Warm and Fuzzy Fall

One of my favorite relaxation activities has always been walking.  Even in Las Vegas, the concrete playground, I always appreciated walking through our neighboring housing community.  It was one of the rare areas of town where every house did not look the same, most were older, and the color pallette ranged from blue to red, rather than the monochromatic tans the newer communities seem to embrace.  Now that we are out here in the country and the warm fall days are barely hanging on (40's in the next couple of days...for the high!) I've been trying to take advantage and get out onto these peaceful country roads where houses are scarce, passing cars rare, and the landscape is literally exploding in fuzzy, white beauty. 

It's that time of year when the plants are preparing to die for the winter and they spread their seeds in anticipation of the following spring.  I remember cattails as a kid because my grandma had a decorative can of them in her living room.  All the years that I saw those cattails hanging out in the corner of the living room I never realized that when they seeded in the fall they burst open to reveal a  pillow of soft, natural stuffing.  While walking down our road I had to take a second glance to even realize that's one of the plants causing the snowy storm.  I love researching the wild plants around our area and always find a multitude of uses that were once revered by pioneers.  Many of these have been lost in modern society, but if you'd like to learn more about them, I have a list of useful websites for the plants I mention in this post at the end.

Of course, as a kid growing up in Minnesota, we were never short of dandelions.  Our backyard was full of them...yellow in the summer, and in the fall they become hours of entertainment blowing the white seeds off the stem.  We did have dandelions in Vegas, which I always had the best laid plans of taking the kids to Pioneer Park to harvest and try naturally dying onsies in the yellow heads...but that did not happen.  Luckily, we have them here, too, so maybe next summer you will have the opportunity to purchase some dandilion-dyed clothing from me!


I saved the best (or at least my personal favorite) for last.  The milkweed.  I first noticed this plant on a walk with the kids and thought the shape of the plant was so interesting.  When closed up, it looked like a fruit or vegetable  hanging from the plant.  I often photograph interesting shape, color, and composition of natural objects to use as inspiration for art. I am studying abstract minimalism, which is based on the art of shape, form, and color with the absence of a story or emotional connection.  The natural world is chalk full of this, and I photographed the milkweed plant a month ago just for that reason.  I was delightfully surprised when I saw one spilling with the softest, white filling attached to coffee-brown seeds in a perfect package.  The entire inside of the milkweed plant is soft to the touch, like micro-fiber.  And I can only imagine using the floss (or silk) as stuffing in a down baby quilt...hmmm.  The milkweed is, infact, a vegetable, and, like the cattail, a food source that has been dubbed delicious and versitile...a real lost treasure in modern cooking.  Maybe we'll be the ones to remedy that.  I think I may go harvest some milkweed today!



Information about Cattails: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/duffyk43.html
Information about Dandelions:  http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2008-04-01/Dandelion-Recipes.aspx
Information about Milkweed:  http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues/87/87-2/Sam_Thayer.html