I got Tagged!

Obi: Deal! :)

Hey JK! Thanks for stopping by…yep I totally dig the quote, that's what I want from a movie too. :) As far as the dandy dandelions go I eat them all the time. I don't poision my lawns with fertilizers and such so it's OK to do that but non organic fertilizer is a posion so don't eat them if that stuff has been on the soil in the  last 12 months or so. The best leaves are the young smaller ones, they do have a bite to them…uuummm like a little bit of a peppery flavor, and a little bit bitter too with a spinich like leaf as far as texture, we like them fresh and steamed too…they are great mixed in with turnip and mustard greens! The older longer leaves are tough and stringy…we just add those to the compost, they are great for adding Vitamin C to the pile. The roots are similar to parsnip and are cooked and stored in the same way, we like them in stirfry because they hold up well and have a slight kick to them, but not as much as the leaves, they are milder. Dandelion is good for the bowel, bladder, and blood…it also cleans the kidney very well and helps restore good function in the liver. It makes a great wine, (Kick your ass kinda wine, that if you drink too much YOU WILL see flying pigs…trust me on this) and it's great as a tea too…very medicinal in tinctures and good for fighting shingles and scurvy. I like to make a tincture of it for hair washing, it gets rid of clorine from pools and is nice smelling…if you like green smells. It also solves dandruff problems without chemicals. It's a great plant and not a weed in my book, but in collage my teachers were always saying that any plant can be a weed, it just has to be in the wrong place at the right time…like your lawn or something. So I encourage you to try it, it tastes great and is uber good for you too. I mean it's really, really good, we eat it when we go hiking all the time, it is refreshing and very cheerful in the mouth, it's great with coldcuts and meat too. Cheers!

Poke Salad Annie is about Pig Weed, which in the 30's was abundant and everyone in the south ate like crazy because it kept you full and has lots of vitamins…it is wild mustard in reality, big thick and tall leaves that grow in clumps like spinich on roids, eat anytime before they set seed….Rabbit tabacco is a wild green too…similair to Turnip greens but more bitter than peppery in flavor…usually found in medow type settings (wide open areas, and in grazing pastures for cattle and horses they don't eat them which makes it easier to find in these areas) has a flower head that looks like the hayfever golden rod weed…don't eat when in flower they taste like crap…and will make you poop like crazy…Sassafras is a woody low (but wide) growing shrub with ovate slightly hairy on the underside leaves and a serated edge…spreads by underground roots called rhizomes, which means you can find it in the woods and open fields around water in a running like hedge, mixes in with other low growing plants and is usually found in second growth clearings, and mixed with wild alders and birch…it's the roots that you use in tea making the limbs and bark are good for using as stakes in the garden because bugs don't like them, and they don't rot easy, also good for vitamin C and as a headache and sore throat cure all in tea, will work wonders on acne, and calms smooth muscles in throat and stomach, naturally a bit bitter, needs a bit of honey or sugar cane (also wild in your area) to make it taste better…that is all for now. :) Whew!

Thanks Debi! I would love to write a book about this subject, but there are a lot of them already (and some of them are really good too)…and you know it won't make the best sellers list anyway…but I have been thinking how I could make learning this type of information into a thriller and a teaching tool at the same time…now that might make it with the masses. :)
Thanks for the kind words about my artwork…yes the leaping lady is me, it's one of my first self portraits…I hate posed pictures…I wanted to paint myself how I “see” myself…always taking a leap of faith, uummm, yup…that's me. :)

Hey Text Mage,
I am a southern girl, from florida. I have lived all over the country…currently just settled into Kentucky…after living on the west coast for more than a decade…and I love to learn stuff. That's it really, I'm just a simple grrrrl from the south. I am very glad you have found your way here too…looking forward to learning more from and about you.
:)