Wild edibles

We’ve had so much snow, a record winter since the 60s. And there are many birds of all kinds coming to our feeders, wonderful to see how strong they are. I've already started seedlings in the basement, that is always fun. And the wild edibles seem to be on our side, Lamb’s Quarters is coming along with the seedlings, already have a two inch plant on a special pot. And last year, at the end of a seed exchange in Halifax during the ACORN Conference, I walked through the exchange table and there was one envelope left, and it was Purslane! Thank you! I started the seeds already in a flat, they germinated very fast, but now they seem slow to develop their secondary leaves, wonder what kind of environment they like, if they prefer the soil a bit dry?

And new wild plants (see, I am not calling them weeds anymore) are starting to grow in the greenhouse, a few of them I have never seen before, I don’t know their names yet. I am not going to pull them, I am going to let them grow and go to seed. It is going to be very interesting to change my approach in gardening, specially the greenhouse where I tend to be more tidy. The gardens outside I have never weeded much, I used to call my method “jungle agriculture” . Now I am thinking in a more controlled presence of the wild ones, since they are now part of the crop.

I couldn’t find a source of Purslane seeds in Canada, only in the States. There are a few varieites of improved Purslane in some catalogues, only that a colleague told me that she tried them and they did not do very well ; whereas her patch of wild Purslane was healthy and strong. So this is one of the reasons that the BAUTA Foundation is funding many of our local initiatives, so we can be self sufficient in seeds in Canada. So here we go, Purslane is definitely on the list for growing it for seeds.