Archive for July 2012
coastal barren, coastal bog
On our vacation to Nova Scotia last month, we revisited the Peggy’s Cove area near Halifax. I spent a lot of time along this coast years ago, but I had forgotten the unique wildness and beauty of this landscape.
We explored two habitat types, the dry and rocky barrens, and the wet coastal bog. As we found each new plant, I felt like I was greeting old and well-loved friends.
On the higher areas, growing in the thin soil on the bedrock were several species. One of these included Crowberry (Empetrum nigrum L.), a small moss-like plant with spiky leaves and small pink flowers. Later in the season, these will bear edible back berries.
We also found Three-toothed Cinquefoil (Sibbaldia tridentata (Aiton) Paule & Soják) with its three leaflets and the characteristic three teeth at the tip of each leaf. The leaves are thick and outlined in red at this time of year. Later in the year the leaves turn bright red. The white flowers each have five petals, and are starry with stamens.
In the low-lying, boggy areas, we found a ‘merriment’ (my word) of Pitcher-plants (Sarracenia purpurea L.).
The leaves of these insectivorous plants are shaped like vessels. Insects climbing into the leaves encounter downward pointing hairs. They are trapped! Eventually they drown and are digested in the water at the base of the ‘pitcher’.
We also found another carnivorous plant, the Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia L.). The leaves of these plants are covered with tiny hairs… these exude a sticky liquid and trapped insects are slowly digested. For more information on the Sundew, please visit my post for October 31, 2011, ‘Round-leaved Sundew’. https://nichepoetryandprose.wordpress.com/2011/10/
All was not gruesome. We also found Arethusa (Arethusa bulbosa L.), a member of the orchid family. This beautiful pink orchid is also known as the Dragon’s Mouth.
Overall, our trip to Peggy’s Cove was a wonderful adventure. We plan to return in the early fall, when the Crowberry and the other edible plants we saw have set their berries.
Have you ever been to Peggy’s Cove and what did you think of the coastal landscape and the plants growing there?
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© Jane Tims 2012
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.the growing part of ‘growing and gathering’
So far in my posts, I have talked mostly about harvesting wild edibles. I am starting to get a little produce from my garden, so I thought I’d do a post for the ‘growing’ side of ‘growing and gathering’.
I have only a small garden, laughable by many standards. We have too much shade and since I won’t allow the nearby trees to be cut, I must be content with spindly carrots, sorrowful pea vines and a plethora of slugs. However, I also have lots of perennials and a small herb garden, enough to keep us in regular small harvests of additions for our dinners.
On Monday, I decided to prepare my favourite lunch, couscous, with a gathering from my garden. I used:
~ a handful of black and red currants (just ripening this week!)
~ a sprig of thyme
~ a few leaves of oregano
~ a small spray of parsley
~ a handful of chives
~ one clove of garlic from the shadowy garden.
To this I added a small purple onion from the grocery store…
I chopped the onion and the herbs quite fine…
I sautéed everything in olive oil, very briefly (to keep it all crisp and keep the currents from going mushy)…
and added the mixture to my couscous, prepared with boiling water and a quarter teaspoon of powdered chicken bullion.
A delicious dinner, a little tart, but perfect for my taste buds!!!!
© Jane Tims 2012
a moment of beautiful – mustard fields in bloom
the space: a field along the St. John River
the beautiful: mustard in bloom
In some of the cultivated fields along the St. John River, acres of mustard are in bloom. Mustard is common here, in both coastal and inland areas, along roads and in fields. In the last weeks, I have found two species, Black Mustard (Brassica nigra (L.) Koch) and Field Mustard (Brassica rapa L.) also known as Rape, or Bird’s Rape.
Mustard is an herb of medium size, with pale yellow, four-petalled flowers in terminal clusters, and large lobed leaves. The seeds are contained in pods; each pod ends in an elongated beak.
Mustard is well-known for its uses. The young, basal leaves may be cooked as greens or used in salads. Clusters of unopened flower buds can be cooked like brocolli. The tender seed pods are pickled, or used in salads.
Mustard’s best-known use is as a spice – the seeds are collected, dried and ground to make hot yellow mustard. I have a spot staked out to collect the seeds as they ripen in August, since I want to dry and grind some seeds for my own mustard.
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sandwich
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green leaves
between brown earth
and summer sky,
finished with
a generous smear
of mustard
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© Jane Tims 2012
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.a moment of beautiful – the sound of the sea
the space: a park bench by the edge of the sea
the beautiful: the sound of the breakers, sorting over cobbles on the shore
On a recent vacation to Nova Scotia, we had the time to sit and watch the breakers roll into a cove along St. Margaret’s Bay. The sight of the crashing waves was inspiring, but the sounds were unforgettable… first, the sweep and crash of the incoming waves…
then the clatter as the outgoing wave dragged at the cobbles along the shore…
My husband suffered through my recitation of a few lines of Matthew Arnold’s poignant ‘Dover Beach’, but mostly we were quiet, overwhelmed by the sound of the sea.
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greed
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jealous of its pretty
shaped and rounded stones,
the ocean mutters,
claws them back
clatters its dinner forks
over biscuits and gravy
hoards jellybeans
by the handful
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© Jane Tims 2012
growing and gathering – picking berries with friends
As I am deciding how to organise my poetry manuscript on ‘growing and gathering’ local foods, I am considering the themes of the various poems. I think these themes will become the sections in my manuscript.
One of the first themes to emerge, perhaps the easiest to examine, is about ‘relationships’.
Although I have often picked berries alone, my best memories are of picking berries with members of my family. Both my Mom and Dad loved to pick berries. My Dad was a fast picker and I was always in silent competition with him to pick the most berries… I never won. My Mom picked berries quickly, but took the time to enjoy the fresh air, the blue sky and the expanse of the berry field. When I think of picking berries with her, I feel calm and a little lazy. My relationship with my mother-in-law was also shaped by our many berry-picking experiences; when I pick raspberries, I hear her quiet laughter in the breeze.
As I write poetry for my ‘growing and gathering’ manuscript, I have explored my relationships with the various people in my life.
Some of these are based on real experiences I have had picking berries or gathering greens. Examples include poems about trying to find an old berry field, now grown over, or how changes in a relationship can be observed over the years in the annual picking of berries. Although most of the poems are about plants, I have included production of other local foods – so a poem about beekeeping, for example, explores how two people interact during a small emergency.
In other cases, the gathering of local foods is a metaphor for some aspect of a relationship, whether good and bad. At least some of these metaphors are related to the characteristics of plants or animals – for example, the serrated edges of leaves, the slipperiness of a trout, the gentle feel and fragrance of Bedstraw, or the bitterness of taste common to so many ‘salad’ greens.
Some of the metaphor is based on the place where plants grow. Examples include the seclusion of many berry-picking spots, or the physical spaces created by rows of corn plants.
As I look over the Table of Contents for my manuscript, I realise some poems will be stronger if placed within another theme. So I have moved, for example, a poem about picking berries over a three-week period from the theme on ‘relationships’ to a theme about ‘change’.
This consideration of the themes in my poetry has given me a good start to organising the poems, and identifying gaps I have to fill. I know now there are lots of gaps, and many poems yet to write!
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Bitter Blue
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of all the silvery summer days we spent none so warm sun on
granite boulders round blue berry field miles across hazy miles
away from hearing anything but bees
and berries
plopping in the pail
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beside you I draped my lazy bones on bushes crushed berries and
thick red leaves over moss dark animal trails nudged between rocks
baking berries brown musk rising to meet blue heat
or the still fleet scent
of a waxy berry bell
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melting in my mouth crammed with fruit sometimes pulled from
laden stems more often scooped from your pail full ripe blue pulp
and the bitter shock of a hard green berry never ripe
or a shield bug
with frantic legs
and an edge to her shell
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Published as: ‘Bitter Blue’, Summer 1993, The Amethyst Review 1 (2)
Published on www.nichepoetryandprose.wordpress.com on July 31, 2011
© Jane Tims 2012
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.Pineapple Weed (Matricaria matricarioides (Less.) Porter.)
I bear weeds no ill-will. When I pull them in my garden, I am just helping my vegetables to get an edge in the great competition. Also, as you now know, I consider many ‘weeds’ to be edible and delicious. But, in one case, I cheerfully stomp on the weeds and consider the benefits to outweigh the sorrow.
When I went to meetings at our provincial Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries, I had to follow a wide path of concrete slabs to get to the door of the building. In the cracks between the slabs grew a small, rather pretty weed. I loved to step on this weed, or pick it, to smell its fragrance. The weed is Pineapple Weed and, crushed, it smells just like pineapple. Its scent is also reminiscent of Garden-camomile, or Hay-scented Fern.
Pineapple Weed grows along roadsides and in waste places, wherever the soil is disturbed and competition from other plants is low. It is an inconspicuous cousin of Garden-camomile (Anthemis nobilis L.) and looks a little like Camomile except the flowers have no white ray-florets. The leaves of Pineapple Weed are very finely divided and feather-like.
The generic name Matricaria comes from the Latin word matrix, meaning ‘womb’, a tribute to its reputed medicinal properties. The specific name matricarioides means ‘like Matricaria’ since it was originally considered to be another species.
My husband tells me, as a child, he used plants of Pineapple Weed as miniature trees when he played with his Dinky cars!
To make a pale yellow, pineapple-scented tea, steep the fresh or dried flowers of Pineapple Weed in hot water.
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.
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Matricaria
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two in the morning
and the canister of Camomile
yawns empty
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crush Matricaria
steep a sprinkle of flowers
in water, tea the color
of straw
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surround of pineapple
hay-scented fern
sleep
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© Jane Tims 2012
Ground Juniper (Juniperus communis L. var depressa Pursh)
Last fall, when I made our Christmas wreaths, one of the greens I gathered was Ground Juniper. It was so prickly and difficult to handle, I decided not to use it again. However, since I am now looking at plants from the point of view of edibility, I want to take another look at the Common Juniper bushes growing on our lake property.
Ground Juniper (Juniperus communis L. var depressa Pursh) is a low, evergreen shrub, growing in bogs and on barren soils in abandoned pastures. The specific name of Ground Juniper, communis, means ‘in clumps’. The branches of Ground Juniper take the form of a dense, oval mat, spreading horizontally across the ground.
Ground Juniper is also known as genévrier in French. The name of the spirit ‘gin’is derived from this word since the oil of the Juniper berry is used to flavor gin.
The needles of Ground Juniper are a yellowish-green. They are flattish, three-sided and have a whitened stripe on the lower surface.
one branch of the shrub turned over to show the white stripe on the underside of the needles
The bluish, waxy berries are actually cones. They are light green at first and mature over three years to a dark blue. The berries of Juniper appear covered by a whitish powder.
The berries of Ground Juniper are woody and hard, but edible in small quantities as a spice for meat, especially game. They have a resinous odor and a sweet taste, and are crushed, dried and ground to release the flavour.
The young berries and young leaves can be also boiled in water for ten minutes and then steeped for another ten minutes to make a tea.
The berries are known for their medicinal properties and so should be used sparingly and with caution.
Warning: 1. never eat any plant if you are not absolutely certain of the identification; 2. never eat any plant if you have personal sensitivities, including allergies, to certain plants or their derivatives; 3. never eat any plant unless you have checked several sources to verify the edibility of the plant.~
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Ground Juniper (Juniperus communis L. var depressa Pursh)
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boughs spread horizontal,
hug the ground
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cones disguised as berries,
leaves as needles
all, dusted with powder
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waxy berries glow
like blue planets, offer themselves –
we harvest, reach, mindful of sharps
and moon-dust, the true distance
between pasture and sky
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meat spiced with wooden berries, ground
and sorrows drowned in jiggers of gin
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© Jane Tims 2012
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