a scent of salad

If you'll notice, for the most part I've here listed wild plants not from garden. I'm sadly green thumb-challenged. So I compensate by going feral. A number of bennies spring forth ... Among them: 1) Those found edibles grow naturally, don't need any help from me. 2) They're pesticide-free, by gosh. 3) Nutrient dense as compared to store-boughts/garden-growns. 4) I can brag that nonwinter seasons bring me bounty free of cost. While the prices on groceries continue to leapfrog one over another, I continue to live as cheaply as always. 5) Most of the time I've no idea of the names of what I eat in the way of wild greens. In fact, I don't need such knowledge. Generally it's the animals (woodchuck/groundhog, squirrel, rabbit, etc.) who point me in right directions. (Wonderful teachers they are.) 6) My one acre could support 50 people ... so long as they eat the quantity/way I do. 7) As the seasons progress, the available plant supply changes along with them. And I shift right with those changes, of course, in my choice of greens. 8) And miracle of miracles: Though in wintertime I rely on store-boughts that force me to take insulin to control blood sugar numbers, in the other seasons my insulin intake ratchets downward from early spring, to arrive at zero through summer and fall. That is, till the deadly chill of winter once more appears. 9) Etc., etc. I'll quit with nine. Don't want to bore the reader any more than may be necessary. Yours, Chuck

Relying on store-boughts forces my blood sugar too high. Nasty thing, that. Take a tip from me and select wild plants that are at least slightly bug-chewed. If the bugs like it, maybe I should. In fact, one of my issues with produce at market is lack of bugs infesting. Makes me downright suspicious. And I think rightly so. Yours, Chuck PS: Can't leave w/o adding: Foods have been bred so much for size, taste (including sweetness---consider, for example, the tomato), and appearance for so long, they've by now lost significant amounts of nutrients critical to human health. People most vulnerable to diabetes need low-volume meals with high-density nutrient content, and natural, unprocessed, whole foods. Foods, by the way, which as much as possible are locally grown. What agribusiness raises are monocrops, where entire fields, sometimes acres and acres (and sometimes many thousands of them), are dedicated to a single crop. Which of course over time saps the underlying soils of an important landscape of nutrients. And last but not least, I think the emphases on monocrops are largely responsible for the catastrophic demise of honeybees across the country. In other words, since they're forced to pollinate but one crop, they don't pick up the food varieties they need for bee/hive health. A health which is now sadly under prolonged attack additionally from airborne pollutions, ubiquitous pesticide applications (including those on suburban lawns), and by being limited to servicing an ever greater and greater volume of plants that've been forced to undergo high-risk genetic changes. I seem to recall something about---what is it?---unintended consequences. By gosh, they've arrived!

four of those little critters in your pic. I know the name of 'em, but can't place my brain's index finger on it at the moment. Thanx, Chuck

amen, amen. Thanx, Chuck