Wild Gardiner

Over years, I find my line between wild and foraged blurs. Wild ramps are rare in Maine but they grow here. Consider planting some in appropriate places on your own property or maybe even introducing them where you forage. This is a delicious allium that will.grow easily in a shady moist woodland. Out in Michigan I saw (envy- inducing) acres of it, growing in sheets  mingled with white trillium, Dutchman's breeches and marsh marigold, so plant in habitats like where you find these. There are several sources to buy to get started in Maine advertising in groups such as foragers marketplace. I actually started my patch from some bundles that were being sold for the table out of the back of a car.    Keep in mind if you introduce plants from outside your area that you don't want to introduce something unwanted with the soil. Insects, fungal plant disease, weed  seeds, toxins from past treatment and jumping worms are all possible unwanted guests. Best practices ...

Early spring has me thinking about the difference between how I shop for food and the flavors of foraging. The staples I get at the store are heavy on oils and carbohydrates, sugar and fat. Sugar is the open flame of our diet, fast and sometimes destructive energy source. It rises first in the awakening circulation of barky ancients, spring sap, that morning jolt to start the cycle. Sugar in the deep throat of flowers is the sexual lure that enrolls foreign kingdoms in the mating dance of plants. Insects collect it…honey from flowers, honeydew from sap of plants. Animals are offered sweet fruit in exchange for depositing and fertilizing the next generation in new locations. Sugaring is the very earliest moment in the ritual of spring, collecting sap and drinking it directly, sweet icicles dripping of broken twigs the simplest way to do it. Or gathered in buckets and boiled down to syrup, or all the way to sugar. Fats are the batteries where the flame can be converted and held for l...

   Spring Tonic It looks like spring is here early judging by the buds on the dandelion (above). No doubt there will be more freeze, maybe even another snow, but the snowdrops are finishing off, winter aconites and crocus are in full bloom.Day lily shoots are peeking up. Daffodils are budding and tulips have emerged. Trees are budding. I need to go look for poplar buds this week, lest I miss them. I think I will post to see if anyone has seen them out yet. Will fiddleheads be early? Nettles and dandelions are up. I think it may be time for a first reconnaissance for spring foraging. Yellow dock Early spring reveals ultra microclimates in the terrain. Over here, clods of rocky snowbank persist under a coat of leaves and needles. On the sunny side of the same path new growth has pushed its way up through the same cover. Too-early dandelion leaves are dainty but frost blackened, but a new flush is starting to emerge. There is a narrow window between roots and tubers still...