I got a fever and the only cure is MOAR Chickweed!

 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.

 

 

Photographed back in march or April this specimen emerged amidst a pile of Sycamore leaves.

Sticky Chickweeds are common sight in urban areas, this one is so urbane that I caught it just after it finished up a cigarette.

 

Common Name: Sticky Mouse-ear Chickweed

 

Other Common Names: Sticky Cerastium, Sticky Chickweed, Clammy Chickweed

 

Botanical Family: Caryophyllaceae (The Carnation Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Cerastium glomeratum

 

Season to Harvest:  In the cold season whenever this plant is found.

 

Habitat: Sticky Chickweed is found on disturbed soils, in fields on waste sites, in outdoor potted plants and beside buildings.

 

Parts to Harvest:  The leaves and shoots.

 

Poisonous Lookalikes: None

 

Related Edible Species: Mouseear Chickweed (C. vulgatum)

 

Description: Sticky Chickweed is a mat-forming heavily branch forming winter annual. It grows from a noticeably slender taproot. Its stems are slender but are covered with dense hairs and it’s five-petaled flowers are white. Sticky Chickweed mainly reproduces by seed.

 

How to Harvest: Individual leaves on young shoots can be harvested freely as needed for forage salads and as a cooked potherb.

 

Recipe: Sticky Chickweed can be used in all the same ways as traditional Chickweed (Stellaria media). To make pancakes with this plant, cook, drain and blot 1-2 cups of leaves. Blend into a prepared pancake batter (2 cups of mix to 1 and ½ cups of water) and make appropriate adjustments for consistency. I recommend serving with butter and a tart jelly such as one made from Fox grapes or Currants.

 

 

 

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:

Pepper, Lemon Drop

Figs, Assortment (Magnolia, White Ischia)

 

Garden Stuff: ($3.00)

Cabbage – Early Jersey Wakefield

Celery – Tango

Cilantro – Vietnamese

Cuban Oregano – Cervesa & Lime

Fennel – Black

Hoan Ngoc

Sage – Pineapple

Thai Mint

 

 

Coming Soon:

Collards

Kale

Mustard Greens

 

 

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): Common Sage

 

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 September 15^th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.