 The next speaker is Nadja Navarretti. She's interested in the beauty of the landscape. Her subject is creating productive and profitable landscapes with native plants. I've got a kid her a little bit. I saw her pile of samples over here and I thought I wonder who's carrying all those weeds into this presentation. Nadja, have at it. Yeah, I got that joke all the time. But I hope everybody here knows that some weeds can be good. Well, thank you for being here. I'm going to, well, I'll try to talk about the different things regarding native plants, how you can make profit out of them. First of all, I'd like to introduce myself. Some of you might know me. I work for Lincoln University in Jefferson City. We are a very small university. We were created in 1866, but we were accepted officially in 1890. So when you hear about universities, 1890 institutions is us. They were originally black universities back in those days. Now it's very diverse. And before I continue, I'd like to introduce Suba Dalet. She's our landscape designer. We have been involved in the creation of native gardens and I would explain that in a minute. I ran the native plants program at Lincoln. We started back in 2010. And the goals of the program are to promote the use of native plants for conservation, to improve biodiversity, and in rural and urban areas. We are very much working in more rural areas these days, but we plan to move to, I'm sorry, in urban areas. It will move more to the rural areas. We also are promoting, trying to increase awareness about the potential of native plants, especially crops, to provide income in urban and rural farming operations. So that is related to the topic it's about. We have been trying since I started working for Lincoln, and my background about native plants goes back. I'm originally from El Salvador, and I remember growing, I still remember, growing up with a backyard full of mangoes and oranges and limes. And it was, for then it was just normal for us. In El Salvador, we tried to grow food. We tried to grow plants that you can eat. I mean, you can get some food out of it. Instead of when I came to this country back in 1986, the first thing I noticed is that there was so much grass. There was nothing interesting about grass to me. And then, or they were growing flowers that they were just all the same. And that was the case when we moved, I lived in Southern Illinois first, and then we came to Missouri with my husband. And the first thing I did was to pull the asparagus, because I knew that they were not native. And since then we have been adding as many native plants as we can, because I understand the connection with the natural world. But the first idea was when we talked about native plants, people were interested, good for landscaping. Grown Native is a program that has been promoting very successfully native plants, but it was mainly about landscaping. Every time I gave a presentation, people would ask me, so what can you eat? What native plants can you eat? And then I started getting interested. I started learning from people like Sue. And I will mention that during some of the plants that I will talk about, we work across the state. We work in Kansas City, Marshall, Jefferson City, and in the Butte Hill for now. We have two outdoor laboratories, one in Marshall, one in Jeff City. They all have about 80 species right now. And we offer tours as requested. And we have demonstration gardens. Right now, I mean, it's pretty, pretty brand new. It's not even a week, maybe a month ago, that we got the announcement that we got funding for this new project. If we call it Finca, it's a which the acronym for families integrating nature, conservation, and agriculture. The idea came because in El Salvador, we have Finca, some of you might know that word. How many do you know some Spanish? Well, Finca is a small farm in Latin America in El Salvador, in other places in Central America, where you can grow as many things as you can possibly. Yeah, because people live in their farm. And they usually have a main crop, but usually the native plants in the marginal land is left alone. So there is always diversity. So being in El Salvador, I mean, being from El Salvador and living here forever, I think, because my husband is from Iowa. So I'm staying here. I wanted to bring something from my country. And so we're getting the, we're adopting Finca now in Missouri. This is just a project, as I say. But as we, we have a, well, so the main goal for the Finca is whether we are going to replicate this farm diversity and transform it into a small, what I said, maybe forget about it, maybe I did it. It looks, it's too long. But it's just the main goal is to adopt Fincas from El Salvador, the idea of Finca into Missouri. And we have a, the idea is that we use mostly native plants. I know many of you, how many of you are farmers or at least grow your vegetables in your backyard? So I'm, it's wonderful. So now it is, if you already have your vegetable garden, how many of you have native plants in your yard? So I hope after I'm done talking, you might adopt some native plants that can be good for food. Well, you can eat them. And of course, I'm not against plants that are edible, that I'm not native. But you have to be careful about things like bush and saco, for example. So yeah, we, there is room for those witty plants that are edible. So this is the idea, the, for the Finca in Missouri. We are going to involve, include, if you can see the numbers, we are going to include witty edibles. Again, this is all natives. Except for the number two where we have a, well, we're going to call conventional gardens, vegetable gardens. We're going to try to grow ethnic vegetable gardens and vegetables. Even we had tried with hikama. If anybody is familiar with hikama, we have grown hikama at Lincoln, and we're planning to grow, to include it in this, in this Finca. We, we're going to have permanent gardens with native plants that produce greens. We have, we're going to establish a prairie. And if some of you have heard me talking about it, I'm very passionate about creating or providing habitat for pollinators in your farm. There is always room for them, even if you are from rural or urban areas. And the more we, if we start, maybe we can convince our neighbors and they can be, we can create corridors in cities. If you haven't here, having a red, bringing nature home from a duck talami, and I can give you those names at the end of the presentation. That's a book that will, if you are not convinced, that book will make you adapt those native plants in your land. So the, and we're also having living fences around the perimeter. This is a one acre piece of land that we're planning to do. And we're going to have an area for gathering, of course, and the, and there is a house right next to it. And we have a, this is actually a model for Haywood City. It's a very small town that is located about 10 miles from Saxton in the Butte Hill region. And the community will be involved. This is private land. But the owners are going to let us use this land. And the point is to involve the community. We're creating, so we are, again, this is only one month after we were approved. We have been approved for funding. But we already have the community involved in this project. And we, they're going to be involved in the, in, in the planning. This might be a, it will be changed with their input. So we're planning to include plants that can be used for food, some that can be grown for seed production. Others can be grown for nursery production. And I got some information from the already, people that are already growing these plants. So to give you an idea that the native plants can, could be profitable if we plan well. And of course, and this is, all these should be part of this. As we do our farming, we should think about ecological, the ecological service that we're providing. If we are growing a bee balm for seed, you're going to be providing nectar and pollen for a pollinator and a butterfly in the summertime. So you can, if you think about those things, you won't feel too bad because you are providing food, but at the same time, you can get some profit out of it. We'll see how far we can go. Let's see, we, let's see. I have how many minutes? Okay, so I'll try to go stop. We'll just show you some native plants that I think have a lot of potential. This is in general. These are all native plants that are edible. We have been reading books. Sue has been teaching me a lot. She grew out in, she grew up in Missouri, so she knows a lot about native plants and has consumed them. And I've been doing that lately. I think for the top plants, I think wildlife is one that should be planted here in Missouri, should be grown and is very, could be very productive. They are already grown. How many of you know ramps? How many do you think, do you think it's a really worth trying to produce it with us? So we have four people ready here. It could be. And we actually, this year, we gathered some seed. I was lucky that I found a patch near my home. I won't tell you where it is. It's a public land, so I wouldn't dare to even dig anything, of course. But I got permission to get the seed, so we're gonna do some research about it. It takes a lot of time to grow it from seed, but we're gonna also try to grow, see how they're growing them from the tubers, if it's easy. But there's still some research going on. But if you see here, ramps have been found in these green counties. But it could be, I mean, by looking at that, it could be that the whole area, this whole area, had a ramps. Maybe people don't want to say anything about it, but it might be that you have it in your land. In one place where you can find them growing in your place, if you have an area near a creek, that is in the banks of a creek, but they don't like wet feet. They like good drainage soil and sandy soil. And we already have them at Lincoln in the community garden, so you could come to see them. We gathered some of the leaves, and we created some recipes that was extremely tasty. And just to give you an idea, a pan of bolts can be from 10 to 12 dollars. But usually, these, the ramps that I know that they have been, that are produced commercially, I gather from the wild, which is bad. So, but now there are efforts to propagate it. So, the wild populations are now depleted. And who hasn't eaten lamb squatters? I hope that everybody has. How many haven't eaten? You have to try it. This is, it's a non-native species, but it's rich in nutrients. It has lots of iron. And we, because it's a weed, we don't pay attention to it. But I, we have a farmer's market at Lincoln, too. And I saw a farmer selling the tips of the lamb squatters, and he was selling it. So, if you do a little bit of marketing and some be creative and bring some recipes, how to use lamb squatters, I bet you can do, you can sell it. Because many, I know, we work with seniors, and they always remember when they used to eat lamb squatters, or like pork salad is another one. And pork salad grows, it still grows everywhere. So they, so if you learn about what you have in your lamb, you might be able to, to grow them, or to sell them. Watercress, naturally needs, it needs very cold water and running water. But it can be grown in aquaponics. And I've so system in Milwaukee, in Wisconsin, the growing power people, they do it. So I, I hear, I didn't go to the presentations, but if you have already your aquaponics system, that could be a potential plant that you can grow. Cactails, how many people that have a pond doesn't complain about cocktails. Cactails can provide all kinds of food. And you can eat the rice, some you can eat the shoot, but it's kind of hard, it's kind of more like fun to eat them. But the pollen, the same thing as honey producers, sell the bee pollen so expensive, because we know that it has a lot of nutrition in it. Why not selling cocktail pollen? If you have a big pond with lots of pollen, we have been trying to get this pollen, but we, I don't have a, I don't have access. So maybe we'll get too busy. But if a farmer will come to me and tell me, I have a lot of pollen, would you like to buy it? Or if you are interested, let me know, because we'll be happy to try it and see. We would like to try recipes so people can get, you can hear it almost like little tails, that people use pollen. But if we really show that we can eat it, then you might be able to get some income out of it. Another one that can become a little weeding pond, you can, the leaves are edible, the seed are edible, rhizomes are edible. If you see it in Asian markets, and of course, these can be used for arrangements, the pods. I found this on the internet just to check on prices. A pound of leaves can be from $7. And the other one was like $14 for $9. And this is the Asian market. But we all, I'm sure that here everybody likes to try different sources of food. It's kind of, it's kind of, it would be very interesting. And has anybody tried lotus leaves in any way? Well, it's very popular. And you can find them in markets like Kansas City in St. Louis. Could be a market for farmer's market. Another one, Jerusalem Martichoke. Who hasn't heard about Jerusalem Martichoke? We actually like it for doing stools. And this patch is actually my yard, so you can imagine. I live in the city and it's a little while. And, but we grew it only because the flowers and the birds love the seed. But I didn't think about the food. And you can do, I did, I haven't been able to find it in a farmer's market yet. And we all try or in a small, in a small market. It's usually found in the big stores. So that could be a potential for, for a small farmer. And we're going to include it in our Finca. This is a very common plant that grow in dishes. Cup plant. Wonderful for butterflies. And you can actually eat the leaves. And that I, I learned it from Sue. And I wasn't sure about it because it has a, has a kind of strong smell. But they were very tasty. We actually ate them, ate them like spinach. This is usually in the spring time. And one thing we're doing at Lincoln, and it would be part of the Finca is that we're establishing these plants. And we're gonna, because usually you hear the native plants, you can only eat them in the spring, the greens. So we're gonna harvest them constantly. It would be some, some research. And we're gonna determine if it's really, they're really good through the year. So if we find a way to market them, we will sell them at the, at the market or at least another farmer can do it. And this is another plant in the sunflower family that has very tasty leaves. It's called golden glow. The leaves are also edible in the, in the spring. Herry Mountain Mint is another one, besides being wonderful for beetles, I mean, bees and native bees. In butterflies, you can actually do a, you can use the leaves and the flowers for flavoring. It's very strong smell. I think I have, we have one. Thank you sir. And I have a recipe using Herry Mountain Mint. We have plenty. I have some in the back. We'll pass them out when we're, when I'm done. Dittany is another plant in the mint family that the name suggested canela oreganoides. It tastes just like oregano. You don't need a non-native oregano. We have also a recipe about using it. And elderberry, I guess I don't have to say too much because everybody knows how far elderberry has gone. So that has to be part of our Finca. If you remember, those of you have been at this, at this conference, maybe five years ago even, people started talking more about elderberry, but it wasn't nobody got really serious about it. And now if there is even an international conference that is going to take place at a day university in Missouri. So there are so many plants that others in other countries that are native to this country that are appreciating them more. So we just have to learn to identify them and try them, eat them. Persimmon, if you have hands, you have a chance to try persimmon do it. I know everybody has the, maybe had the bad experience that I had with a green persimmon. My own husband did it. And I didn't know that it was him until years later. But now I had, I ran into a couple, but I don't mind it anymore. Because they're so good. And we have a recipe that, for that too. Five minutes? Okay. And let me just go fast. This is sumac. You have here about sumacade. You can use it. Red bud is another example of a plant that is there, grows everywhere. Everybody, the flowers are edible. It might be that you don't sell the flowers sell because there are so many. But what about if you sell greens in the spring, gather some of your red buds and put them in your bag with the greens, wouldn't it look pretty? People like it. People would like it. And we were eating them. And now we're at Lincoln this year, with one of our programs. Now, I will show you some of the plants I'm done with my presentation here. But I brought samples. This is another idea for, to make money out of native plants. We have a, we have little blue stem. This is a seed that is Afro-Gahamashidesu. So you can pass it. And you can put it in the back. We'll gather it in the back. We have these. We have a blazing star. We have a Lincoln, I mentioned that we have the outdoor laboratories. We gather seed from just one plant. This is all we got. And you can do it even in a star, little. In your own front yard, backyard, you have beautiful plants in the summer. And then you can gather your seed in the, in the, in the, it might look weedy for some people. But if you start thinking that you can sell the, those weeds, then it might be, maybe you change your mind. And even your neighbors is, through the years we have come being so neighbors that we're not going to change. Maybe they haven't adapted, adapted to many of the plants. But I see some of the native plants here and there that we grow in our yard. Like this one. Let's see. This is lead plant. This is just the seed head in Isale Gum. It has beautiful purple flowers in the, in the, in the summer. Brings the butterflies and the mainly the native bees. You can, you're welcome to grab a little bit of seed. We have plenty. So if you want to get started, because I want to mention also that we have a, one of the services that Lincoln University does, the native plants program is to offer native plant propagation classes. We're going to start with our first one in February. And it will be every two months. And if you're interested, please sign up your name and we'll send you information when we're ready, because we don't have the dates yet. And otherwise you can find us in, in the website. And just a couple more things we have. Yes, prey drop seed. It is $70 a pound. It's beautiful. It's one of the few grasses that the city of Columbia, parts, parts and recreation has adapted in many other plantings. And you can just plant it in a, as a border and it stays put. It's very beautiful. Grab some seed and try it. And Susan said that especially popcorn, but I think it smells like different. Prairie drop seed. This one, this is one of our favorite. Our director, she's a, she's a community development person. And thanks to this, she likes to try different rattles. So she was so excited when she, she started, she was using this in one of her storytelling sessions. So that was a, but of course it's a good plant for bees. The, the bloom early in the spring has beautiful purple flowers. This particular one, a blue baptism or blue integral. And it's hard to grow, but we can show you how to. And it's, it's, do I still have time for questions or should I stop? Okay. I'm just going to pass Illinois Bando flower. Yes. And yeah, I know there's, and this is Patrick. This summer I lost even my natives and I was very reluctant to water because I felt like I needed the seed and the plants to adapt. So do you, do you recommend not irrigating the natives? Do you recommend that we force them to adapt? It depends. If you are a farmer, you might have to break the, well, you have, you might have to do it if you, if you're, if you want to make profits out of it. But at Lincoln University, we had to water a couple times really good, good water. I mean watering everything good, but not all the time. And it was because we, we have our programs, but if I, if my, if somebody would ask me what my choice would be, it's not to water. I don't water at home. And I was concerned about some of the millweeds and even the millweeds did awful. It's thinking about the monarchs and I water maybe two or three and I have some imparts, but I would, it just depends on your purposes. Yes, we have a, I mentioned about our native outdoor laboratory in Marshall. It is a two acre. It's one acre garden with a diverse, including a rain garden. And also we have an acre prairie. It was, it was not water at all. And some of the seed, it looks just like this came from Lincoln, but all the plants made it. They're shorter, they're growing seeds somewhat shorter, but it's still produced abundant seed. And then we leave it for the, in the winter for the birds or the, there was a slide that had a lot of native plants listed. Can you go back to that? I can give you the list. I have it with me. And yeah, it's hard to talk too much and to any 30 minutes, but I'll be happy to share any information. And I have, we have the recipes for you. And I realize we are, we have enough for everybody. So I'm just going to go to the back and then I will pass the information and I'll give you the list. Any other questions? Thank you very much.