Village Squire, 1977-10, Page 5Blanche Garrett displays one of the books she has written on wild food cookery which is her specialty.
You need never go hungry
in a weed patch
with Blanche Garrett's
know-how
BY DEBBIE RANNEY
Blanche Pownall Garrett lives in the country, a perfect place
for weed gathering.
So who would want to gather weeds you might ask? You
would, if you knew of the nutrients in them and what kind of
delicious meals they could provide. It's something Mrs. Garrett
knows already and a knowledge she has put to use in books.
Mrs. Garrett's interest in wild plant life has been lifelong but
about 20 or 25 years ago she started taking it even more
seriously. It's obvious she wishes more people would do the
same and she stresses you don't have to live in the country or
even be near the country to find this edible wild plant life. You
can find it on your very own lawn.
She said just taking a drive through the villages and towns of
Huron County you can see a lot of mountain ashberry growing on
people's lawns and people don't even realize that it could be
used for jelly. Another wild fruit that could be used are
elderberries. She says many people put these on their lawn just
as a decorative tree.
"When 1 lived in the cities, I still ate edible wild plants,"
Mrs. Garrett said.
She uses plants mostly from the Huron County area. Huron
County has a wealth of plants, she said.
She not only uses plants for jams and jellies but uses them in
everything including, soups, salads, main dishes and desserts.
Two of Mrs. Garrett's books are in fact about jams and jellies
but a third called, "A Taste of the Wild" is about all kinds of
wild food cookery.
Some of the things that she makes are: jellies with wild
VILLAGE SQUIRE/OCTOBER 1977, 3.