So, maybe succession is real. When I was lamenting the dearth of pokeweed, for years so prolific in my backyard, my daughter suggested that it was just the natural progression of the species population.
But isn’t that the whole point of having lawns, yards, gardens, etc.: to tame the spread of nature and halt the processes that would return our artificial savanna to Eastern woodlands? How dare the pokeweed decide to overrule us humans and absent itself by its own volition?
Whatever, the profusion of poke seems to have been supplanted by a fine harvest of wineberries. I’ll be the first to admit that I have encouraged the several thickets that have sprung up on the edges of my yard, as I really love this wild fruit.
Totally ignored by commercial fruit interests, more fragile than raspberries, covered with mostly-benign thorns, fairly seedy, these bushes supply me with breakfast fruit for their all-too-brief season in the late spring through early summer. I usually manage to beat the birds and deer to enough of them to eat them fresh (many go directly from bush to mouth) and freeze a few for later.
This season, there were plenty to eat and also to use to produce a batch of shrub. I made a small amount of this old but newly-trendy elixir last year as an experiment and wished I had made more. This time, I used a whole quart of apple cider vinegar and have plenty to try out with new uses. Besides just drinking it mix-and-matched with sparkling water, lemonade, and/or hibiscus tea, I’ve used it to quick-pickle onions and as a substitute for vinegar in salad dressing.
It keeps for weeks in the refrigerator. I look forward to finding many more uses for it!
The purple shiso is shaping up to be another fine crop. I’ve been marinating leaves overnight in soy sauce, garlic, brown sugar and red pepper flakes, then wrapping each leaf around a small chopstickful of warm rice. It’s the Korean way, and takes practice to do it gracefully. Even when the little bundles fall apart (which mine do frequently), they are still delicious. Even better with a little sesame oil.
The shiso was a gift from a friend of mine a few years ago. She warned me that it would take over the yard, so I planted it in a large pot on my patio. I am now finding it in odd places where, I suppose, the birds have had their way with it. It hasn’t managed to overwhelm the grass (and assorted interloping weeds) of the lawn yet, and I imagine the regular cutting keeps it in check. I don’t mind having a pop of purple in odd places around the place – and tasty with it!
