songs of the chickweed,

July 2023

For the common city dweller, the base of a rotting fence post, a crack in the paving stone or a nook in an old stone wall are forgotten spaces in our urban sprawl. Energy is often spent ignoring or attempting to return them back to a pristine state…. we weed…we replace…we patch over… we mow.

Though, for a common weed, the chickweed, this is a place to thrive.

Look to the earth that occupies these crevices. Imagine plunging your hands through the gaps and touching the soil. It’s cool, damp but not soaked. The soil’s ph-balance to any chickweed is tantalizing.

Here the chickweed will grow into a soft billowy grassy carpet. From afar, the carpet appears dense, chaotic even. An entanglement of stalks and white flower heads. On closer examination, each individual plant stalk offers another ample space to grow and to prosper, whilst still being in close contact with others. From these urban crevices we hear quiet murmurs of the messiness, but vitality of togetherness.

gobyfish invites you to Songs of the Chickweed, a fiery, edible gathering amidst the beauty of Glengall Wharf Community Garden. We offer you an interspersion of the common chickweed among other foraged wild foods and open-fire cooked bounty. By reorienting ourselves to the songs of the chickweed, we invite you to communally nourish, calm our inflamed nervous systems, and to restore a semblance of internal balance.