Quote of the Day
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” –Greek proverb
This is a shaded walkway at Longwood Gardens. Pierre du Pont purchased this property in 1906 specifically to save the trees. The du Pont family had a long tradition of gardening, and Pierre would turn out to be one of its greatest gardeners. Du Pont had a love of trees and collected many different species of trees and plants on his property. If you ever have a chance to visit Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania I would highly recommend it.
Do you appreciate those who came before us like P.S. du Pont and Thomas Jefferson that had the forethought to plant and save trees for us to enjoy?
Share this:
A Day at the Beach in Fort de Soto, Florida
It’s been cold here in Ohio this winter. We usually have warm days mixed with cold days, but it seems like it’s just been cold for weeks on end and we’ve had snow on the ground for about a month. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the snow and I don’t mind the cold, but every now and I then I just want to be warm.
I’m not much of a beach person, don’t like salt water or sand; but every 5 years or so Mr Chiots and I end up at the beach during a vacation, or on a work trip, or while visiting friends. So since many of us are sitting in the cold snowy weather here in the north I thought we could all use a virtual trip to the beach to warm us up. So take off your shoes and join us on a trip to the beach.
Two years ago around this time we found ourselves in Florida for a convention. We have some family that lives down there so we made a short vacation of it. While there, we visited Fort de Soto park, which is a beach and a historical trip all in one. Fort de Soto was described as a, “spectacular combination of soft white sand, calm, clear water and a laid-back atmosphere”. We enjoyed a short walk on the beach and then we visited the fort and took a tour of all of the old buildling and learned all about the history of the area, it was fascinating.
It’s nice to take off your sandals and take a walk on the beach looking for shells. I don’t mind a short walk on the beach, it’s the sitting in the sun that I can’t take. My dermatologist would fire me as a patient if I did that.
Of course no trip is complete without the obligatory self portrait (does anyone else do that?).
Are you a beach person? What do you like or dislike about the beach?
Share this:
Foraging for Food
Today’s society has largely drifted –no, better to say “hastened” or “rapidly run” —away from a lifestyle that forages, hunts and grows their own, and then cooks from scratch. From the time women went to work in the early 1950’s and got out of the kitchen (and garden), the door has been opened for processed and fast food purveyors to enter, so that now, in 2008, those in the under-50 crowd who know how, and actually enjoy, cooking are becoming rarer and rarer. It is easier to open a box, add water, heat and serve.
This crowd is in for a rude awakening, and it seems to be coming sooner rather than later.
Dr. Peter Gail, Ph.D (Goosefoot Acres Center for Resourceful Living)
Purslane contains more Omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy vegetable plant.
It’s interesting when you start identifying and studying weeds. Many of them are actually edible plants that were brought here by our ancestors for their nutritional and medicinal purposes. It’s interesting that as grocery and drug stores became more available to the common people, the knowledge of the medicinal and nutritional uses of common weeds was lost. Here’s an excerpt from his article, to read the entire article visit Doc Weed’s Doin’s.
The answer is as simple as opening our eyes and looking around to see what has been invisible up to now. More specifically, stand on a proper untreated lawn—one that hasn’t been treated with chemicals and still has all the plants in it —and look down at the ground beneath your feet. For, right there, in most cases, you will find between 4 and 6 vegetables that are tastier when prepared properly and more nutritious than anything you can buy in the store. During the Great Depression and World War II, when food was rationed or unavailable, many mothers fed their families very successfully on these plants.
Where did these vegetables come from? In most cases, they were brought to America by our ancestors, mostly at the behest of the emigration companies sponsoring them who would tell them to bring seeds of all the plants they valued for food and medicine with them, because who knew whether they would find them in this new land.
So dandelions, plantain, lambsquarters, red root pigweed, purslane and many other plants came with every shipload of immigrants. Plantain was so valuable that it traveled with them to every early English and Scottish settlement. Before they arrived, there had been no plantain. After, they were so common that the Natives called the plant “White Man’s Foot”.
The bottom line is that 80% of the plants we call weeds and pay millions for chemicals to eradicate each year are really the vegetables and medicines our ancestors made great sacrifices to bring here for us to have. Each group had different ones, however, and as the seeds escaped from their gardens, they entered other gardens in which the inhabitants didn’t know their value, and so to them they were a nuisance, and had to be eliminated.
Mr Chiots and I gather berries in the summer and we have picked apples by the side of the road, but not much else. I do eat the purslane that grows in my flowerbeds. This spring I’m going to try some garlic mustard which is rapidly becoming an invasive weed in the areas surrounding our home. I’m also hoping to try some dandelion greens (they sell them at our local grocery store for $5 a pound). It’s definitely an area that’s interesting to me, I may read up on it some more this winter and try to identify a few more edible and medicinal plants this summer. I’ll keep you posted on what I find and how they taste or work.
Any foragers out there? Have you ever eaten something you picked from the side of the road? (take the poll)
Share this:
Feeling Right at Home
Dexter’s feeling right at home here at Chiot’s Run. He’s enjoying having food all the time and living inside a warm & toasty house.
He’s decided he really likes the domesticated life, especially the posturepedic mattress he gets to sleep on all day. Samson (our orange cat) is enjoying having a new playmate, we hear them often running up and down the hall. Dexter’s even decide that Lucy’s OK and he no longer hisses at her.
We’re enjoying having Dexter around as well. He adds a new dynamic to the household; he has a great personality and he’s very talkative.
He’s quite a cutie isn’t he?
Share this:
Gardening Quote: Thomas Jefferson
“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it’s liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Monticello Gardens and Pavilion by Mr T in DC
Anyone ever visited Monticello? It’s one of those places I would love to visit but haven’t had the chance.
