At this June's meditation retreat, we have been lucky enough to savour something very new for dinner - weeds. No, not just our pesky monkey minds, but well, lambsquarters. Charles our fabulous retreat chef cooked them up after our gardening karma yogini Penny harvested them from our (chemical free) field.

Our chef told me that he dunked them in boiling water for one minute, drained them, then added a dash of safflower oil, salt and pepper.  They were dark green & delicious!  Our farm's crop of heritage garlic is still about a month away from harvest but lambsquarters would go great with garlic & a bit of butter too. 

The high nutrition in the lambsquarters was evident on sight and taste - Heres what wikipedia says about lambsquarters:  Lamb's quarters is a close cousin to spinach, but far, far more nutritious. It ranks right up there with Dandelion, Watercress and Nettles as one of nature’s nutritional powerhouses.

I like this reminder about questioning what we consider good and bad: (Re: lambsquarters on this website:) Now considered an invasive weed in many parts...How low it has fallen from its once honoured position as a cultivar of the Old World, where it enjoyed some considerable esteem for its nutritional properties and mild flavour.

So, don't toss the lambsquarters! Eat em! Enjoy!

I was blown away by the weekend workshop on 'native grassland reclamation/restoration' at Clear Sky. I couldn't help but think of Buddhism's Four Noble Efforts and how it applies very much to land stewardship as well....

See the wholesome for the wholesome, and make efforts to encourage it.  See the unwholesome for the unwholesome and make efforts to drop it. 

The same goes with our property, which has been badly degraded by overgrazing and forest ingrowth from fire suppression since the 1930s.  I'm so excited to see the native plants we seeded this weekend flourish, and look forward to developing a master plan for our property's ecological health.

Heres to awareness, and encouraging the wholesome - in action, right under our feet.  The second grasslands course is on September 11 & 12 2010 at Clear Sky Center.