Our War Dead and the Dead of Our Wars

May 26, 2012

This is Memorial Day weekend, a time when we Americans remember our dead – especially our war dead. And in this decade-plus of perpetual war, which started with a terrorist act (not an act of war) that killed nearly 3,000 civilians here, another 6,500 American military personnel have died in our two wars. Add to that the journalists, NGOs and other American civilians who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have lost around 10,000 Americans to these wars. That’s a lot of deaths to remember this Memorial Day.

However, that is not the extent of the dead of our wars. Although we do not remember the deaths of enemy military on our memorial day, we might do well to at least remember the civilian deaths, since it was our own civilian deaths on 9/11 that were used to justified the two wars we were in for most of this decade. Estimates on Iraqi civilian deaths range from 68,000 to 100,000; add to that an estimated 4,000 civilian deaths in Afghanistan and, with our drone campaigns, in Pakistan and Yemen. These may not be “our” war dead, but they are most certainly the dead of our wars. And, like our own civilians on 9/11, they did not ask for what happened to them; they were ordinary mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and children living ordinary lives when they were attacked. We do not know the exact numbers of these dead (as we do our own) for they are the collateral damage – the two most disgusting words in the English language, as far as I’m concerned – about whom General Tommy Franks famously said, “We don’t do body counts.” Yet their loss has caused the same anguish to their loved ones and friends that our dead have caused us.

So, why would I feel it important to remember these dead of our wars on our day of remembrance for our war dead? First, because they are fellow human beings and there is a grave danger to our own humanity when we dismiss them, as our government would, as collateral damage. I’m convinced that a good part of our own internal strife over these wars comes from our unwillingness to come to grips with this. Look deeply into the eyes of our returning combat veterans and you will see this same strife, even in those who deeply believed in these wars. This is the human cost of war – not only to our “enemies”, but to ourselves.

Second, even as we remember our own dead from these wars, the Empire is fully ready to go on to the next war with Iran. We have surrounded that unlucky country with military bases over the last few years, filled the Arabian Gulf with warships and shipped billions of dollars of new arms to Israel even though Iran has not attacked us, does not have one single nuclear bomb and does not have the means to deliver it, if they were capable of building one in the next few years. Yet, with all our angst about being “dragged” into war once again, we ordinary Americans never stop to ask ourselves how it is, that an Empire that is truly unwilling could be dragged anywhere.

Why? Because we cannot, will not, see these dead of our wars in the same way we see our war dead – fellow human beings, brothers, sisters, family. And until we do, we will be constantly propagandized to send our own into the meat grinder of the dying Empire’s wars. The toll of our war dead will go ever higher, as will the dead of our wars across the world. The human cost of war will continue to rise as the financial costs mount until –perhaps with this next war – the Empire  finally collapses and we, too,  have become the dead of our wars. Who will be left to morn our war dead, then?

These Times of Declining EROEI

May 19, 2012

from freepic.com

The garden is in. I planted the last of the summer vegetables on Monday and, as it looks to be another hot, dry summer, I planted the corn, beans and squash in two big mounds – the three sisters of Indian legend. I did this, of course, in hopes the squash will provide ground cover to hold moisture in the soil for the corn and beans – and the okra I planted at the other end of the patch – and the beans will provide the nitrogen for the corn. Then I planted some melons next to the peppers and tomatoes in hopes the melons will provide some ground cover for them. When the lettuce, spinach and radishes have gone to seed, I’ll start a fall crop of them and add some more beets and carrots.

We’ll see how that turns out. For as long as I’ve been gardening here, I’ve considered my gardens a series of experiments – looking toward impending climate change, energy depletion and, now, old age. Because, it seems to me, all of these involve negative changes in EROEI – the energy returned on energy invested. This means I’m going to have to be cleverer in the way I use those declining returns, whether it involves the upheavals of changing weather patterns, the rising costs of fossil fuels or the slowing down of my own body as I age.

Like most doomers, I no longer believe I can affect the way we use those declining returns on a worldwide or even a national level. (That is why we call ourselves doomers, after all.) So, I look for ideas to affect them on a personal and, perhaps, more local level and write this blog hoping to share some of those ideas with you.

And, as I said last week, my own aging process as I try to maintain home and garden, seems as good a metaphor for the aging Empire and its determination to maintain a presence around the world as any other I can think of. Fortunately, I’ve learned – which the Empire has not – I can’t maintain business as usual, as I and the world around me changes.

I’m adapting. It’s a balancing act, decreasing my energy use, trying to use it more wisely as the local weather begins to bend with climate change and utility prices fluctuate. As I’ve said here before, the house was built in 1900, a little before the transition from oil lamps and wood heat to electric and gas around here. I’m trying to use that to my advantage.

Even though I tolerate heat less than I used to, rather than turn on the air condition with the first hot afternoon, I open the windows, use the fan, wet a washcloth to mop my face and arms and find I can do quite well without the air conditioner.

The cleaning and laundry get done less often and in smaller chunks of time and that’s all right. I’m the only one living upstairs, here, so I can set my own pace. I do what I can on my own to maintain the overall health of the house and pay others to do what I can’t while I have the money to do it.

I get outside earlier in the day, while it’s cooler and the garden is still in shade from the old walnut tree as the sun rises. I use my long handled hoe to turn the soil and weed between the rows rather than power tools. It’s easier to keep my balance, good exercise and the only energy I use is mine. I still get down on my hands and knees to plant or do the close weeding – though getting back up is more ungainly than it used to be. As with the household chores, I do these things in smaller chunks of time and rest more, in between.

My yard is large enough that I can expand the garden and collect more rain water, put in a few laying hens and, as they say around here, make do or do without as times get tougher. I don’t have ten acres and a mule, nor do I need them. I’m not thirty anymore; I’m one aging woman striving to make my own way, work with my neighbors where I can, help others when I can while enjoying the process as much as I can. My plan is to do that as long as I can and when I can’t anymore, die with as much dignity and as little trouble to myself and others as I can.

I don’t mind that. I don’t fret a lot over it. And, so far, I rather enjoy it. We humans were around for a long time without much more than our wits and our own energy, before we managed to outwit ourselves so badly. Each of us have to find our own plan for these tough times and that’s my plan. My guess is, it’s as good a plan as any in these times of declining EROEI.

A Little Advice for an Aging Empire in Slow Collapse

May 12, 2012

U.S. Geological Survey – Public domain image

It’s wearing, this slow collapse. One morning, Europe is failing rapidly despite all that austerity. The next day, I read the European PTB have decided (at the behest of all those angry voters with their pitchforks and torches, I’m sure) austerity is now passé and growth is the new fix.

For almost a week, our stock markets slide downward at the news of what those angry European voters have wrought, then suddenly they’re continuing their upward trajectory – perhaps on the news that growth, like greed, is now good again. This week, it’s down again on some other whim. The economic news bounces around like a rubber ball from one statistic to the next.

The President, looking good as he officially opens his re-election campaign, comes out in favor of gay marriage and the next thing you know, the politicos are all wondering if he hasn’t cut his political throat. While Mr. Romney, who helped bully a gay boy when he was an errant teenager, can’t remember the incident, but apologizes anyway and those same politicos opine that he will probably not suffer any political consequences from the stunt, seeing as how he’s turned out to be such a fine young man in spite of his wayward teen years. Neither of them will be able to stop this slow collapse.

And, remember those big banks we bailed out and fixed with Dodd-Frank? Well, JPMorgan Chase – reputedly the best and the brightest – loses a couple of billion dollars and maybe more on credit default swaps this week, (sound familiar?) sending bank stocks down, down, down and leaving us all to wonder, again, what else those supposedly fixed and neutered banks might be up to that we don’t know about.

While, over in Israel, the clever Mr. Netanyahu – embroiled in calls for an early election – forms a coalition government with another group who would like to go to war with Iran. This, having foiled the calls for an early election, leaves our busy politicos to wonder if we’ll be dragged into war before the November elections and whether that might guarantee a Republican win – since they are, after all, the strong-on-defense party and would probably be more eager than Obama to follow Bibi right on into the fire, cheered on, no doubt, by patriotic and propagandized Americans everywhere.

Yes, slow collapse is wearing. I know, because over the last decade, as I pushed toward and entered my seventies, I’ve realized that I, too, am in a state of slow collapse. That circle of life we so liked to sing about a few years back, is closing in on me, just as it is closing in on the Empire. The difference is, I’ve admitted it and find the change of pace it brings rather refreshing.

No, I can’t stay out drinking and partying like I did in my twenties and then, get up and go to work on a few hours of sleep. I can’t be super mom, working and going to school full-time while raising a kid on my own, like I did in my thirties and forties. I can’t even shop ‘til I drop, like I briefly did in my fifties, after the kid was finally out on his own. These days, I’m ready to drop long before I’ve worked up the energy to shop, I really can’t afford it and I have all the “things” I could possibly need, anyway.

Truth be told, I can’t even deep clean the entire house and do three loads of laundry or go out and turn over the garden in one day and plant it the next, as I still could well into my sixties. You know what? That’s okay. I’m getting old. I need to pace myself if I’m going to stay self-sufficient into my old age.

So it is with aging empires, well into their own collapse. Which made me think, this past week that, as we older people often do, maybe I ought to offer the Empire some unsolicited advice. So, here it is.

Grow up!

You can’t run around all hours of the day and night, partying with dictators and toppling other countries’ governments as you did when you were in your twenties. It’s unbecoming an empire of your age and your just wasting precious energy you don’t have anymore.

Quit trying to play Father Knows Best to the world’s errant children like you did in your thirties. They’ve grown up, now, and want to live their own lives. It makes you look bullying and needy at the same time and the kids are apt to get tired of it and walk away, just when you find you need them the most.

Stop the game of shop-‘til-you-drop that you started in your fifties when you thought the kids were grown and going to be out on their own forever. You’ve bankrupted your retirement fund, the kids have moved back home and you’re behind on the mortgage, again.

You sped through your sixties and hit the brick wall a few years back, trying to do it all in one day. Now the house is a wreck, the yard is full of trash, the utility company has threatened a shut-off, the kids are ready to throw you out and the bankers are just hankering for one more missed payment before they foreclose on you and leave you homeless and broke.

Face it. You’re not a kid anymore. You’re an old geezer of an Empire, gray and balding with a paunch, wrinkles and nose hairs. If you don’t get your act together, pull back and learn to pace yourself, there’s just no way you’re going to have even a modicum of self-sufficiency in your old age.

Well, that’s my advice, though I know you probably won’t listen. It won’t save you from the whole, inevitable collapse – that circle of life thingy, you know – but it might just let you live out the rest of your life with a little dignity. And I think you’ll find it’s not nearly so wearing.

The Cat and the Banana Tree

May 5, 2012

Little in the banana tree

My cat, Little, was once an outdoor cat, roaming the yard, chasing bugs and birds and occasionally lying in the cool earth under the asparagus fronds as I worked in the garden. She and Bigger always had the option of coming inside when they wanted, an option they exercised at meal time and during the coldest of the winter months, but basically they were outside cats. Last summer, Bigger disappeared. She was quite old and we never found out whether she wandered off to die, was picked up by animal control, killed by one of the tom cats that occasionally roamed the neighborhood or the skunk that travels back and forth through the yard during the warmer months. Little, of course, couldn’t tell us.

When my son moved away, Little came to live with me. She seemed content to be an inside cat, though now that spring is here, she like to lie in the open windows to see what’s happening outside or hide under the leaves of my house plants, then suddenly spring out to kill her catnip mouse and drag its mangled body to me, mewing with pride. Moreover, she has lately taken to climbing into the big pot of dirt in the plant room that houses the banana tree. She lies in the cool dirt and peers at me through the huge leaves – much as she did the asparagus plants in the garden. It is not outside, of course, but she seems content with this faux outside life she has carved out for herself from the modern-day accoutrements of my upstairs apartment.

On the other hand, I still retain some of my wildness and love for outdoors. This week, during the cooler parts of the day, I managed to get the first half of my garden turned over, amended and planted, to wandered through the new growth on the north side of the house looking for what might be useful, checked for new growth around the rest of the yard and picked several salads from my early garden and the weeds. No faux outside for this old gal. Give me the real thing, sunburn, sweat, sore back and all. Even in the winter, with its very real danger of slipping on the ice and breaking a bone, I find I must occasionally take my walking stick and venture out for a while.

I thought about these things this past week, as the Eurozone continued its downward slide, our own economy showed signs of faltering again and – in a hundred small ways – the Empire continued its slow decay. Yesterday, I read a couple of articles about the state of the Empire as it faces financial and economic failure, environmental degradation, climate change and diminishing energy supplies.

The first article recapped a speech given by Leon Panetta to the Environmental Defense Fund this week. “Climate and environmental change are emerging as national security threats that “weigh heavily” on the Pentagon’s strategies …” the article stated. “… The quest for energy is another area, he said, that continues to shape and reshape the strategic environment …” http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2012/05/04/Pentagon-cites-climate-energy-concerns/UPI-19981336156813/

Mr. Panetta went on to discuss the Pentagon’s responses to these threats. The Pentagon spent more than $17 billion on fuel last year and the DOD faces a budget shortfall of more than $3 billion due to higher than expected fuel costs this year.

Last March, the DOD introduced a plan to reduce fuel consumption and promote energy efficiency throughout the military. “For its 2013 budget, the Pentagon is requesting more than $1 billion for efficient aircraft and aircraft engines, hybrid electric drives for ships, improved generators and micro-grids for forward-deployed bases and combat vehicle energy efficiency programs.
“Another $1 billion is sought for energy improvements at military installations in the United States.”

Pretty much BAU. I could almost hear the ca-ching, ch-ching of cost overrides around the military-industrial complex as I read, the dying Empire content in the unsustainable, faux reality it has built to bolster its flagging might around the world.

“We are working to be a leader and a bold innovator in environmental stewardship, energy efficiency and energy security,” Panetta was quoted as saying, at the end of the article.

The second article, a five page interview with David Stockman, director of OMB under Ronald Reagan http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/337504/20120504/federal-reserve-bank-debt-european-central-bank-capital-markets-gold.htm was much more realistic in its assessment of the financial state of the Empire. He discussed “a “paralyzed” Federal Reserve Bank, in its “final days,” held hostage by Wall Street “robots” trading in markets that are “artificially medicated”, went on to talk about how dangerous the situation is, and how, at the end of the year when the debt ceiling limit is reached, the defense budget is sequestered and the Bush tax cuts expire, the entire system could implode.

His plan for addressing the situation also seemed more realistic. The article ended with his being asked by the interviewer what his investment model was. In reply, Mr. Stockman is quoted as saying, “My investing model is ABCD: Anything Bernanke Cannot Destroy: flashlight batteries, canned beans, bottled water, gold, a cabin in the mountains.”

Like the Empire, the banana tree is dying. Its roots, trapped in a pot it has outgrown, have failed to send up new starts for the last two years and, leaf by leaf, the current stalks are withering away. Too large and cumbersome for me to repot and too tropical for me to transplant outside, it will die in its pot in the room just as it would die if I transplanted it outside to face the Ozark winter.

Eventually, the tree will be gone; as winter comes the windows to the outside world will be closed against the cold and the artificial “outdoors” Little has found for herself will be gone.

Little had a chance, a few days ago, to return to the life of an outside cat. As she often does, she followed me downstairs when I went to work in the garden. Usually I close the inside door so she can’t follow me outside. But, as I opened the screen door, a gust of spring wind caught it and swung the door back against the porch railing. I grabbed for the screen door instead of the inside door and, as I turned back, Little crouched on the door sill, peering around the frame of the door at the world outside. I expected her to lunge for freedom and the great outdoors. Instead, she inched back, turned and fled up the stairs to the safety of her inside haven. The screen door, caught in another gust, slammed shut behind her.

We humans have been very creative in turning ourselves into inside cats, in creating artificial environments that lead us to believe we can have the best of both worlds always, in building an empire that has spanned the globe in its lust for the resources to maintain that faux environment.

But our banana tree is dying, too. Too root bound to maintain itself, too “tropical” to survive the harsh realities of life outside its illusions, the Empire and its subjects are left with only two choices. Will we fight on as indoor cats, with ever more futility, seeking to maintain our illusions by business as usual as the movers and shakers of the Empire seem intent on doing? Or will we dare the unthinkable, make a dash for the door and, despite the dangers that lurk outside, find a way back to a more natural and sustainable life in order to survive? We need to make up our minds. The door to outside is about to slam shut.

The World Creeps Ever Closer to Calamity

April 28, 2012

Arctic Sea Ice Maximum 2012
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=77513

Well, the good news is the U.S. economy expanded from January to March, this year. The bad news is, the expansion was only a “disappointing” 2.2* percent. And, the March jobs report showed that only 120,000 jobs were added to the economy, down for the third month in a row.

Over in Europe, Britain entered a double-dip recession; Spain’s unemployment rose to almost 25%; Standard and Poor cut Spain’s rating to near junk bond status and Germany – the strongest of the Eurozone economies – is looking a little anemic around the edges.

Meanwhile, though the “bomb, bomb,bomb; bomb, bomb Iran” rhetoric has calmed a little, Wired.Com reports (US Amassing Stealth Jet Armada Near Iran) “The U.S. Air Force is quietly assembling the world’s most powerful air-to-air fighting team at bases near Iran …” and that “The fighters join a growing naval armada that includes Navy carriers, submarines, cruisers and destroyers plus patrol boats and minesweepers enhanced with the latest close-in weaponry.” I guess TPTB believe the time for singing is coming to an end?

At home on the climate change front, Arctic Sea ice keeps on melting while the oil companies lick their chops, methane plumes in the now open sea keep on pluming, and our weather keeps on weirding, a poll released by Yale University this month shows that 69% of Americans interviewed agreed that “global warming is affecting the weather here in the United States.”

(Personally, I’m waiting for the news that 69% of Americans just headed for the streets of Washington DC, pitchforks and torches in hand, to protest the lack of any meaningful progress in dealing with climate change. However, that’s another story …)

This is not the first poll showing that a majority of the American people are at odds with their government’s views on things. Yet, the government keeps on trying to shovel more money to the wealthy to “get the economy going”, prepare for wars most of us don’t want and ignore actions on climate change that we do want. So, what are we mortals to do as the world creeps ever closer to calamity?

Here at my house, I’m gardening. I’m nursing my early garden along, hoping for more rain than the fast-moving, spit-on-the-sidewalks thunderstorms we’ve had overhead here during April as May, our rainiest month, approaches. Tomorrow I’ll get out and prepare the rest of the garden for May planting, though I’m going to plant half the vegetables after that and the rest of them in mid-May, which is the usual time for planting around here. Just in case we get another dry, super hot summer like we had last year.

I struggle to keep a well-stocked pantry as the price of most things continue upward, to look for new ways to do more with less, visit with the neighbors and try to feel out what people around here are thinking in the face of this wobbling world. Some of them even read the blog.

And, small project by small project, I’m getting repairs caught up on the house – inside and out – hoping it will provide me with the same solid shelter for the rest of my life it has provided to others over the last 112 years.

Yes, I still fire off the occasional letter to my congresscritters, sign petitions, even attend protests (when people are of a mind to protest something these days). But, more and more, I feel a futility in these things, as I sense others of my friends and neighbors do.

It’s not a good feeling, which is probably why I spend so much of my time doing the practical things I’ve chosen to do. I find many of my neighbors feeling the same way, even though we don’t always see eye to eye on the reasons. I’m also still encouraged by the Occupy movement – especially the young people – though, honestly, I think the powers they fight against are too entrenched to change much of anything in time. At least they are awake, aware and struggling to articulate a more sustainable future for us.

Hopefully, when they see things probably won’t change, they’ll bring those characteristics back to their local communities. I believe, as the world creeps on to calamity, that’s as good a place as any in which to have them.

*Edited 4/29 to reflect correct GDP number.

Foraging in the Yard, Again

April 22, 2012

Broad leaf plantain
courtesy of publicphoto.org

Sunday is earth day. The economy seems to be wavering a little, some say headed for a spring slowdown similar to what we had the past two springs.  Every time I go to the grocery store, which is one or two times a month, prices have increased again on at least some of the things I need.  In an old house like mine, something always needs fixing.  And I’m not sure what might happen at the end of the year when the Bush tax cuts and several other economic measures are set to expire or start based on the whims of whoever might be in Congress by then.

So, while I’m waiting for the early garden to mature and the time to arrive for planting the summer garden, I’ve decided to practice foraging my yard.  This past week, I started by picking some common weeds to augment the lettuce, beet and carrot thinnings and a couple of straggling asparagus spears I found while weeding the early garden.

Right now, I have dandelions, wide-leaf plantain, portulaca and wild onions growing in the yard.  All are edible, though because of the warm March, some of the dandelions and plantain are a little tough or bitter by now unless you pick newer, smaller leaves.

Once I’d picked or pulled a small amount of each, (after all, I was only making salad for one) I took them inside and dumped them into a colander, rinsed them well, put them onto a couple of layers of paper towels to drain while I picked through them to remove any grass and  grit.  Then, I pulled the larger leaves off the portulaca – along with the clusters of tinier leaves – pinched off the stems and bottom portions of the dandelions and plantain leaves before tearing them into smaller pieces and peeling and dicing the bulbs from the green onions. (A word to the wise, wild onions are stronger in flavor than commercial onions and a few go a long way.)  When I had them all prepared, I tossed them in with the clean garden thinnings (which I like roots and all) and the asparagus slices, gave them another good rinse and set them in the cooler to drain while I fixed supper.  Tossed with a teaspoon of oil, a dash of vinegar, salt, pepper and garlic powder, they made a tasty, filling salad to go with my cheesy noodles and ham.

So, now that supper is out of the way and the dishes cleaned, lets talk a little about foraging the yard:

First rule – be sure you know what you’re eating.  In the four plants mentioned above, two of them have toxic look-alikes that are similar enough to give a careless or unknowledgeable forager a good bellyache and possibly worse. Know what they look like from root to flower and at all stages of growth.  And be sure you are picking plants that have not been treated with lawn chemicals.

Second rule – know which parts of the plant are edible, when they are edible, how to prepare those parts and whether the various parts are edible raw or need to be cooked, steeped, steamed or otherwise rendered useable.  Also, be sure you know whether they are edible for all members of your family.  Most edible plants should not be given to very young children and you should know whether you, family members or anyone that might eat at your table are allergic to any of them.

Third rule – moderation in all things.  As with wild onions, for most wild plants, a little goes a long way unless you are into purging, especially if you are not accustomed to eating them.  Some plants are especially hard for young children to digest, so make sure you know which can safely be given and at what age.  And moderation is a good rule for taking only what you need in nature.  That way, you will have what you need the next time.

Forth rule – to make sure you are following the first three rules, read, read, read; observe, observe, observe; check, check, check and, if you still have any doubt, ASK, ASK, ASK.

The same weed will vary a little in looks from area to area. Most state horticulture or conservation offices have or can tell you where to buy books on local, edible weeds.  (And I have found that local staff are often delighted – when they have time – to help you with a plant’s identification. Show them the courtesy of calling ahead and take a healthy, live plant in for them to look at if at all possible.)

The four plants I have mentioned are common weeds in many parts of the country.  If you are not familiar with them, but would like to learn more, here is a little about them, along with pictures and in the case of the two with toxic look-alikes, picture of them for comparison.  This is not sufficient information for you to go out and grab a few for dinner!  Please, please, if you aren’t an experienced forager, but are interested in learning to forage your yard, take the time to study and make sure of what you are doing.  I have spent twenty-plus years reading, observing, checking (and, yes, re-checking) and asking;  with the exception of about twenty plants that I know well enough to eat, I still consider myself a rank beginner whenever I run into a plant I am not completely familiar with.

Having said that, here are some facts about three of the four plants and their toxic look-alikes.

Broad-leaf plantain (the weed, not the banana-like fruit) grows in my yard. The new, more tender leaves can go into salads raw.  The bigger leaves can be cooked in various ways in soups, as part of a pot of greens, or boiled, then stuffed with meat and rice and baked like stuffed cabbage. You will need to remove the “strings”.  The leaves grow in a basal rosette, with the flower stalks rising from it.  The dried seeds can also be used, but I have never tried them.  The leaves have parallel veins that run vertically along the leaf, rather than radiating out toward the sides of the leaf from a central vein. (This is one important identifying characteristic.)  Plantain is nutritious and has been used by many cultures medicinally.  This is a good plant to become familiar with.

I love portulaca(also called purslane in some areas).  The kind that grows in my yard this time of year has succulent little leaves that grow along smooth, reddish brown stems that spreads out from the ground in a circular pattern, sort of like a big, brown spider.  I

Portulaca (purslane)
courtesy of flickr

Hairy spurge

like to snack on the leaves or put them in salads. The leaves are fleshy and moist and have a lovely taste. They grow in and around my garden, especially where the soil has been disturbed.   But portulaca does have a toxic look-alike, spurge. Spurge has hairy stems which, if you break them in two, will ooze a white sap. There is also a spurge without hairy stems, but if broken, it also exudes a white sap. Be sure you check that these characteristics are not present if you think you have portulaca.

There are some wild plants that smell like onions, but do not look like onions and some wild plants that look like onions, but don’t smell like them.  Wild onionsboth look and smell like onions.  Those are some defining characteristics of wild onions.  The wild onions, too, grow in and around my garden.  This time of year, they grow in large clumps, their long, thin green leaves looking like a clump of tall grass.  And I can smell them every time someone mows my backyard.  But underneath that “grass,” the onions range in size from my little fingernail to my thumbnail and, with the tougher outer layer pulled off, minced into a salad or diced into a hamburger, the bulbs are delicious.

Wild onions
Photo by Glenn Hardebeck

Wild onions, too, have a toxic look alike – crow poison.  Fortunately, crow poison has a musty odor or no odor.  It does not smell like an onion (or a garlic, for that matter).  So if it looks like an onion, but doesn’t smell like one, or it smells like an onion, but

Crow poison
Lee Davis @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

doesn’t look like one, leave it alone.

Dandelions are so ubiquitous to the American lawnscape that virtually everyone recognizes them, so I won’t talk about them here except to say they are useful for one purpose or another from flower to root.  It would pay you to read up on and become acquainted with the uses of this plant that is so maligned by those who prefer perfectly manicured lawns to nature’s variety.

Well, if the economy is wilting again, I might have to get out and scout the yard for more edibles to supplement my social security check.  And if Congress stays as cranky and mean as they’re sounding during this election time, we may all be foraging by the end of the year.  Honestly, even if you’re as rich as Croesus, right now, either the Congress or the economy might turn that around before you know it.   So, it might pay you to take the time to find out what free edibles lurk in your yard.  But, be careful.  Though the earth can be bountiful, she can be as ornery as Congress if you get careless with her.

Hmm, I wonder how some stuffed plantain leaves would taste with a fried potato and a nice little salad.  If I can find some plantain leaves that are big enough to stuff, I’ll let you know after next week’s foraging in the yard.

Two books from the Missouri Department of Conservation that I’ve found useful:

Wild Edibles of Missouri by Jan Phillips

Missouri Wildflowers by Edgar Denison

And two books that I’ve found generally useful, though they don’t deal specifically with Missouri:

The Forager’s Harves:A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Edible Wild Plants  by Samuel Thayer

Edible and Useful Plants of Texas and the Southwest by Delena Tull

My Apologies

I’ve been wresting with trying to get the post up all afternoon. Will contact wordpress and see if we can figure out what is wrong. Hopefully I will have it up by tonight or tomorrow and will send out appropriate notifications when it is finally up.

Thanks so much for your patience.

Linda