Weeding gives you a chance to kill many hours of your day, but it also gives you an up close and personal view of how your plants are doing, how they are growing and if anything edible has sprouted! It like giving yourself an excuse to just stare at the wonder of gardening. Boy do I miss that.
On the other hand, my hubbie was wonderful enough to follow my lead when I picked milkweed blossums one day and he pickled them. (I left open the browser window that showed the link to The 3 Foragers website where we first got the idea)
http://the3foragers.blogspot.com/2011/06/milkweed-recipe-milkweed-flowerbud.html
Its a pretty simple recipe...in case anyone was wondering. The 3 Foragers offer up two different pickling recipes. Ches did the one where you soak the capers in salt brine for 3 days, strain it, then proceed with the recipe. Check out the above link for the actual recipe.
I picked these mlkweeds on the side road that takes us to the mini-park in Verona. I'm pretty sure anyone walking their dog that day thought I was truly nuts. Its not a very busy road, so I thought it might be a safe location to forage the milkweed blossums. Its recommend that you don't forage beside roads...due to the emissions from passing cars getting absorbed by the local plant life. While I agree...I was willing to risk it on this quiet little road. When I say blossums, I mean when the buds are still little green balls, not the highly identifiable clusters of pink blossums (as shown below).
The other night, I came home from a first aid course (something I had to do over my weekend) and found my family getting ready for a fishing trip! They had packed up a car with lifejackets, fishing tackle and snacks. Both boys were ready to go and my husband was just getting the last few things together. I changed and we were out the door. I wished I had of brought my camera, to document the adventure we had that afternoon. I feel that the story behind the meal is just as important as the meal itself.
However that was not the case. I didn't bring a camera and of course we had a blast anyway...it just makes for a less interesting blog entry.
Our meal this evening...fresh caught bass, breaded with homemade whole wheat bread brumbs, fresh picked lettuce and spinach greens from the garden, topped with purslane and homemade balsamic vinegrette, and hand cut, baked french fries.
There isn't anything very complex about this meal...it was simplicity itself. The bright shining star (for me and hubbie anyway) was the capers we had recently pickled out of milkweed blossums. It was their first taste drive! They were lovely!!! I really have no idea what REAL capers are...in fact I don't care...because all I know is that we can now make all of the capers I would ever want to eat...right in our own neighbourhood. That's pretty exciting, especially if you like capers and you don't like paying capers prices.
Some of us preferred to skip the milkweed capers...and just enjoy the love of fresh caught bass...especially when you were the one who caught the bass....see fisherman below...
Anyone else have any good fishing tales (now that bass has opened) or foraging yarns to tell?
This milkweed post is really interesting. It is not the toxic fumes from cars that need to be avoided as much as the toxic chemicals our government is spraying on milkweed.
ReplyDeleteMilkweed is a much aligned plant, and is on the noxious weeds list in Ontario,and therefore subject to spraying.
Monarch Butterflies are becoming more endangered each year due to this practice. We all need to speak up in defence of this important plant, to Save the Monarch Butterfly from Ontario’s Archaic Laws.
Steve Brill's edible plant book says that its the past use of leaded fuels you need to consider, not just what you see today. I never really thought about it!!!
ReplyDelete