Experiences to consume in March

Ideas for experiences, not stuff, to consume this month.

Mon, Mar 01 2010 at 12:59 PM EST

It’s March. Spring is in a few weeks. Daylight savings time occurs this month, and there will be more daylight to play outside. So this month, I’ve got a couple of inside and a couple of outside experiences for you to stockpile.

Grab your kids and go shoot (with your camera, of course) some local wildlife. Then go to Wildobs.com to learn about the wildlife you saw, share your photos, and find out where other people all across the world are spotting similar creatures.

Let the spirit Food, Inc. guide your Oscar party menu. Food, Inc. is up for best documentary. If you’re throwing a party or if you’re taking a dish to someone else’s party, chose sustainable foods. Make a cheese tray from local cheeses, use local, grass-fed beef to make sliders, or serve some wine or beer from local producers … the possibilities are endless.

Get your seeds started. Choose to grow something, anything, this spring. It can be an entire edible garden or it can be one pot of basil and one tomato plant on your balcony. Just grow something. The first step to growing something is planting it. Sure, you can purchase established plants in May, but if you want the full growing experience, and that’s what this all about, experience, start from seed as early as possible.

Try your hand at food foraging. Early spring brings out a few plants that you may usually trample over that are actually edible. Why not spend an afternoon at the end of the month hunting down wild edible plants. Sacred Earth has some information on foraging for nettles and salad greens in early spring. Mother Earth News has advice for beginner food foragers.

Cook like the Irish. On St. Patrick’s Day, you could cook corned beef and cabbage. After all, it is the traditional American Irish dish to cook that day. But for a new experience, try cooking something that an actual Irishman (or woman) who lives in Ireland would cook. Last year, I pointed you to some Irish food blogs. Pick an unfamiliar recipe from one of those blogs and cook it for St. Patrick’s Day this year.

That’s it for this month. Choose one, or more, and enjoy the experience.

Image: Verago via Picasa Web