Alive, but Itchy

No, I haven't forgotten my promise to blog, in fact I have LOTS to blog about. I just haven't had too much time. We took a vacation to Louisiana the week of Easter, in order to visit my brother, sister in law, and four nieces. It was a GREAT trip but now I am playing catch up around the house, as if I was ever caught up to begin with, lol.

To top it all off, I have the worst case of poison ivy I have ever had! My face is absolutely COVERED, including the area around my eyes, my eye lids, and even the rims of my eyes. ITCHY doesn't begin to describe how it feels!

I can give credit for my hideous rash to my new found passion for foraging. Yep, foraging, as in eating wild plants for food. My husband bought a couple of books on identifying edible wild plants because he was interested in the subject, but it was I who picked up the books and became fascinated!

I have tried a couple of wild foods so far. I dug some wild carrots, which grow ALL OVER THE PLACE. Wild carrots are actually the very common flower/weed, Queen Anne's Lace, which we've all seen covering the sides of the roads during the summer time.

I have also tried wood violets and wood sorrel. The violets were rather bland, though not nasty, but the sorrel amazed me. Wood sorrel looks a bit like clover and makes lovely little flowers. You can eat the clover-like greens and they are so YUM, tasting slightly sour in a good way.

Of course, we have eaten dandelions for years. My oldest son loves to shock people by picking the yellow flowers and gobbling them down. Now I know I can also eat ox-eyed daisy greens! Who would have thought you could eat daisies??? We also have an abundance of wild strawberries growing AND wild raspberries.

Can you tell I am excited about foraging? LOL I never imagined there were so many edible plants growing right under our noses, most of them labeled as weeds!

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