Myths of North America

[Ninurta]

Excellent information.

In another post you mentioned an 'ivy-type' plant that has taken over on your property. Is that indigenous to North America?
(My Missus has just told me that Quinoa -as a add-in for rice, is expensive here in the UK!)

No, I believe it is English Ivy. It even grew THROUGH the walls of the house, tendrils finding cracks to follow until it was indoors. We had a lovely patch of it in the bathroom and another in the laundry room. In the laundry room, it came in through a window like any self-respecting burglar, but that patch in the bathroom - that one was growing out from under the edge of the ceiling molding! I don't know who planted it there, or what they were thinking when they did. There isn't any of it at this house, and I aim to keep it that way.

There is also another vine type of plant growing here that has taken over the highways called "kudzu". That one is from, I believe, Japan. They originally planted it for erosion control along road banks because it is fast growing as a ground cover, but it went native and is now found everywhere, The only thing keeping it from growing across the roadways and taking over the entire planet is that the car tires keep it pruned back and sort of in check. But kudzu is also edible, so it isn't a total wash... it's just that most folks here don't know it's edible. Leaves more for me, I reckon!

Most of the native vines here are wild grape vines, scuppernongs, something called "Virginia creeper", and what are called "greenbriers" colloquially known as "shin-rippers" because, small diameter as the stems are, they are tough and thorny, and have no compunction against opening a shin whenever the opportunity presents. If you don't mind the thorns (or shave those little bastards off), they make good ties to tie structural elements of a hut together with before you cover it with brush and bark slabs.

Quinoa is pretty expensive here, too per pound, but it swells up pretty good, like rice does, so it can be pretty filling. Grace used to fix it like a porridge, adding onions and bacon grease or something to it to make it palatable, and it isn't too bad like that. The quinoa in the grocery stores is imported here, from the Andes I believe. I don't have the wherewithal to determine if the wild sort of goosefoot growing around here is actually from the domesticated plants of long ago or not. The only difference is in the thickness of the seed casing, which is measured in micro-meters. I don't have a ruler graduated that fine, and the seeds are too tiny for me to handle well to peel them and measure them with my micrometer, so I just have to make assumptions that wild is as good as domesticated in a pinch.

They also imported what I believe are called "Empress Trees" from China to repopulate strip mines, because they grow fast, but I've not yet found a good use for those. This place was already jungle-y enough before the imported plants (it was once observed that a squirrel could travel all the way from the ocean at the east coast to the Mississippi River through the trees without ever touching the ground), and now it's just a riot of greenery with the additions. It is one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet, and in late spring or early summer mornings, with the mists rising through the brush, you'd think you were somewhere on the Amazon to look at it.

When we were moving back here from Kansas City, I tried to prepare Grace by telling her to get ready for some jungle, but I don't think she believed me. Driving through eastern Kentucky at sunrise in late July, when the mists were rising through the trees and there was no ground to be seen anywhere but the roadway, her response was "Oh. My. God."

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