, and military slaveries, and religious slaveries, and has kept them alive; keeps them alive yet, here and there and yonder, all about the globe; and will go on keeping them alive until the silent-assertion lie retires from business--the silent assertion that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men and women are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop." ~Mark Twain

"It is not enough simply to abstain from theft...We must remember that nothing in this world really belongs to us. At best, we are merely borrowers. It is our duty, therefore, to borrow no more from the world than we absolutely need, and to make full and proper use of it. Taking more than we need, and wasting it, is a form of stealing from the rest of humankind."
~Commentary on Sutra 30 The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali