Poor man’s pepper

 What a great find! Last year we had a big windstorm that knocked over our shade trees next to my husband‘s office. Underneath the shade trees, we had put a lot of gravel, which now is sprouting up all sorts of stuff. I was weeding it out by hand and took a closer look at some of the things that I was pulling up. I was pretty sure this was poor man’s pepper and thankfully had a little plant identifier along with me. I usually see this in the fall where it’s very recognizable because it shoots up spiky little flower heads with little seed pods hanging off the sides. One taste of the leaves and sure enough… Poor man pepper. I’ve never picked it in the spring, and probably stepped over it many times. Never more though. The spring greens are so absolutely delicious and very very. Peppery. I decided to bring as many little bundles home with me as I could today, and throw them on the dehydrator along with garlic Leaves, oregano, sage, sorrel. I make a delicious Dried herb mix to be used all Year long, And I think it just got one notch better :-)

Beautiful Service Berries

 These little berries come from a service berry tree  they are similar in size to a blueberry, but have a unique taste. It is sweet and the closest thing I can think of to the taste might be in fact, a blueberry the serviceberry tree is native to Oklahoma, although I have never seen one in the wild or if I have it hasn’t been either in bloom or in fruit so I’ve probably just walked right by it. This one actually is planted in my backyard. 

Creamed poke salet

 This was so delicious. Basically poke boiled twice with the water poured off each time, and possibly three times. Then fry up some onions and garlic. Add the poke. Add some cream cheese and Parmesan and a little milk. I know you’re supposed to add cream, but I didn’t do that. Oh, and then I added fried onions to the top