Edibles for Emergencies: Seeds, Wild Greens & Eating the Weeds
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” - Audrey Hepburn
In light of COVID19, we are witnessing an unprecedented interest in local supply chains, food security, health & wellness, and immunity. People want to take action, but where to begin?! In this article, we will explore how to transform our surroundings into a resilient edible ecosystem bursting with superfoods. To feed ourselves, and our family when we need it most. Fortunately, we don’t have to wait long to start harvesting: we can start seeds, eat the weeds, and harvest wild greens. This will mark the first in series about edible landscaping and emergency situations.
Yesterday marked the Vernal Equinox, the welcoming Spring, along with equal hours of daytime and night. This is the cusp of spring and winter, with equal darkness and light. In many ways, this parallels our current global situation: while there is great fear present, there is as much to give us faith! Important conversations are happening everywhere, and we are all being given an opportunity to pause and reflect on what really matters. While humans take a break from “business as usual”, nature is springing to life and filling this empty space. Dolphins and swans have returned to the canals of Venice. Smoke has cleared, and once polluted skies are now again blue. Families are spending time together in the sun. Passion projects are given energy and life. This is a once in a lifetime event on a global scale. Life will never be the same again, and maybe, just maybe, this is the beginning of the end of a long dark “winter” for humanity. Is this the first glimpses of “spring”? What is emerging from within this emergency? This is a choice point. We have the power to choose and respond how we move forward from here. The growing light is beckoning us to tend the earth, plant seeds, and work together with the forces of nature!
“Life does not accommodate you; it shatters you. Every seed destroys its container, or else there would be no fruition.” - Florida Scott-Maxwell
We are being called to transformation. As we move from the darkness into the light, winter into spring, we must protect and care for what is growing. We must care for our little seeds! We usually experience wild weather swings throughout the month, one day being balmy and warm, the next threatening snow. These are tumultuous times, for the plants as well! It’s important to protect seedlings and tender plants all throughout March, because you never really know what the weather will bring. In any case, with a little care, you could be harvesting very soon! If you get started with sprouting, you could be harvesting in a matter of days. In times of emergency, this means everything.
Sprouting - Grow Your Own Food (Fast)
Growing your own food can be quick and easy, and you don’t even need a garden! Sprouting is the easiest way to start seeds, and you can skip planting, and go straight to harvest. Sprouting seeds are a great non-perishable food item for emergencies, are lightweight for transportation, can easily be stockpiled (in a cool, dry place away protected from pests), and are bursting with high-density nutrients that feed the body and boost the immune system.
Link: 10 Best Benefits of Sprouts:
Link: How to Start Seeds in a Jar:
Link: Buy Organic, Non-GMO Sprouting Seeds:
“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Starting Seeds - Step-by-Step
Starting seeds successfully is one of the most rewarding and uplifting tasks in the garden. Unsuccessfully starting seeds is easily one of the most frustrating experiences, and to avoid this disappointment, it is important to follow best practices. Below you will find some principles and practices to get you started.
Step 1: Take inventory. What seeds do you have? What seeds do your neighbours, friends and family have? Purchase or trade locally if possible, or order online. Take inventory & choose what you can/want to grow. If you don’t have seeds, here are some links to a few of our favourite recommendations:
Seeds of Change - Quick Growers Collection (for short growing seasons and quick harvests)
Salt Spring Seeds - Heritage & Heirloom Organic Seeds:
Richters Herbs - Medicinal, Culinary & Aromatic Seeds & Plants
West Coast Seeds:
Step 2: Make a plan. Create a personal planting calendar. If you’re not sure what to start and when, check out the links below:
Planting Calender:
West Coast Seeds Planting Chart (Canada):
Step 3: Choose how much to grow. How much space do you have? What are the dimensions of your plot? Grow a bit extra to offset losses, you can always give some away if you have too much. Seedlings make a great gift/trade. Use the crop planning chart below to help estimate how many seeds you’ll need:
Crop Planning Tool: https://www.westcoastseeds.com/pages/crop-planning-tool
Step 4: Use clean pots/trays with good drainage to prevent disease.
Step 5: Fill pots/trays with a high quality organic potting mix, and/or prepare a seeding bed outdoors with good, fluffy soil tilth. Those little seedlings are strong for their size, but clumps of soil or clay will make their lives more difficult than necessary.
Step 6: Label your seedling as you are planting them! Forgetting is far too easy, so label them as you go, with name/date.
Step 7: Double check you are planting your seeds at the right time. Timing is everything! Don’t start too late or too early. You want to make sure there is a smooth transition into transplanting. Consult your planting calender and read on the seed packages to confirm. Follow the other directions on the package!
Step 8: Fill containers with potting mix, and when planting seeds, cover the seeds with soil 3x the width of the seed.
Step 9: Gently and evenly water the soil. Using a spray bottle can help.
Step 10: Encourage germination by keeping the seedlings warm with a plastic cover. You can also use a heating pad to encourage sprouting.
Step 11: When the seed has sprouted, ease off on the watering, let the soil dry out before watering again, and remove plastic covers to prevent moisture related diseases. Delicately stir the soil around the seedling with a toothpick or fork to increase aeration and maintain soil health. Most trouble with starting seeds is because of dampness and stagnancy, in the soil or in the air.
Step 12: If you have been heating the seedlings, remove the heat at this time.
Step 13: Keep the air moving! If in a cold frame, keep the lid open, and vent greenhouses.. Use a gentle fan for indoor plants. Once again, dampness and stagnancy kills seedlings!
Step 14: Harden your starts off slowly, exposing them to gradually to the outdoors over four or five days. On a sunny warm day, place the starts in full shade, and bring them in at night. For the next few days, leave the starts in dappled shade, gradually increasing exposure to the sun, leading up to several hours in direct sun on the third day. On the fourth day, plant the starts in their final location, ensuring plenty of watering. Some starts may benefit from a light shade cloth while they recover, so keep a close eye on those little plant babies!
Above: Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata)
Wild Greens
If you’re late to starting seeds, don’t worry, Mother Nature was already on it. There are countless edible wild greens emerging from the Earth at this time of year. Many wild greens are not only edible, but highly nutritious and medicinal as well. The bitterness may take some getting used to, but it’s just what the doctor ordered! Through domestication of many of our most common vegetables, we bred out the bitter flavours, but unfortunately, these bitters are the most beneficial nutrients. These bitters are particularly good for cleansing our system after the winter, particularly the liver and lungs. Fortunately, wild greens contain many of these bitter nutrients, and spring and fall are excellent times for harvesting them, just when the body needs them most. A great book for identifying, harvesting, preparing, and eating wild greens is “Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate” by John Kallas, PhD. This book, pictured above, provides excellent information and illustrations, and even better recipes. Fortunately, you probably don’t need to go far to find these edible wild plants: check your own garden.
“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Spring Weeds: The Easiest Edibles
If you want to talk about low-maintenance edible plants, just take a look at the weeds! ! Harvest those “weeds” from your garden, and add them to a spring salad. Many of these weeds would be distasteful on their own, but in a diverse mixed salad with 20 or 30 other greens, they add a really nice zing! Here is a list of common edible weeds that you can start harvesting during this time of year:
Miner’s Lettuce - a mild and delicious wild green loaded with minerals, with a very fresh taste. Great for eating fresh and getting started on edible weeds.
Chickweed - another tasty wild green that fixes nitrogen into the soil, and is very nice fresh. Grows well with Miner’s Lettuce, and usually harvestable at the same time. Snip off and enjoy last inch or two, allowing the plant to regenerate.
Stinging Nettle - harvest with gloves, and enjoy as tea or steamed. Incredibly nutrient dense, this is one of the healthiest greens available.
Dandelion - these leaves are quite bitter, but this bitterness brings great health benefits, especially for the liver and digestive system. Eat the young greens raw, and steam the older ones, adding herbs, nuts and healthy fats to make it more palatable.
Cat’s Ear - This plant has leaves that look almost exactly like a dandelion, but with rounded tips and slightly fuzzy looking, hence the name Cat’s Ear. This is a surprisingly sweet and mild taste as compared to a dandelion.
Sheep Sorrel & Wood Sorrel - these greens are quite sour, but tasty nonetheless, which adds a nice zing to salads. According to the Michael Castleman in “The New Healing Herbs”, Sheep Sorrel is one of the most antioxidative known herbs, as well as being great for regulating blood sugar.
For help identifying these weeds, as well as safe practices and guidelines, check out the following link for colour photos and additional information:
Link: Edible Weeds that are Safe to Eat and How to Use Them
What’s Next? Upcoming Articles
In this upcoming series of articles, we will discuss building healthy soil, conserving water, minimizing maintenance, harvest and preservation, edible forest gardening, and much more. Stay tuned for the next one!
Online Coaching, Consultations & Remote Design Services
Do you have a project on the go, or on your mind? Looking for some extra guidance?
We are exploring new ways to be of service in this time of great change. We are now offering online coaching sessions, consultations, and remote design services while we navigate the challenges of social distancing and widespread quarantine. If you’re quarantined or just being safe, it is possible to work together without needing to speak face-to-face.
Through live video-chats, we can get to know each other, learn about your vision, address your challenges, and help you come up with a plan for your landscape. Once we’ve walked through your landscape digitally, we can visit in person for a physical assessment, gather the information we need, and carry on with the design process as per usual. Depending on the site and your needs, it may even be possible to create a plan without a site visit.
If this is something that you are interested in, whether an online coaching session or a published design, we are here to support you and your family in this challenging yet promising time. We look forward to being of service!
We’d love to hear about your vision and needs, and how we might be able to help. We like to get started with an initial 20 Minute Phone Consultation, to get to know each other, answer your questions, and get your project headed in the right direction.
We look forward to connecting! Let’s Talk.
“”In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” ”