Plant people long for Spring. Looking at all the seed catalogs is cool, but having the little green beings sprouting and hanging out with them is really totally cool! In the dead of winter there is nothing as wonderful as some snippet of green to perk up a meal.

I noticed that the Sunflower Market still has herbs for sale in little pots. That gave me an idea! How about a big pot with three herbs in it to snip for those winter meals? What a great gift for myself and for my foodie friends. All those paper whites and tulips are fabulous flowers and add good color just when we need it, but herbs? They bring us fragrance, flavor, and can be planted in the flower bed or garden come Spring!

If fact, I think I’ll just open a couple of seed packets and start some right now! Or shall I make mine weeds? Sorrel, plantain, clover, and purslane maybe…yum!

As people encroach on the wilderness, the amount of wild life that shows up in the cities is increasing. It used to be that there was an occasional sighting of deer or bear or other interesting creatures out of their element in an urban setting. Police would be called, animal catchers would round up the culprits, and soon it was people in the city and animals in the wild once more.

Now those boundaries have become permanently warped. There are packs of coyotes living in the wild grasses around O’Hare Field in Chicago. Skunks and raccoons and opossums are common urban dwellers. Here in Denver, the red fox has become an urban dweller as well.

No where else I’ve lived has had such a steady, large population of Urban Foxes! They are welcome in my yard since I am over run with squirrels without their help. I like foxes. They have a casual elegance and beautiful fur. You can see them trotting down the sidewalks in their neighborhood, making the rounds. If you are in the habit of looking closely, you can tell them apart as well. The most interesting feature to me is the ability of these wild creatures to adapt to their surroundings. Agile as big cats, foxes walk on the tops of high fences, jump up on the roofs, and cross a whole block without hitting the ground. I have seen one sitting in the crotch of a tree in the backyard, 10 feet off the ground, surveying the scene!

Fox teaches camouflage and adaptation. Fox makes the best of new situations and goes with the flow. We could learn a lot from our Urban Foxes.

When the snow melted last week, I couldn’t help going to look for what was still green in my yard. If I had to, what could I find out there to pick for food? So I started with the edge of the patio not expecting much. After all we have had many days of 20 degrees or less since Thanksgiving.

Much to my surprise and joy there were some old friends still looking perky and delicious! I found wood sorrel (or sour grass – oxalis acetosa) right at the edge of the cement. Next was evidence of dandelions which means roots for the digging, violet leaves, and mallow. There were also rose hips for tea!

Excited I started examining the garden beds. I still had sage, oregano, parsley, feverfew, and chives. When the ground thaws out I’ll try to dig an onion up and see how they are as well. Since I have very sandy soil, they may be fine!

If I actually left my yard, what wonders could I find? For one thing, there are many roots besides the dandelions in my yard. There are burdock and yellow dock for sure, and their dead leaves would lead me to them. Also cattails have many possibilities for food year around, as do birch trees, willows, balsam fir, pine needles, blackberry bushes, and clover.

I could also gather wild amaranth seeds for flour and tumbleweed for that matter! On this great green earth, we are never out of food!

As the weather warms up after a month or so of cold I feel my shoulders finally start to creep down my back away from my ears. The sun is warm on my face as it pours through the kitchen window, and my thoughts turn to spring and the arrival of the first newly sprouted greens in my yard. Just as I’m beginning to wonder about what I might be planting and growing this year, the seed catalogues start to arrive!

Along with the brilliantly colored covers of the fruit, vegetable, and flower catalogues, there are some rather drab half sized catalogues of herbs, medicinal plants, and (Holy Cow) weeds! In these booklets dandelions are not to be scourged and poisoned, they have seeds for sale! Plantain, burdock, chickweed and mullein are all valuable here. I can turn my whole yard into a ‘weed heaven’ if I want to!

Our fore Fathers and Mothers knew what they were doing when they insisted on bringing some of these plants with them when they crossed ‘the Pond’ several centuries ago. Since they are both survival foods and medicines, the early settlers knew they would make it on these plants alone – no matter what was (or wasn’t) found here! How lovely this information has survived with these plants. Now they just may save us again…should we need them to…