The last days of winter are always the longest days. It’s like being 9 months pregnant – just when you thought it was your due date and the baby’s ready, you are forced to weather out 10 more days, waiting for change. And with spring, just when you are about to sell the proverbial farm lot, stock and barrel, the weather breaks and plants spring forth from the ground.

Well, even with that nice 65 degree day us Michiganders had Monday, we aren’t to spring… yet.

The snow is retreating and has left behind a trail of winter – dirty snowpiles and trash along roadsides. Maple syruping continues (READ MORE HERE), but it’s too cold still for planting cool weather crops directly in the soil– maybe we will see the soils warm enough over the next 10-20 days to plant sweat peas and other cool-weather greens for spring salads.

As for the wild and weedy plants that come up on their own time (like birthing babies), I am finally seeing the familiar and cold-tolerant field garlic in clumps among the leaf litter, mullein basal rosettes starting to unfurl and dock leaves stretching their long leaves.

It will only take a bout of warmer weather and we will see many other plants spring forth from the soil — the chickweed, cleavers, garlic mustard, dandelion greens and violets to name a few… all are right around the corner.

Want to learn more about what’s coming up for spring foragers? I invite you to come to my next class, Foraging 101 with Ada Parks at the Ada Parks Learning Center. We will cover foraging basics and head outside for an early season plant walk.

Check out my other plant walk classes coming up this spring – lots of opportunities to learn about the wild edibles around you! Click HERE to see the listing – there’s something for everyone!

In the meantime, the land wants some help in spring cleaning. Take a moment or two this weekend to collect a bag of trash off the road or in a nearby park. It’s a good deed for the land, and nourishing for the soul to be a caretaker of the earth this is about to offer us another season of life.