Cut dandelion greens before the plants flower. English photo. By Chris Knapp There is something intrinsically wonderful about wild food. Over the years my wife and I have shared wild plants with countless people. Folks bend down to the earth, pick a plant and put it in their mouths. Aha! An essential truth about our
Toki Oshima drawing By Beedy Parker I’ve been making a list of the edible greens that come early in the vegetable garden, as weeds and bonus vegetable greens. Here’s how it goes: Dandelion greens are the earliest, just the rosette out of the soft beds – and you might want to break off the root
Lambsquarters, a common garden weed, is edible. Harvest it before it goes to seed. English photo. By Jean Ann Pollard Lambsquarters! Pigweed! Fat-hen, goosefoot, bacon weed, dirty Dick, Muck Hill weed. Despite numerous, often odoriferous monikers (and this little list is only partial), Chenopodium album is a delicious, nutritious delight for foragers, and a summer
Anne and Eric Nordell have perfected a system of cover cropping and crop rotations that virtually eliminates weeds. In addition to the video and collection of articles noted at the end of this article, the Nordells are putting together a manual that goes into more detail on the rotational principles and practices of their weed
By Sue Smith-Heavenrich Certain plants, when grown in combination, enhance each other’s growth, repel insects, and increase fruit production. Called “companion planting,” the idea has always intrigued me. So every spring I carefully map out a garden plan complete with successive plantings and companion plants neatly pencilled in. Along with my usual beans and greens,
Milkweed in summer and fall. Many parts of the plant are edible. English photos. By Jean Ann Pollard Ralph Waldo Emerson: “A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” Quoted by Bradford Angier in Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. Stackpole Books, 1974. Loren Eiseley: “… there passed before my eyes
Eric Gallandt, associate professor of weed ecology and management at the University of Maine, has had Maine farmers comparing the “Weed Master,” a glorified wheel hoe from Finland, with other methods of mechanical weed control. Here, Gallandt stands in a field of onions at Peacemeal Farm in Dixmont during one of MOFGA’s Farm Training Project
Spring Growth Conference 2009 Ellen Mallory of the University of Maine reported on weed control tactics in organic cereals for graduate student Lauren Kolb, research associate Tom Molloy and associate professor Eric Gallandt. Mallory said that the primary strategy for weed control in organic cereals now is tine harrowing when weeds are in the white
By Eric Sideman, Ph.D. In the fall I attended the 100th anniversary, annual meeting of the American Society for Horticultural Sciences in Providence, Rhode Island. The ASHS has a good mix of members representing university researchers, Extension educators and industry who study all aspects of crop production. The reports covered very basic plant science to
Chickweed is a common “weed” that is high in vitamins and minerals and can help relieve ovarian cysts, kidney problems, sore throats and more. By Deb Soule Various species of chickweed grow around our planet. A member of the Caryophyllaceae (Carnation) family, chickweed grows as an annual and reseeds easily in cool, moist soils. Its
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