Of my two garden locations - one in Shrewsbury, MA and the other in Wickford, RI, the RI site has sandy soil while Shrewsbury has clay soil. No purslane in Shrewsbury. Tons of it in RI! Good stuff!
Purslane! We have it growing as a weed in our gardens. Tastes like spinach and the leaves are thick so you've got some bulk when eating it. Fun fact! Thoreau ate purslane at Walden Pond and mentioned it in his book, On Walden Pond.
My little ones actually really like purslane, and our soil is so wet that we never have it as a weed. It really needs sandy soil to thrive...so we actually, believe it or not, plant it so they can snack on it from the garden.
I identify with this post so much! My son is 2.5 and it has been so interesting to discover the different things I can do during the different levels of his development. From mushroom hunting with a small baby on my back, to watching in delight as he learns to eat the weeds in my garden (sorrel is his favorite this year!). In my case there's been much more time for herbalism, but jobs like mucking out the goat pen need to wait for weekends when there's more adults around to watch. Homesteading is such a personal journey and it's been so wonderful to hear about yours, Ashley.
Chocolate mint. We grow a lot of it. I had a group of Africans to dinner and they looked at it and asked why I was growing it. I said "for tea". They said, we use that in Africa for women trying to get pregnant and who've had a history of miscarriages. His wife had two miscarriages, started drinking the tea, and now they have a son!
That's crazy, I didn't know that about chocolate mint! We mostly just bake with it, and make mint chip ice cream. I never thought to do tea, though we do plenty of herbal teas and I bet it's delicious, also good to know it seems medicinally effective too.
There are a lot of different common names for things in the galium genus, and just about every one of those plants goes by some variation of the names "cleavers" or "bedstraw." There are dozens of different plants there.
What exactly you have growing depends on where you live, and they're all a little bit different in appearance and growth habit. (The one we have here has white flowers, many have yellow, etc).
To the best of my knowledge they're all used the same way, but you'll want to really check into that and get a firm ID of the one growing near you.
(In short, yes, cleavers and lady's bed straw are common names that are used interchangeably, but they refer to a whole group of plants rather than one specific species.)
Of my two garden locations - one in Shrewsbury, MA and the other in Wickford, RI, the RI site has sandy soil while Shrewsbury has clay soil. No purslane in Shrewsbury. Tons of it in RI! Good stuff!
Purslane! We have it growing as a weed in our gardens. Tastes like spinach and the leaves are thick so you've got some bulk when eating it. Fun fact! Thoreau ate purslane at Walden Pond and mentioned it in his book, On Walden Pond.
My little ones actually really like purslane, and our soil is so wet that we never have it as a weed. It really needs sandy soil to thrive...so we actually, believe it or not, plant it so they can snack on it from the garden.
Plantain, thistle and wild violets...Loved your post, thanks Ashley!
Ooo, I missed thistle. Thank you!
Purple dead nettle, Lamium purpurea
Good one! I edited the list to add that one, thank you so much Carolyn!
Hey Ashley, could you recommend a great forging book with pictures for identification? Thank you!! Loved the article!
I identify with this post so much! My son is 2.5 and it has been so interesting to discover the different things I can do during the different levels of his development. From mushroom hunting with a small baby on my back, to watching in delight as he learns to eat the weeds in my garden (sorrel is his favorite this year!). In my case there's been much more time for herbalism, but jobs like mucking out the goat pen need to wait for weekends when there's more adults around to watch. Homesteading is such a personal journey and it's been so wonderful to hear about yours, Ashley.
Chocolate mint. We grow a lot of it. I had a group of Africans to dinner and they looked at it and asked why I was growing it. I said "for tea". They said, we use that in Africa for women trying to get pregnant and who've had a history of miscarriages. His wife had two miscarriages, started drinking the tea, and now they have a son!
That's crazy, I didn't know that about chocolate mint! We mostly just bake with it, and make mint chip ice cream. I never thought to do tea, though we do plenty of herbal teas and I bet it's delicious, also good to know it seems medicinally effective too.
There are a lot of different common names for things in the galium genus, and just about every one of those plants goes by some variation of the names "cleavers" or "bedstraw." There are dozens of different plants there.
What exactly you have growing depends on where you live, and they're all a little bit different in appearance and growth habit. (The one we have here has white flowers, many have yellow, etc).
To the best of my knowledge they're all used the same way, but you'll want to really check into that and get a firm ID of the one growing near you.
(In short, yes, cleavers and lady's bed straw are common names that are used interchangeably, but they refer to a whole group of plants rather than one specific species.)