At my house we’re ignoring the weather and pretending it’s spring! “Faith is evidence of things hoped for…” and we are definitely, eternally hopeful!

So, in one act of faith this week I put up the first hummingbird feeder. I haven’t seen any of them yet, but a web site that tracks sightings of the birds says they are in our neck of the woods already. In looking for information on when to expect them I also learned that the nectar we give them isn’t their main source of food. They’re actually carnivores and just use the nectar as fuel to help them catch and eat flies. Now that I know they eat flies they’re doubly welcome here! I wonder if it’s possible to get them to expand their diet to include mosquitoes? These little things fly about 20 miles a day on their way back up here. And the small amount of research that’s been done so far leads them to believe that the same birds return to the same place to eat every year. That may explain why my neighbor who’s lived here 30 years always has more birds than I do!

Like most of you we’re outside more with the longer days and so we’re noticing more of the natural world around us. The wild onion crop seemed larger than usual this year and I got curious about this plant. When we first moved here my mother gave dire warnings about what would happen if we even thought of eating the wild onions. And, so we haven’t. But I like to use what’s around me and fresh for cooking and it’s always bothered me that there seemed to be this possible food source there that I wasn’t making use of. So I finally started doing some research. It turns out that these aren’t wild onions, but wild garlic. They look much the same, but the stems on the garlic are hollow and the onions are solid. That definitely makes ours garlic. And, both plants are edible. Although most references I looked at did warn that the taste is definitely more intense and perhaps less pleasant than our domesticated variety. But I’m definitely going to try some for flavoring in some of my cooking this week.

And as long as we’re talking onions, I learned from the extension service this year why I never got the results from my garden onions I was hoping for. Apparently Virginia is not a great place to grow onions. There are onions designed for a very short growing season like the one I grew up with in Minnesota. There are onions designed for very long growing seasons. Think of Vidalia Onions from Georgia. But apparently there are almost no onions designed for a middle of the road kind of growing season like the one we have here in Virginia. While we get great spring onions from our garden, I could never seem to grow big keeper onions for the winter. It is nice to know it’s not my lack of gardening expertise!

The wild strawberries here also intrigue me. I don’t remember ever seeing them at home in Minnesota. But that may be because we grew so many of the domesticated variety I never noticed them. They are also edible and are supposed to have a stronger flavor than the humongous ones you see in the grocery store. Of course, they’re so tiny they’d need to have a pretty intense flavor. And did you know that during the American Revolution, the Minutemen were saved from scurvy by drinking tea made from the green leaves of the wild strawberry? And Indians ate wild strawberries to help them get over colds. Seems like a handy plant to have around!

And last but not least are the beautiful wild violets that grow in profusion in our ditches out front. Every resource I looked at referred to these as a noxious weed. That seems very harsh to me considering how pretty they are! But I will have to admit they seem to be spreading. Since I did find a note that the leaves can be boiled to make a tea and that the leaves can be used in salads maybe I can turn them into a useful crop! By the way, did you know that the leaves and flowers of the wild violet have three times the vitamin C of an orange.

What are you waiting for? Get out there and start foraging?