I sure appreciate my homestead. I can make a great-tasting, nutritious smoothie in less than 15 minutes - completely for free. But every smoothie is different, depending on the season. Here's how I made a wonderful smoothie on Saturday, November 12, 2016.
Step 1. Take a walk around the homestead
I took all the photos first, because that takes a lot longer than actually picking everything. Here are three collages with the plants I picked. Many of these plants grow in many parts of the world as weeds or garden escape artists. I pick clean, so there aren't other weeds mixed in. And I keep my picking organized, so it's easier in the kitchen to double-check that I have only the plants I want.
Clockwise, from upper left: Chickweed, dandelion greens, cats-ear, common mallow.
Clockwise, from upper left: Lambsquarter seeds, dandelion flower, black nightshade, Concord grapes.
Clockwise, from upper left: Hollyhock flower, borage flower, lemon balm, spearmint.
Step 2. Bring the harvest back to the kitchen
In the kitchen, I sort my plants and check that I only have the ones I want. Then, I take off the parts of any that I don't want to use. For example, I only use the flower petals of the hollyhock and dandelion. I remove the stems from the black nightshade. I also added two kinds of apples and Asian pear that I had already harvested earlier in the fall.
Then I cut and cored the fruit, added it to the flowers and greens, and rinsed them off in a big bowl of water. I took the grapes off their stems, but left the seeds in. I rinsed the lambsquarter seeds and black nightshade fruit in a separate small cup, so they wouldn't get lost in the big bowl.
Use this picture and the plant list below as a quiz. Can you identify each of the plants I used in my smoothie?
Step 3. Blend it up!
This isn't a hard step. I just put all the plants from the bowl and cup into the blender. I start with only a little water and keep adding more until I get a smoothie consistency. For the amount of plants I used, I filled my 5-cup blender almost to the top.
I don't use any special blender. The one I have is from the 1970s and it works fine. The trick is to put the blender on liquify and let it go for 4 or 5 minutes. Don't try to rush it. Let it churn!
That's all. Then, just pour it out and drink up! It's not fancy, but boy, it's tasty, fresh, healthy, filling, and free. What more can you ask?
Plant List
- Lemon balm – Melissa officinalis - it lasts from spring through fall
- Borage flowers - Borago officinalis - flowering until frost, as usual
- Cats-ear - Hypochaeris radicata - the new fall leaves are tender and mild
- Hollyhock flowers - Alcea rosea - they self-seed like a weed and bloom until frost
- Common mallow - Malva neglecta - leaves - a summer holdover, but reinvigorated by autumn
- Dandelion flowers – Taraxacum officinale – flowers that are around spring through fall
- Black nightshade - Solanum nigrum - it will flower and set fruit until frost, only the ripe black fruit are good
- Dandelion greens – Taraxacum officinale – the new fall leaves are tender and mild
- Chickweed - Stellaria media - from fall through spring
- Large Korean Pear - Pyrus pyrifolia - ripe in mid-fall and keep for months in refrigeration
- Concord grapes - Vitis labrusca - late summer to late fall
- Lambsquarter seeds - Chenopodium album - seeds from late summer into winter
- Apples - Malus pumila - yellow delicious and Braeburn - ripe in mid-fall and keep for months in refrigeration
- Spearmint - Mentha spicata - it lasts from spring through fall
What Do You Think?
Do you put any weeds in your smoothies? How about flowers or herbs? How did you do on the plant quiz? Are there any of those plants that you want to know more about?
If you have any thoughts about foraging, or experiences to share, write a post a be sure to use the Foraging tag. See what other folks are foraging by following the @foraging-trail, where all posts are SteemTrail-curated. Happy Foraging!
** Haphazard Homestead **
*** foraging, gardening, nature, simple living close to the land ***
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I participate in Operation Translation. All my posts are available for translation under the rules listed on the linked post from @papa-pepper. Logo provided by @oepc85. Post goes 100% to Steem Power! Logo provided by @merej99
*** foraging, gardening, nature, simple living close to the land ***