Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Emery Mitchamore <emitch@att.net>]

I noticed a mention here of the Mint family.  Of course we have long been familiar with common culinary mints, but I didn't know until recently that there are many other members of the Mint family that will grow here in Central Texas.   There's a gorgeous "Bee Balm" growing outside the kitchen window, and the hummingbirds, honeybees and native bees visit the blossoms constantly.  I'd appreciate it if someone would point me toward an efficient way to learn about and understand this family.

E. E. "Mitch"  Mitchamore

www.hillcountrynatives.net

On Jun 1, 2010, at 3:30 AM, yarrow@sfo.com wrote:

At 10:12 PM -0600 5/31/10, Tradingpost wrote:

...We have some Serviceberry we call Juneberry that refuses to die

from neglect, and we've tried gooseberry before and should again.

I've heard mesquite pod flour sustained the first spanish invaders

but who's using it today?

We could use a lot more info on unusual food plants of all types

from some of you.

North America has many species of serviceberry! I've heard of
Canadian varieties, so it grows in many climates.

Haven't had mesquite pod flour, but when I was living in the
southwest I'd occasionally snack on a mesquite pod -- tasted like
banana bread to me.

Of the other plants on the list, I've tried lamb's quarters and
didn't like them. But then, I don't like spinach or chard, either,
and rarely eat beets (all in the same plant family). Same with Rumex
-- fine in microdoses as a medicinal tincture, but the leaves I've
tasted are spitters.

I've made a medicinal tincture of lomatium root, but hadn't heard
that it was a food. Ditto for Smilax, Mitchella, Aralia, Betula.

Persimmons, of course -- one of my favorite fall fruits -- and I've
had a few pawpaws.

Ribes aureum is a currant, not a gooseberry -- gooseberries are the
ones with wicked thorns. Calif. has several species, and I imagine
other areas of the U.S. have native species as well. I grow a red
currant and am learning to like it.

The brambleberries are in the genus Rubus -- have grown several of
these, and iirc have tasted salmonberries on hikes. The leaves make a
good tea. Haven't met a brambleberry I didn't like!

Have been intending to grow amaranth.

Yacon is one of my favorite garden plants. It's a tender perennial
that needs a long season, lots of space, good soil, and regular
water. I harvest the tubers in January -- the texture (and sweetness)
is halfway between jicama and watermelon.

In my garden, but not on the list:

Nettles, one of my favorite early spring greens. I like to make tea,
or simmer the greens and use the water for lentil soup. I like the
cooked greens as well, but unless picked very young, they take too
much work to strip off the stems and get stringy. High in iron and
calcium. Pick with gloves and don't eat raw -- aka stinging nettles.

Perennial kale, aka tree collards, grows fast and provides fresh
greens year-round. I don't know the exact cold tolerance (it rarely
gets below 30F here), but mine wilted a bit at 20F. Very easy to
propagate. Never goes to seed. Gets at least 6 ft. high.

Violet leaves, another early spring green, good if you have the
invasive cool-season violets. I keep mine in a container.

Mache aka corn salad, Valerianella, nice flavored green for late
winter. Reseeds. I planted it once, and it comes back reliably every
year.

Miner's lettuce, ditto. Didn't have to plant this one; it's native
and shows up.

Borage flowers! My favorite late winter/ early spring nongreen. The
flowers have a good flavor (calendula petals are edible as well, but
don't have much flavor, kind of chalky).

Nasturtium flowers and leaves -- another one I had to plant only
once. Also pretty, and likes shade. I have a colony now that has red,
orange, red-orange, and red-flecked yellow flowers.

Blueberries. (Besides the cultivated varieties, native Vacciniums +
relatives abound, such as lingonberries, cranberries, huckleberries,
some of which also like shade.)

Purslane, another edible crunchy green, not my favorite but a nice
change, and it shows up as a "weed."

Choice native mint-family tea/flavoring plants, such as hummingbird
sage, yerba buena.

Fennel grows like a weed around here, and I've kept a clump because I
like the texture, but lately the clump has been getting a little
bigger than I want, so I've started breaking off a piece and eating
the inner stem. It's refreshing and flavorful, and a nice crunchy
juicy treat -- much like eating parsley stems when they get over a
half-inch thick, or celery stems just before they bolt.

Not in my garden, but in the neighborhood:

I've tried several good fruits in the Myrtaceae, including ugni,
luma, myrtle, and feijoa (the latter has the best-tasting flower
petals!).
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