When I first heard of Play in the Rain Day, I envisioned about 14 or 15 kids showing up to explore the nursery grounds while it poured rain for about 2 hours until everyone was thoroughly drenched and ready to head home. But when I woke up on Saturday morning, the sky seemed like it would be willing to cooperate, revealing only a few scattered grey clouds. And as I pulled up to the bridge leading into the park, I was meet by Hal Hushbeck maneuvering a trailer load of youngsters down the driveway from the arboretum.

As it turned out, we had 14 riders per hayride per hour stopping by to check out the nursery. When the kids hopped off the trailer, we figured they could use a minute or two to warm up after the brisk ride. We encouraged everyone, kids and parents and even some grandparents, to step into the greenhouse for some plant seed identification and to check out some recently germinated wild grasses.

At the identification table, kids ages 4 to 13 got a chance to match actual cultivated seed to various photos representing each plant. Using magnifying glasses and all, the kids seemed to figure out the matching part pretty well while the curious parents were more interested in the many edible native plants that were used routinely by Native Peoples.

Personally, I was surprised to hear about the remarkable health benefits of Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica). Val Rogers enlightened us about the high protein concentration in the young leaves and that when steamed similar to spinach, are in fact superior to spinach in overall nutrient content. And if the new growth stalks of cow parsnip (Heracleum maximum) are peeled, they can be eaten just like celery sticks.

Val also told everyone about the native Salad Burnet (Sanguisorba minor), a small plant that can be easily grown and harvested as an addition to a mixed green salad. When the kids didn’t believe they could eat this little garden burnet, Val and I proceeded to walk everyone out of the greenhouse and over to some of the outdoor plots to sample this treat.

As temperatures continued to drop and more ominous clouds encroached upon the light overcast skies we had been experiencing all morning, we were glad that everyone had come prepared with plenty of rain gear for the aptly titled event.

While we walked over to our recently germinated burnet plots, several large flocks of geese were coasting their way Southward, honking loud enough for some of the youngsters to start flapping their arms up and down, squawking skywards back towards their airborne counterparts. We got the kids to gather around the burnet bed and carefully picked a few leaves for sampling, just to see if in fact Val was telling the truth about the greens edibility.

“It’s alright, kind of like salad,” claimed one middle schooler mimicking the opinion held by the parents who sampled the groundcover.

Next, the group swung around a transplant table we had set up for the kids to pot their very own juvenile burnet plants. Some extra buttercups were even potted neatly by some kids who hadn’t appeared overly enthused about munching on the leaves from the burnet. When everyone had their hands full of small transplants to be taken back to their windowsill, the clouds really set in, squeezing rain out into seemingly every corner of the park.

Fortunately, 3 o’clock had rolled around and the few hundred folks who had turned out for Play in the Rain Day gathered under the shelter of trees or turned to the parking lot for a quick vehicular escape. And for those who chose to explore the Native Plant Nursery, they drove home with a bit more knowledge of the local flora and a few well earned transplants to prove it.