Purslane and Other Good Weeds in the Garden.

I bought a weed for my garden. Yes. You heard that right. I bought Purslane. A friend asked me if I had any of this because it is so healthy. I couldn't find any in my yard for her. After reading about it, I kept looking for it. Never finding it, till I stopped in a nice landscaping store with my Joy Joy we had never been in before....and there it was! Potted up for 4.00$ I got it! It is small, but it won't stay that way. I am looking forward to learning to cook this lovely herb. I still want to find a wild plant to go with my cultivated one.

                                                   
I also love Plantain and am trying to learn all the uses for it. This weed, I do not have to buy! It is in many spots around my yard and since finding out about it I am not pulling it up (till I have a better spot for it).                  

Other edible weeds, that I know are edible are:
Dandelions. This is a great article about what you can do with this weed. You will no longer hate this weed but be happy to see it in your lawn. (Maybe?)

Clover. Here is a great link with some videos. (Chickens love clover.)

Wild Strawberry, Link. Tastes yummy. (Chickens love these!)

Indian Strawberry, Link. Not tasty, but still useful. (Chicken's think these are plenty tasty!)

Lambs Quarters,  Link! ( I don't know if the chickens like these.)

I am still learning about the weeds growing in my yard. Some I have seen along the road, and I want to go get and bring them home to my garden is, Evening Primrose and Mullen.

Some books that can help you are... (these are the ones we have.)
The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide and the cards are a must have too!
Common Herbs for Natural Health (Herbals of Our Foremothers) 
Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants

And of course the Internet is a wonderful source of information. 

As food prices get higher, or there in no food in the stores. For many different reasons, I think it is a wise thing to know where you can get your food from when you need it.

Quick update on the garden...many challenges! Bugs, weeds, bugs, more bugs. I spent 2 hrs pulling weeds tonight. Will spend at least that much time tomorrow doing the same.

I will post more about the garden later and maybe some updated pictures.

The chickens are happy and healthy. It is time to talk to my Joy Joy and have her find a home for 4 of them soon. Soon as in this week or the next. 

They are still having fun moving them from place to place and feeding them scraps of bread or, today they got corn cobs after lunch. Never have I seen cleaner cobs!


If you have an edible weed you use, share in the comments and let us know what it is and how you fix/use it.

Homesteading, Survival, Homemaking, Back to Basics...Blog Hop

My wonderful husband found this great article and I have to share it with you! grow-an-organic-chicken-garden I learned a lot reading this and wish I had know about chickens loving soured milk a few days ago.
Since my yard is more weeds than grass it is very chicken friendly! I really don't need to plant them their own garden. (For one thing, they will be able to have free range in ours this fall!)

Our back yard has; dandelion, clover, violets, wild strawberries and Plantain. There is more but those are the main ones and the ones I know what they are. The chickens love these, not to mention the bugs they catch. They really are fun to watch when one gets hold of a bug and goes on a chase to keep her treasure from the others.

I want to try something new. Something fun! Over at Raising Homemakers they are having a homemaking link up. It inspired me to do one for anything homesteading, homemaking, Prepping or survival, old fashioned skills... you get the idea! I would love to find some more interesting blogs and link up with them.

I may be doing this all wrong and not even know it. But I can always remove this post in a week if it's a bust!

If you have a blog or a post that has something to do with any of these, use the linky below and be sure to link back to me so others can join!