Dandelions Are Food, Not Weeds

It's food, not a weed.

Can a perfectly good food plant be labelled as a weed? Ask the common and much hated dandelion. 

Right now my garden is waiting for warmer weather before it can be planted out. My lawn, however, is bursting with greens that are ready to harvest. But they are weeds.

I made up my mind to try dandelion greens the day I saw them being sold in the grocery store. It was something I had never seen anywhere else, and it caused me to do a double take.

Is it a noxious weed to be poisoned and picked relentlessly in the quest for the perfectly useless lawn, or is it an agricultural crop sold in grocery stores? How can a weed be of value? The very definition of weed means "something of no value".

Either the grocery store is ripping people off charging them for a valueless product that can be picked in almost any yard in the country, or the system has been lying to us about so-called "weeds".

Turns out the system has been lying to us about weeds, and many, many other things. In this case, the weed known as dandelion is about as nutritious as non-weeds, like kale. It is also delicious, having a lighter taste, and more delicate texture. 

The entire dandelion plant is edible - greens, flowers, and roots. They contain anti-oxidants, are beautiful, and are one of the first flowers in spring making them very important for bees. They have been used as a healing plant for thousands of years, just not in lawn-loving North America.

Linda and I have been using dandelion greens in smoothies and salads this spring, and I can see no reason not to use them all year. I might even plant a few in my - gasp - garden. 

If I was a plant the system might mislabel me as a weed. I have often felt like a single dandelion in a flat field of green grassy monocultural conformity. Not to worry, what the system labels a weed can actually be very valuable and ultimately useful. 

Garden Mojo: Beans, Corn, and Squash

Only if every silk is pollinated will the cob have a full compliment of kernels.

This year we are growing corn for the first time in a long while. I am glad we did because I have discovered some new garden mojo. 

While working in the garden, and as the corn grew taller, I tuned into the magical music of wind rustled corn leaves. It is a sound both soothing, and invigorating, like falling rain, or ocean waves pounding on a sandy beach.

I have never stood in the middle of a corn field on a windy day, but I imagine that it must sound like a million pairs of hands clapping. Corn leaves in a symphony of rustling, applauding the forces of nature that allow it to create life in a uniquely beautiful form.

Pole beans starting up the corn stalks.

I discovered recently that each golden silky hair that emerges out of the cob's tip is connected to an individual kernel inside. Any silk that does not get fertilized by pollen falling from the male parts above, will result in a underdeveloped or missing kernel. 

I guess that makes sense from a scientific perspective, but it seems like more garden mojo to me.

This year we teamed our rustling corn patch with winter squash and pole beans. These are the plants of Three Sisters fame, developed by various North American native groups over thousands of years.

Native Americans know garden mojo, and have long considered the Three Sisters to be sacred. For a good reason - corn, beans and squash make for magical gardening, and nutrition.

"The three crops benefit from each other. The maize provides a structure for the beans to climb, eliminating the need for poles. The beans provide the nitrogen to the soil that the other plants use, and the squash spreads along the ground, blocking the sunlight, helping prevent the establishment of weeds. 

The squash leaves also act as a "living mulch", creating a microclimate to retain moisture in the soil, and the prickly hairs of the vine deter pests. 

Corn, beans, and squash contain complex carbohydrates, essential fatty acids and all eight essential amino acids, allowing most Native American tribes to thrive on a plant-based diet."

- from Wikipedia 

"Rustle, rustle, rustle." 

That is the sound of garden mojo at work.

Spring Eating

Our fridge purged and cleaned after spring eating. No bad food surprises hiding here.

Spring cleaning our home is something we do most years around this time. We also usually do a bit of spring eating. Occasionally the two go together.

Last week our menu consisted of whatever was in our fridge. We vowed to not go food shopping till our fridge was purged of all aged food items. It is a good way to make sure that you have a 100% circulation of food so as to minimize waste and maximize nutrient content.

When doing our spring eating we eat what needs to be eaten rather than what we want to eat. It makes for some interesting cooking when sticking to only what is immediately available. Old apples? Apple crisp. Carrots, celery, green pepper, onions, tofu? Stir fry. Or add a can of tomatoes and make pasta sauce.

It lasted longer than we expected, too. We hadn't been to the food store for over two weeks by the time we ate through everything.

After we noshed our way through most everything in the fridge, I cleaned it from top to bottom. Being mostly empty, it was fairly easy and fast. When that was done we stocked up with fresh munchables.

Now the fridge is clean and fresh, just like the food it contains. Here's to new beginnings. And home cooked fresh, whole foods.

Calorie Confusion

Most Westerners would benefit from eating fewer calories, and eating better food.

What if health experts are as wrong about how many calories we need as they are about our food pyramid and the types of foods that are best for us? I suspect that we have been scammed so that we eat not only the wrong foods, but also eat more food than we need.

How many calories does a person need to be healthy? It depends on the individual, and it depends on who you ask.

"Health authorities around the world find it hard to agree on how many calories their citizens should ideally consume. The US government says the average man requires 2,700 calories per day and the average woman 2,200, while the NHS (National Health Service), UK, says it should be 2,500 and 2,000 respectively. 

The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) of the United Nations says the average adult should consume no less than 1,800 calories per day."

Below are the caloric values of the three main components of the food we eat:

1 gram of carbohydrates contains 4 calories
1 gram of protein contains 4 calories
1 gram of fat contains 9 calories.

A restricted caloric diet may slow aging and extend lifespan. It improves the health of a variety of species including yeast, earthworms, fish, rodents, dogs and rhesus monkeys. Why not humans too?

Scientists do not yet know if such results are applicable to us, but it is likely that eating fewer, better calories will yield health benefits.