Cycles are one of the themes of a walk-about tour through Eco-village gardens, lead by Sage and me on May 21. Event tickets available through May 19.
Blossoming trees in their prime
Bounty at the end of plant life cycles
birds and squirrels feast on them.
Pickled, nasturtium seeds taste like capers.
- 1 pint Nasturtium seeds – let them dry a few days
- 1 pint white vinegar
- 2 bay leaves (from bay bushes in front of Terraces)
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- Peppercorns (optional)
Boil vinegar, bay leaves, salt & pepper. (This year I boiled vinegar in sun oven). Cool. Pack seeds into clean pint jar & pour cooled vinegar mixture over them. Store several weeks before using them.
Pizza topping: combined with crushed garlic and oil.
Nettles – the plant you love to hate!
If you’re not dressed for success – long sleeves, socks, long pants and gloves – you may be painfully introduced to nettles. I try to keep them pruned from paths, and let them grow in less traveled areas. Young plants are among the earliest greens to emerge and I enjoy adding them to soups, so I let them re-seed themselves. They can be used to make fertilizer and they help composted material break down. Chickens and other birds are said to deworm themselves by eating nettle seeds. Fibers from nettle plants are used for making rope and are spun into a silky fiber. (Who knows when we may need to harvest nettle fibers?).
Los Angeles Eco-Village 