My friend and I were discussing foraging. She sent me a link for foraging close to my town. The irony is that she lives halfway across the globe, in Sweden. She wrote me, "What most people consider weeds are the most delicious and nutritious."
I wrote back, "All kinds of weeds are healthy for us. It's weird that we poison and kill edible weeds, and then buy vitamins." We kill off all the healthy, natural vegetation, and then plant grass, which we can't eat.
Apparently I am going to write about grass tonight :) I never know where my pencil is going to take me...
I read that lawns are the biggest non-food producing crop in America. If we replaced lawns with gardens, there would be no more hunger in America. Wow. Gardens aren't much more work than lawns really, and they are more attractive anyhow. A lawn requires water, feeding, treating, fertilizing, weeds, mowing, edging... A garden requires water, feeding, fertilizing, weeding, picking, eating. Maybe the problem is that tv commercials tell us that cheeseburgers are delicious, and watching tv in a dark room is more fun than spending time outside with your family.
I don't know a single person who says, "Damn! Am I excited to mow the yard today!" And then after mowing for hours in the hot sun, be proud that all the efforts of their labor gets thrown in the garbage in plastic bags. Nobody stands by their lawn bags and proudly announces, "Yep. Look at all this vegetation I killed and am wasting. Proud of myself, I am a conquerer!"
Know what's even sadder? Most people don't even enjoy their lawns, walk barefoot in the grass, lay and look up at the stars or the clouds, have picnics... adults never run through the sprinklers! (sad- wasted water and wasted opportunities right there!)
My son and I don't know the rules sometimes regarding grass. If someone has nice soft lawns, does that mean we are or aren't supposed to walk on it? Oh right... stay off the pretty grass. Keep your shoes on. Walk on this cement path over here instead. Sheesh.
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