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.
Carolina Geraniums can appear in any lawn or on the borders of beds. 
These forage-worthy plants are well-suited to North Carolina's climate and can be easily found by May.
Common Name: Carolina Geranium
Other Common Names: Carolina Crane’s Bill.
Botanical Family: Geraniaceae (The Geranium Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Geranium carolinianum
Season to Harvest: Whenever this plant is present which can be both cool and warm season.
Habitat: Carolina Geranium can be found in lawns, outdoor potted plants
Parts to Harvest: The leaves, roots and the flowers.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None known.
Related Edible Species: Bloody Crane’s Bill (Geranium sanguineum).
Description: Carolina Geranium is a summer or winter annual herb that is diffusely-branched and may be semi-erect in posture. The stems are greenish-pink to red and have fine but dense hairs on them. The leaves of Carolina Geranium are borne on long petioles and the leaves themselves are finely dissected into lobes. It in structure looks like a much scrawnier version of the cultivated Geranium (Pelargonium sp.).
How to Harvest:
Recipe: Carolina Geraniums are quite bitter which is useful as the whole plant but more specifically the root is astringent, can be made into salves and is styptic. Parts of this plant can be used as a gargle for throat problems. Additionally this plant is packed with tannins which can help in various recipes, brewing and this makes it taste bitter. It also has use in halting diarrhea by way of a medicinal tea. You make this tea by boiling 1-3 table spoons of Carolina Geranium root for about thirteen minutes in a cup of water per teaspoon of root. While the flavor will be a bit rough if imbibed straight you can take several cups of this tea per day to fend off the aforementioned gastrointestinal ailment.
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
Pepper, Fayetteville Inferno
Garden Stuff: ($3.00)
Cabbage – Early Jersey Wakefield
Cilantro – Vietnamese
Cuban Oregano – Cervesa & Lime
Fennel – Black
Hoan Ngoc
Sage – Pineapple
Coming Soon:
Collards
Kale
Mustard Greens
Garlic Bulbs (Mid-September)
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): Marjoram
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 15th 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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