Welcome back to the Lost In the Farmer’s Market Blog. At the current time we have a long-running series that covers useful, edible and medicinal ‘weeds’ that you can commonly find in the southeastern states of the United States. While our survey area is just within Cumberland County North Carolina it’ is possible you can find some of these forage plants in other places. This series was begun to give folks a detailed look into the resources they might not have known were right there in their lawn. Given that the world situation is not that great and there are already shortages of critical grains and fertilizers forage foods may be the most useful answer on a local level. LITFM will keep this series going as long as we keep finding wild resources to photograph and write about. If you have any questions or comments about our articles please leave a comment either here or on our YouTube Channel (The link is at the end of the article). Thank you for reading, and remember just one thing, you can’t eat lawn grass.
This is a small one that came up in the vegetable patch but the flower is visible as is the structure of the compound leaf.
Common Name: Yellow Vetch
Other Common Names: Smooth Yellow Vetch
Botanical Family: Fabaceae (The X/X Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Vicia lutea
Season to Harvest: Not Applicable.
Habitat: Yellow Vetch can be found in cropland, fallow fields, overgrown meadows, along the roadside, near cleared Railroad areas and waste areas in general. This plant may appear in garden beds seemingly at random. It can be planted as a food source for farm animals such as Cattle, Horses and Sheep. Wild animals such as Deer, Rabbits and the larval stages of certain moths and Butterflies may also feed on it. It may also be used in orchards and vineyards to suppress low-growing weeds and as a means to enrich the soil.
Parts to Harvest: Potentially unsafe, the seeds are noted to be poisonous to Humans though the severity of this toxicity is noted to be low.
Poisonous Lookalikes: Nothing looks like a Vetch.
Related Edible Species: Vicia sativa, a much more safely edible cousin.
Description: Yellow Vetch is an annual herb that has leaves comprised of several oval to oblong shaped leaflets. Its flowers are a pale yellow color and overall it looks somewhat like a very scrawny version of the Garden Peas you might cultivate except that it is far to dainty to be anything you intentionally planted. One of its best uses is as a green cover crop that is turned under as green manure to improve overall soil quality. Its flowers do attract pollinators which may benefit you in a forage garden.
How to Harvest: Edibility is uncertain, use this one for soil improvement and to attract pollinators.
Recipe: Since the edibility of this plant is unclear I do not recommend attempting to eat it.
With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.
Fresh Produce:
Peppers, Lemon Drop
Peppers, Fayetteville Inferno
Peppers, Sweet Heat & Purple Bell
Garlic Bulbs
Garden Stuff: ($3.00)
Broccoli - Destiny
Brussel Sprouts - Redarling
Cabbage – Early Jersey Wakefield
Cauliflower – Snow Crown
Cauliflower – Flame Star
Cauliflower – Veronica
Celery - Tango
Cilantro – Vietnamese
Collards – Green Glaze
Cuban Oregano – Cervesa & Lime
Hoan Ngoc
Mizuna Mustard – Miz America
Mustard – Japanese Red Giant
Pak Choi – Rose’
Sage – Pineapple
Coming Soon:
Soup Kits (October)
How to stay in Contact with Us!
Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.
Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville
Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (1): Lemon Scented Geranium
Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClair’s General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on October 6th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.
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