Local food, dandelions, and harvesting the lawn

I was mowing my lawn while thinking about the latest dandelion outcry. Horrors! Some have spoken out our boulevards, parks and lawns are full of weeds. We are beset by them, and we can no longer use cosmetic pesticides. What does this mean for our lawns? What should we do to change things?

• Pesticide ban blamed for Winnipeg's excess weeds, dandelions

The lawn is a new phenomenon. A European tradition, the lawn used to be the domain of the well-to-do, who had gardeners to scythe or shear it. Village greens prevailed elsewhere, often common grazing land, grass trimmed close by cattle, horses, or other livestock. The lawn only became widespread in the 19thcentury, and it only became something a middle-class person could consider after the lawn mower's invention (1830).

In many places, the European green lawn wasn't standard. In the southern U.S., a swept yard was often preferred. This was a patch of bare dirt around a house, sometimes fenced in.

Women in the household might get "fancy" and sweep a pattern into the dirt as part of their daily chores. A tidy swept yard, probably a tradition that came from Africa, became an outdoor living room. Free from snakes, chiggers, and poison ivy, it was a place to eat outdoors, visit with a neighbour under a tree, or to do larger household tasks like killing livestock, making soap or boiling laundry. It wasn't the garden space; that was a separate area for growing vegetables, something that nearly everyone did as well.

What's a 'beautiful' lawn?

Here's where the crossover becomes amusing. In some cultures, dandelions leaves and roots are vegetables. In fact, that's why European settlers brought dandelions to North America. They spread further because many colonists admired the yellow blooms.

The outcry about how expensive it will be to keep lawns, boulevards, ditches, medians, and other areas looking "beautiful,"or weed-free, is an example of how our concept of what is beautiful, tasty, and cost-effective seems to evolve and conflict.

In Steinbach, a recent article indicates that the cost of keeping the grass dandelion-free has skyrocketed as a result of the new cosmetic pesticide ban.Doug Dobrowolski, president of theAssociation of Manitoba Municipalities, indicates that what used to cost Steinbach $15,000 in pesticides will now end up costing $237,000 to "keep weeds under control."

• Province weeds out attractive communities with pesticide ban, association says

In an era of rising food costs, concerns about food security and carbon emissions worries, the interest in using pesticides to create wide grassy spaces, free of weeds or other kinds of growth, seems confusing. We have many other options for how to use these open spaces. Some choices would save moneyand possibly feed the hungry as well.

In the short term, of course, there are those dandelions. If these areas are indeed pesticide-free, foraged edibles are an endless source of fresh vegetables for those who might have them otherwise, free for the pulling/picking and an easily renewable resource.

On a bigger scale, one might consider taking a small portion of the quoted $237,000 and sink it into gardening programs, run by knowledgeable professionals who could help the rest of us learn to grow our food.

Imagine producing fruit and vegetables on the land instead, harvesting and putting it up to stock food banks in winter. Imagine if food banks handed out frozen packets of locally grown broccoli, spinach or kale, jars of homemade jams and tomato sauce.

Harvesting in ourbackyards

Not everyone wants to tend a garden. Sometimes well-intended urban dwellers are so disconnected from harvest that this all seems impossibly exotic. Recently, I heard someone reminisce about the one time she helped harvest cherries in a Swiss orchard. Her eyes grew starry, as if it were a rare idyll. Meanwhile, my twin preschoolers leapt into the conversation,explaining, "We pick cherries! And Apples!Last summer."

No, we didn't go to a faraway U-pick farmor visit a relative's country property.We picked Nanking cherries in our yard and in our neighbour's yard.Using the advice of my neighbour (in her 90s) and Getty Stewart'sPrairie Fruit Cookbook, I made cherry jam from the cherry bushes.

• CBC Books:Prairie Fruit Cookbook

We then wandered the neighbourhood after summer camp was over, admiring the apple trees we saw in everyone's yards. Whenever we saw someone at those houses, we'd inquire"Will you be picking your tree? Could we help?" Nearly everyone we met indicated that they had no intention of eating all or even some of the apricots, apples or crab apples that grew in their yard.

We picked and picked. Sometimes we'd leave bags of fruit for the owner, as requested, but most often, the owner didn't want any bounty. Instead, we'd fill bags, the double stroller's pockets and both twins' laps. We made apple sauce, chutney, jams, crumbles and pies. We used a dehydrator to make apple chips. Then, we donated the extra; dozens of pounds of apples, to our preschool, a senior centre, and to anyone who asked for some.

When frost came, my three-year-olds were still on the hunt for those fruit trees. They bemoaned all the ones we'd missed, the apples wasted. They were right. Perhaps it's time to rethink our fixation with lawns and the notion that dandelions are a noxious weed. Instead, we might think about the local food opportunities we're missing.

Despite our short growing season, we could be producing much more of our food locally. It might not be grass, or even dandelions, but the reduction in carbon emissions, the noise-reduction (fewer lawn mowers), cost and the taste of fresh produce might change our world.

It's worth considering and all because a new pesticide ban will protect our health and grow a few more dandelions.

JoanneSeiffis the author of two books and the mom of twin preschoolers. She writes, designs and teaches in Winnipeg.