Going to Seed

June 24, 2016

Back to the Garden, Gardening, Nature Awareness, Vegetable Gardening

...ey love our overgrown, browning beds, because of course they’re eating the seeds or the bugs on the ripening plants. They would not, however, allow me to take any pictures of them doing these things. They love all the weedy places, the vacant lots and over grown side yards. Those places are full of flashing wings and trilling songs. It’s already a seed time of year here in LA on our fast moving calendar, and I’m watching the birds feast. I love wa...

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Physalis pruinosa a.k.a. “Ground Cherry”

Mr. Homegrown

April 30, 2007

Gardening

10 Comments

...iced at a staggering $3.99–a lot considering the package only contained 12 seeds. You can be certain that we’ll be doing some seed saving on this one if we get a successful crop! The googling required to sort out the many common names of Physalis pruinosa revealed an intriguing source of seeds, Trade Winds Fruit, located in Chula Vista. Trade Winds carries a number of nightshade family plants including four from the Physalis genus and even somethi...

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Wild Food Lab: Foraging Taken to the Next Level

Mr. Homegrown

August 28, 2014

Food, Foraging

4 Comments

...tasty edibles. At this time of year that food comes mostly in the form of seeds. Pascal and Mia created, on the spot, a weed seed power bar, mustard and a few other wild seed enhanced foods. Not an LA local? The Wild Food Lab website will give you an idea of what this team is up to through recipes and techniques for common wild foods. I think my favorite recipe is also the simplest: how to prepare the ubiquitous broadleaf plantain (Plantago major...

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The Genetic Diversity of Watermelons

Mr. Homegrown

September 16, 2013

Food, Gardening

8 Comments

...d up at the National Heirloom Exposition. Note the vibrant (and tasty) red seeds. Navaho watermelons are sometimes called “winter melons” since they can be stored for a few months. Another watermelon I tasted at the Exposition was a yellow fleshed variety called Orangeglo. It was probably the sweetest and tastiest watermelon I’ve ever eaten. The problem with supermarket watermelons is not due to the seedless vs. seeded issue. Seedless watermelons...

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California Buckwheat

Mr. Homegrown

December 20, 2006

Food, Foraging

...or animals, grows with almost no water, and best of all it produces edible seeds. We’ve gathered the seeds we’ve found in fields and baked it into bread and added it to cereal to both boost nutritional value and to add a nutty flavor. The local and resourceful Tongva Indians used the roots and leaves for headaches and stomach problems, among many other uses including using the stems to pierce ears. California buckwheat is available from the Theodo...

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