Monthly Archives: June 2019

dragonfly

This still shaded lake, sorrow
is not mine
anymore now than when
they were a river
eager to reach
any new curl
further down the face
which wept them cold and
clear into life.

In times of wet shadow
silent by the highway growl
the prayers of snapping turtles
in the shallow abyss
secret inside a script
only a few still read:
original darkness,
this still shaded lake, sorrow.

Dragonfly! In the shatter
and reconfiguration
and so
much
loss
please
light on me now.
Make these arms your branches
buoyant on sorrow while
my trunk falls into the muck.
Please
be the jewels
that are not mine
anymore now than when
the weather starts again
after centuries
and you begin to tumble out
these dark open eyes
wet with a lonely talent
to read the prayers
of snapping turtles
this still shaded lake, sorrow.

Food of 2025

Updating this old post from 2 years ago with new plants

Here are the main plants I imagine we’ll be locally depending on for food on our land by 2025. Notice what is not there – many of the delicious but increasingly hard to grow annual vegetables we’re used to. This is based upon my beginner’s understanding of growing food in our specific area and of how climate pressures will change what can do well without increasing amounts of time and material inputs. There are also of course dozens of other plants we’ll depending on more for medicine and so many other needs not listed here.

Greens:

  • Sochan
  • Stinging Nettle
  • Sweet Potato leaves
  • Lamb’s Quarter
  • Pokeweed
  • Purslane
  • Dandelion
  • Day Lily
  • Lotus
  • Basswood
  • Amaranth
  • Chickweed
  • Dock
  • Sea Kale
  • Wild Lettuce
  • So many wild greens!!  especially from young plants in early spring!!

Pulses:

  • Lentis
  • Chickpeas
  • Fava beans
  • Beans (dried)
  • Peas (dried)

Veggies:

  • Squash
  • Beans (fresh)
  • Tomatoes
  • Peas (fresh)
  • Peppers
  • Potatoes (incl. Perennial Potatoes!)
  • Asparagus
  • Smilax tips
  • Sunchokes
  • Apios Americana
  • Air Potato
  • Malabar Spinach
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Semi-Wild Mustards
  • Collards
  • Okra
  • Perennial Onions
  • Cattail
  • Wapato
  • Garlic
  • Bamboo
  • The shoots of so many plants!  especially in early spring.  including things like kudzu & squash shoots.

Grains & seeds:

  • Amaranth
  • Sorghum
  • Chia
  • Lotus Seeds
  • Sunflower
  • Buckwheat
  • Oats
  • Semi-Wild Mustards
  • Winter Rye
  • Perennialized grains
  • Maize
  • Buckwheat

Nuts:

  • Acorns
  • Hazlenuts
  • Hickories
  • Pecans
  • Chinese Chestnuts
  • Chinquapins
  • Black Walnuts

Fruits:

  • Asian Persimmons
  • American Persimmons
  • Asian Pears
  • European Pears
  • Peaches
  • Mulberries
  • Maypop
  • Blueberries
  • Blackberries
  • Wineberries
  • Pomegranate
  • Black Raspberries
  • Grapes
  • Sour Cherries
  • Regionally appropriate Apples
  • Paw Paws
  • Che
  • Jujube
  • Loquat
  • Serviceberries
  • Aronia
  • Eleagnus
  • Figs

Other wild plant foods:

  • Pine bark

And for some of us:

  • Some insects
  • Hunted wild animals whose populations are in abundance on the land