A Walk In The Park

Back in April I posted about noxious weeds in the Puget Sound area after wondering about all the weeds in my garden. What I should come to understand about them before weeding them out. My roommate sent me a link to this blog about edible weeds: http://www.eattheweeds.com/ Well this man is working out of FL so obviously the plants will be different. I like his acronym "ITEM" which signifies an ethic toward reasonable wildcrafting.

[I] Identify - the plant (no pretending)

[T] Timing - consider the plant's needs, should you be harvesting right now?

[E] Environment - is right here a proper place to eat from?

[M] Method - be careful (do it for the kids)

I recently went for a walk in the park (Boeing Creek in Shoreline), December 24, 2012 to see what is growing. I brought one of my guide books. Northwest Foraging by Doug Benoliel If it were back in the day and I had to rely on berries, plants and roots, what could I reasonably eat from this park? I was mostly curious about edible greens. I saw a lot of Oregon Grape.

As for environment, I'd harvest from this sweet little, woodland. I used to run these trails back in Cross Country. Here is a nice, historical article about the park: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Creek And atleast one review on Yelp recommends the park for smoking pot and harvesting Indian Plum (not the time of year for that one). But most of all how could I say no to this beautiful log formation?

I saw one plant with enough abundance and large leaves just perfect for a salad. But I didn't know what it was. The book I had with my demonstrated no similar pictures. No answers.

Now King County has a great archive of "noxious weed photographs" http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/animalsAndPlants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification.aspx for people like me without a mentor to follow. Though they are largely organized by flower color and now is not this plant's time of year for flowers. You can send them your photos though through email and they will help you identify it.

Needless to say my ITEMs weren't checking out so I left the park with only a few photographs.

Oso Berry Aphrodisia

In one week I'm headed to a conference in Boulder with my cousin titled Reclaiming Aphrodite, which is designed around empowering women's sexuality. The first (and only) time I went to an oyster bar was with my cousin, too, and now we are going to this conference, well how about that. I'm trying to prepare myself emotionally for this by considering my own sexuality. Are aphrodisiacs more powerful than sugar?

I don't know most of the plants or animals listed on the wikipedia page. Who knew arugula was an aphrodisiac? I knew there were greater reasons why I planted a whole bed of them, only to watch them overtake the yard with all those white flowers. Other startling finds include leafcutter ants, spanish fly, duck embryo, and deer penis. The fact that this grosses me out makes me feel really tame.

Other plants I'm more open to include gingko, ginseng, and damiana. But I guess these aren't the most powerful herbs compared to yohimbe, tribulus and maca. Yet they are all exotic plants way out of my country, and I have to draw the line somewhere. Nor are watermelon and avocados in season here in Seattle, but kabocha squash is... I have already some gingko waiting to be made into a salve/lube.

Here are some other resources on aphrodisiac herbal care:
http://www.anniesremedy.com/chart_remedy.php?tag=aphrodisiac
http://www.aromaweb.com/articles/aromatherapyaphrodisiacs.asp
http://www.angelfire.com/fl5/keywest0/LoveFoods.html

If aphrodisiacs are real than every town must have it's own plant verson. One possibility for this area is osoberry/ indian plum - one of the first shrubs to show new leaves in Spring. The baby leaves taste like cucumber. Bark is used for tea, twigs chewed as an aphrodisiac. An easy harvest from Discovery Park.