Village Squire, 1977-10, Page 8sumac you can do more than just make jelly with it, she said.
So far, it's been a beautiful wild mushroom fall, Mrs. Garrett
said. This time of year that's chiefly shaggy mushrooms and
puffball mushrooms.
She stresses that there's some kind of edible wild plant life you
can use in every season of the year. Mrs. Garrett can even find
uses for a part of the plant that other people never think of using.
Although most people who like to eat dandelion eat the leaves.
Mrs. Garrett prefers the crown (that's the part underneath the
earth).
"People don't realize that right on their front lawns. in their
back gardens there is a world of plants available," she said.
She cites rose hips as a for instance of this. She said when
she's driving to the supermarket in Goderich she stops at a wild
rosebush to get rose hips for rose hip jelly.
Mrs. Garrett learned about wild plant life cookery partially
through books, and partially through knowledgeable people with
the same interests. She keeps track of all the edible plant books
that come out and if she goes out hunting she takes a book with
her.
"I find a simple way is to make yourself knowledgeable about
the poisonous ones first. Then you don't waste your time looking
for those," she said.
One thing a person might do about the problem of identifying
the poisonous plants is to try and get the pamphlets the
Department of Agriculture puts out on the various kinds of
weeds and these could then be looked up in an edible plant book.
Usually the information is supplied by trained men and women in
their field, Mrs. Garrett said. She sums the whole thing up by
saying it's a learning process.
Right now, Mrs. Garrett and a photographer friend are
working on a colour guide to wild plants which should be of some
help to people wishing to identify them.
A friendly, gracious, grayhaired lady, Mrs. Garrett obviously a
woman with ideas and this summer involved another inspiration.
The town of Goderich was celebrating its sesquicentennial and
the beautifully architectured stone house that Mrs. Garrett and
her family owned just happened to be one of the earliest in
Colborne Township. Thus it was a viable tourist attraction and
Mrs. Garrett thought she would operate a tearoom so local
people could bring their visitors to see it.
Two weeks was all she had planned for but that turned into all
summer and now Mrs. Garrett plans to keep it going until
Christmas. She runs the tearoom on a regular basis. seven days a
week from 2:30 to 5 p.m. Although she served tea on the patio all
summer long, she now serves it in the livingroom and prefers to
have reservations because of this.
The family has owned the house for 20 years and had been
using it just as a weekend and summer place but this is the third
year they have been using it year round.
"1 spent the summers and many weekends just discovering
the wild plant wealth of Colborne Township," Mrs. Garrett said.
The Garrett family have lived in many cities, towns and
provinces but they came to Colborne Township from
Peterborough.
Besides her interest in plants and writing about them, Mrs.
Garrett is also a freelance writer who has written for children,
done articles in cookery, human interest stories, some fiction and
a biography.
"I've been working on a biography for a couple of years now,
but because of my contracts, (for books on edible wild plants) I
don't get at it very fast, I'm afraid."
"I keep writing on the subject because I never get to the end of
it and there's always a new way to approach it," she said.
Some of the advantages to be found in the use of wild plant
cookery are in its inexpensiveness and nutrient value.
"I think it's ridiculous to have all this good stuff go to waste.
When I can go right down to the river and get watercress, think
how ridiculous it would be for me to buy lettuce at 49, 59 cents a
pound," Mrs. Garrett said.
She also thinks wild plants have an advantage because they
'ave vitamin content. And there is one more plus even for people
ho don't like eating things that are good for them.
6, VILLAGE SQUIRE/ OCTOBER 1977.
WHERE THE VALUES ARE!
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BAINTON'S AUTHENTIC OLD MILL
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It's that time
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Oct. 1 to Dec. 31
Annual Factory Outlet Sale
of wool and leather goods at
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83rd ANNIVERSARY SALE
THE LARGEST INVENTORY OF FINISHED
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BAINTONS The Authentic Old Mill in Blyth
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ainfon
Since 1894
ORIGINAL
OLD MILL IN BLYTH
AT THE RAILWAY TRACKS
Telephone
523-9666
WINTER HOURS:
Monday -Thursday 9-6
Friday & Saturday 9 - 9
Sunday 1-6