Asarum's Cousins Learn How to Weed

Asarum's garden was growing lush and lovely. Yet when his cousins stopped by, they expressed alarm at how weedy it had become. They immediately rolled up their sleeves. Asarum thanked them and promised to make them a feast when the work was done.

The four fairies began clearing out the rows. They pulled out sorrel, goosefoot, chicory, amaranth, purslane, and dockweed. They stacked the discarded plants at one end of the garden until the pile grew too high and toppled over. Soon enough, the garden was restored to neat and tidy walkways. None of the cabbages, tomatoes, or other plants were choked with weeds anymore.

"Thank you!" exclaimed Asarum. "This is wonderful!" He began gathering up the pile of weeds. His cousins grabbed bundles as well and followed him. But when he kept walking past the compost pile and into the house, they didn't know what to say. They were still more surprised when he began washing the plants and preparing a salad with some of them! Others he peeled and tossed into a pot of boiling water.

"What are you doing? These are weeds!" they asked him.

"What?" He appeared shocked. "I thought we left the weeds in the garden and that this was the harvest. These are all the things we wood fairies love to eat."

When they tasted the meal he prepared, the town fairies all decided that Asarum indeed had an excellent method of weeding.