🌿🌒 a new journal entry from journal - olive trees + moon
Hi friend,
There is a new entry on my journal, if you want to join me there! 🌸
With love from this hill,
Cat
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humble greens
By cat on Feb 22, 2021 04:59 pm
Today is such a beautiful, sunny day.
I’ve spent a good deal of time outside during the morning, hanging washed clothes on the line to dry, enjoying the chickens’ company and then just happily basking in the sun. The grass is green, butterflies swirl around, and one of our resident birds, the great tit, seems to have found some opposite-sex company. Fruit trees are budding, many are about to flower.
Wild greens (so-often called weeds) have also been happy, after a long and wet winter.
You know how much I appreciate the humble wild greens. They are some of my favorite herbs to work with, both for their profusion, adaptability and resilience. Also because they are so often over-looked, but yet have a hidden array of properties, of which our ancestors knew so much. I love to use them in medicine making and food, and have recently been inspired to juice them too, after this blog post.
These last few days, I’ve been working with cleavers, plantain and chickweed. I wouldn’t know how to describe the flavor of these juiced together other than… well, green. You know the green taste, don’t you? Grassy. But not at all unpleasant.
Cleavers, for instance, is a plant I’ve been using consistently as a tincture (which I’ve made from the garden), but I’m interested in taking notice of my body when the plant is used fresh.
The process for the simple juice is pretty straightforward (just as I like it!)
a handful or two of just-harvested wild greens of your choice
a cup of water (or apple juice if you’re feeling fancy!)
I use the immersion blender for a while and then strain, pressing gently to extract as much liquid from the plant material as possible.
So, so green.
So here is my invitation to you, if you’re new to it. Get to know your local humble weeds this growing season by using them fresh, either on food or as a simple juice (a good while ago I shared a wild greens pie recipe that is still a favorite in our house!).
As always, be responsible and safe when harvesting, be 200% sure of what you’re collecting, and cross-check references for any new herb you’re working with. I always suggest folx to grab a couple of good bioregional plant guides, and take an experienced forager friend along in any new foraging adventure.
Have fun being the landscape :: eating the landscape in your bioregion, and do share with me any new or well-loved recipes you’re making this spring with these humble and resilient plant friends! 💛