The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 4,882 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—6,641 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ
Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …
For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Forage for Food Merit Badge, I started paying attention to my feet. That’s right, my need-a-pedi-stat feet, in my new Spring sandals. Why, you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Because up until now, I have been committing plant-icide. And not just on weeds, no, no! I’ve been guilty as charged for the heinous murders of FOOD.
Yes, food. Now, color me innocent (a violet or pale pink, I believe) but I really had no idea how many plants can be nibbled, munched, cooked, and snacked upon. In fact – get this – it’s easier and smarter to learn which plants cannot be eaten, and go from there. When I started out earning this badge, I had my handy-dandy sticky note/memo pad at the ready. I thought that would be appropriate and perfect for my short list of a handful of edible plants. Wrong. Turns out I needed page after page of full size paper to keep a running tally.
Laurie Dimino 
Terry Steinmetz 
Winnie Nielsen 
Nan Roberts 
Karlyne 
We wound up with 5 roosters and 19 hens. So far we have eaten 3 of the roosters. The eggs are fabulous!!! I had forgotten how good fresh farm eggs tasted and how beautiful they looked. Such large golden yolks and firm whites. I want to try my hand at pickling eggs at some point.”
Elizabeth 
OK then, I’m back now from checking the garden. No sooner did I start to read your suggestions & off I went into the garden to see what is available:-) Not that I need much encouragement or coaxing to go out & play in what could very well be, my favorite place & space:-) But I do see now why they say, the power of suggestion is so strong:-)
Your garden salad sounds yummy. And I remember reading about your Dandelion Wine from one of your books; it intrigued me so that I made a copy of the recipe before I returned the book to the library…along with about 12 other must have copies of other experiences & ideas/true gifts you shared with your readers. Thanks again, to our lovely Spring Beauty, MaryJane Butters.
What an impressive list of native plants to consume! I must admit I am quite leery about doing such a thing for some reason. My only foraging experience was with my Girl Scout Troop when my Mom taught us how to find Sassafras plants and take the roots, clean them and boil into Sassafras tea. We were all impressed and did that skill for our primitive camping badge, I think. Your Dandelion wine sounds interesting too. I have heard it used to be quite common on farms during the early 1900s. I wonder if there is an easier method by skipping the yeast part and just adding Vodka and allow to sit for a few weeks?? It could be dubbed “The Sister’s Recipe!””
I love to forage as well. Right now the snow is covering everything–we just got another 10″-so I won’t be foraging for another month or so. But then the leeks will be ready and so will the violets!
So funny to see the dandelion wine recipe right after I told the kids that you could make wine from them! These are the same kids that brought me in a bowlful of dandelion flowers the other day and we roasted them with the baby kale. Not too shabby!