I'm researching edible plants for my NaNo story and one that I found was a common weed called sorrel. There are a number of different kinds of sorrel that have been used in salads, and as a green vegetable. They are high in vitamin A and C according to my sources.
I first discovered sorrel when I was a kid growing up in Seattle. Another kid introduced me to this weed she called "sour leaves." The leaves were easy to identify. All you did was pick them and eat them raw. The leaves taste sort of lemony and I really like them. I haven't seen them around Chicago but a couple of years ago I was hiking and there they were. I couldn't resist eating one and introducing them to my kids (with dire warnings about asking me before they ate any wild plants). Of course, as a kid, I didn't worry about minor details like whether they leaves were clean or if there were poisonous look alikes.
I'm keeping on track with my NaNo goals. I have 15,302 words so far. Yesterday I left for work around 10:30 AM and didn't get home until 11 PM but I made my 2000 word goal anyway. I consider that a minor miracle.
5 comments:
i'm not a big fan of tree photos...but you got me on this one. its a lovely shot.
congrats on the wordage on such a busy day!
Wishing you many, many more miracles.
A guy on the roofing crew I worked on for a while was from the Deep South, and would simply go into ditches on jobsites, and select his 'lunch'.
There is one plant in particular i remember him telling me, was entirely edible... after it was boiled, but not before.
It's in my memory; let me think about it. I mostly remember his statement:
"If you ain't gonna cooook it raht, it will KEEL yew"!
I'll post it if i recall today.
Cheers!
Thanks guys.
I like your story j.w. I've always been fascinated with edible wild plants. I hope you remember what it was he ate.
In fact, what I remembered was Comfrey; and what Larry was actually describing was a field collection in error; and interesting example of a 'folk warning' against plant similarity.
Fascinating.
http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/medicinal/comf.html
It explains why, one day, Larry got pretty sick from putting his collected 'greens' on his burger from Wendy's...
And no, I'm not making this up.
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