Welcome back to the Lost In the Farmer’s Market blog. As some of you have noticed the blog has taken on a more formal instructional tone to cover the wide variety of forage foods that you can find all around you. This change came about due to the events of the pandemic, economic turmoil and other factors. The reality is that we are surrounded with perfectly edible plants that can fill at least some of the void in our dietary needs but, there is a multi-million dollar herbicide industry that exists. It has always been in the interest of that industry to label certain things ‘weeds’ so they can sell you product that as time goes by we find out is worse for your health than the weeds are. Coupled with an Agricultural-Education system that peddles the myths of the industry and the old myth that if you can afford a nice lawn you must have wealth we have a population that has been fooled for a long time. So, here we are in 2023, and the forage foods series will continue. I hope all of you who read this blog find the information useful or at least thought provoking. The ‘weeds’ I am listing a certainly found in Zone 8A in North Carolina and should certainly be easy to find in the Southeast regions of America. Oh, and one funny thing discovered in last year’s blog, it turns out you can eat Crab Grass, and while it isn’t what most would call a lawn grass, I did state you can’t eat your lawn in last year’s intro. Detailed research is a funny thing since it has a way of proving even the experts wrong.
 |
| Typically in a urban environment you will find Venus Looking Glass emerging beside a building or between the cracks of pavement or asphalt. |
 |
| It's bright blue-violet flowers are a good indicator that spring is near. |
 |
| This is a specimen that appeared in the Vegetable patch at the test gardens. |
Common Name: Venus Looking Glass
Other Common Names: Common Venus Looking Glass, Clasping Venus Looking Glass.
Botanical Family: Campanulaceae (The Bellflower Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Triodanis perfoliata
Description & Habitat: Venus Looking Glass is a winter annual that has erect or ascending stems that branch freely at the plant’s base. An interesting feature of this plant is that it’s leaves clasp the stem and form little ‘cups’ that are borne in an alternate pattern on stems. Typically this plant is spotted due to its blue-violet flowers which have five petals and are quite visible. This plant reproduces by seed and is found all over North American and in Central and South America. This plant is native to North and South America but has also naturalized in China, Korea and Australia. You will typically find this plant in lawns, and in gardens but also in disturbed sites, open woods, grassy slopes, rocky outcrops, gravelly areas, roadsides and it seems to prefer poor quality sandy soils that are on the dry side.
When & What to Harvest: Edibility is unknown for humans however some sours suggest cattle may eat it.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None known.
Related Edible Species: None Known
Recipe: Not Applicable.
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 2:00 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:
Garlic Bulbs
Soup Kit – Parsnip
Soup Kit – Turnip
Coming Soon:
Spring Garden Plants are due in March 18th 2023.
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): Cat Grass
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 March 16th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.
No comments:
Post a Comment