The fact is that not all (probably not most) jobs require a 4 year liberal arts degree. Many liberal arts degrees these days are waste of time that offer zero job benefit (and since most kids go to school for the sake of getting a job, that means something is off. College kids are basically taking out large loans to get worthless degrees.

The good news is that there are options and alternative paths.

For starters, to get the most bang for your buck, you could consider a 2 year associates degree at your local community college. After a 2 year’s associates degree, you could consider whether to continue on for a bachelors. If you do things right, you should be able to transfer in most of your credits from your community college associate degree to a bachelor’s program.

Other options include getting your education online. Online schools have limitations but they also have benefits. Tuition tends to be lower. And you have more flexibility. When choosing an online school, make sure it’s regionally accredited, or else your education will be a waste. Consider rankings such as this one which only include accredited schools.

At the end of the day, only go to college if you have a plan for what you want to do in life. And even then, choose wisely. Degrees in science, engineering, health and computer science have the biggest payoff.

Following Wal-Mart’s announcement in late September that stores across the country would expand last year’s holiday come-on of ten toys priced at $10 to 100 toys this year. The list includes such desirables as the New Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Action Figures, board games including Monopoly and Battleship, Tonka trucks with light and sound, the Play=Doh Burger Builder Set (for those young wannabe burger-flippers in your family, and even a Nerf sword. Among other items.

So it was probably to be expected that competitor Target would come up with an alternative plan to get shoppers into the stores during what is expected to be a dismal holiday shopping season. Target’s come-on is to offer a selection of toys discounted up to 50%. Whether that offers more savings to cash-strapped parents than the guaranteed low prices at Wal-Mart remains to be seen.

For parents who really have to buy a few ‘regular’ toys for young children this may be a good deal, as there are unlikely to be any new Transformers or Nerf swords at Goodwill. But definitely keep the resale outlets in your planning, for such things as winter coats, dress-ups for girls, trikes and bicycles, those ubiquitous plastic child cars and play sets, etc. And it’s always possible to find one-of-a-kind items they just don’t make any more that would be perfect for someone on your list. Kitchen canisters, spice racks (may have to give empty), wooden utensil sets and many other things that are more opportunistic than planned as gifts.

The whole 50% off thing sort of reminds me of when I got a 2-day job in North Chicago while my husband was in A-School (Navy) many long years ago. I had small children and he was only there for 10 weeks, so getting a regular full-time job was very unlikely. It was at the area’s Carson Pirie and Scott department store for an upcoming late summer half price sale. One day helping prepare, and the opening day of the sale as floor help in Women’s Wear.

I showed up at the appointed hour, the store was closed in preparation for the sale. Turned out our job as temps was to replace the price tags on all the items in our departments – with the ‘original’ price doubled so the sale price underneath was exactly the same as full price was just yesterday. What a scam! Then the next day we braced ourselves against the huge crowd of revved-up shoppers who had been waiting for hours on the sidewalk. Nothing can really prepare you for watching a bunch of frenzied women with credit cards literally fighting over bras, sweaters, skirts, dresses, jeans and other items they only THINK they’re getting cheap. Clothes were flying everywhere, some things got ripped in half. It disgusted me enough that I never have trusted sales gimmicks ever since.

It wouldn’t hurt to check up on the going prices for some of those items you’re supposed to think you’re getting a great price on before you go to the big box stores to spend hard earned money. You might really be saving on that $20 item now going for $14.99, but you could be making it up on that peripheral item that’s been marked up to double. It might be a really pretty candy plate with angels and Aunt Ruth would love it, but if your experience suggests you could get the same useless item at the Dollar Store for $2, $9.99 is way too much. Retail is a little like a gambling casino. Sure, there are occasional winners, but the house always wins in the end.

Sometimes this means getting an education at a local community college. If you pick a community college within driving distance of a major university, chances are that you’re actually going to get taught by some bright, young and enthusiastic graduate students working as adjuncts. These can be some of the most memorable classes as the professors are not yet jaded and boring.

Another option for affordable education is to take classes online. If you pick the right school, and you are a self-initiator, you can get a quality education without having to pay of all the overhead of a traditional school. When I was doing research for this article I came across this website which ranks online schools by lowest tuition. For example, if you want to get your MBA online, the most affordable program is Wayne State College at $7,433. That’s not cheap, but it’s the sort of investment that will probably pay off.

So there are two ways to get a relatively affordable college education on a shoestring budget. Do you have any other ideas?

Autumn is well upon us, and people who have been struggling to stay afloat in this lousy economy all year are now faced with the prospect of the coming holiday gifting season. Which can be daunting in the best of times, but can be positively depressing for those not used to not having cash or credit for the consumerist frenzy. This post is about helping to trim the gift list if you haven’t done so already, plus how and where to find gifts for loved ones that they may cherish forever, help maintain and spread the joy of the season, and not cost an arm or leg.

Previous Posts:
Christmas in a Depressed Economy
‘Tis the Season: Gift Ideas

1. Analyze your gift-giving habits, trim the tree.

In our free-wheeling consumerist culture the Christmas shopping season represents half or more of retailers’ annual intake and an average middle class family’s greatest expenditures on unnecessary items for the year. If your family is struggling, the credit cards with their usurious interest rates have already been cut into small pieces and thrown away, consumer loans have been paid down or frozen in place, and promises to self not to spend more than you’ve got have been made. Don’t change a thing just because the holidays are coming!

If you have a lot of friends and extended family for whom you’ve bought gifts in years past, networking with them early is a good idea. See if doing something other than gifting this year could be a thankful relief to them as well as you. Pot-luck holiday get-togethers are fun, and no one person has to provide all the food and drinks. “Re-Gifting” parties can be great fun too, where you give some trinket you got from someone else in the past (it’s been just taking up room in the closet or on the shelf ever since) to someone else. Chances are someone will remember who gave Fred that hideous tie he’s never worn and laughs will ensue. The holidays are for fun, so have some!

If you’ve got children, find out what they want most instead of just gathering their wish lists of every toy they’ve seen advertised on TV. For children old enough to know Santa isn’t Bill Gates, one big gift can be better than ten little ones. Items like bicycles, roller blades and other sports equipment can be purchased second hand and refurbished, maybe personalized with glitter paint and trim. Go for things they’ll really use and enjoy, stay away from basic junk.

2. Seek out mainstream and even obscure second hand, consignment and/or junk outlets in your area.

There’s nothing like serious holiday shopping among the hugely varied items at a resale outlet, where the perfect something for someone on your list could be found. Often area churches, animal rescue outfits and civic organizations host thrift shops. In many places there are great private resale shops that offer amazing items from art to furniture, crockery to costume jewelry. Don’t overlook those even if you also plan to shop at Goodwill or Salvation Army.

I’ve found beautiful handcrafted chess sets and boards, totally unique hand-whittled puzzle boxes, antique glassware and china, beautiful jewelry boxes, hand-crafted doll houses, etc. in some unlikely haunts. Sometimes something just needs cleanup and a couple of touches, sometimes you can put a lot of yourself into it with a new paint job or fixes, and again you can always personalize. Commercialized junk doesn’t tend to become someone’s most treasured keepsake. Remember it’s all about the thought and effort, not about the price tag.

3. Know your local resources.

If your area has a Freecycle club, think about joining. You can get rid of some of your closet-clutter and maybe get items for gifting. Great for baby furniture and accessories, bicycles and such, often tools, household items, yarns and needles, fabric and sewing machines, books, clothing, home repair and building supplies, etc. All free.

Keep up with your area’s want ads and garage/yard sales as well. Spending Saturdays thrifting and bargain-hunting can be both fun and rewarding as you add to your collection of things “perfect for…” whoever will most love that gift. Your time and effort adds to the value of any gift you give!

4. Think Creatively!

Many people don’t know that you can make a wonderfully colorful and snuggly warm blanket out of a stack of old sweaters. They make great stuffed animals too, if you’re handy with a sewing machine. Purses out of old jeans, sparkled up with some craft store jewels and studs are always welcome presents to the teen set. For younger girls a box full of sparkly costume jewelry is great, as is a laundry basket chock full of fancy dress-up items (including high heels and hats!). For already-creative young’uns, a bunch of items from which they can salvage feathers, beads, trims, etc. may be just the thing. Art supplies can often be found second hand in areas where artists are, I always buy up as much paint, brushes, pastels, pencils, charcoals, canvases, sketchbooks and whatever else as I possibly can.

5. Have Kitchen, Will Travel.

Consider pouring your heart into food for family and friends this year. Make batches of yummy fudge, lots of Christmas cookies, try your hand at hard candies, etc. Such things are always most welcome during the holidays even if they don’t tend to last long in a crowd! If you have to go to the company party and are expected to bring a gift, fudge always works even better than some cheap soap or cologne or tie, and you don’t have to worry about whether you’ve drawn a man or a woman’s name from the hat.

6. Gift of your time and talents.

Have a friend or relative working two part-time jobs, barely getting by and who could really use a night out? Know a caregiver who is stressed to the max? Stumped for something for the teenagers? You can make some beautiful cards (post on that upcoming) and include ‘tickets’ for babysitting, house or pet sitting, a home-cooked meal (at their convenience), even a movie night in your den using your big-screen TV and DVD player. To be redeemed later.

Whatever your talents are or time you can spare, it can be gifted. If you sew, you can gift that. If you cook, gift that. If you have a vehicle, you can gift chauffeur duty. If you paint or craft, you can gift those too. There’s no reason to spend money you don’t have on things to give away to others who may not need or appreciate them just because it’s the holiday season. If you plan wisely and aren’t shy of new adventures, this could turn out to be the most holiday fun you’ve had in years! Even better, once the real spirit of the season infects you, it’s hard to get rid of even when the economic situation isn’t so tough any more.

So start planning, see how much fun you can turn this into by involving your kids, your spouse, your friends!

Here’s what some Hollywood actors have to say in defense of those pitiful corporate victims of possible competition in todays health care market… Enjoy!

Useful link:
New health care plan and your wallet

Thus we have likely been watching the D.C. Street Theater (recently back from nationwide tour over the August recess at Town Hall meetings in every state) with some amazement. Knowing that the truth is that health care is the third leading cause of death, perhaps wondering if greater access for some of the ~50 million Americans without insurance is actually going to “fix” what’s wrong with health care in this country. Which is #37 on the list of 37 industrialized nations in both access and outcomes.

One of the more “important” results of what is now more honestly being called Health Insurance Reform is the promise of government subsities to enroll as many of those ~50 million uninsured Americans in for-profit health care as possible. This is of course a way to compensate for-profit insurers for new regulations that will prevent them from refusing to insure those with pre-existing conditions, rescinding policies when the person gets sick or injured, and other racketeering practices that have 3 of every 4 of the “medically bankrupt” bankrupt despite HAVING insurance.

So I went Googling to find out if the uninsured and underinsured use a lot of health care, since that doesn’t ring true. What Google responded with were various evaluations of how much the uninsured as a CLASS cost the delivery system every year. The best example is a pdf from Health Affairs entitled:

How Much Medical Care Do The Uninsured Use, And Who Pays For It?

Here we can see in black and white that the uninsured use the medical care delivery system far, far less often than anybody else. If we divvy up the total cost of health care in America evenly amongst a rounded 350 million citizens, the cost is $7439 per person every year. But the uninsured – 50 million of the 350 milliion – only cost $1253 per person. That means in real terms the per capita cost to 300 million insured Americans must go up to over $8250 per year!

Wow! Looks like the uninsured are a positive bargain! At least, in actuarial terms, as an insurance hack would view such things. Thus an extremely desirable, low-risk pool of potential patsies to bilk.

Now, we all know that most of overall expenditures reflect people who use way more than an equal share of medical care per year. In addition to the uninsured who use little health care, there are tens of millions more Americans who also don’t use the health care system unless they have to. Co-pays and deductibles have been rising as fast as premiums (at many times the rate of annual inflation), so even the middle class doesn’t have money to go to doctors anymore.

So what we’re looking at (in order of importance for the Congress) in the matter of health insurance reform is that -

1. The for-profit insurance companies are so RICO crooked that they absolutely must be regulated severely.

2. Co-pays and deductibles are completely unreasonable (and getting worse fast), making even expensive insurance these days useless except for Big Ticket items. For which you have to fight hard, threaten to sue, or go bankrupt. Unacceptable for those who have to eat the losses (We The People).

3. In order to get items 1 and 2 accomplished, the insurers must be ‘given’ that pool of ~50 million people who barely use the system at all. They can make good money on these people.

4. The “Public Option” we’ll end up getting will be a subsidy to the insurers to cover the people who seldom use health care, and the minimal pay-out for those who do.

The only way a public option can actually control costs (beyond any limits imposed on the insurers, which will be made up for by the increased pool) is for it to be a government-run single-payer system. One that bargains for prices on everything, and with clout. That is not what we’ll get, so all this is just shine to disguise a bailout of the insurers in exchange for absolutely necessary regulation of their fraudulent tendencies.

The pool of uninsured in this country is very desirable for profit-oriented insurance companies, but most of them cannot afford $3000 apiece a year for premiums. Regulation that limits their ability to refuse pre-existing conditions, drop people for no apparent reason when they get sick, or simply refuse to honor their contracts, is going to cut into the for-profit industry’s bottom line. And that bottom line is and has long been extremely lucrative. They’d love nothing better than to get their hands on all those relatively healthy people, whose premiums will be paid no-questions-asked by the government.

And what does the government get? Coverage of the Big Ticket items for the generally healthy population. They’ll spend about $3000 per capita for the policies with large personal deductibles and co-pays. Then when one of those people has a bad accident or comes down with cancer and costs $50,000 that year, the actual cost of the care is covered. That the difference will likely bankrupt the patient matters not. The bailout here is for the insurers and the government, not for the people.

Health insurance is not health care. It’s a futures market on the suffering of real people. Because health care in this country is more dangerous than not getting health care (unless you’ve got heart disease or cancer), there are tens of millions of people in this country who avoid the system like the plague. Because it IS a plague.

So… wake me up when they start talking about addressing what’s really wrong with health care in this country. Nothing coming out of Congress about insurance reform is going to change the lives of those of us on a Shoestring Budget. The government will buy insurance to protect the system against us if we get hurt or sick. Most of us weren’t worried about them in the first place.

The biggest bank failure of 2009 happened last week when the FDIC moved to shut down Colonial BancGroup of Alabama, along with four other banks, bringing the total thus far this year to more than 70. A quick deal with BB&T to purchase Colonial caused its shares to rise. FDIC will be shouldering much of the losses, of course, which adds billions to the bailout of the banking system while at the same time working to further bank consolidation for the wealthiest banks still standing.

Such situations are a ‘win-lose’ proposition. Win for BB&T and their stockholders, lose for We the Taxpayers. This scheme where the feds cap the buyer’s losses at taxpayer expense is just another outrage to the hard-pressed public at a time when all the glorious pronouncements of economic recovery have yet to even begin to touch the lives of the general public still losing jobs at a high rate while no new jobs seem to be forthcoming.

And on top of the still-dismal economic situation for average people in this country, now we have the extremely contentious health care reform debate ongoing that looks more and more like bad street theater every day. Between the noisy hoards of idle old folks bused around the country to shut down discussion of provisions during Town Hall meetings held by vacationing congresscritters, and the absurd lies being spewed by the usual suspects at FoxNews and right wing radio, it’s looking more and more like the final result will be a significant new tax on the working poor that will be earmarked directly to the health insurance industry by means of mandatory purchase of junk insurance.

The situation is really health insurance reform, though reform isn’t really a good title either considering how much the Death by Spreadsheet crowd will end up getting from the public directly and from the government as subsidies. Yes, they will have to stop excluding anyone with a pre-existing condition, retroactively canceling policies if the insured person gets sick, and simply not paying for covered health care after the fact. But they will more than make up for however much this costs them by the ~40 million new policies the uninsured will have to purchase, and with government subsidies for many of those as well as losses incurred by having to honor their contracts.

And I am sure readers know that “junk insurance” – insurance that has a high deductible and hefty co-pays – isn’t going to help a person living on a shoestring budget already. Whatever ‘extra’ money those people might have saved over months to pay for a doctor’s visit will be taken by the insurers for that junk insurance. Leaving the working poor even worse off than they were before.

Even the so-called “Public Option” Obama and other Democrats have been touting is just another insurance option. Basic buy-in Medicaid, for which the government plans to auto-deduct from people’s bank accounts to make sure their premiums get paid on time. No word yet on whether they’ll do that for bank accounts that don’t have enough money in them to cover the deduction (like mine, for instance), thus causing families to suffer huge bank overdraft charges and messing up their other payment plans, or if a too-slim bank account qualifies people for automatic subsidy to make those insurance payments. But if I were to guess, I’d guess it’s just going to shaft the barely getting by yet again by throwing their bare budgeting into chaos and costing them more than they can pay.

Isn’t it funny how the wealthy and well-off are somehow able to convince themselves that we at the low end of the spectrum somehow have lots and lots of ‘extra’ money they should be able to take at will?

At any rate, we will not know until Christmas at least what the health care bill looks like or what’s in it. None of us should be holding our breath hoping for real reform or actual access to health care. In the end it’s way more likely that the government will simply be able to claim that they’ve ‘fixed’ the access problem – those ~50 million uninsured and ~100 million underinsured – so the U.S. will no longer rank #37 on the list of 37 industrialized nations on all measures of health care. While We the People will simply be poorer than we were before. I’d like to be pleasantly surprised, but don’t expect to be so long as people like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are spouting lies about killing granny and the Medicare crowd is hollering for the government to keep their hands off their Medicare. Stupid and/or evil people always seem to win in this country.

If you haven’t called or written your representatives and senators yet, please do so. We don’t have much of a voice in what happens in this country, but they at least need to know we’re out here and want real access to health care instead of just another theft of what little we do have. Then when we lose we’ll have earned our own bitching rights!

Those of us attempting to live on what was a shoestring budget even before the Great Unending Recession/Depression have probably been watching the large insanity of vacationing Congresscritters attempting to hold Town Hall meetings with their constituents back home with some bemusement. It’s no secret that the WingNut Network [a.k.a. Fox] and Hate Radio pundits have been inciting their faithful dummies to riot, since this has been ongoing ever since they lost the election last November in a big way. Between the clueless idiots who can’t believe a black man is a real American citizen (or that exotic Hawaii is actually a state) and the Bermuda shorts and gray hair crowd shouting “Keep the government OUT of my Medicare!” one really does have to wonder if maybe there’s something in the water making people lose what few IQ points they might have had back in kindergarten.

Some of us also know that going to a doctor regularly if you aren’t actually sick is not wise, thus are probably better off if we don’t suffer some chronic condition with our very limited access to the health care system than we might be if we had annual check-ups and the ability to demand whatever drug is advertised on television nightly. While it’s a sad truth that ~50 million Americans have no access to the health care system – and that’s an insurance issue – I haven’t seen anybody talking much lately about the health care system itself, which just happens to be the third leading cause of death in the United States.

Thus they’re fighting about “Health Insurance Reform” while the dismal failure of doctors and hospitals to confront the outrageous error rate, hospital-acquired infection rate, etc. that KILLS at least 195,000 Americans every year. Americans who DO have access to the system! The U.S. pays more per capita of our GDP on health care than any other industrialized nation – most of which have universal, single-payer health care systems – and are at the very bottom of the list on all measures of health care outcome. Life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality (tied to our ridiculous C-section rate and lack of prenatal care), general health, number of chronic diseases, etc., etc.

We’d all like to see universal access to health care. We’d like for insurance companies to be barred from canceling policies if the person gets sick, from refusing to cover those with pre-existing conditions, and from raising the rates at five times the rate of inflation every year just because they can. We’d like for the poor and working poor to be able to get health care even if they don’t work for a company that offers it, or don’t earn enough to participate. We’d really like to get our bones set and our cuts stitched when we need to without going bankrupt, and we’d like to get treatment for our cancers and our other serious ailments instead of simply dying of them because health care is beyond our reach.

But because something must be done about the current situation in this country no matter how loudly the idiots yell about not offering their government health care to others who need health care, we can expect that something minimal will indeed be done. Best advice to those who have managed to get this far in life without being regular users of the health care system or the drug companies’ medicine chest is to approach new access with caution. Nothing is being done to cure the rate of iatrogenic disease and death (iagrogenic means “doctor-caused”) in any of this political maneuvering, so increased access only means that the delivery system will be able to harm or kill even more Americans every year.

Make use of your intelligence and your access to the internet, go looking for reliable information if you or someone you love gets sick. Merck has their entire medical manual on-line, the Physician’s Desk Reference is available as well with good information about drugs and which ones may conflict with others – something too many doctors don’t keep track of, and a large contributor to deaths from prescription errors. There are lots of physician websites offering information about various conditions, as well as patient associations that often have collected information from people who have or have dealt with particular conditions with even better information. Always be careful of information, make sure it’s good and not just another quack selling the magical ‘cure’ for AIDS or cancer or whatever, because those are out there too.

And if you’ve got questions, write them down, collect the good information you’ve gathered, THEN take it to your primary care provider and ask. Don’t tolerate a physician or practitioner who gets his or her nose bent out of shape because you’ve done your homework, and never put up with a doctor who balks if you ask for a second opinion. If you’re in line for surgery or some other serious treatment, go to the website of your state government’s medical regulatory agency and search until you find a list of the physicians and other practitioners who have been disciplined by the agency for gross or repeated malpractice or errors. If your doctor’s on the list, get a new one.

And most of all, keep always in your mind the fact that your personal choices affect your health for the better more acutely than anything an insurance company or doctor or hospital can. No one else can “heal” you – people’s own bodies do the healing, health care providers can only help it along. Best not to get sick in the first place, and we’ve no excuse not to know that our diets greatly affect our health. Eating well, getting exercise, maintaining our environment, etc. will stave off many a nasty illness or condition – avoiding the plagues that come with obesity is much better than treating this plague or that plague after they’ve developed.

Now, sit back and enjoy the street theater spectacle of the ‘haves’ trying most desperately to prevent the ‘have-nots’ from getting anything! It’s black comedy at its most absurd, something we’ll probably never see again in our lifetimes. Laugh, because that’s the best medicine in the world!

It used to be that if there wasn’t enough money in your account to cover a purchase, your debit card wouldn’t go through. If you happen to be among the millions of Americans who barely make it from paycheck to paycheck, you’re much better off floating a check the day before payday so it won’t get debited until the paycheck gets recorded. But many people have found that they can still use their debit card, then have to pay the bounced check fee anyway.

As described by Chris Plummer in a commentary at Marketwatch, this can add up to usurious fleecing of the consumer. Particularly if you allow the bank to automatically deduct some of your monthly bills, which can leave you short even if you think you should have money enough to cover lunch the day AFTER payday! Plummer does the math and notes that if you end up having to pay the bank a $35 overdraft charge on a $3.50 lunch purchase, the effective interest is 1000%.

Moreover, if somebody else uses your debit card – steals it and manages to find your code in order to use it, or (in many cases) a child or other relative decides to withdraw on a card you lent for a one-time use – YOU are on the hook. If it were a credit card, the lender’s money is at-risk, so fraudulent use has built-in protections that you won’t be stuck with the bill. Since that debit card can only access YOUR money, you have to pay regardless of theft and fraud.

Plummer details the risks very well, so do check out the link and arrange your money management accordingly. Pay your bills on line only after the paycheck has been deposited and immediate purchases are covered, don’t let the bank do it for you. Always get your card back from anyone you’ve given it to for a one-time purchase, to protect yourself against them using it when it will overdraw your account. Keep strict track of your usage and fees, and if they’re costing you a lot you can go back to a regular checking situation. Which may be more trouble and generate more paperwork, but will protect you from the bank’s greed as well as protect your financial privacy. Check fraud IS protected just like credit card fraud in most states, where debit card fraud is not.

If your bank account is like mine, your money flows through and doesn’t sit in the vault earning a lot of interest for you or the bank. The bank is in business to make money, not to make your life convenient. Don’t trust them with the details of your financial struggles or you may find yourself paying them a big chunk of your income every month for nothing.

Later this week we’ll mark the Summer Solstice, when the sun turns from its annual march toward the north and the days start getting shorter. The first day of summer, when our Victory Gardens start producing real food, the swimming hole looks very inviting, and families start heading for the hills to enjoy cool nights and summer fun.

If you live somewhere outside the inner city – or are just planning a vacation somewhere near the fields and forests, there are some wild foods you may wish to try that are now at the peak of their flavor and nutritional value. In addition to other installments here on wild and/or otherwise free foods [], knowing something about how to obtain necessary nutrition when available never hurt anybody.

First off, those of us who live south of the Mason-Dixon line are only too familiar with an introduced Japanese legume so invasive that it’s taken over 12,000 square miles of territory. We call it Kudzu, and it’s everywhere. It was introduced by the railroads to control erosion on steep banks, and quickly overtook everything in its path. It grows a foot a day, covering hillsides, fields, forests and telephone poles, abandoned houses and cars, and even (as is a joke around here) late-sleeping campers and slow-moving cows.

Kudzu is a soil-enriching, fine compost producing legume that could be very high quality animal feed if it weren’t a vine that binds almost every machine that could possibly harvest it. Goats love it and will keep it under tight control, but fire just makes it meaner. Its deep taproots provide a medicinal and nutritional starch and its pretty wisteria-like flowers make a nice jelly. But it’s the high-protein leaves that are most useful as food. If you harvest, take the smaller, new leaves at the ends of vines. They’re very tender, so steaming is much better than boiling. They make a tasty mess of greens to go with corbread. They aren’t particularly tasty steamed, but flavor is much improved by simmering about 5 minutes in broth. We like kudzu much better than poke, which has to be cooked twice and is as mushy as spinach, not nearly as tasty as collards, kale or turnip greens. But it’ll definitely keep you going, has more protein and vital nutrients than most any other wild green you could cook, and nobody will ever miss the leaves you gather.

If you harvest roots, roast them like potatoes, slice or cube them for stews. They’ll pick up the flavors of the other ingredients. The dandelions are pretty tough and bitter by now, but are still an excellent source of nutrients and can be mixed into stews or pot-greens with that are not bitter and things will even out. Other wild greens are best eaten raw, as in salads or added atop a sandwich. And many of these are more packed with nutrients than anything that grows in a domesticated garden. The delicate foliage of sourgrass doesn’t stand up to cooking at all, I usually just pick a bunch as I’m walking or gardening and consume it leaves, flowers and stems immediately. the bright yellow-flowering garlic mustard leaves and flowers make a spicy addition to salads as well, and they’re everywhere.

Purslane, chickweed and lamb’s quarters are all great in salads, as are the buds and flowers of day lily. I slice the buds for salads, but they’re also good dipped in beer batter and light-fried like squash blossoms. Another edible flower is Lady’s thumb (redshank, pictured above), and these grow in dense stands to make it easy to pick quite a lot in one place. Another flower that can add color and substance to salads is nasturtium, and the younger leaves are delicious raw as well. don’t be afraid of those now-tall and seeding wild onions/garlics either, just be aware that they’re strong so you don’t need that many. Dandelion flowers are always good, and if you happen upon a thicket of blooming wild roses (white or pink), pop off some and add the petals to your salad.

Summer fruits are beginning to ripen now as well, and these are always a treat. Elderberries, blackberries, blueberries and such can be encountered almost anywhere out in the country. Elderberries need to be made into pie or jam, but black and blue berries seldom make it back to the kitchen before getting eaten. If they do, cobbler is easy to make and a summer favorite around here.

Check out wide eyed lib’s series on foraging if you want more info, and as always, be absolutely sure you’ve got the right plant before you eat it. Now that the abundant season is upon us, take advantage of some of nature’s offerings!