A Frigid January

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market.  I bet some of you are wondering what happened to the updates in the second half of last year. Well between work and financial issues there simply wasn’t any time left. However here we are in the new year and things hopefully will be getting better. Today’s episode is more or less an update rather than a normalized post. I’ve got some photographs, and some information and of course operations continue at the farmers market.

In the last episode I asked a question, which of the two images of the full moon was taken with a phone and which was taken with a camera. The answer is pretty simple, the second image in my last post was the camera shot. The point of that exercise was simple, you cant beat the real thing. Also early on the 21st we had a interesting event happen around midnight. There was a lunar eclipse, but because the moon appeared super large in the sky due to proximity it was a 'blood wolf moon'.  I dont know who comes up with those names but I managed to catch it on camera below.

Lunar events aside I often get questions about edible weeds and how to identify them. Below is a picture of Henbit ( Lamium amplexicaule ). Henbit is a common garden weed seen all over the east coast of the united states and it gets it's name from the leaf shapes which look like they've been pecked by a hen. It is in the mint family and the first part of it's name 'Lamium' indicates it's related to the garden perennial called Dead Nettle (Lamium sp.), but it also indicates that this plant is in the mint family.

It figures the kale would photo bomb this one.

Next up we have chickweed ( Stellaria media ) which is a member of the daisy family. This 'weed' is commonly found forming dense but short-lived mats of green growth and may have tiny white flowers. Chickweed is 100% edible with no side effects and is one of the few very early winter plants that you can forage in bulk.

Darnit Kale stop that!

The identification of the common garden Dandelion ( Taraxacum officinale ) seems to be a point of confusion for some. Fortunately in this picture there is an imposter in the upper left/center and two examples of the real deal in the lower-center and right/center of the picture. The imposter is a similar species of plant called Asiatic Hawksbeard ( Youngia japonica ). I have no idea if the Asiatic Hawksbeard is edible, but I do know all parts of the Common Dandelion are. The best part is that dandelions are incredibly easy to grow. Growing dandelions does come with a caveat; our local climate is hotter and than they prefer and dandelions may go dormant or act as a short-lived perennial in some parts of North Carolina.

I  did sow these dandelions, the seed was about six years old.

Well now, this plant looks nothing like the others, what could it be? Before all you foragers get too excited, the plant below is a Silver Dollar Plant ( Lunarria annua ). Silver Dollar plant is an old-timey garden biennial that believe it or not is in the cabbage family. Being int he cabbage family means that you can eat parts of this plant, the flowers, leaves and seed pods are edible, but in the case of the seed pods you have to pick them before maturity, and older leaves can be rough on the palate. Even if you don't eat this one it's pretty blue flowers and big mature seed pots are worth having just to pretty up the garden. It's a minimal care biennial that can tolerate some shade and periods of drought.

I got the seed for this from Botanical interests last year.

The below picture illustrates what Purple Vienna Kohlrabi ( Brassica oleracea Gongylodes Group)  looks like in the second half of it's biennial life cycle. This  plant survived being shaded heavily by aggressive Sun gold Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) and came into it's own when the temperatures dropped. If I were to harvest this I would only take the top growth.

 

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Kohlrabi!

The below picture is a specific species of Collards ( Brassica oleracea )  which much like the Kohlrabi and Silver Dollar Plant are members of the Cabbage family. You see the cabbage family is huge and comes in numerous forms to fit every sense of taste. The interesting thing with this picture is that I sowed the seed for these collards last year in mid-September, I should be able to harvest in spring or early summer. Timing of sown crops is essential to success, and  sowing things before an existing crop is done isn't a bad thing as long as you are not planting more of what you already have.

 

Alabama Blue Collard seedlings

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. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs 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.

Plants & Stuff Available Now:

Soup Kit, Parsnip - $6.00

Soup Kit, Turnip - $6.00

Garlic, Whole bulb - $1.00

Seasoning Pack - $2.00

Lavender Pack - $3.00

Aloe Vera, 6” - $5.00

Gold Dust Bamboo, 4” - $6.00

Coffee Plants, 4” - $6.00

Flowering Maple, 4” - $3.00

Flowering Maple, 6” - $5.00

San Pedro Cactus, 6” Clay pot - $10.00

These days I am generally at Leclair’s General Store once a week, for the weekly Sustainable Neighbors meeting at 5:30pm through 7:00 pm. If you have questions then I will be there to answer your questions. Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to sign up for anything or join anything, you can come on in ask for us and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market or pay attention to what Sustainable Neighbors is doing at the link below.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

            This brings to a close the second LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 8^th of February. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.