Planting and Foraging In the Rain

Last night we went to blissful sleep listening to the sound of soft rain pattering on the roof of our cabin. We had just finished planting out the seedlings, seeds and young plants into the ranch’s huge vegetable garden, including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini, lettuce, cilantro, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, lettuce, kale, chard, bok choi, cabbage, peas, nasturtiums, sweet peas and sunflowers. Everything is mulched to protect the ground from the strong sun. The raspberry canes and rhubarb are leafing out, the strawberries are flowering and the apple, plum and lilac trees are all in full bloom, giving the air an exotic perfume. We are lucky that one of our employer’s major pleasures is her garden, from its planting at the end of May to the time it is put to bed in October; a short season but intense in its profusion.

We have had nearly five inches of rain this month and last night and today may bring it to over six inches – a bounty when the state has been undergoing two years of mean drought. Only one person did not welcome the rain and she was visiting from Great Britain where the onslaught of precipitation has been relentless for two years. If she brought some of it with her, the whole state of Montana is grateful.  Weather patterns across the world are becoming more unpredictable and violent leaving helpless people and animals in its wake. Montana can dish out its own brand of destructive weather at will, it is famous for its ability to produce snow storms straight off the Rockies in July and the prudent gardener always has frost blankets at the ready. This mild, still, spring dampness is therefore doubly sweet.

With this rainy weather our Maryland born passion for foraging has re-surfaced. I have been gathering wild dandelion flowers and chamomile to make a honey sweetened tea. We eat young dandelion leaves as a salad picked from the shade on the banks of the WestRosebudRiver. Morel, Oyster, Tork and Giant Horse Mushrooms are popping up all over; there is nothing like the combination of wild mushrooms cooked in butter. And this evening with our dog’s help, I found the nest of a Mountain Plover with four eggs in it, but since we are over run with chicken eggs, I couldn’t bring myself to forage those, though a sweet delicacy they would be. Our table is adorned with Prairie Sunflowers and Purple Lupines plucked from the meadow behind our cabin. Life in Montana is never dull  You have an open invitation to sample some of it with us.

Post By Virginia Cross (8 Posts)

Virginia has been a wanderer her whole life. She is seldom lost however and has made an art out of plunging her roots deeply into whatever soil she finds herself. She is usually in the good company of her husband of 35 years.

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