Month: October 2012

Taryn from Retro Food for Modern Times blog makes a beautiful looking weedy salad, and has written up some notes about her weed foraging experience after coming on a weeds walk last month. Check it.

On Wikipedia there’s some debate over whether the “itchycoos” referred to in the the 1968 single Itchycoo Park by the East London mod band The Small Faces were nettles or wild rose seeds.  Wikipedia reports:

The hairy seeds from the Rose hip (or wild Dog Rose) were called “Itchycoos” by English children in the 1950s^. The seeds could be broken out of the berry and dropped down someone’s collar between shirt and back to cause itching.

One of the band members said it was nettles though. Which ever irritating plant caused them the itches, we have it in the book, as both nettles and wild roses are edible (and highly nutritious) when handled correctly. Here’s the clip. Don’t do drugs.

We’ve had an excess of chickweed in the garden, so Annie has been taking it down to her job at the Ceres Permaculture and Bushfoods Nursery and feeding the chickens, including newly hatched chicks.  The name of this nutritious herb does not lie, the chickens love it! (The last image is actually a video of baby chicks you can watch at flickr if you click on it.)

chickens love chickweed

5 photos