Repurpose, Regrow, and Recycle – Food Waste Edition

In the United States, there are 6.3 million households with very low food security and over half a million people without shelter.

And yet, one out of every four calories intended for human consumption is never actually eaten. More than 20 pounds of food per person are thrown out and sent to landfills every month. Organic waste is the second highest component of landfills, and it produces massive amounts of methane. Methane traps 28 to 36 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, accelerating the process of global warming. When toxic substances in the landfills leak out into our soil and waterways landfills also poison plants, animals, the environment, and humanity.

It’s time we all do our part by reducing food waste.

Repurpose, Regrow, and Recycle

Each one of us can turn our own trash into a treasure by repurposing it, regrowing it, or recycling it.

1. Repurpose

That part of the plant or animal that you thought was useless may be filled with nutrients that your body needs. For example, common food scraps like beet greens, carrot greens, potato greens, and leek tops are packed with similar, and often times, more vitamins, minerals, and health-promoting compounds than the part of the plant that we commonly eat. Beet greens and potato greens can be used just like any other green, in salads, steamed, or sauteed, and carrot greens can be added to dressings and sauces like chimichurri and pesto.

When in Doubt, Dehydrate

If you don’t have the time to prepare these greens or you want to donate your leftovers to a food bank or homeless shelter, dehydrate them. Put the beet greens, carrot greens, leek tops, or any other greens that you will not be eating in your dehydrator at low temperatures (around 100 degrees Fahrenheit) until they are crisp. These dehydrated vegetables will last for up to a year. In fact, if they are stored in a cool, dry place (around 54 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal) and that has a very low moisture content, they can last for up to a decade!

These vegetables can be re-hydrated, eaten as chips, or turned into a powder by blending them together. Having your own greens powder will make it much easier for you to add greens to soups, salads, dressings, sauces, and smoothies. The same can be done with extra herbs as well.

Preserve Your Fruits Too

You can also use a dehydrator to preserve fruits that you won’t have the chance to eat. Simply blend the fruit together with some flax seeds or chia seeds until it becomes a thick, apple-sauce-like consistency and dehydrate it until it becomes fruit leather. This fruit leather can last from 6 months to a year, as long as it is stored in a cool and dry place.

Don’t throw out your organic lemon peels or orange peels either. You can turn your organic citrus peels into a natural vitamin C supplement. Simply cut them into pieces, dehydrate them, and blend them into a fine powder. Add this powder to smoothies, soups, dressings, sauces, or salads for an extra health boost.

Related: Homemade Vitamin C

Nothing Supersedes These Super Seeds

Avocado seeds can also be dehydrated and blended into powder. Adding a tablespoon or two of the seed powder to your meal may improve your cholesterol levels, and can be useful in the treatment of hypertension, inflammatory conditions, and diabetes. These seeds have also been found to have insecticidal, fungicidal, and anti-microbial properties. Other nutritious seeds like squash, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds can be saved, dehydrated, and eaten as well.

Dehydrating your vegetables is a simple and easy way to turn some of your most common food scraps into simple snacks and nutritious additions to meals. But what about the waste created from eating meat products?

Related: Things Health Nuts Do With Their Food

Bones and Organs

Muscle meat, like chicken breast and steak, is the most commonly eaten part of the animal, and yet it is the least nutritious. Yes, that burger is packed with complete protein and some vitamins & minerals, but you are missing out on the bones and organs, which can be the most nutrient dense part of the animal.

The bones and cartilage can easily be turned into a nutritious bone broth that provides you with minerals and amino acids that promote the health of your bones, heart, muscles, skin, and nervous system.

When it comes to organ meat, the most nutrient dense is beef liver. 100 grams of beef liver contain more vitamins and a greater amount of those vitamins than 100 grams of apples and 100 grams of carrots combined.

Before you throw out the bones and cartilage from that chicken, steak, or duck, simmer them in water for 8 to 24 hours and you’ll have a nutrient dense broth that you can drink or use as a base for soups. And don’t discard the organ meats either. There are plenty of recipes online that you can use to make them into a nutritious meal. If you are not a fan of eating liver, you can blend it up, dehydrate it, put it into capsules, and use it as a dietary supplement.

However, don’t just trust any meat products. Factory farms torture the animals, unhealthy animals produce unhealthy meat, and these practices are destroying the environment as we know it. For a multitude of reasons, please make sure that you are sourcing your meat and bones from farmers that use sustainable methods and treat their animals humanely.

Related: The Healing Effects of Bone Broth and How To Make Your Own

Egg Shells

If you are looking for a natural supplement that actually improves bone health, then don’t throw away your egg shells. Instead, wash them, dehydrate them, and grind them in a coffee grinder. This will provide you with a fine calcium-based powder that you can put in capsules or add to smoothies that may treat and prevent osteoporosis and improve bone and cartilage health.

Related: Homemade Calcium and Magnesium

2. Regrow

Many of the vegetables and herbs that we eat can easily be regrown without seeds. Sweet potatoes, potatoes, lettuce, celery, garlic, ginger, onions, fennel, cilantro, basil, oregano, cilantro, turmeric, and many other popular vegetables and herbs can all be regrown, providing you with an abundance of produce to feed you, your family, and those in need. If you end up growing too many vegetables, you can always donate your produce to soup kitchens and/or dehydrate the greens and herbs. Check out How to Regrow Your Favorite Herbs and Save Lots of Money. Also, click here to find a food bank near you, and Click here to find a homeless shelter near you.

3. Recycle

Even when you apply everything you have learned to repurpose and regrow your food scraps, you will still end up with some waste. Instead of throwing it out and sending it to a toxic landfill, start your own compost pile or just add those scraps to your soil to give your plants nutrition right away.

Related: 5 Cost-Effective Ways To Home Container Gardening – DIY

Here are examples of food items you can use to instantly nourish your soil and plants:

Coffee grounds are an excellent source of nitrogen, which is an essential component of chlorophyll and protein that allows the plant to thrive. Mix them into the soil for best results.
Eggshells give the plants their protein. Crush your eggshells into tiny pieces and scatter around your plants. They are also excellent pest repellents. Slugs and snails have difficulty climbing over the shells and onto the plants.
Banana peels have potassium, which helps plants bloom profusely. And like eggshells, banana peels are pest repellents. To use them effectively, cut your banana peels into small pieces and bury them two to three inches deep to provide sustainable nutrition and pest defense for the plant. You can also rub the inside of the peel on the leaves of the plants to repel pests even more
Citrus peels can be chopped up and scattered in the garden to keep your plants free from cats and dogs that try to use your garden as a litter box.
Garlic can be buried around your plants to ward off different types of garden pests.
Miscellaneous Food Scraps like fruit and vegetable peels and pulp can be buried directly in the ground near plants or between the rows of your garden. This keeps the soil rich, plants healthy, and pests away. The scraps will also feed earthworms, which greatly improve the health of the soil. Make sure you bury the food scraps deep enough in the soil so that they don’t attract critters and pests.

There are also a couple things that you should avoid putting in your garden including:

Meat
Bones
Cheese
Grease and oils
Dog and cat litter
Diseased plants

These attract animals and pests that will eat your plants before you can.

Putting It Into Practice

Think about what you can apply to your life right now. Are there some egg shells lying in your trash that could go into your garden? Are you wasting fruits and vegetables because you don’t have a dehydrator?

Implement whatever you can with whatever resources you have, and check back with this article again to apply something new every week. If you know of another way to re-purpose, reuse, or recycle your food waste please comment below or on social media, so we can let more people know.

By re-purposing, reusing, and recycling your food waste, you can heal the environment, nourish yourself, and feed the people that need nutrient-dense food the most. And when we unite our small efforts together, we can make big change happen.

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Eating Edible Flowers

The culinary use of edible flowers is not a recent trend; it can be traced back thousands of years to the Greeks, Romans, and Chinese. Flowers were traditionally incorporated into many various cuisines –from Asian and East Indian to European, Victorian English, and Middle Eastern. Think of the lush rose petals in Indian food and the bright squash blossoms in the Italian meals.

Edible flowers fell out of grace, but they are making a huge come-back, not only as a fancy garnish, but also as an effective seasoning. Of course, flowers are not everyone’s cup of tea when it comes to cooking. The secret is to learn to pick the right ones and to combine them properly with other ingredients.

The buds and blooms of different plants offer a wide range of flavour, colour, and a tinge of whimsy. Some are irresistibly fragrant and tasty, others are spicy and sharp. Some are lemony or weedy while others are floral or herbaceous. The rich palette of taste and colour make edible flowers a perfect addition to almost every dish. Spruce up the regular meal with these surprisingly delicious blooms.

Not All Flowers Are Edible

Not every flower that you have in your garden is edible. Even though the buds may not be poisonous, they don’t all taste good! Luckily, most of the blooms of fruits, veggies, and herbs work just as great as their fully-grown counterparts. It’s advisable to consume only plants that have been grown without pesticides or with such that are suitable for edible crops. If you buy flowers from expert gardeners, a nursery or garden centres, check to see if they are labelled as edible. Make sure you are not allergic to a certain type of plant before you use it. That said, here are a couple of tips on how to harvest and store your edible flowers.

Pick the blooms and buds just before you use them for the best flavour
Harvest during the cool of the day, after the dew evaporates
Brush off any soil and remove any insects hiding within
Wash the flowers gently and let them air-dry over a paper towel
If not used right away, keep them in the fridge for no longer than 10 days
They can be dried, frozen or preserved in vinegar or oil

Some Flowers You Can Grow and Eat

You can choose from a variety of annuals, biennials, and perennials that will look gorgeous in your garden and will add unique taste to your meals. Planting some of these flowers can introduce benefits both to your garden and your cooking routine. If you are looking for your next gardening projects, here are a couple of ideas you might want to consider:

Nasturtium

There are many reasons to consider planting nasturtium in your garden. These vibrant and versatile annuals serve a double duty – as an exquisite culinary delight and as a natural pest control. The sun-loving greenery will bloom from midsummer until the first frost. Its peppery tasting flowers can be added to fresh salads or used in your favourite pesto recipe. You can also skip the mustard, and stuff the spicy petals into your sandwiches with creamy cheese and sliced tomatoes.

Squash Blossoms

These are probably some of the most widely used edible flowers, especially in the Italian cuisine. Squash blossoms are the flowers of the late-season pumpkins, zucchini, summer squash, and winter squash. The orange and yellow buds can be used raw in a salad or stuffed with cheese. They taste like a more delicate version of squash and can be fried or cooked with creamy rice.

Dill

Dill offers remarkable benefits for both your health and your garden. It contains enzymes that help reduce the free radicals and carcinogens in the human body. Plus it prevents bone loss and has anti-bacterial properties. According to the gardening experts, the blossoms can attract pollinators and beneficial insects into your backyard. The flowers have light dill flavour and are usually added to jars with cucumber pickles.

Chives Blossoms

Chives don’t require any garden maintenance or efforts. Your site is probably filled with these lavender-pink flowers, so why not try them out? Toss them in a fresh salad, add them in a casserole, or cook them with fresh vegetables. Their taste resembles onions so don’t use too many of these pungent flowers.

Violet

Viola odorata or sweet violet is an all time classic when it comes to cooking with edible flowers. It was a favourite treat of English royalty and a popular ingredient during the Victorian era. The taste of this flower pairs well with lemon and chocolate. You can use it in different recipes – from crèmes and desserts to tarts and salads. Violets can be quite challenging when it comes to cooking, because you will need a lot of them to extract enough flavour.

For more unusual gardening ideas, be sure to read the Home Garden blog.

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Herbs With Healing Properties You Can Grow at Home

Growing herbs in your home is not only easy, it is highly recommended. This is especially true if you are growing them for medicinal purposes. Although you can buy herbs, you won’t know how the plants were raised or how the herbs were stored. Nothing beats the quality of homegrown herbs.

It doesn’t really matter if you have expert gardening skills as herbs require nothing but basic knowledge and some free space. If you have a garden in your home, it is wise to reserve some of the available space there for herbal medicines, as they can truly help when you are feeling ill. The best part is that the following are all easy-to-grow and require very little in terms of care.

Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum)

The flavour of this plant is so unique, that people either hate it or love it. It is used in several Thai and Mexican dishes, but most notably in Indian curry. You can easily grow it in a moist, cool garden. Cilantro is a digestive aid and it also helps you detox heavy metals.

Calendula (Calendula officinalis)

The other name for Calendula is pot marigold. It is a powerful antiseptic and antifungal tool. Use the petals for wound care and soothing the skin. Numerous cosmetic products use the plant for its properties, which is proof of its quality. This annual blooms throughout the entire season and looks charming in an outdoor garden, where it can receive plenty of sun.

Peppermint (Mentha x piperita)

You are well-aware of the boost of freshness you get from peppermint flavoured toothpaste. Did you know that peppermint is also a very powerful ally against digestive discomfort (peppermint tea) and aching muscles (peppermint liquid/lotion)? You will do well to include this moist-loving plant in your garden. Just keep in mind that the leaves of the plant should be harvested before they flower or they will taste bitter.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)

The main benefit of rosemary is its power to bring more oxygen to your brain for better memory. According to expert gardeners, this herb is the equivalent of caffeine. The best part is that the evergreen plant is very drought tolerant and will likely survive any environment.

Lavender (Lavandula)

According to some studies, lavender is not only a perfume plant, it may also be used to benefit the nervous system. Adding some lavender oil to your bath will most certainly reduce tension, stress, and even insomnia. In order to grow lavender, you will need to provide a dry environment that is hot and sunny.

You can benefit a lot from each of these herbs, especially if you have invested time and effort in growing them at home. Do consider all of the benefits, and plant them today. Be sure to check out Handy Gardeners’ Blog for more articles on gardening.

Sources:

Calendula – Wikipedia

5 Cost-Effective Ways To Home Container Gardening – DIY

Container gardening allows you to anyone to garden at home without the need of a big, spacious area. You can set up your garden on your patio, balcony, deck, porch or inside your home, anywhere you like as long as there is enough air and sunshine for your plants. Container gardening not only maximizes your space, it offers cost-effective solutions to growing organic fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices right on your own doorstep.

Here are five ways to save money as you create a container garden.

Big Cans and Plastic Bottles

How much do garden pots, containers, and planters cost today? Depending on their size, style, and material, they can range from $5 to $100 each. But you don’t really need to spend money for your plants to have their own shelter. Your cans or tins at home, big or small, are a great alternative. Baby formula cans, food cans, and all sort of metal containers are perfect. Of course, you will use large cans for big and tall plants (ex. tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and fruit trees) and small containers for smaller types (ex. basil, parsley, rosemary, mint, and onion).

When it comes to plastic bottles, you need to cut them in two for horizontal hanging garden and just take off one side for a vertical hanging garden. The best seedlings to transfer to these plastic containers are spinach, lettuce, and other leafy vegetables.

Note: Do not forget to create holes on the back base of the cans and plastic bottles to avoid water clogging and for the plant’s roots to breathe well. Use a nail and a hammer to make a few holes, about 10 to 15, just enough to cover the base.

Animal Manure

Animal manure is a great source of nutrients and organic matter to improve the quality of soil, and of course, to increase plant production. Just to highlight, the manure from grass-eating animals like cows, goats, horses, and buffalos, contain almost all of the nutrients that your plants need including nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, zinc, iron, and calcium.

Note: Make sure to dry the manure before putting to your potted plants. Otherwise, flying insects will feast on it.

Compost Pit

Aside from animal manure, compost is also a great fertilizer for your plants. And, you don’t have to source other materials so you can create one. All you need are dried leaves, wood ashes, fruit and vegetable peels, kitchen leftovers, and other biodegradable waste.

Get a large can. Put the compost ingredients alternately with the soil as the base. Leave this compost for 3 to 6 months for moderate to full decomposition. When decomposed, you can use the compost as a fertilizer. And, unlike animal manure, you can just go ahead and spread it around the plant’s base.

Note: Always provide adequate moisture to the compost so that the microbes will continue to break down the particles. In order to determine the level of moisture, get a long and thin stick, push it towards the can’s base, and then, pull it off quickly. Feel the compost soil on the stick and see if it is moist enough.

Human Urine

Like animal manure, human urine is full of nutrients promoting plant growth. It has nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. And, if ever you wonder if it’s actually safe to store your urine in a chamber pot, especially at night as you wake up and pee — it is. Human urine is free from any health risks unlike human feces, which can carry E. coli and salmonella. In fact, the International Space Station astronauts drink urine after a purification process.

Note: Human urine has a pungent smell, so before you start using your chamber pot, make sure that you put water to it, 2 to 3 inches high. The water will help neutralize the bad smell. And, after dispensing the urine to the plants, clean your chamber pot using a laundry washing powder and bleach. This will effectively remove the urine stains left on the chamber pot.

Recyclable Plastic Wrap or Paper

To protect vegetables and fruits from scratches or insect bites, wrapping is very important as soon as they appear. Food wrappers and old newspapers are perfect wrapping materials. Just use a stapler to close the wrap’s opening.

Note: If you use food plastic wrappers, clean them using soap and water, and then let them dry beforehand.

So, who says you need to spend money in order to start or maintain a container garden at home?

Further Reading:

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How to Make Your Own Compost Tea

If you’re still using plain old compost, you’re living in the past. These days gardeners are raving about the wonders of compost tea. Compost tea is liquid gold for plants; it fertilizes and suppresses diseases. This liquid fertilizer is relatively cheap and easy to make, and it provides your plants with instant nutrients to support their growth, improve their nutritional value, and even improve the flavor of your crops.

What You Need

Making your own compost tea requires a few key ingredients to get started. You shouldn’t try to make compost tea without some kind of aeration equipment; the organisms in the tea will quickly deplete the oxygen and your tea will start to stink.

A 5-gallon bucket or larger, depending on how much compost tea you need; 5 gallons is the smallest amount I recommend makingAn aquarium pump
Several feet of tubing
Something to stir the mixture with
Something to strain the tea with, like a nylon stocking or old pillowcase

How to Make Homemade Compost Tea

Once you have everything you need, it’s time to set up your equipment and get brewing.

You can formulate your tea specifically for whatever project you’re currently doing. For instance, molasses boosts bacteria which is beneficial to grasses, but protein like fish oil boosts fungal activity which is more beneficial to large shrubbery or trees. If you’ve never made compost tea before, you’re about to have some very happy plants.

Set up your pump: Attach the tubing to the aquarium pump. Make sure the tube is securely attached and no air is escaping. Fix tubing to the side of your container with clamps, or bury the end of the tubing under your compost to keep it in place. Find a location for your bucket that is warm but not directly in the sun. Direct sunlight can promote algae growth and throw off the balance of nutrients in your compost.
Mix together your ingredients: Put your compost in the container; you want to have a good balance of carbon-based and nitrogen-based compost. High carbon materials are things like: wood, ashes, bark, shredded newspaper and sawdust. High nitrogen materials are: coffee grounds, grass clippings, manure and seaweed. Loosely fill your bucket with compost about three-quarters of the way, making sure the mixture isn’t packed too tightly to stir. Now you want to add water to your mix. Rainwater is preferable since it lacks the chemicals that tap water may contain. Fill the bucket with water, leaving enough room at the top so you can stir without spilling or splashing.
Start your pump: Turn your pump on and wait to see if you need to adjust it. After a few minutes you should see bubbles in your mixture; it should look like it’s boiling. If your pump isn’t producing enough air, adjust the pump up or down as needed.
Add some food for the microorganisms: Once your pump is running smoothly and aerating as it should, add in one ounce of organic unsulfured molasses and stir your mixture.
Let the tea steep: Vigorously stir your mixture a few times a day to release more organisms and increase aeration. Let your tea brew for about three days, turn the pump off and remove the equipment. Unclamp your tubing from the side of the bucket, disconnect tubing from the pump and unplug the pump.
Strain your tea: Allow the tea to settle for a few moments so the largest pieces of matter fall to the bottom, making the mixture easier to strain. Strain your liquid into another bucket or directly into your sprayer. The strained material can go back into your compost pile, but should not be used to make tea again since brewing has removed a lot of nutrients from the organic material. If you want to make a new batch, start with fresh compost.
Use your tea: Now that your tea is ready you’ll want to use it as soon as possible. Your tea needs to be diluted with water to protect your plants. The final liquid mixture is extremely concentrated and may burn your plants, especially if your compost was nitrogen-rich. Dilute your mixture about one part compost tea to 10 parts water.Once again, for best results try to use rainwater or water that has been dechlorinated. In early morning or evening when there’s less chance of leaf burn, apply the liquid to the leaves and roots of your plants in the garden. Safer Brand, an organic gardening company, suggests using compost tea on your lawn as well. “When establishing a new lawn or restoring a sparse area, use compost tea to inoculate the soil with microbes that break down nutrients for grass roots.”

If normal compost just isn’t cutting it for your plants, this nutrient-rich liquid may be exactly what they need. Not only are you putting that compost to good use, you’re growing healthy and nutritious plants – while also enriching the soil in your garden.

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Five Common Weeds to Cultivate for Health and Nutrition

Much of the work we do as gardeners involves pulling weeds, and many of us can attest that this is not our favorite part. The good news is that there are many common garden weeds you can leave right where they are.

Edible weeds have been a common food source throughout history and a regular part of the American diet up until the rise of the supermarket and the shift towards large-scale agriculture. More recently, people have been re-discovering these nutrient-rich plants as part of a healthy, organic diet, and, as a result, educational opportunities abound. There is a variety of books, websites, classes and entire schools dedicated to teaching how to harvest and prepare these foods. If you read up on the subject, you will also find many wild, edible weeds offer the added benefit of medicinal properties.

Getting Started

The best way to get started is to learn how to identify your garden weeds. There are some very useful book resources out there with colored guides to positively identify the plants you are looking for and “weed” out poisonous look-alikes. Petersen Field Guide: Edible Wild Plants, by Lee Allen Peterson is a handy all-around reference that includes more than 370 edible plants, colored illustrations, photographs, and directions on preparation. If you want to get a little more in-depth on some of the more common wild edibles, Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate by John Kallas, Ph.D. includes thorough identification and recipes. There are also many local wild food groups popping up in towns everywhere, and an internet search should turn up local organizations.

There are also many local wild food groups popping up in towns everywhere, and an Internet search should turn up local organizations, workshops, and plant walks. Social media sites like Facebook offer another resource for national and local plant identification groups. On-line communities are a great place to ask questions, post-plant pictures, and benefit from the collective knowledge of others. Once you feel comfortable with identification, you can go out and start shopping for free in your own backyard.

Dandelion

The first and most common of these weeds is the dandelion. This plant is tenacious, managing to grow everywhere from cracks in sidewalks to all over your lawn. There is a huge agrichemical industry geared towards the American homeowner and the idea that a well-kept lawn is a weed-free lawn, with the dandelion depicted as the number one enemy. People are convinced they should spend their time and money eradicating the dandelion with harmful herbicides. The truth is, dandelions are very useful and are easily managed by hand-pulling and regular harvesting. The greens that emerge in the early spring are rich in antioxidants, Beta-carotene, vitamin C, Vitamin D, iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, phosphorous, sodium, and a variety of trace minerals. They are also fairly high in protein. Not only can you eat the leaves, but the cheery yellow flowers make an excellent addition to colorful salads and can be added to stir-fries. My favorite thing to make with them are dandelion fritters for a festive springtime meal. In addition, the root makes a delicious coffee-like beverage when roasted, ground and brewed.

The value of dandelions doesn’t stop there. They are used as an herbal remedy for anemia, blood disorders, promoting digestion, improving liver and kidney function, regulating diabetes, lowering blood pressure and high cholesterol, and slowing the growth of cancerous cells.

Plantain

Not to be confused with the banana-like plant of more tropical regions, this common garden weed has a similar nutritional profile to dandelions and grows in equal abundance. Often this weed can be found growing everywhere from garden beds to lawns and roadsides. The green oval-shaped leaves sprout from the center of a rosette with a stalk covered in seeds rising from the center. Young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked in sautés, soups, and stews. They are often blanched before they are added to salads or frozen for later use. The shoots when young and green are excellent sautéed in olive oil, and still edible once older, but the fibers present a bit more work for eating. The seeds can be stripped off the stalk and eaten as well, although this is a somewhat tedious process.

Plantain leaves can also be mashed between your fingers and applied as a topical poultice for relief of cuts, scrapes, bruises, and especially insect bites. Plantain is naturally anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory. Dried leaves can be steeped for an herbal tea for general enjoyment and to treat liver and kidney disorders, urinary tract infections, gallstones, ulcers and bronchitis.

Chickweed

This plant gets its common name from the affinity chickens have for it, and those chickens are definitely on to something. Chickweed grows in a network of long, succulent stems with pointed leaves and tiny, white star-shaped flowers. It grows in gardens, lawns, and even in the shade under the canopy of trees. These tender greens are best harvested in May through July and if transplanted or sown by seed, it can be cultivated in a cold frame throughout the winter when fresh greens are hard to come by. It’s also a good plant to keep around in the garden because it decreases insect damage to other garden plants where it grows. The stems and leaves make an excellent salad green and sandwich fixing and they can be added to soups and stews, chopped stems and all. Chickweed is highly nutritious, providing vitamins A, B complex, C, iron, calcium, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, manganese, sodium,

Chickweed is highly nutritious, providing vitamins A, B complex, C, iron, calcium, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, manganese, sodium, copper, and silica. Due to the high content of saponins, it helps increase the body’s absorption of nutrients. It is so highly nutritious, in fact, that it was commonly recommended for convalescents and people recovering from illness to help build strength.

Externally, finely chopped chickweed will soothe and heal cuts, scrapes, burns, eczema, and rashes. Steeped as a tea, it has diuretic properties that promote kidney and urinary tract health. It is also considered an old wives’ remedy for obesity, due to its ability to break up and flush out excess fat cells.

Lamb’s-Quarters

This common weed is also known as “wild spinach”, and while it is quite similar, it is much easier to grow. This plant has tall stems with diamond shaped leaves that are green on top and whitish underneath, and appear dusty at a distance. Tiny green clusters of flowers grow from the top in spikes. Anywhere where soil has been disturbed, lamb’s quarters loves to fill in the spaces, which conveniently happens in our garden beds in the spring. It is best harvested before it goes to seed, as it spreads quickly through the garden. It is also important not to harvest it in areas contaminated by chemicals or synthetic fertilizers, as it readily absorbs and stores them.

Lamb’s-quarters is much higher in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, B Vitamins, calcium, phosphorous, niacin, iron, and protein than spinach and most of the other domesticated greens. You can use lamb’s quarters the same way you would use spinach in any dish. Like spinach, it is high in oxalic acid, which inhibits absorption of iron and calcium. Small amounts of raw lamb’s quarters are fine to eat, in things like salads and smoothies, but larger amounts should be cooked to break down the oxalic acid. It is rumoured to taste better than spinach when steamed, so be prepared for a treat.

Medicinally, lamb’s quarters are used as a tea or simply eaten to treat stomach upset and diarrhea. A simple external poultice can also be made by crushing up the leaves to soothe swelling and burns.

Nettles

And finally, my favorite superfood, stinging nettle. If you live on acreage or near a park, you may find them nettles in patches at the edge of wooded areas or find them in the shady parts of yards, often next to buildings. You may have had unpleasant run-ins with this plant, making it difficult to imagine any warm, fuzzy feelings towards it, but learn to handle it right and you’ll have a great ally in the plant kingdom.

In the spring, if you put on your garden gloves and pinch off the top few inches of the stalk and leaves, you can steam, stir-fry, puree or brew away the troublesome spines for a culinary delight.

Nettles are so high in so many nutrients, that you can’t help but feel like a superhero after eating them. Not only are they chock-full of Vitamins A,C, E, F, K, P and B Vitamins, they are also high in zinc, iron, magnesium, copper, selenium, boron, bromine, calcium, chlorine, chlorophyll, potassium, phosphorus, sodium, iodine, chromium, silicon, sulfur, thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin. Top that off with 16 free amino acids, beta carotene, antioxidants, protein and fiber, and its no wonder they are referred to as nature’s multi-vitamin!

Nettles are delicious in soups and broths. They make a vitamin rich tea, pair nicely with eggs in scrambles and quiches, and even make a lovely pesto when substituted for basil.

Medicinally, nettles are used as a spring cleansing tonic, a blood builder, a PMS treatment, and as a diuretic. Nettles have also gained notoriety as a natural remedy for allergies, asthma, hay fever, hives, and respiratory issues. Topically, the nettle’s sting has been successfully for treating arthritis and tendinitis.

The Benefits of Edible Weeds

When it comes down to it, it is much more efficient to cultivate plants that are already thriving where they’re growing. They will require less watering and overall care. If they are a spreading weed, you will just need to make sure you keep harvesting enough to keep it contained. By working with, rather than fighting some of these plants, you will also benefit from freeing up extra time and energy to devote to other areas of your garden. You can’t get much more local than food harvested right out of your back yard, and you will know it was organically grown and chemical-free. When it comes down to it, what better way to get revenge on your garden weeds than to eat them!

Recipes:

Mountain Hearth Dandelion Fritters

Ingredients:

a few handfuls of freshly picked dandelion flower heads
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cold water
1 egg slightly beaten
cooking oil of choice for frying
sesame oil, cider vinegar and tamari for dipping sauce

In a bowl, mix dry ingredients, then whisk in water and egg with a fork. Heat enough oil in the bottom of a skillet to create a layer for frying. This can be to your preference, but I try to aim for 1/2 inch depth. Dip each flower head in the batter until thoroughly coated and fry until crispy. In a smaller bowl, mix sesame oil, cider vinegar and tamari to a consistency of your liking for the dipping sauce. Serve hot as a delicious spring appetizer.

Other Recipies:

Can Progressive, Cutting-edge Organic Agriculture Feed Everyone?

Change We Can Believe In

In 2007, then presidential candidate Barack Obama promised that if elected he would direct more money for organic agriculture. He also said, “If I am elected president of the United States, I will support legislation that will require the mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods.” Now, well into his second term, it seems Obama has no intention of honoring his promises. Even if Obama honored his word, would such steps be enough to ensure our survival?

Can organic farms yield comparable outputs with conventional farms? To answer this question in 2002, Dr. Paul Mader and colleagues analyzed more than two decades of data. On average, organic farms yielded 80% of the output conventional farms produced. Although the yield was lower, the quality of the produce and the quality of the soil was far superior in every conceivable way. There are more nutrients found in organic foods.

Farmers all over the world are proving it can be done…

The use of chemicals, so prevalent in modern agriculture, may result in a high yield (for a time), but their use is actually more expensive than organic food production. Conventional agriculture is more profitable for farmers due to government subsidies. That’s right; our taxes pay farmers more to cause harm to the environment and to produce chemically laden foods.

Subsistence strategies are a cultural phenomena. Just as language cannot be separated from culture neither can food be separated from culture. The food people eat and how the food is produced varies dramatically from one group of people to another. As with linguistic centrism, people tend to think that their way is the best way. Americans are often under this delusion in regards to feeding the world without simultaneously polluting it. Could the world feed itself without the so called benefits brought forth by the chemicals and drugs used in conventional agriculture?

Sustainable Farms

Farmers all over the world are proving it can be done, among them farmers such as Takao Furuno, a successful organic farmer from Japan. The Furuno farm works as a part of an ecosystem. Every year, after planting their rice, they release hundreds of ducklings into the rice paddies. The ducklings consume weeds that would otherwise compete with the rice. They also consume pests such as insects and snails. The ducklings fertilize the rice with their waste and oxygenate the water by their movements.

Sustainable, humane, and organically produced foods also tend to taste better.

The Azolla fern is also grown on the farm. This plant helps to fix nitrogen into the soil as it feeds the ducks, provides cover for the fish from predators, and provides habitat for critters that also help feed the ducks.

By manipulating the natural processes on their farm, the Furuno family’s level of production is amazing. With only three hectares of land, they yield 7 tons of rice, 300 ducks, 4,000 ducklings, and sufficient vegetables for a hundred people.

Japan is a relatively small country. When including the entire Japanese archipelago, the total landmass is about 142,000 square miles. The Furuno farm is twice as productive as other conventional Japanese farms – not 80% as productive as Mader’s study would indicate. Twice as productive. With this kind of yield, 2% of the Japanese people could farm and feed their nation, organically and sustainably.

Eduardo Suiza’s Sustainable Fois Grais

Sustainable, humane, and organically produced foods also tend to taste better. Eduardo Suiza has been helping to prove this. Recently he took 1^st place in the Cu de Cois Culinary Competition for his legendary fois grais.

Chef Dan Barber explained that fois grais literally means to force feed geese or ducks a massive amount of food. This makes their liver expand by a factor of eight, a practice many see as inhumane. Eduardo Suiza uses an entirely different approach. He lives by the concept of giving the geese what they want. On his farm, he has everything the geese might need – olives, figs, lupin bushes and other plants to feed the geese.

In the fall, the temperature drops and Eduardo’s geese gorge themselves in preparation for the coming winter. After the geese gorge themselves, Eduardo slaughters some of his birds. This makes a more natural, more humane, and better tasting fois grais. His geese are so content; they invite wild geese flying by to join them. These regular additions to the flock voluntarily stay.

Examples of a sustainable approach to food production can be found all over the world. Thankfully, not all of these examples are in small-scale farming. In the Seville province of Spain, located 10 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, another example of sustainable, high quality agriculture thrives.

Veta La Palma 27,000 Acre Farm

Aquaculture has been instituted on an island farm, and their productivity and quality has caught the attention of the world. The original owners planned to create a cattle ranch so they dug canals to drain the water away. Despite their best efforts, the area was poorly suited for dry farming or raising large amounts of cattle, so eventually the property changed hands. The new owners had a different concept; they reworked the canals to reverse the water flow back inland. The result: Veta La Palma.

Here was a company trying to solve what’s become this unimaginable problem for us chefs. How do we keep fish on our menus?” – Dan Barber

Veta La Palma is a 27,000 acre farm with an amazing annual yield –1,200 tons of fish and shrimp. This aquaculture is self-sustainable; there is no need to feed the fish, as the fish feed themselves. There is no need to feed the shrimp, as the shrimp also feed themselves. In addition, the fish have attracted more than 250 different species of birds (some of which are endangered), and many of these birds fly to the farm from over 150 miles away. One might think that losing fish to the birds is the last thing anyone in aquaculture would want, but the farm is so productive they can feed the birds as well. Veta La Palma has become the largest bird sanctuary in Europe as a well as an incredibly successful fish farm.

Organic agriculture is seen by some as low-tech, and it is often described in terms of what it isn’t rather than what it is. Organic agriculture is agriculture without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. But it is so much more. Organic agriculture isn’t low tech; far to the contrary, the techniques used in organic agriculture today would astound the farmers of days past. True, sustainable, organic farming is a holistic approach to the microbes in the soil, the plants, the animals, and the relationships between them.

Barack Obama and Monsanto

In 2007, during the presidential debates, Barack Obama promised that if he got elected he would allocate more money for organic agriculture. Instead of honoring that promise, he appointed a man with ties to Monsanto, Tim Vilsack, to head the USDA. If we are to have change that we can believe in, it has become apparent that we must become the change.

Voting for change doesn’t necessarily bring change. Agribusiness votes, too, and they vote with their donations to politicians’ political campaigns. Monsanto, ADM, and other large agribusinesses are able to drown out the desires of the American people with huge sums of money.

Conclusion

Collectively we can change the world overnight by changing the way we spend our money. If we don’t want GMOs on the market, we can stop buying them. If we don’t want our foods grown in chemicals and sprayed with chemicals, we can stop buying conventional produce. And if we don’t want animals to be treated inhumanely, we can purchase our meats more selectively, as well. Together, by changing our buying habits, we can change the world. That’s change we can believe in.

Sources:

How I Fell In Love with a Fish – Veta la Palma, TED Talks
A foie gras parable – Eduardo Sousa, TED Talks
Jay Withgott and Scott Brennan, Environment The Science Behind The Stories (Boston: Pearson Education, 2011), 274.

Repurpose, Regrow, and Recycle – Food Waste Edition