womp womp....

For a very brief period of time, we were in the process of buying a house.  I had begun cleaning out my attic, packing, planning summertime campfires, fantasizing about all the great wild plants that would be growing at my new place and storing all of my homegrown canned goods in the root cellar.
Alas, it was not to be.  Long story short, the neighbor is a complete nut job and made us beyond uncomfortable.  The only way we could, in good conscience, purchase this house is if the neighbor moved.
So, we regrouped and decided that the best course of action is to hang back for a bit, keep on where we are at and save more money.
Not really the route I wanted to take, but so it goes.  When life hands you lemons, make lemonade and hope it doesn't taste like shit.

 So, here we are.  Beltane is just a two days away, the dandelions are blooming, the violets are coming up and I've spotted my first bit of purple dead nettle in the yard!

Purple dead nettle (also know as the arch angel flower) is an unfortunate name for this plant as it is not a nettle at all, but in fact a mint!
The easiest way to identify any member of the mint family is to examine the stem.  If it's square, than it's a mint.  Being a member of the mint family, this plant is edible.  It has no aroma (that I've ever been able to detect) and it tastes rather green and refreshing.  It's one of my favorite spring greens.  I just go out into the yard and clip the plant, stem and all, into my salad.  It doesn't get very big, only a couple of inches, so I don't cut it up, I just eat the whole thing.
The leaves are quite fuzzy, which may take a little getting used to, but once you mix it into a salad or add it to a smoothie, you can't tell anyway.
Purple dead nettle is an annual and it doesn't hang around very long.  Once you spot one, pay attention; they will start popping up all over the place.  Many gardeners and landscapers hate this plant because it's incredibly invasive and can take over where ever the seeds land.  However, instead of freaking out over this highly nutrient dense plant, you should be eating it.
If you went out into your back yard right now, I'd hazard to guess you've got a bit of this growing somewhere.  As long as it hasn't been sprayed with anything, you should pick some and add it to your salad.  After this obnoxiously cold, long winter we've had our bodies need bright, nutrient dense, green things.
Thanks for reading this!

Hey!  It's me again :)  Hopefully I'll be around a lot more now.
A few major things have happened since I last posted, but a lot of things have stayed the same.
For starters, we adopted a new dog, Venkman (named after Peter Venkman, from Ghostbusters).  We found him at the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter.  We went in there not wanting a puppy or a male dog.  We left with a 3.5 month old male collie.
Having a puppy in the house is an adjustment.  You don't rest until he rests.  You can't leave anything out he might want to chew on (he has already ruined my French press, a pair of shoes, 4 books and the leg of my kitchen island...) and forget about relaxing in your favorite chair with a book until well after 9pm when he is pooped (incidentally, so are you).
I realize this is almost like having a child.  This is one of the many reasons why I don't wish to have kids.  We've had Venkman for almost 2 months now and he is pretty good and entertaining himself, doesn't really chew on anything that isn't his and is fully house broken.  Let's see a 6 month old human do that.

We have also started to look for a house.  FINALLY.  While this is amazing and wonderful news (I'm so ready to get out of my current home) it's incredibly frustrating.  I haven't signed up for any markets, I haven't started any seeds, planned a garden, really done any sewing.... nothing that I would normally be doing at this point in preparation for the crazy summer.  I didn't want to commit myself to anything and then find out I'm moving 30 minutes away in the opposite direction, or have to cancel because I'll be in the middle of a move.  While I know this is the best decision, it's driving me nuts.  I've supplemented by filling my window seat with house plants.  At least I can have an indoor garden that I can move with me, right?

UPDATE: We have made an offer on a house!  Ack!  While I'm thrilled, I'm also terrified.  Not at the fact that I'm going to own a house (go me!) but that I'm basically giving away my life savings as a down payment.  F*ck.  There goes all my money.
The upside is this house is AMAZING.  It has a F*CKING ROOT CELLAR!  Ahh!  It sits on an acre, there is a creek out back and a small decorative pond (that needs to be brought back to life) a huge kitchen, hardwood floors, a wood burning fire place and a nice enclosed porch.
The only requirement for me that it is missing is a fenced in area for the dog.  If anybody knows a good fence builder (that isn't too terribly expensive since we've already established I'm going to be broke) please send me their contact info!
If things go well, I shall be moving by the end of May.  I don't really plan on doing much gardening this year, just a lot of cleaning up, random yard work and really studying the property so I know what I'm working with for next year.  Give me a couple years and I'm going to have a full blown homestead.  Woot.

This is a blog about herbs, wild plants and living off the land (and let's be honest, me).  So, let's talk about a plant.
Dandelion.  It's one of the first real wild edibles you are going to come across this early in the year.  I've got a few popping up in my yard at the moment, but I don't get a lot until a few weeks into May because of the temperature in my yard.  Micro climate is a wonderful and fascinating thing.  My house faces West and I have a large Maple in back and a large Plum tree out front, so a good part of my property is shady and cool.  I go for a walk everyday and walk along a street that faces south and gets full sun.  Every house along that road has daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and dandelion flowers already.  The houses on my block just started to get their daffodils.  Go for a walk in your neighborhood and pay attention to directions and temperature.  It's pretty neat to see how one block is so much farther along than another in terms of what is blooming.

Back to dandelions.  The are starting to come up right now and they are tasty!  The greens are a great detoxifier and liver tonic.  Traditionally, after a long winter of eating nothing but root veggies, preserved meat and canned goods, a fresh salad of bitter spring greens was a godsend.  While it was tasty and delicious, it was also serving to help flush out all the toxins that had built up in the body over the long winter indoors.  While I haven't made a salad of dandelion greens yet (I don't have enough out there!) I have nibbled on a few leaves while outside with Venkman.  They are bitter, but that is the point.  We need bitters in our diet!

So, until next time (which will be way sooner than this last time) head outside, look for a dandelion and nibble on a leaf or two.  Your body, most notably your liver, will thank you.