Have you ever wondered why.......

[boggybranch]

....it takes our vegetable seeds 7-14 days to sprout and it only takes 22 minutes for a weed seed to sprout.

You never hear anyone say, "That youngun is growin' like a vegetable".

Sorry, got way too much time on my hands.

 

[ducks4you]

Maybe we should start cultivating the weeds, instead....

 

[boggybranch]

Maybe we should start cultivating the weeds, instead....

Yea....wouldn't have to worry to much about the last frost date to start planting....least ways, where I am. LOL

 

[digitS']

My favorite "weed," BoggyBranch:

orach

Tiny seedlings that sprouted in October will greet me when I first show up to work in the garden in the spring. They are the 1st vegetable from the garden and taste as good as spinach and they are sooooooo welcome !

Steve

 

[boggybranch]

My favorite "weed," BoggyBranch:

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h22/Digit_007/EarlySeason011.jpg
orach

Tiny seedlings that sprouted in October will greet me when I first show up to work in the garden in the spring. They are the 1st vegetable from the garden and taste as good as spinach and they are sooooooo welcome !

Steve

Oh yea.......the mountain spinach. Don't know of it growing anywhere around here. I assume that the seeds can be bought...if so, may give it a go.....love spinach and anything that tastes like it. Is it "cool weather" or can it stand up to the heat?

 

[digitS']

Lambs quarters is a real weed and very similar and they are both relatives of spinach. I like to collect some lambs quarters each year but will sow the orach. Later in the season, it will sow itself.

Yes, the seed is available. Johnny's has one they call Oracle. (The photo in the paper catalog is of a little larger plant than this tiny seedling.) It is a real pretty addition in a salad.

I plant it early, just before the self-sown plants are ready for harvest. I don't recall ever having sown it for a summer crop. I doubt if it would take much heat. Orach can certainly take the cold, however. I've never seen any real damage or loss over the winter.

Steve

 

[boggybranch]

Can you cook em like spinach or is it, basically, a salad "spinach".

 

[journey11]

I'll bet it's just packed with vitamins too, all that color. Wish it grew around here!

I can hardly find a dandelion in my yard because I eat the young greens, fritter the blooms and dig the roots for tea.

There's lots of weeds you can eat if you get real desperate!

But yes, it is a pitty that vegetables don't have the same will to live as weeds do. Maybe they're just a little spoiled! Ha.

 

[digitS']

Orach is so tender that it is real good in salad. As it grows, it becomes "stemmy" and you have to figure out how to deal with that. Maybe just harvesting the leaves . . .

But, I just have those 2 crops, the one that has self-sown in some unused corner of the garden (it will carpet an area so it's best to only allow 1 or 2 mother plants to go to seed) and the batch I get from planting seed early in the spring. The spinach comes along after awhile - those are both my favorite greens for salad.

You may have missed my adventures with dandelion roots, Journey.

Steve

 

[journey11]

You may have missed my adventures with dandelion roots, Journey.

Steve

Just went back and read it. I wasn't around back then. I will have to try that sometime for coffee. I am already accustomed to their earthy flavor in tea anyhow, so I'd probably be one of the few who'd like it. I have been trying to cut back my caffeine intake a little, but I look forward to the enjoyment of a cup of coffee WAY too much to give it up entirely.

<----me after half a pot of coffee, LOL