Grasses and Bushes

Bottle Brush Grass 

Hard to see, but it is the spikey grass
in the center of the photo.

I don't know...grass....

There were several possibilities.

Taken along a state bike trail in a marshy area.
It could be Johnson Grass that hasn't opened yet.

👇

 

Johnson Grass

[taken alongside a creek bottom]

👇

Wild Parsnip...
don't mess with this stuff...

I did use a machete to cut a lot of
this down where I walk along
our creek bed on a cold wet rainy
day.

Nanny Berries?

I noticed them last fall but 
didn't think to try and ID this bush.

[found on our road]

Red Elderberry
found on West Ridge Trail
at the Kickapoo Valley
Reserve

Rye

I had a hard time with this one, it wanted to look like Wild Oat, but then I recalled that my neighbor told me he planted Rye and some Oats along with other seeds I didn't know.

It seems the spiders liked it just fine though!

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Grass Ballet:

In the cool morning breeze,

the grasses sway
their movement like a dance.

The beauty of grasses are invisible
unless one stops to watch
them perform their silent ballet.

Breath deep, 

and let the dancers

amaze you.

--Val

Busy day

Tuesday, the sun came out and melted off more snow. Charlie and I headed to the woods to see how the rest of the fences faired out. We wanted to see if the Virginia Spring Beauties were still around and look for other signs that Spring was coming despite the snowfall.

I was surprised that the electric lines were just fine except in the places where the deer had knocked them off their insulators. I took an insulator count for replacement.

We found Pheasant Back mushrooms forming on a tree that fell over the winter.

This surely was a sign of spring!

In fact we had to sit down on the forest floor and get a closer look:

When we did, we found this in the leaves!

And we found Mayapples or as my Grandmother called them Maypole flowers. I don't know why but she did.

Of course there was Frank the Trooper Dude who decided to sit on a log and get in touch with Nature. He brought Birdie and they relaxed in the sunlight.

Hobby found some leeks or wild ramps just above the creek where water was actually flowing this Spring from the bountiful moisture and the snow melts.

Soon it will be time to walk along the creek and gather wild parsnip roots for a fresh veggie to be seasoned with wild garlic and some wild ramps. The parsnip and wild garlic are invasive species but eatable so why not eat them?

Wild parsnip roots:

Spring culinary delights await in the woods.

May Day!

I'm not exactly sure what is going on! But so far it is good news for us. The rest of the world is not in such a place but I count my tiny blessings one at a time these days.

In the morning my neighbor's daughter had a project to do and needed to do some 'Community Volunteer' work for someone. Lauren had asked if I had anything her daughter could do for me. I thought about it and texted back that I did.
Two weeks ago Allie asked if she could have make a tiny video for a school project. The theme was Western. So she dressed up and came down. I handed Lil' Richard to her ... he is our tiny pony that stands at 32 inches. Mom took her video of Allie saying hello to her on line school mates and loved every second of it!

So I told her mom that since I tied Lil' Richard out in different areas would she mind spreading some of his piles of manure? I normally do it every day to break down the manure but had been a bit remiss lately.

Allie chattered the whole time we worked together while keeping our distance. She made short work of the manure.

We ended up pulling some old burdock by Rich's junk pile. I let her toss the burdock with out the big balls of seeds into a pile. When she ended up with burdock on her hat and jacket she decided she'd like to get rid of the ones coming up!

I showed her how to use a long bladed shovel to dig the burdock up by the roots. She went about that with great gusto.

When that became tedious we hunted around for some wild parsnip do dig up. Allie said she had two hours of work she wanted to do.

So we went on the hunt for Parsnip. A few things happened during our two hours. Allie learned to recognize parsnip leaves and burdock leaves. She asked if she could come down again to rake up Lil' Richard poop... She chatted on as we talked about burdock being the inspiration for Velcro. She told me a story of how band-aids were invented.

And when she found out that I actually would eat the wild parsnips, she gathered up the ones we found to take home. I gave her the directions on how to wash and prepare them for cooking. She repeated the directions almost verbatim back to me.
True, wild parsnip can be eaten and it is tasty! It is also a pain to clean and prepare, but so worth the extra effort.

Allie went home with an armful of wild veggies that she was so enthusiastic to try.

What a great morning I had!


After lunch I worked on my fencing project and got it all set up finally. The mules will have some fresh grass. Though we seriously need some rainfall as everything is dry as a bone around here.

My next huge surprise was when Rich came out of the house and fired up the skid steer.

There are two huge piles of dirt next to the driveway. One pile was manure and is now composted into some fantastic dirt. It has been there SO long that it felt like part of the scenery.

The second pile of dirt is road gravel and ditch dirt. About 5 years ago the township cleaned the ditches and Rich told them to drop the 'fill' next to the compost pile.
In truth, I never imagined after all of Rich's health issues that he'd ever...EVER get anything done outside again.

Since his stroke and then the PE, he has been a Hermit who did not go out for any reason other than a doctor's appointment.

Justin came down to get some of the 'fill' and apparently the talk the two men had motivated Rich.
I think so at least!

I spent the afternoon with Rich while he operated the skid steer and we began cleaning up ruts and holes in the yard. These projects had been on permanent hold and I'd given up hope for ever getting things tidied up.

I did the hand shoveling work, he brought the dirt to fill in holes and ruts all over the yard.

He is talking about tackling the side yard which has been an utter mess since we remodeled in 2016.

Last night he cooked steaks on the grill.

Okay.
I need a nice soft place to faint.

Foraging for Fresh Forest Food

Yeah...
say that 4 times very fast!

I thought I'd hike back and check on the leeks...or wild ramps. They were too small to dig near the creek, so I headed towards the back of the property that was nearer to the ridge top.

Still not prime size, but I was hungry for forest food. Fresh forest food and if it took all day, I'd find some. I found enough leeks to flavor a dish and decided to come back in a few days when they were larger. I'd pick enough and leave enough so I wouldn't clean out the patch. I could dehydrate them to use next winter.

Charlie and I spent a long time looking for Wild Parsnip. Well, Charlie sniffed around and did dog stuff. I took the leeks home and cleaned them.

I was able to find one parsnip that was on the bank of the creek.

So I grabbed a long shovel and started a hike along the roadside on the ridge. I was pretty disappointed not to find any along the north south ditches. I crossed the neighbor's contoured crop land and hiked along the road side that had south exposure.

Score!

I found just enough for a good taste.

These roots are as ugly as ugly can be.

I used an old toothbrush to scrub them and cut out any spots. A peeler helps clean them up too.

And I tossed it all in a bowl with my frozen carrots and added a few morel mushrooms.

We'll see what this mixture ends up like tasting.
If nothing else it sure is colorful!

I also made Nettle Tea with the first leaves of nettles in the garden that I still need to clean up.

The warm tea tasted pretty good after wandering about foraging for forest food!

Foraging again in the rain

My Grandfather Fred used to say silly things like. "It's raining, let's have a picnic!"

As a kid I thought he was crazy. Who wanted to be out in the rain?
Right?

He'd follow up that comment with an explanation.
"You can't farm in the rain, you can't work in the garden in the rain, so what else is there to do? Why a picnic of course!"

It usually meant that we'd pack up in mom's station wagon and go visiting to other farms and relatives. It was always a mystery to me that we'd show up somewhere and the grown ups would gather around the kitchen table and talk while the kids went into another room to play.

However now that I am the grown up and I see rain coming down. I put on rain-gear and go for a walk.
My husband looks at me as though I've grown two heads and a third eye ball.
"Walk in the rain, are you nuts?"

Oh well. Not really.
"I can't dig in the garden, or do much else," I reply. "I may as well go looking for parsnips and leeks!"

And off I go into a very light rain.

I find parsnips at 'The Beach' easy to pull. I like keeping them out of a section of the neighbor's creek so that we don't have to deal with parsnip burns if the kids come down to wade and play in the creek later on in the year.
Besides, they are good to eat.

The leek patch needs a bit of thinning out so they have room to grow larger. Leeks come up, and after they wilt, disappear into the ground until next spring. They have a nice light onion flavor to them and go well with sauteed parsnips.

 Note the plastic bag over the camera. It is a plastic sleeve often used as a vet sleeve...
It covers the camera quite nicely and keeps it from getting wet.

I made my way back home and stopped to look admire the Mayflowers in the rain.

It may even have been fun to find an overhang of rocks to sit under and enjoy a picnic.

Don't you think?

She needs my help by Morris

I was sleeping and doing my morning daydreaming on my couch when She walked by.

She said something like, "Well Morris what do you think about looking for Parsnips and Skunk Cabbage? Do you think we need to take a hike down into the valley to go find some?"

What I heard was, "Morris...blah blah blah HIKE blah blah..."

So I turned and ear and an eye to watch her. It was still morning and normally we did our hikes in the afternoon when He was taking a nap.

She went upstairs to where she keeps her camera stuff and started to rummage around. "HIKE" echoed in my little ears. We were going on a HIKE!

I hadn't been feeling too well the past few weeks and the doctor guy had given Her some stuff that I had to take every morning. I don't know what the 'stuff' is, but my appetite is back and so is my bounce. Apparently that makes Her a very happy person.
It makes me a happy dog because I can go hiking with Her.

I started to bounce and whine with great vigor. She gave me one of those looks and shook her finger at me. "Calm down Morris, yes you are going!"

Of course I heard, "Blah blah Morris, ... blah blah!" But I got the tone of the thing and although I don't understand much of what She says, I get Her body language very well. I was going with.

Off we went into the forest and climbed down into the creek. I ran ahead and then stopped and smelled the air. It was delicious and full of scents on the breezes.
I tracked deer and followed coyote scent among some other forest creatures.

The coyote scent was old. She stopped to check on the tracks in the sand and the mud of the creek.
I lingered here and there and She would have to call for me. Once I was confused, I had no idea where She went.

She stepped out from behind some brush and called me. I'm pretty much a sight dog so my nose, while not too bad, can't track Her like Dixie can.

She bent down and patted me on the head and then turned to show me what she found. Well, I wasn't really impressed. Plants are not interesting unless they have been marked by a coyote or another dog.

Apparently we were gathering some sort of plant. She pointed out the smelly Skunk Cabbage to me.
Not interested.
She pointed out the Wild Parsnip She'd dug up.
Not interested.

I ran ahead and tested the air at the Big Spring.

Now that interested me.
There were dozens of tracks in and out of the spring. She looked at the Marsh Marigolds and photographed them.

I stood guard and smelled the lingering scents of deer, 'possum, raccoon, coyote, and skunk. They must have all visited the Spring overnight and the damp air was still heavy with their smells.

She filled her bag with wild parsnips to cook as vegetables for supper and then we headed back through the Skunk Cabbage place.

We went upstream and headed home. I was muddy and happy. She was pleased with her wild vegetables.

Free Food!

The past several days have been rainy and gloomy, but this morning the sun came out!
So with some time on my hands, I'm going to go foraging for some free food.

The stinging nettles pictured above are helping themselves to my veggie garden spot. I've always battled these plants in the garden. But in early spring they are very tasty. Once steamed they have absolutely no sting. Nettle Tea is supposed to be very good for you.
I won't go into all the health benefits, most people will turn their noses up at Nettle Tea.

Nettles as fresh veggies are another great spring benefit. Once cooked or steamed you can eat them with a dab of butter. Don't think of them as nasty weeds, think of them as free food.

I like digging up leeks or wild ramps too. They are a wild onion. I'm going to dehydrate the extras this year to use in soups and stews this winter.

And today I'm going to wander around in the creek bottom and search for wild parsnips.

These are those nasty plants that cause burns when they are flowering.

Of course there is another free food that will come with the nice spring weather but Morel Mushrooms won't be out for at least a month or so yet.

Lamb's Quarters will show up around my birthday and I can't wait for a taste of those either.

Foraging is a lot of fun and if you know what you are doing, you can get grab some free food along with your exercise!