A Good Weed
May 22nd, 2006 by Northern FarmerWe finished another field of corn today from start to finish. Plowed it, picked the rocks, disked it and then planted it. All done now, I mean with that field. Two more to go. I’ll head out to one of them tomorrow if all goes well. Two more calves born today so far and all is going well on that front. We’ll have to catch a bunch of cow/calf pairs later this week and move them out to pasture with the ones we moved out last week. So things are on the move up here where the frost is still making the ground white in the morning. That should be stopping soon, I think, and then out go the plants from the house.
The other evening I was weeding in the garden and I noticed a weed that got my attention last year. It’s called Lambs Quarters and it’s known as a bad weed in this part of the country. Now last year some Mexicans that I know were over here picking a bunch of our surplus peppers in the garden and I noticed they got all excited with my good crop of weeds. Heck, they cleaned up the whole garden, put it in bags and said them weeds were really good to eat and they always ate them down in Mexico. Now things like this in life catch my attention, quick, I like food you know. But as things would be I never tried it last summer. This past winter I was reading in my old Foxfire Books that it’s a tasty, very healthy plant from Europe that basically turned into a weed over here. So we picked a bag full and this evening the wife cooked some of it up like cooking spinach, and wow, that stuff is good. Tastes very similar to spinach, the Foxfire Book says it has the same nutritional value as spinach, so what the heck, eh. Talk about the Lord providing, if anyone would see our garden they’d see we were really being provided for as far as Lambs Quarters goes. Kinda a manna from heaven I figure. A food I love and it’s everywhere. Now I won’t feel so bad in August when it’s so hot the weeds get away from us and seed out, now there’s a purpose to letting some weeds grow, eh! Things have a way of working out!
May 22nd, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Glad to hear that they were pretty good. I think I’ll still pass on it. You might like this blog also. Some different farming techniques in Africa I believe. Address is http://texasinafrica.blogspot.com Have a good eveing and good day tomorrow. Glad to hear that you corn planting is almost done. Be Blessed.
May 22nd, 2006 at 7:48 pm
Tom,
As a teenager, my grandmother had us pick lambs quarters so that we could all eat it. Obviously the generations before us knew it was good, but the last couple of generations seem to have lost that information.
Jim
May 22nd, 2006 at 8:12 pm
Hi Tom! I have a neat little book called Peterson’s Guide to Edible Wild Plants. You’d probably be shocked and delighted at how many of what most people would consider pesky weeds are actually nutritious and capable of sustaining life in the wild should you ever find yourself in a predicament. Such is God’s wisdom……too bad mankind always thinks it can do better, eh? “Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food……God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. - Genesis 1:29,31″ Amen?
May 23rd, 2006 at 3:49 am
PJ,
Thanks for the link, and you don’t know what your missing in the food department. Good stuff, unless you hate spinach.
Jim,
I sure do agree with the recent generations losing the information that’s been around a long, long time. But even when we think we are getting away from the industrial culture of death, we’re still heavily programed in it’s thinking. My Dad always says that you can train people to eat sh… I mean manure and sooner or later they’ll prefere it. And I think that is so apparent today with the poor excuse they call food that they’re trying to pass off as healthy food. Thinking back to my grandparents, they were always eating some foods that people nowadays would never dream of. And it was all good stuff.
Emily,
“Amen?”…… Yes, yes, yes!!!! Excellent comment! And to keep going from my last comment, we have good food that the Lord is surounding us with, more nutritious than anything a person could buy from the industrial culture, and we go running back to the junk that the world wants us to eat. Food that gives profit to those that hate God. Simple, eh. Thanks Emily!
Tom
May 23rd, 2006 at 6:54 am
Tom,
You are right that our grandparents ate things that people would never dream of today. My grandparents ate clabbered milk, chicken feet, heart, liver, pork that was preserved by cooking it and then pouring all the lard over the top of the meat, sauerkraut, head cheese, etc. Nothing was wasted. My grandmother talked about eating black birds. I also remember talk about vegetables that you rarely hear about today, like salsify. We would probably be better off if we followed their example.
Jim
May 23rd, 2006 at 10:04 am
Jim,
I’ve heard mentioned sparrow breast pie, the oldtimers would put a sparrow trap in the haybarn and get a meal put together. This fall when butchering our hillbilly hogs we’re going to be making liver sausage, head cheese, and blood sausage, besides regular sausage. I like blood sausage with barley in it! All this talk about good food is getting me hungry and i just ate some roast beef, mashed potatoes, vegetables simmered in butter, rubarb pie. Ahhh! This is really important to pass on to the next generation, all these ways of using good edible foods that modern society can’t make a profit from. In reality it boils right down to that, people are trained to think the processed boughten stuff is better, the big lie!
Now this is bringing back memories! Heck, we still save the chicken feet, besides most people do eat them at the fast food places, eh. Now for any folks out there that think your getting the so called better quality meat in lunch meats, chucken nuggets and so on, you had better keep thinking that if your sqweemish. Because, trust me, if your eating boughten processed meats like mentioned, there ain’t no part you haven’t eaten from a critter. Back to Jim, OK, I’ve eaten every single thing you’ve listed except blackbirds, maybe try em later
Gotta get back out plowing now!
May 23rd, 2006 at 5:24 pm
I am hungry. Wahhhh!! But the blood sausage doesn’t sound good. If it just had another name.
May 23rd, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Hey Tom
Next time you kill a young coon, cook it up for supper, its one of my favorites:)
Cut ALL the fat off, then go back and cut ALL the fat off again. Soak it in some salt water, then parboil it, then check for more fat. Cut it up like chicken and fry it. Rich and tasty meat. Takes some time to prepare it but its worth it. If you don’t defat it good it will be the worst meat you ever eat.
Gee Whiz Tom…..perhaps we should co-write a Homesteader Life/Northern Farmer Cookbook.
May 23rd, 2006 at 6:12 pm
KSMM,
In reality blood sausage is very good, and the blood is a minor part of the makeup of the stuff. If your ever in the area up here you’ll have to try out some German/Polish recipies! Best food ever.
Scott,
I never had coon for supper but I have a cousin that does all the time, and he swears by it. It must be kinda like the bear I was eating these last few months, great stuff until a person hit some fat, or some sort of fat. Then watch out. I’ll be on the lookout for coon soon during sweet corn season.
One thing is for sure, there’s alot of good grub out there for the eating, and I’m blessed with a mind that doesn’t turn sqweemish. I don’t know how well our recipies would go over in a cookbook though