#46 - Feb 2021 - Garden Stuff - © - Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz
GOOD WEEDS February: weed (wēd) n. an unwanted plant. Eliminate weeds with semantics.
Cuisine: Have you ever noticed that tradionally poorer countries (S America, S China, Mediterranean rim, India) enjoy richer cuisines? The converse is true too. What foods do you associate with the USA, and the UK? Hot dogs and hamburgers, and deep-fried fish’n’chips, respectively. QED
Shrinkage: Thanks to domestic freezers, clever cool-storage and 20,000-km-long supply chains. We enjoy most plant foods year-round. Few of these now have limited seasons. But the range of plant foods we eat has shrunk as a result. Modern diets are monotonous. Dietary narrowness is unnatural. Dietary diversity is healthy. Italians flavour their food with roadside weeds, pasta with wild rapa, frittata with wild asparagus. Great flavours…
If you find a use for a weed, by definition, it ceases to be a weed and, hence, a weed has been eliminated by a mere thought. Further, Murphy’s Law suggests it will immediately stop growing so fast, but this secondary inference is less certain. Anyhow, here are some good things you can try with your feral garden plants. It’s quite educational to Google edible weeds Baths: Throw a sprig of rosemary in your hot bath, or thyme, or pine, or mint. You’ll be soothed. Tea: Infuse a leaf (or two) of kawakawa in a mug of boiling water (10 min), or mint (ordinary, or peppermint, or spearmint, or lemon balm). You will be refreshed. Zero caffeine so no insomnia. Salads: Throw a leaf or two or more of nasturtium or oxalis into a tossed salad. Great spikes of flavour. Tussie Mussies: Make a tiny posy of wildflowers and leaves. Enchanting… Some will remember Isabel McIlraith and her little book ‘Tussie Mussies’. Google mcilraith tussie mussies click on the ‘images’ tab. Insects: Around the globe insects are in decline. 30% of insect species are endangered. 10% go extinct every 10 years. Blame habitat destruction, intensive agriculture, pesticides, urbanisation. Why not let a defined area of your garden run wild with weeds? Long grass and flowering weeds create food and habitat for insects. Try it in a sunny spot. Even two square metres will be rewarding. Explain to visitors it’s not just laziness. For the more industrious of you, to attract insects, sow a small area in buckwheat or phacelia, marigolds, scabiosa, salvia, fennel. ___________________________________
GOOD WEEDS February: weed (wēd) n. an unwanted plant. Eliminate weeds with semantics.
Cuisine: Have you ever noticed that tradionally poorer countries (S America, S China, Mediterranean rim, India) enjoy richer cuisines? The converse is true too. What foods do you associate with the USA, and the UK? Hot dogs and hamburgers, and deep-fried fish’n’chips, respectively. QED
Shrinkage: Thanks to domestic freezers, clever cool-storage and 20,000-km-long supply chains. We enjoy most plant foods year-round. Few of these now have limited seasons. But the range of plant foods we eat has shrunk as a result. Modern diets are monotonous. Dietary narrowness is unnatural. Dietary diversity is healthy. Italians flavour their food with roadside weeds, pasta with wild rapa, frittata with wild asparagus. Great flavours…
If you find a use for a weed, by definition, it ceases to be a weed and, hence, a weed has been eliminated by a mere thought. Further, Murphy’s Law suggests it will immediately stop growing so fast, but this secondary inference is less certain. Anyhow, here are some good things you can try with your feral garden plants. It’s quite educational to Google edible weeds Baths: Throw a sprig of rosemary in your hot bath, or thyme, or pine, or mint. You’ll be soothed. Tea: Infuse a leaf (or two) of kawakawa in a mug of boiling water (10 min), or mint (ordinary, or peppermint, or spearmint, or lemon balm). You will be refreshed. Zero caffeine so no insomnia. Salads: Throw a leaf or two or more of nasturtium or oxalis into a tossed salad. Great spikes of flavour. Tussie Mussies: Make a tiny posy of wildflowers and leaves. Enchanting… Some will remember Isabel McIlraith and her little book ‘Tussie Mussies’. Google mcilraith tussie mussies click on the ‘images’ tab. Insects: Around the globe insects are in decline. 30% of insect species are endangered. 10% go extinct every 10 years. Blame habitat destruction, intensive agriculture, pesticides, urbanisation. Why not let a defined area of your garden run wild with weeds? Long grass and flowering weeds create food and habitat for insects. Try it in a sunny spot. Even two square metres will be rewarding. Explain to visitors it’s not just laziness. For the more industrious of you, to attract insects, sow a small area in buckwheat or phacelia, marigolds, scabiosa, salvia, fennel. ___________________________________