Rainy raw weather is a perfect time to sort through old magazines, with no intention of discarding any.  As I browsed through issues of Mother Earth Magazines,  articles that had been passed over sparked a new interest, something I haven't thought of doing or something totally out of my comfort zone, like "Build a Backyard Pond"or "Beekeeping Basics."  Last spring's issue "5 Delicious Wild Greens" caught my eye when the paragraph began, "Free food abounds at your feet........"  This "food" is none other than common weeds growing in most gardens and lawns.  Amaranth, which my mother called "pig weed," terrorizes gardeners and farmers in every corner of the land.  The author of the article puts common chickweed in salads as it is higher in iron than spinach.  Lamb's-quarters, another of my mother's favorites, is exceptionally high in calcium and vitamins A and C and can be used in place of spinach in frittatas.   Shepherd's purse  and common sowthistle are excellent sources of iron, vitamin A and manganese.  My mother often harvested dandelion greens from our lawn because my father never used any pesticides.  Now I wonder what edible weeds my mother incorporated into our soups and salads.

As I typed the above paragraph, the Sears Service Repair man was in the kitchen for the second visit in two weeks working on the new refrigerator.  The doors never matched correctly when the appliance was delivered and about six weeks ago the water dispenser quit working.  The ice maker still works but not the water dispenser.  When the repair service books the date, you have to stay home from 8-5, which we have done twice now.  Today when he couldn't find a fix for the water dispenser issue, he booked another full day after Christmas for us to stay home and he would try again.  The poor man was frustrated and embarrassed.  When he left today, we headed for the Sears in Blairsville where we purchased the refrigerator and told them we were done with repairs on an appliance purchased in August and we wanted a new refrigerator.   Now we wait to see what corporate does.