wild edibles- violets

                                                      (not a good example plant lol)

Spring is a wonderful time for finding wild edibles on the homestead . One of the first available for harvest  here are  violets and they are also one of our favorites. Luckily for us they  grow natural  and are very prolific.

There are over 900 species of violets in the world so exact identification is difficult but most all the varieties have the same edible and medicinal uses. All species  have 5 petals, which may have a yellow fur on the inside of two of the petals.Violets bloom  from March to June. Gather the  flowers when in full bloom, leaves anytime, although the younger leaves are more tender, and rootstock in fall. Roots, leaves and flowers can all  be dried  for later use.Violet leaves are high in vitamin c and several other nutrients.The flowers have a sweet mild aroma

The most common use for violets is using the flowers and leaves in salads and garnishes.  We eat them this way  nearly every day as long as they are in season. They make a pretty garnish in soups and on desserts too.The flowers can also be candied but in my experience although they taste great, getting them to look even half way good is difficult. For food purposes the flowers and leaves can also be jellied. I have not tried this recipe as yet but  since we have such an abundant crop of them this year, I just may as it  certainly looks good.  For a few more  interesting violet recipes check out
http://www.prodigalgardens.info/violet%20recipes.htm#Spring%20Salad

The flowers and leaves of violet are made into a syrup used in alternative medicine mainly for respiratory ailments associated with congestion, coughing, and sore throat.There are even a couple brands of this sold on the market. Following is the recipe I have on hand to eventually try out. We rarely get sick so I see no point in having too many herbal remedies in them medicine chest at once. Pour 1 pint of boiling water over 1 cup packed fresh crushed flowers and leaves. Cover and let stand for 12 hours. Strain and squeeze through cloth, add 2 lb. of sugar and boil for 1 hour or until syrupy. Store in glass jar. Give 1 tbs.(1 tsp. for children)  2 or 3 times a day.

Tea made from the entire plant is used to treat digestive disorders and "new research has detected the presence of a glycoside of salicylic acid (natural aspirin) which substantiates its use for centuries as a medicinal remedy for headache, body pains and as a sedative. The plants constituents are being studied and show these uses to be valid. Eugenol, Ferulic-acid, Kaempferol, Quercetin, Scopoletin, also show promise in the treatment of many kinds of cancer, arthritis, AIDS, gum disease and more."  

Teas for digestive issues can be made by taking  ¼ cup dried or fresh herb in 1 cup of water for  and steep for 10 minutes. Strain, flavor to taste. Take in ½ cup doses twice a day.  Used externally the fresh crushed leaves reduce swelling and soothe irritations. As a bath additive the fresh crushed flowers are soothing to the skin and the aroma is very relaxing.

around the homestead-compost bin

After the fun of trying to get compost to the front garden beds a couple weeks back we decided  that we needed to  have us a compost bin  closer to those beds. It would also give us a bin closer to the house  for  the non critter household scraps. After pondering a bit on where to put it  we decided that it would go  down front between the wall of flowers and the largest bed. There were only three viable options  and the other two choices were a further walk  and would have taken some rearranging of the earth to make it a some what level  space and usable.

This compost area is much smaller than the one down by the critters and is very simply put together using some fencing and old tent posts. You would be amazed at just how useful the sections of old tents can be on a homestead. Stakes and fence posts are just a couple examples.This bin measures about 4 foot across is circular and is about 3 foot deep.

This compost area took about 5 minutes to set up, cost absolutely nothing to make and will  save us many sore muscles in the future.

around the homestead-rain barrel

We have used  rain catchment systems here on the homestead for many years. It is in fact our only water source on the property. We have no well and  are not on a municipal supply. Unfortunately the main supply of water, the cistern, is a couple hundred feet away from  most everything else on the homestead. This means either carrying buckets of water huge distances to the critters as well as the greenhouse and a majority of the gardens or running hoses all that way.

The last several years we have used a simple rain barrel placed at the end of the awning of the 5th wheel trailer to catch the rain for critter and garden use. This year however the old trailer is being dismantled which meant that we would be losing this water supply. After a bit of pondering  what we were going to do we came up with  our solution. We would simply move our harvesting station to the back side of the chicken coop and run a gutter along to catch the rain  off the coop roof.

It certainly ain't pretty but it was simple to rig up  and it will completely functional. We had most of the materials laying around the homestead and we manthing simply cut, chopped, bent and modified  the various materials in to what we he needed. If we had had one single long piece of gutter we would have eliminated 95% of the work, but we didn't. Total cost of the project was 4 bucks  for a box of screws  that we probably didn't really need.  It took  about three hours  of time to  take down the old  and put together the  new setup. Time saved  and the convenience factor  by having just a 50 gallon  barrel there  is immeasurable.  If we do happen to run the barrel dry we can still run a hose from the main cistern  to fill the tank. At the number  of critters we are at currently and  so long as we have normal or average rainfall the 50 gallons  serves us perfectly.