My Twitter pal Lady Althaea really inspires me. Like other Pagans and Witches, much of her work focuses on keeping in touch with the land. She does a lot of foraging and herbalism, and I feel like I don’t get out as much to explore like I used to. Her posts on her blog and Twitter enchant me, and often inspire me to just seize the day and get outside. We recently had a discussion about wood sorrel that reminded me I not only had a recipe for wood sorrel soup I wanted to try, but I had a big clump of it growing in my pea pots. The pea plants were looking rather spent, so I took it as an opportunity to pull them, add more soil, rake it a bit, and plant more for the fall. I also pulled up tons of wood sorrel for my soup. The recipe comes from the book Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate by John Kallas. It’s a wonderful introduction into foraging, focusing on the easiest to identify and prepare. There are numerous photos to help you feel confident in your foraging. Best of all, many of the plants probably grow near your home, perhaps even sharing space with plants you are growing on purpose!
Anyway, I finally made the soup! Oh, it was excellent. Very onion-flavored, but the bits of wood sorrel gave it a real tart kick which I liked. (For what it’s worth, I used potato instead of the thistle root.)
Other wonderful things are happening in my garden. The tomatoes are starting to ripen, I have some eggplant and even a zucchini on the way. A “surprise pumpkin” is taking shape – you know, the kind that grow out of jack-o-lantern guts! It makes me excited for Samhain… One of my favorite signs of August occurred recently – my sunflowers have opened! I will let them go to seed. I save some for more planting the following year, but I also use some as offerings over winter.
Author M. A. Phillips 