Out and about with my smallest grandson, we were commenting on the plants and flowers we could see. Apparently I know all the flowers, at least according to the little chap. If only! But it seems that when he is out and about with his parents and nobody knows the name of the flowers and trees his advice is, “We’d better ask Grandma!” I doubt I’ll remain the fount of all knowledge forever but it’s nice to have a moment of fame.
He’s also on the lookout for blackberries because he remembers foraging for blackberries and apples last September. And I remember our son Joel’s bumper crop of grapes last year - not enough to make wine but they made some fine jam. I got into conversation about this sort of thing with our next door neighbour as we hung our washing out in the sunshine this morning. She has various plants developing nicely in a sort of plastic mini-greenhouse/propagator in the garden. This includes pumpkins, which grew nicely last year. She’s from Florida so I think she likes to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.
Its a bit early for foraging as yet unless you want to forage for wild garlic, which grows in profusion in a wooded area close to home, and dandelions, the leaves of which make a nice salad, so long as you pick the ones far away from the traffic and lead-pollution. According to this article all parts of the dandelion are edible, even the flowers which can be added to risotto or omelettes. Who knew?! However, it seems that too many people are foraging for profit, seeking items that can be sold on for profit to trendy restaurants. Consequently they are disturbing the balance of nature. There we go again, messing up the environment!
One thing that surprised me in the article was the woman who takes her children foraging for nettles, of all things. She said: “That is a fun activity to do with the kids, going into the woods, nettles are everywhere and not that many people use them but they are really nutritious, they are higher in iron than spinach and they are sustainable.”
I have heard of people making nettle wine and nettle tea but I have never before heard of them as a substitute for spinach. You don’t see Popeye swallowing down tins of nettles; it lacks a certain something. That lady uses them in her own restaurant. I have visions of her children being taught to ‘grasp the nettle’ in order to avoid the sting. It’s not easy, as I have found to my cost pulling up the occasional Indonesian (or Japanese or whatever nationality) balsam plants which try to take over our woodlands.
Seriously though, it seems that in our desire to get back to nature and to eat natural products we may be putting our places of natural beauty at risk. This is not the first time. I remember a lot of fuss last year when a beauty spot in Cornwall was invaded by people picking wild garlic to sell to restaurants and makers of pesto.
Then there are the animals. During the pandemic lockdown we were entertained with stories of goats invading the silent centre of a village in Wales. Goats are fine, although they are quite well known for eating almost anything left around; the outskirts of Buenos Aires was invaded by capybara, a much bigger beast altogether. And more recently there has been an outcry in parts of Germany because of wolves attacking livestock. Around here we just have more deer than ever there used to be thirty or more yeas ago.
According to Simon Schama, who I always thought was a historian rather than an expert on the environment, we have messed up our relationship with the natural world. This became evident, he says, when we saw how nature crept back into out cities during the pandemic - hence the goats feeling confident to go into the suddenly people-free centre of the Welsh village. The increase in capybara and wild boar and the like, however, has been partly brought about by our stealing their habitat, draining swamps and cutting down woodlands to make way for housing developments. But as well as provoking animal invasions into housing estates, our interfering with and upsetting the balance of things leads to the easier spread of certain diseases. His article on this topic is rather disturbing, to say the least. Quite a scary read in fact! Worth reading.
Maybe we need to be preparing for another pandemic!
It’s a good job the sun is shining today. Otherwise I might grow quite pessimistic!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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