Southern Streams Ranch

Southern Streams Ranch Southern Streams Ranch is a privately owned miniature horse ranch, growing botanical garden, and event venue in Tampa Bay, Florida.
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Hosting events for up to 150 people in the Tampa Bay area, including weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, anniversaries, prom nights, vow renewals, and more. We raise miniature horses to sell, learn from our botanical garden, and dance in the barn in our free time.

Nuevo Blog! Feliz Domingo mi gente!
02/22/2024

Nuevo Blog! Feliz Domingo mi gente!



Foto: Timeless Photography (se habla español) Comida: Tampa Catering Después de haber trabajado como propietaria de un espacio para eventos y coordinadora de bodas, he sido testigo de primera mano del panorama en constante evolución de las tendencias en bodas. En medio de esta escena en constante...

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02/17/2024

Follow us on Instagram to see more!

Calling all brunch lovers! 🍳🥂 Experience the best of both worlds at Southern Streams Ranch with brunch weddings. Treat y...
02/05/2024

Calling all brunch lovers! 🍳🥂 Experience the best of both worlds at Southern Streams Ranch with brunch weddings. Treat your guests to a delightful feast, an exciting celebration, and endless fun. Join the trend now! Book your dream brunch wedding at https://www.southernstreamsranch.com

Is a Brunch Wedding Right For You? 👰🍾🍓
https://wix.to/FP0USw0





Southern Streams Ranch, a gorgeous destination wedding venue, mini horse ranch, growing botanical garden, and event venue. Our rustic barn style wedding venue is surrounded by cypress trees, grandfather oaks covered in Spanish moss, and a variety of flowering plants. Private Par...

07/09/2023

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Duarte!

Decor by Southern Streams Ranch
Photography by: Timeless Photography - Tampa

07/09/2023
Come join us! Plants, crafts, books, & tea in the garden!
07/01/2023

Come join us! Plants, crafts, books, & tea in the garden!

Join us in the garden for edible plants, crafts, and books! Let's turn our Saturday into a Garden Party at Southern Stre...
06/30/2023

Join us in the garden for edible plants, crafts, and books! Let's turn our Saturday into a Garden Party at Southern Streams Ranch!
8am-2pm
12720 Lem Simmons St.
Thonotosassa, FL 33592

06/29/2023

TOMATO AILMENTS AND TREATMENTS FOR THEM

It's Summertime, and your Tomatoes should be growing well. Let's hope that you don't have to deal with any Tomato issues this season, but if you do, here is some good info. It is important to be able to identify and treat the common Tomato plant ailments that might crop up.

1) BLOSSOM END ROT--This is one of the most common ailments, and you can tell if your plants have it by looking at where Tomatoes attach to vine. If the attachment appears brown and leathery between the size of a dime and quarter, than that Tomato has Blossom End Rot.

TO TREAT--You will have to take all the Tomatoes off the plants that are affected, and dispose of them. If you don't, it will spread and to all of them. Calcium is required in relatively large concentrations for normal cell growth. When a rapidly growing fruit is deprived of calcium, the tissues break down, leaving the characteristic lesion at the blossom end. Blossom-end rot develops when the fruit's demand for calcium exceeds the supply in the soil.

This may result from low calcium levels in the soil, drought stress, excessive soil moisture, and/or fluctuations due to rain or over watering. Lime (unless the soil is already alkaline), composted manures or bone meal will supply calcium.

2) BLIGHT--There are 3 stages of Blight. Early Blight is black and grey spots on the leaves when Tomatoes are young. Southern Blight is black and grey spots by stem and roots of the tomato plant. Late Blight gets out of hand, and is black and grey spots throughout the leaves, vines, and tomatoes.

TO TREAT--The easiest way is to treat it in it's early stages by removing the parts of the Tomato plants that are infected.. If you don't notice it until the later stages of Blight, you will need to buy an anti-fungal treatment, or you can make an organic one from home. however,

3) CATERPILLARS-- They love to feed on Tomato plants, and should be taken care of right away.

TO TREAT--– There are many treatments available to fight against caterpillar infestations at your local garden store, but you can make your own safe organic remedies at home. An Apple Cider Vinegar spray can be used to keep them away. You can also plant French Marigolds by your Tomatoes to help deter from from coming around

4) FRUIT SPLITTING--This can occur when it is dry, and then you get some heavy rains, or most frequently when there is sudden growth in the tomato plant. It doesn't hurt the Tomatoes, or affect you eating them, they just don't look good after that.

TO TREAT--If it occurs early in the Tomato plants growth phase, it can be reversed. Just water and apply nutrients, as normal, so there's no too dry too wet cycle. If it happens near harvest, it can't be reversed.

5) RED SPIDER MITES-- They are hard to spot, and usually are under your leaves. If you notice cobwebs on your Tomato plants, then you definitely have them.

TO TREAT-- You can always buy treatments at the store to take care of them, but better to make your own organic Apple Cider Vinegar spray, soap spray, or Onion and Garlic spray. Coriander, Dill, and Chrysanthemums are good to plant to deter them.

6) WILT--It is a fungal infection that starts in the roots, and blocks most of the water and nutrients from getting to the plant. It usually causes no problems until Tomatoes are growing on the vines. You will first see yellowing and drying of lower leaves, and then whole plant will wilt during hottest period of day. It will recover some at night, but then wilt again next day

TO TREAT--There really is no treatment when you get wilt that I know of. It is in the soil, so the next time you grow Tomatoes, pick a different spot in the Garden to grow them. It will deprive the Wilt of a host, and it will die out over the next year. Grow seedlings inside in clean soil before transplanting in Spring, and then make sure to pull all w**ds that pop up around them

7) SUN SCORCH-- The skin of your Tomatoes will looked bruised and sunken. It sometimes happens when your Tomatoes get too much sun exposure during a real dry and hot period

TO TREAT-- Don't do any pruning of leaves during hot periods. The extra leaves will shield the Tomatoes. You can also use shade cloth to cover them during these periods Once they get Sun Scorch, you cannot do anything for the affected fruit, but you can provide shade for the unaffected ones.

Please visit our THE SEED GUY website when you get the chance. We have Good Pricing on our 9 Heirloom Seed Packages, and all of our Individual Varieties in Stock Now, and we still hand count and package them, like the old days, so you get the best germination.

Our 60 Variety Heirloom Seed package has 33,000 Seeds, Non GMO, fresh from the New Fall 2022 Harvest, and has 49 Vegetable varieties and 11 Herb varieties. There is definitely enough Seeds in the package to help Feed Your Family, and what you don't use right away, you can seal back in the silver mylar bag we include for storage. Great SPRING SALE Pricing Now at $79. https://theseedguy.net/seed-packages/50-60-variety-heirloom-seed-package.html

You can also call us 7 days a week, and up to 10:00 pm each night, at 918-352-8800 if you would like to Order By Phone.

If you LIKE US on our page, you will be able to see more of our great Gardening Articles, new Heirloom Seed Offers, and healthy Juice Recipes. https://www.facebook.com/theseedguy Thank you, and God Bless You and Your Family. :)

06/27/2023

MORE GARDENS ARE TRANSFORMING INTO FOOD FORESTS

If you’ve ever wandered back roads in a developing, tropical country, you know that many of the locals grow much of their own food. You might also have noticed that their food gardens aren’t comprised entirely of small annual vegetables planted in straight rows like ours are. They are typically wild-looking plantings of edible trees, shrubs, vines, and ground covers all mingling effortlessly together, as if Mother Nature had planted the garden according to her own design. These are literally forests of food.

Forest gardening has been the standard for millennia in many tropical regions, but it’s possible in more temperate climes as well. A British chap by the name of Robert Hart first popularized the concept among European and North American gardeners with the publication of his book Forest Gardening: Cultivating an Edible Landscape in the 1980s. Food forests have also figured prominently in the permaculture movement, an approach to designing agricultural systems that mimic natural ecosystems.

Why Food Forests?
Food forests are like the ultimate organic garden. Does a forest need tilling, w**ding, fertilizer, or irrigation? Nope. And that’s the goal.

Because they’re mostly perennial crops, there’s no need to till. Not tilling preserves the natural soil structure, preventing the loss of topsoil and allowing all the little microbes and soil critters to do their jobs, cycling nutrients and maintaining fertility. The deep roots of trees and shrubs make them much more drought tolerant than annual vegetables, and they shade the smaller plants below, keeping everything lush and moist in a self-maintaining—in other words, a highly sustainable—system.

Step 1: CHOOSE PLANTS
The first step in establishing a food forest is to choose your plants. The largest plants will reach into the sun, so most common fruiting trees and shrubs are fair game. The smaller plants generally need to be more shade tolerant, as they will be in the under story. But you can leave sunny patches here and there—like little forest clearings—to accommodate species that need more light (though see Step 3 for a trick to make the most of the available sunlight).

Winter is the ideal time to get started, because most edible trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous plants can be purchased and planted while dormant, which is better for the plants—and for your bank account. That’s because at this time of year they are sold in “bare root” form—meaning without soil or a pot—which gives the roots a more natural structure and costs less for nurseries to produce. Bare root plants are typically ordered in January or February, for planting in early March, or as soon as the ground thaws in your area. Naturally, you’ll want to stick with species that are well-adapted to your region.

CANOPY: This layer is primarily for large nut trees that require full sun throughout the day, such as pecans, walnuts, and chestnuts, all of which mature to a height of 50 feet or more.

UNDER STORY TREES: This layer is for smaller nut trees, like filberts, and the majority of fruit trees. The most shade tolerant fruit trees include native North American species like black mulberry, American persimmon and pawpaw, though many other fruit trees will produce a respectable crop in partial shade.

Vines: Grapes, kiwis, and passion fruit are the most well-known edible vines, though there are many other more obscure specimens to consider, some of which are quite shade tolerant, such as akebia (edible fruit), chayote (a perennial squash), and groundnuts (perennial root crop). Kolomitka kiwi, a close relative of the fuzzy kiwis found in supermarkets, is among the most shade-tolerant vines.

SHRUBS: A large number of fruiting shrubs thrive in partial shade, including gooseberries, currants, service berries, huckleberry, elderberry, aronia, and honey berry, along with the “super foods” sea berry and goji. Blackberry and Blueberry bushes will work well here in the U.S.

HERBACEOUS PLANTS: This category includes not only plants commonly thought of as herbs—rosemary, thyme, oregano, lavender, mint and sage are a few of the top perennial culinary herbs to consider for your forest garden—but is a catch-all term for all leafy plants that go dormant below ground in winter and re-sprout from their roots in spring. This layer is where perennial vegetables, like artichokes, rhubarb, asparagus and “tree collards” fit in.

GROUND COVERS: These are perennial plants that spread horizontally to colonize the ground plane. Edible examples include alpine strawberries (a shade tolerant delicacy), sorrel (a French salad green), nasturtiums (has edible flowers and leaves), and watercress (requires wet soil), all of which tolerate part shade.

RHIZOSPERE: This refers to root crops. It’s a bit misleading to call it a separate layer, since the top portion of a root crop may be a vine, shrub, ground cover or herb, but it’s Hart’s way of reminding us to consider the food-producing potential of every possible ecological niche. Most common root crops are sun-loving annuals, however so you’ll have to look to more obscure species, such as the fabled Andean root vegetables oca, ulluco, yacon, and mashua, for shade-tolerant varieties.

Step 2: PREPARE THE GROUND
Choose an open, sunny location for your forest garden. It can be as small as 100 square feet—a single fruit tree and an assortment of understory plants—or multiple acres. At the larger, commercial-scale end of the spectrum, forest gardening is often referred to as agroforestry. A number of tropical crops, including coffee and chocolate, are grown commercially in this way, though commercial agroforestry is uncommon in North America (other than in the context of timber plantations).

Unlike preparing for a conventional vegetable garden, there is no need to till the earth and form it into beds in preparation for a forest garden. Instead, dig a hole for each individual plant, just as if you were planting ornamental shrubs and trees. However, if the soil quality is poor, you may wish to “top-dress” the entire planting area with several inches of compost prior to planting.

One situation in which raised beds are desirable in a food forest is where drainage is poor. But rather than make the effort to construct conventional raised beds from wood, you may opt to sculpt the earth into low, broad mounds at the location of each tree. Smaller plants may then be positioned along the slopes of the mounds. A variation on this approach is to sculpt the earth into long linear “swales,” which consist of a raised berm (to provide a well-drained planting location) and a broad, shallow ditch (to collect rainwater runoff and force it to percolate into the soil beneath the planting berm).

You will need to eliminate any w**ds, grass or other existing vegetation prior to planting. This can be done manually, or by smothering them under a “sheet mulch,” a permaculture tactic in which sheets of cardboard are overlaid with several inches of mulch on top of the vegetation, starving the plants for light and causing them to compost in place. Compost may be added as a layer between the cardboard and the mulch to add extra nutrients. Permaculturists often employ sheet mulching in conjunction with swales to enhance the area prior to planting.

When you’re ready to plant, simply brush aside the mulch and cut holes in the cardboard just big enough to dig a planting hole at the location of each plant. Then slide the mulch back around the newly installed plant. Maintaining a deep mulch is the key to preventing w**ds, conserving soil moisture and boosting organic matter—all things that will help your food forest be self-maintaining and self-sufficient
Step 3: PLANT
The next step is to arrange your plants in the landscape. Position the tallest species (i.e. the ‘canopy’ plants) at the northern end of the planting area, with progressively smaller plants toward the southern end. This way the taller plants will cast less shade on the smaller ones, especially at the beginning and end of the growing season when the days are shorter and the sun hangs lower in the sky.

Of course, truly shade tolerant plants may be interspersed throughout the understory of the forest garden. You might even consider cultivating mushrooms in the shadiest zones once the large trees have matured. Edible vines may be planted on any accessible fences, arbors, or walls, and you can also train vines up trees, just like Mother Nature does—just be sure the tree is significantly larger than the vine to avoid the tree getting smothered.

The edges of the food forest are suitable for sun-loving annual vegetables, if you wish to include them. Also, keep in mind that it takes decades for large tree to reach their mature size, so in the early years of a food forest there is ample sunlight. Plant sun-loving species in the open spaces between trees and then replace them with more shade-tolerant plants as the forest matures. Good info by Modern Farmer

Good Healthy HEIRLOOM SEEDS will make all the difference when you want to get a good start on your Food Forest. At THE SEED GUY, we have a great Heirloom Seed package that has 60 Heirloom Seed Varieties, 34,000 total Seeds, all Non GMO and Sale Priced at $79.

You get 49 Veggie varieties and 11 Herb Seed varieties. You would definitely be able to Feed Your Family with this Seed package, and you can store the Seeds you don't use right away in the 10 x 14 silver mylar bag we provide. All Heirloom Seeds are Small Farm-Grown, we hand count and package to make sure you get the best germination, and they are fresh from the New Fall 2022 Harvest.

You can see Seed varieties and Order this Seed package on our website at https://theseedguy.net/seed-packages/50-60-variety-heirloom-seed-package.html

You can also see our other 8 Heirloom Seed Packages. and all our individual varieties in Stock on our Seed Guy website at https://theseedguy.net/15-seed-packages

You can Call Us 7 days a week, and up to 10:00 pm each night, to ask questions or to place an Order at 918-352-8800

Click LIKE at the top of our page, and you will be able to see more of our great Gardening Articles, New Seed Offerings, and Healthy Juice Recipes. Thank you and God Bless You and Your Family. https://www.facebook.com/theseedguy

06/27/2023

MAKE PLANS NOW FOR YOUR FALL GARDEN

I would recommend you Stock Up on Heirloom Seeds this Spring. Our Country will have Supply Issues on Heirloom Seeds later in the year, as you have seen Supply Chain issues on everything else. Make sure you have a Good Supply. You should also Grow a Fall Garden. To have a productive Fall garden (depending on your region), your vegetables need to be sowed or planted by late July into the last week in August. Here's a few tips that can help you:

VEGETABLES YOU CAN GROW IN YOUR FALL GARDEN

GREENS:
Kale
Spinach
Pak/Bak Choi
Arugula
Lettuce
Collards

BRASSICAS
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts

ROOT VEGETABLES: (will keep for months in a crisper or cellar)
Beets
Carrots
Turnips
Celeriac
Rutabaga
Radishes
Parsnips
Potatoes (In some regions)

OTHER VEGETABLES
peas
green beans

As you can see, quite a bit of food can be grown late in the season. One thing you should know is that during the Fall Season, many of your vegetables will taste their best, as you are growing into cooler weather

1. Starting seeds indoors. You need to count back 12-14 weeks from your Average First Fall Frost Date. All of your brassicas, and kale need to be started indoors where the temperature is cooler. When your seedlings are about 3 weeks along, transfer them outdoors, preferably on a cloudy day.

2. Add some nutrients to your soil. You’re probably going to plant where a previous vegetable had already been growing. It’s a good idea to add a bit of compost or worm castings to give your Fall crops optimal growing conditions.

3. Mulch. Since the days are still going to be hot, make sure to add some organic mulch to your Fall crops such as grass clippings or straw to keep moisture in the ground.

4. Water. Make sure to keep your seedlings moist especially if you're trying to germinate seeds directly sown into your garden. One tip, soak your seeds and leave them in the refrigerator overnight. The next day sow them in your garden. This will speed up germination.

5. Pest Prevention. One of the most difficult aspects of starting seeds and putting out new plants during the summer are bugs. You can use floating row covers, especially on your brassicas, to inhibit cabbage worms.

12 to 14 weeks before your first frost
Direct-sow beans, parsnips, rutabagas, and begin planting lettuce and radishes.
Start brassica seedlings and kale indoors, and set out the seedlings within 3 weeks.

10 to 12 weeks before your first frost
Set out brassicas and kale.
Direct-sow beets, carrots, collards, leeks and scallions, along with more lettuce and radishes. In some areas, even fast-maturing peas and potatoes will do well in the fall garden.

8 to 10 weeks before your killing frost
Direct-sow arugula, Chinese cabbage, lettuce, turnips, spinach, mustard, pak choi and other Asian greens.
Sow more lettuce and radishes, including daikons.

6 to 8 weeks before the first frost
Make a final sowing of spinach.
Make a final sowing of lettuce beneath a protective tunnel or frame.

Take it one step at a time. If you're a new gardener, try one green and root vegetable for your Fall garden. If you’re ready to step up your game, add a few varieties and keep track of what produces well and what you're able to preserve.

Next, add your Heirloom Seeds. At THE SEED GUY, we have 9 great Heirloom Seed packages that are Non GMO, Small Farm Grown, Still Hand Counted and Packaged so you get the best germination, and Fresh from the Fall 2022 Harvest. https://theseedguy. net/15-seed-packages

You can also Call Us 7 days a week, and up to 10:00 pm at night, at 918-352-8800 if you would like to Order By Phone.

If you LIKE US on our page, you will be able to see more great Gardening Articles and New Seed Offerings. Thank you and God Bless You and Your Family. https://www.facebook.com/theseedguy

06/27/2023

🌸 15 Herbs for the Tea Garden 🌸

We love growing fresh herbs for our homemade tea blends, and these 15 easy-to-grow herbs are some of the plants we recommend in our Tea Blending 101 Workshop, which officially opens TODAY!! (link in bio).

Which herbs would you add to this list for your tea garden? ✏️ 👩‍🌾

🌿 Bee balm (Monarda fistulosa)
🌿 Calendula (Calendula officinalis)
🌿 Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla)
🌿 Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea)
🌿 Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
🌿 Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)
🌿 Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)
🌿 Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)
🌿 Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
🌿 Nettle (Urtica dioica)
🌿 Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata)
🌿 Peppermint (Mentha x piperita)
🌿 Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
🌿 Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum)
🌿 Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)

If you want to learn how to make your own safe and effective tea blends, then make sure to enroll in our Tea Blending 101 Workshop while it’s still available this summer!

Upgrade your workshop enrollment with our Tea Blending Booklet by this Thursday (June 26) to automatically receive 20% off the Mastering Herbal Formulations Course at checkout.

🌻 Click the link in our bio to learn more & enroll. "See" you in class!

06/24/2023

WHY CALL THEM WEEDS, WHEN THEY ARE SO HEALTHY?

Did you know that some w**ds we are always worried about in our yards and Gardens are actually good for you, and can be delicious if prepared properly? Be sure to identify the w**ds correctly (The ones described here are easy to spot.) Avoid harvesting from anyplace you suspect pollution — such as from vehicle exhaust, lawn pesticide or doggy business. And remember that edible does not mean allergen-free. Here are 9 good ones:

DANDELION
Dandelion is one of the healthiest and most versatile vegetables on the planet. The entire plant is edible. The leaves are like vitamin pills, containing generous amounts of vitamins A, C and K — far more than those garden tomatoes, in fact — along with calcium, iron, manganese, and potassium.

The leaves are most tender, and tastiest, when they are young. This happens in the spring but also all summer along as the plant tries to rebound after being cut or pulled. You can add them to soup in great abundance. Or you can prepare them Italian style by sautéing with a little olive oil, salt, garlic and some hot red pepper.

You can eat the bright, open flower heads in a lightly fried batter. You can also make a simple wine with the flowers by fermenting them with raisins and yeast. If you are slightly adventurous, you can roast the dandelion root, grind it, and brew it like coffee. It's an acquired taste. You might want to have some sugar on hand.

PURSLANE
If you've ever lived in the city, you have seen good ol' Portulaca olearacea, or common purslane. The stuff grows in cracks in the sidewalk. Aside from being surprisingly tasty for a crack dweller, purslane tops the list of plants with omega-3 fatty acids, the type of healthy fat found in salmon.
If you dislike the bitter taste of dandelion greens, you still might like the lemony taste of purslane. The stems, leaves and flowers are all edible; and they can be eaten raw on salads — as they are prepared worldwide — or lightly sautéed.

You should keep a few things in mind, though, before your harvest. Watch out for spurge, a similar-looking sidewalk-crack dweller. Spurge is much thinner than purslane, and it contains a milky sap, so you can easily differentiate it. Also, your mother might have warned you about eating things off the sidewalk; so instead, look for purslane growing in your garden, or consider transplanting it to your garden from a sidewalk.

Also, note the some folks incorrectly call purslane "pigw**d," but that's a different w**d — edible but not as tasty.

LAMB'S QUARTERS
Lamb's-quarters are like spinach, except they are healthier, tastier and easier to grow. Lamb's-quarters, also called goosefoot, usually need more than a sidewalk crack to grow in, unlike dandelion or purslane. Nevertheless, they can be found throughout the urban landscape, wherever there is a little dirt.

The best part of the lamb's-quarters are the leaves, which are slightly velvety with a fine white powder on their undersides. Discard any dead or diseased leaves, which are usually the older ones on the bottom of the plant. The leaves and younger stems can be quickly boiled or sautéed, and they taste like a cross between spinach and Swiss chard with a slight nutty after-taste.

Maybe that taste combination doesn't appeal to you, but lamb's-quarters are ridiculously healthy. A one-cup serving will give you 10 times the daily-recommended dose of vitamin K; three times the vitamin A; more than enough vitamin C; and half your daily dose of calcium and magnesium.

PLANTAIN
Plantain, like dandelion, is a healthy, hardy w**d as ubiquitous in the city as broken glass. You know what it looks like, but you might not have known the name.
Part of the confusion is that plantain shares its name with something utterly different, the banana-like plantain, whose etymology is a mix of Spanish and native Caribbean. The so-called w**d plantain, or Plantago major, was cultivated in pre-Columbus Europe; and indeed Native Americans called it "the white man's footprint," because it seemed to follow European settlers.

Plantain has a nutritional profile similar to dandelion — that is, loaded with iron and other important vitamins and minerals. The leaves are tastiest when small and tender, usually in the spring but whenever new shoots appear after being cut back by a lawnmower. Bigger leaves are edible but bitter and fibrous.

The shoots of the broadleaf plantain, when green and tender and no longer than about four inches, can be described as a poor-man's fiddlehead, with a nutty, asparagus-like taste. Pan-fry in olive oil for just a few seconds to bring out this taste. The longer, browner shoots are also tasty prepared the same way, but the inner stem is too fibrous. You'll need to place the shoot in your mouth, clench with your teeth, and quickly pull out the stem. What you're eating are the plantain seeds.

The leaves of the equally ubiquitous narrow-leaf plantain, or Plantago lanceolata, also are edible when young. The shoot is "edible" only with quotation marks. You can eat the seeds should you have the patience to collect hundreds of plants for the handful of seeds you'd harvest. With time being money, it's likely not worth it.

CHICKWEED
One of the not-so-ugly w**ds worth pulling and keeping is chickw**d. Identified by purple stems, fuzzy green leaves, and starry white flower petals, this w**d is a fantastic source of vitamins A, D, B complex, and C. It also contains minerals like iron, zinc, calcium, and potassium. Chickw**d (Stellaria media) has a cornsilk-like flavor when eaten raw, and tastes similar to spinach when it is cooked. [1]

Chickw**d nourishes the lymph and glandular systems, and can heal cysts, fevers, and inflammation. It can help neutralize acid and help with yeast overgrowth and fatty deposits, too.
Additionally, chickw**d can be finely chopped and applied externally to irritated skin. Steep the plant in ¼ cup of boiling water for 15 minutes, and chickw**d provides benefits similar to dandelion root. Speaking of dandelion…

CLOVER
Other than the occasional four-leafed clover hunt, this common lawn w**d goes mostly unnoticed, even though it is becoming popular as a lawn replacement altogether. Clover is an important food for honeybees and bumblebees, and clover leaves and flowers can be used to add variety to human meals as well. Small amounts of raw clover leaves can be chopped into salads, or can be sauteed and added to dishes for a green accent, and the flowers of both red and white clover can be eaten raw or cooked, or dried for tea.

MALLOW
Mallow, or malva, is also known as cheesew**d, due to the shape of its seed pods, and can be found in many lawns or garden beds across the US. The leaves and the seed pods (also called the 'fruit') are both edible, either raw or cooked, and like many greens, are often more tender and palatable when smaller and less mature. The older leaves can be used like any other cooked green after steaming, boiling, or sauteing them.

WILD AMARANTH
The leaves of the wild amaranth, also known as pigw**d, are another great addition to any dish that calls for leafy greens, and while the younger leaves are softer and tastier, the older leaves can also be cooked like spinach. The seeds of the wild amaranth can be gathered and cooked just like store-bought amaranth, either as a cooked whole grain or as a ground meal, and while it does take a bit of time to gather enough to add to a meal, they can be a a good source of free protein.

STINGING NETTLES
It sounds like a cruel joke, but stinging nettles — should you be able to handle them without getting a painful rash from the tiny, acid-filled needles — are delicious cooked or prepared as a tea.

You may have brushed by these in the woods or even in your garden, not knowing what hit you, having been trained all your life to identify poison ivy and nothing else. The tiny needles fortunately fall off when steamed or boiled. The trick is merely using garden gloves to get the nettles into a bag.

Nettles tastes a little like spinach, only more flavorful and more healthful. They are loaded with essential minerals you won't find together outside a multivitamin bottle, and these include iodine, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous, silica and sulfur. Nettles also have more protein than most plants.

You can eat the leaves and then drink the water as tea, with or without sugar, hot or cold. If you are adventurous — or, you can collect entire plants to dry in your basement. The needles will eventually fall off, and you can save the dried leaves for tea all winter long. Info by Christopher Wanjek

Credit for the Great Identification photo goes to Cook's Illustrated Magazine.

Please visit our THE SEED GUY website when you get the chance. We have 9 of our Heirloom Seed Packages, and all of our Individual Varieties in Stock Now, Non GMO, still hand counted and packaged, like the old days, so you get the best germination, fresh from the New Fall 2022 Harvest, and SALE Pricing Now. https://theseedguy.net/15-seed-packages

You can also Call Us 7 days a week, and up to 10:00 pm each night, at 918-352-8800 if you would like to Order By Phone.

If you LIKE US on our page, you will be on our list for more great Gardening Articles, new Heirloom Seed Offers, and healthy Juice Recipes https://www.facebook.com/theseedguy Thank you, and God Bless You and Your Family. :)

Address

12720 Lem Simmons Street
Thonotosassa, FL
33592

Opening Hours

Thursday 4pm - 8pm
Friday 9am - 1pm
Saturday 9am - 1pm

Telephone

+18638995626

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Our Story

Southern Streams Ranch is one of the Tampa Bay area's most beautiful Florida Barn Wedding venues. There sure are a lot, right? So what makes us different?

Southern Streams Ranch is overflowing with natural beauty; winding pathways and gorgeous views are framed by live oaks and cypress trees draped in Spanish moss. True to the name, a stream quietly winds through the land. The barn was handcrafted with an eye for detail and is totally customizable. The best part? We have chickens, mini-horses — and even a donkey. We are a fully functioning breeder and seller of mini horses. The uniqueness doesn’t stop there. Overnight, we can transform our working ranch to the wedding or event of your dreams.

Our outdoor venue provides the ideal wedding setting for your ceremony and reception. Southern Streams can customize your event: from intimate events to grand affairs – depending on your taste and style. Southern Streams Ranch offers all-inclusive packages with rates depending on amount of guests. Yes, you can just sit back and relax. We’ll do all the work.