Chickweed: Cooling herb and tasty too! Backyard Groceries

EAT IT RAW.....ON SALADS....COOLS YOUR HEAD IN THE SUMMER AS A COMPRESS RIGHT OUT OF THE GROUND

What gets praise from some and cursed by others? Costs $15 per pound to buy and kill?

       THESE LITTLE WEEDS!

 

While reading online I realized some farmers are growing dandelions ON PURPOSE! Most local folks I know cuss this weed every summer as they try to keep it out of their manicured landscaping. I've been caught "looking normal" several times picking these weeds out of my yard too, but little do they know, I have been forcing my family to eat these little flowers, their leaves, and roots for a few years now.  Actually, I only had to "force feed" them once, then they were hooked!  "Tempura Dandelions" seems to be the favorite around here! And with our five year old, anything he can dip in ketchup is a BIG HIT!  Just get a Tempura batter recipe you like and dip the flowers and greens in the batter, fry, and you have a great snack that beats tater tots!  Plus, It's a great conversation piece!!  "What are you cooking tonight, Jane?"...."Oh, I don't know, maybe some yard clippings, Bob."  

If you're into the healthier non-deep-fried treat, not to worry, try picking a few of the leaves and new flowers to add to your favorite green salad for additional vitamins and color!  Also, the greens on these little weeds are great cooked just like spinach or sauteed with some olive oil and onion.   The flower buds can be made into pickles and there are numerous recipes for dandelion wines, jelly, root tea, and anything else you can imagine out there on the internet. 

Bewildering as it is, some people spend $15 per pound to kill the dandelions from their yard while others buy the teas and roots for about the same price to increase the health of their livers and digestive system....GO FIGURE! Actually, with the cost of Garden Weasels, Weed Whackers, Roundup, and intensive labor invested in the destruction of this deep rooting, fast growing plant, I'm sure the price-tag to destroy the dandelion FAR exceeds $15 per pound!  

So, let me offer you the following solution:  Take-a-break, America!  Sit back, relax with some dandelion root tea, enjoy the beautiful yellow speckled yards, mix up a pot of dandelion greens and BE VERY THANKFUL you never have to worry about killing this wonderful, culinary herb ever again!  

Fun uses for a Cat's Tail!!! I like mine roasted with butter!

The Many Uses of a Missouri Water Weed:  Typha latifolia a.k.a Cattail.


No other plant on Earth provides more useful substances than the common Cattail.  Euell Gibbons, called it the Supermarket of the Swamp!  The more I study the plant the more I tend to agree that this plant is a miracle!  So why isn't it more popular?    

Note the spikes on the top.  This is where the "male flower" sat  in  May and June!

This little plant has been found, scattered throughout history and used by our ancestors, worldwide, for thousands of years.  Powdered remains of the plant were found on stone grinders from ancient Egypt. Indian tribes in American used cattail as food, insulation, lighting, and herbal medicine.  I believe the cattail's heyday is not long-gone!  Products made from the cattail seem like a more healthy alternative to many industrial products offered today!  

 Uses for the Cattail in 2013

The cattails root or rhizome harvested through ice.   

1.  FOOD.  The male flower (the top portion of the cattail harvested in May and June here in Missouri) can be cooked and eaten like "baby corn on the cob".  The inner stalk at the base of the plant tastes like bamboo shoots shoots or firm asparagus.  Just cut off the plant at the base, peel off the outer leaf layer and munch the white center pieces.  Eat it raw, in stir fry, or as you would any other veggie. The new spring shoots can be eaten just like asparagus and in the book Stalking the Wild Asparagus they are referred to as "Cossack Asparagus".   The Root or rhizome can be peeled, dried, and ground up for flour or used in much the same way as the potato.  The root is about 60% starch and can be harvested year round!  A great winter food source that literally grows like a weed and really needs no upkeep.  (Remember:  when harvesting any wild food, stay away from roadside sources and highly polluted areas.  Plants are natural filters...so, you're eatin' what your car is spittin'!) 

2.  WATER PURIFICATION!  These plants seem to just suck away bad stuff.  The cattail is being used right now among many others filtering plants in Arcata, California's constructed wetlands.  This area was once an eyesore and a trash heap the townspeople dubbed "Mt Trashmore". Now, the Arcata Constructed Wetlands houses thousands of marshland flora and fauna while naturally managing the areas sewage and pollution issues (without the use of typical purification chemicals like chlorine)

3. FUEL!  To be exact bio-fuel / ethanol!  Cattails are an abundant and rapidly replenished resource throughout the world.  They grow everywhere a little damp soil can exist. The cattail root and shoots are so full of carbohydrates they are a natural for ethanol production.  PLUS, they grow like a weed which means they take root anywhere without the use of fertilizers and pesticides! 

According to David Blume, author of Alcohol can be a Gas, "If each county were to cultivate a five-foot wide strip of cattail on each side of only 1000 miles of county-maintained roads,....mowers could shred up and harvest up to three crops of cattail each year, producing in theory up to 61 billion gallons of fuel(40% of the U.S. gasoline consumption)...."   

Lobelia Illegal to smoke! Proven effective as nicotine replacement to quit smoking, but banned anyway!

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/lobelia-000264.htm

Lobelia is an herb or wildflower with many uses.  It's been used as a sedative, an antiasthmatic medication,  and used to help folks quit smoking.( Please see above link). I researched this chemical and found out it is illegal to smoke Lobelia for medicinal purposes since the early 1990's. 

Apparently, Lobelia contains a chemical that some say could be dangerous when smoked as a nicotine replacement and other government officials just think smoking any herb, despite it's therapeutic properties,  is simply blasphemous and should be outlawed immediately!  Personally, I can't see how smoking Lobelia could possibly be more dangerous than Chantix!  Nearly 3000 people reported mental status changes, psychosis, suicidal ideations, etc the first four years Chantix was on the market. And, its still on the market!!!!  Raking in millions! 
Lobeline is the medicinal chemical contained in Lobelia that decreases your desire for nicotine.  Lobelia Inflata (I believe) contains the highest content of lobeline.  It can be purchased commercially and grown in flower gardens.   The flower in the photograph above is  Lobelia Cardinalis which can also be purchased commercially for flower gardens as seems much more attractive to me.
  According to some sources Lobeline has shown promising outcomes in tumor therapies and methamphetamine withdrawl.  So, why is it illegal to smoke?  Maybe someone smoked 10 plants and then reported to herb as toxic?  If that's the case than why isn't poison ivy illegal to smoke??  It's not illegal to eat 10 quarter pounders in one sitting even though we know you will probably get sick ?  Why is it illegal to smoke an herb that has beneficial uses?  Of course, if you abuse ANY natural medicine or herb you may get sick, but why make it illegal to smoke??  Maybe someone has more insight to share?