Alberta is definitely a resource-rich province. However, I feel we are missing out on one of our greatest natural resources - a bountiful resource that is literally right under our noses...the many wild grasses/grains and wild flowers (aka dreaded weeds) growing profusely everywhere, including in our gardens, yards, fields and ditches!
I think we need to start changing our attitude toward the weeds around us. Any plant that can survive, and consistently return, no matter how hard we fight to eradicate it, obviously is a plant that should be growing here, and thus it must have a purpose and a vital use.
Many of the plants we have labelled as weeds are really quite beneficial, to humans and animals, as many of them are edible. As well, many of them attract the pollinating insects that are necessary to continued plant growth. This area of Alberta used to be open prairie and marshlands so the plants that grow best here are not plants that need to be cultivated and cared for, but plants that self-seed or self-sow themselves.
Without any government assistance of any kind, these plants have shown that they truly are “Proven Winners,” growing year after year in all soil types and in all weather conditions - drought to wet years, they grow in the same spot year after year without any threat of developing disease that will threaten other plants around them, they have genetically modified themselves to ensure the highest rate of survival, and they are always high yield without the need for any fertilizers - look how plentiful they are even when we are trying our best to completely annihilate them! By using the weeds, instead of trying to kill them, we would be able to stop polluting our air, water, and ground which would benefit not only us, but the animal and bird life as well.
We have a gold mine around us just waiting to be utilized for jams and jellies, dried for seasonings, used for medicinal purposes, made into flours, baled for hay, made into ethanol, or countless other options.
With some imagination and ingenuity, who knows, maybe Alberta is destined to be famous for it’s wild clover wines or cattail flours!
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XFMFEKEeoo8hdAPzhetmh6xz-2cgRu4K/view?usp=sharing
To contact The Chautauqua, email: thechautauqua@gmail.com.
