Lamium, or henbit, not to be confused with purple dead nettle (though, they are both edible) can be enjoyed raw or cooked.



Stinging nettle (which Gregory Crawford, once taught me how to harvest without getting stung) can be dried for teas; or used fresh and blanched for delightful pestos. It’s a super food!


Not edible, however beautiful. Virginia bluebells.


Empty, with just a small hole on one side, found on a wooded pathway.



Redbud or forest pansy; when those little pink buds flower in a few days, they can be used as a snack, garnish, or stir-fry treat.



Non-native, periwinkle blossom.



Super delicious, non-native Japanese knotweed.



Mugwort! Use as a seasoning, or a tea for recalling your dreams, relaxing your muscles, aiding digestion.



This pollinator lost her way on a stone wall. Honey bees are super important. Edify yourself. And some more.



Lovely, colorful apiary.


Sassafras flowers are delicious. Harvest the roots in the fall for teas and tinctures.



Wild ramps! Harvest with care, difficult to re-establish.



Lesser celandine (left, yellow flower) should be harvested before it flowers. Viola (right, purple flower) is an edible blossom.

I seeded mexican sunflowers (Tithonia diversifolia) back in the late fall. Not the time of year to seed, but I was feeling all adventurously experimental with the surge of October. Everything else I seeded then became food for aphids and eventually went the way of the compost pile. But these sunflowers are sproutin’ up something beautiful. And just in time for spring!

Though, I never welcome this time of year. Historically, the spring transition is rough for me. For a period of years in my life, spring time was the time when everything fell apart. Jobs, relationships, my general sense of well-being. It didn’t happen every year, but I swear there was a jag of like 5 when that was the case.

Perhaps spring is just the counter-balance to my autumn, when I tend feel more elated, inspired, open to new possibles, new people. Maybe it’s because I’m an Aquarian and I just dig how the winter allows space for my dreamy, thoughtful, independent alone times (and bread-baking, and cosmetic-making, and other things I do in my kitchen when it’s cold). And maybe it’s because spring always rages in like a storm, trampling my carefully cultivated sense of ease, to remind that shit needs to start moving again.

Said rage is proving to be challenging so far. I’ve spent the first two weeks of this season working, exercising, and sleeping. I imagine the next few weeks are going to be similar. I welcome the challenges, because I love my work and I am learning new things about myself every day. Like that it’s hard to manage large groups of people; and that managing large groups of people is also hilarious. And it’s calming to be welcoming challenges, and not feeling stagnated or paralyzed by them, as I have in the past.

So spring 2014 can bring it with all her might! As the nerdy, Bucky Fuller lover that I am, the quotation above is my mantra until at least mid-June. And by then it will be ocean-swimming time! Which is a wonderful time. Here’s to putting contrarian forces to good use this lovely spring, as a means to cultivating something better; and potentially something awesome. Happy spring! Love, A.