May harvesting in Upper Michigan

One of my favorite homesteading books has a section in which it tells, month by month, what wild foods are available to foragers. I've been doing a little harvesting this month, and I thought I would share a little about what's available. I live in the southern part of upper Michigan., in Menominee County. We have rather cold winters here, but my grandmother always said that compared to Marquette Michigan, we were in the banana belt. 

Stinging nettle 

One of the nice things about having a permaculture, eat-the-weeds attitude about life is that the moment of the snow melts there are things the harvest. One of the main things around my farm is stinging nettle. I planted it from seed in an herb garden, but now it is spread all over the place, often in places I don't want it, like the stinging nettle pictured above,  which is right in the gateway, so I get stung when I try to tie the gate shut.

I could have harvested my first stinging nettle a few days after our last snow storm, but I waited a few weeks to give it time to grow to more convenient size for harvest. I wore gloves of course. I picked about a bucket full of small stinging nettle, about 3 to 4 inches. That about filled up most of my dehydrator trays. Dried stinging nettle makes a good tea, broth, or an addition to soups or stews.

I also plan to pick a lot more stinging nettles, Cook them and freeze them. They make a good substitute for cooked spinach. I use the recipe for low carb creamed spinach, and substitute stinging nettle. I then use the creamed nettle to make eggs Florentine. As it is spring, I also have a lot of eggs.

I have also transplanted some stinging nettle to my forest garden. This will give me another edible perennial plant there.

Comfrey

When I first moved out to the farm, I purchased 12 comfrey roots. It grew well, and though the original plot was eradicated, I had transplanted some here and there, and currently have a plot that grows in the shade of a Boxelder tree.

The comfrey is also coming up now, and yesterday I harvested some tender leaves for a cooked vegetable. Like stinging nettle, it is a good substitute for spinach.

Dandelion

I also found a lot of dandelion flowers in my lawn. I picked quite a few, and into the dehydrator they went. They make a good tea, and they can be added to French toast and pancake batters. There is an article to that effect in the latest Backwoodsman magazine. Dandelion roots can also be harvested, and both roots and flowers are medicinal.

Asparagus

If you look closely at the picture, you may be able to see the young asparagus shoots. I currently have two asparagus patches. One is the purple passion asparagus that I planted myself. The other is a bed of asparagus that I only discovered in recent years. It has survived in spite of being totally neglected for the past 30 years or so. I'm trying to clear the weeds from both patches this year so that I can have a better harvest next year. I also have a very tiny bit of asparagus growing in my forest garden. It is of the purple passion variety, but I plan to move that bit of the of asparagus back to the patch near the house, and grow an heirloom variety in the forest garden.

And that is what I have been harvesting lately. Is anything ready for harvesting in your area? Let me know.

Stir-Fried Asparagus and Weeds

I had this for breakfast yesterday morning.

Take some asparagus and cut it up into 1/2 inch pieces. Add a bit of shredded cabbage if you have it. To this, add some fresh dandelion greens or some stinging nettle greens.

Heat up your wok or fry pan a bit. Put in some cooking oil, such as peanut oil. I use extra-virgin olive oil.

Stir-fry the lot until the dandelion greens or nettles look more like cooked spinach and less like weeds. If desired, season with a little soy sauce--- I like Kikkoman's low sodium soy sauce.

For a variation, you can add whatever meat you've been able to buy or hunt down for yourself. If you are a Vegan (welcome to Earth) maybe you can shoot you some tofu to throw in.

How do the weeds taste? When I made it with dandelion greens, I added a bunch of the cabbage to tone down the bitterness. I was suprised at how edible it tasted. The stinging nettle is a bit of a tamer taste but I added cabbage to it as well.

NOTE: when picking your stinging nettle, be warned: it stings! Also of course be sure you can tell dandelions/nettles from things like Instant Death Weed or whatever.

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