Free Food Source | Living in Natures Love

celebration

Edible Celebration

This is the time of year to have a birthday! Imagine the edible bounty that is on display almost moment by moment as it emerges! To celebrate with a good friend the morning began with foraging out in the yard.

Garnish

The edible garnish you see are pansy, cherry blossoms forget me nots on the celebratory dessert. On the plate the edible garnish you see fresh native current (of the Pacific Northwest), wild English daisy, dandelion, rosemary, butterbur, polyanthus, forsythia and oxalis flowers, wild garlic chives, and columbine leaves. The hard boiled egg was dyed with scotch broom flowers the evening before.

Salad

The salad the ingredients was what was available that morning. We had overwintered veggies; red lettuce, small kale and Swiss chard leaves, hairy bitter cress, purple dead nettle, dandelion, malva, yellow dock and herb Robert leaves (weeds), rosemary, mint and oregano leaves, angelica and fennel, chives and the leaves from the flowers; creeping jenny, oxalis, barren strawberries, butterbur, hollyhock, forget me nots.

Soup

Began with a beef broth and miso. The ingredients added came from the yard. These included overwintered leeks, kale and Swiss chard together with a few herbs, rosemary and oregano. Sprinkled on top – rosemary flowers.

Tea

Tea was a wonderful infusion of bay laurel leaves!

Keeping it simple, for me, heightens the flavours of all the ingredients and there isn’t the heaviness of eating afterwards, only a sense of full filled that lasts through out the day! That means no snacking!!!!

I heard back that this was the best birthday lunch ever!

Traditional uses and properties of herbs are for educational purposes only. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Every attempt has been made for accuracy, but none is guaranteed. Any serious health concerns or if you are pregnant, you should always check with your health care practitioner before self-administering herbs.

by Renee Lindstrom, GCFP–Living in Natures Love Lifestyles insideawareness.com

Edibles in local grocery parking lot

Here are some of the same edibles that I find growing in my own yard in a tossed salad. In eating ingredients closer to the growing source, from ground to table, I am noticing a difference in my addictive cravings, levels of hunger, clear-thinking processes, increased alkaline feeling in mouth and stomach, cleaner teeth, faster metabolism and more restful with increase in deep sleeping.

This inspires a question about the possibility of feeding many. If our Greater Victoria Communities no longer spray public areas and have banned it in public grounds, why not? Are there programs that edible weeds and flowers are apart of our #yyj food programs? Is anyone showing low incomer’s the availability of this free food resource to cut down on their bills?

What I am learning in researching the health benefits of these different plants is that they are full of free vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. What is most important is the fact that our bodies are designed to ingest this goodness from this source much easier than processed and pharma manufactured ones. Why? I believe from ground to table is more in alignment with our ability to process the ingredients.

Are you inspired to forage? If so, Dandelions, Purple Dead Nettle, Cleavers and Chickweed are excellent starter plants to add to your tossed salad greens. They are easy to identify and you can eat both flowers and leaves. You can also use them to make tea. (Learn more about these plants.)

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