Search: Creeping Fig

Forked-tendril grapes putting on fruit in Melbourne. Photo by Green Deane

An age-old mystery is why some plants do better in different years. Clouds, rain, temperatures, soil condition, timing can all affect plants particularly grapes. It looks like it will be a good year for grapes locally. They have been fruiting heavily, not only the reliable forked tendril grapes but the iffy single tendrils as well. They ripen locally about September (when I grew up in Maine, it was September as well, I would scrump grapes walking home from school.)  They can ripen as early as late July or as late as mid-October.

Watercress in blossom. Photo by Green Deane

May is indeed a warm-weather month locally but we managed to find a cold-loving plant last weekend in a ditch in Melbourne: Watercress. It was nearing its seasonal end by putting on seeds, but still edible (cooked. The species can be eaten raw if grown in wholesome water, but in ditches one chances parasites from animal dropping, so cooking is wise.) It’s in the greater mustard family, as noted by the four-petal blossom. Sanford, Florida used to be the winter watercress capitol of the world but like some of the space industry it was moved to Huntsville, Alabama. 

Goji berries are slightly sweet. Photo by Green Deane

Foraging folks are often surprised to learn Goji berries grow in North America and are native. A popular supplement it grows in China and was introduced to southern Britain. We find them locally in brackish water areas, and are common south of Daytona Beach on the inland waterway. It’s a very scraggly shrub usually ladened with Ramalina lichen which tends to give it a dead appearance as the leaves are small. The jelly-bean like red fruit is related to the tomatoes as the species is in the nightshade family.

Edible Indigo milk caps, photo by Green Deane

Two years ago at this time, the wild mushroom season was well underway, we had a foraging class with Joshua Buchanan in Seminole County and collected five different species of edible mushrooms. One needs warm ground and a lot of rain for the season to start. We usually get 10 days to two weeks of rain in May or June to kick the season into high gear. I checked my favorite mushrooming location and saw none last weekend. As much rain is forecast this month perhaps we’ll be harvesting fungi soon. 

Classes are held rain or shine (but not during hurricanes.)

Foraging Classes: We may have to dodge rain showers this weekend during classes.

June 3rd, Eagle Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park, 9 a.m.

June 4th, Mead Gaden, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m.

June 10, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 9 a.m., meet at the bathrooms.

June 11, Red Bug Slough 5200 S. Beneva Road, Sarasota. 9 a.m.

Bring cash on the day of class or  click here to pay for your class

Is it time to take the Creeping Fig out of the edible realm? Photo by Green Deane

What is it? The answer is barely edible. Many years ago while sipping a beer at an outside bar in Ybor City I saw a prolific vine on a brick wall with what looked like a large green fig. I was reasonably sure it wasn’t a product of the beer so some research was in order. It was a Creepin Fig. The main problem with the species — besides barely making it into the edible realm — is growth pattern. The leaves and vines of the fig when young are very small then at some point the plant transforms itself into a large vine with leaves having little resemblance to what it used to be. Then it produces green fig-like fruit. The fruit basically is not edible. But the expressed juice jelled in water is. That’s a bit strange. To read about it, go here.

You get the USB, not the key.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by 171-videos on a 128-GB USB, see right.  The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy especially if social order falters.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. Or you can make a $99 donation, which tells me it is for the USB (include a snail-mail address.)  I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. I had to stop making them as few programs now will read the ISO files to copy them. Burning a set also took about three hours. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Stale Bread and Cod Liver Oil, Killing Bugs with Tobacco Plugs, Eating weeds: Is it safe? Have they mutated? Not the Eastern Red Bug but the Pink Tabebuia, African Tulip Tree, Asparagus densiflorus, Green Deane’s Book… You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

EatTheWeeds by Green Deane

For those of you who’ve been inquiring, the book EatTheWeeds, first volume, will be printed in October, it can be pre-ordered now on Amazon. It has about 300 plants, their nutritional information and my notes. Most of the hurdles and hoops required for publication have been met and all is good to go. 

This is my weekly newsletter #560. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Salting Nuphar advena/arvenis root It didn’t help. Photo by Green Deane

Time for plan B… Well, actually it’s somewhere around Plan E or F. Above you see a root of the Nuphar avenis the yellow pond lily. If you’ve ever taken one of my foraging classes you have heard me rant about this plant and foraging books. All the books that mention the root say it is edible. I’ve never been about to make it palatable despite years of trying. It’s extremely bitter which had led me to believe writers who say it is edible have never tired it. I know two writers who excluded it from their books because they had the same experience as me. It might be time to reassess the root.

Yellow Pond Lilies are extremely common but rarely eaten. Photo By Green Deane

First the historical perspective: Nowhere else on earth was a plant in this genus reported as edible except in North America. But that is a fuzzy fact for three reasons. The first is there were clearly different species. Botanists were in denial of that reality for centuries. The second is we have one centuries-old report that the natives ate the root after “long boiling” and that it tasted like sheep’s liver. Sheep’s liver would be a fantastic improvement over what it tastes like naturally. So, we aren’t quite sure which Nuphar root the native were cooking up nor beyond boiling what they might have done to it. However some seeds are edible with  processing. Add the fact that what was once a bunch of “variations” within one species is now many separate species with here-today gone-tomorrow scientific names. It is possible there was a Nuphar luteola/lutea in Maine that was same in name in Florida and Oregon but was a different species and edible. That’s iffy because no matter what you call the plant — in North America or Europe — no one actually seems to eat the root though one can find it everywhere… assuming the “it” is the same species. It is one of the most common uncommonly eaten edibles.

The red-ringed seed pod does produce edible seeds after proper preparation. Photo by Green Deane

Starting in 2002 and up until I moved 13 years later I grew N. arvenis (what it is called today) in my backyard in a water-controlled pond. I got the starter plant from the Wekiva River. It had a wholesome life and was not sitting in tannic water all the time. As I say in my classes I tried everything I could think of over the years to make the root edible. I diced and soaked it for a week, changing the water as one does with acorns to reduce the acid load. I did the same for a month, changing the water daily. I simmered it for a week. Yes, a full week. I salted it. I dried it. I fried it. I baked it in the sun ending up with tough, bitter styrofoam-like lavender-colored plugs.  Nothing worked which is a bit frustrating because it has the feel of eggplant and is easy to work with. The root looks like it should be edible.  As I  have said in my classes for many years I tried everything but fermenting the root. Don’t persume it is edible because a site or book says so.

Creeping fig fruit. Photo by Green Deane

Many years ago I was coaxed into getting a beer at a small eatery in Tampa’s Ybor City. The beer was not memorable but the brick wall on one side of the outdoor patio was. It had a vine I had never noticed. It took awhile but I identified it as a Creeping Fig (and many other names.) It is also something of a chameleon: The young vine on first glance does not look much like the old vine so one can indeed find it and not know you have found it. Also given the right support — such as a strong fence — the vine can cover the entire fence to the extent the vine looks like a long line of shrubs. But then it produces green fig-like fruit. Only the sap of them makes it barely into the edible realm. To read more about the Creeping Fig go here.

The blossoms and sees line up under the stem, photo by Green Deane

Chamberbitters, Phyllanthus urinaria, is medicinal not edible. We don’t cover herbals here because I am not qualified to talk about them much. However I  know this one has a lot of good reserch behind it. This plant is a rich source of lignans, tannins, flavonoids, phenolics, terpenoids, and other secondary metabolites. Pharmacological activities include anticancer, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, and cardioprotective effects. As a point of identification note the seeds line up on the bottom of the stem. You can read about it here. 

Carpetweed in Jacksonville, photo by Green Deane

One of the more common edible weeds underfoot in North America is Carpetweed, Mollugo verticillata.  Scraggly if not scrawny the wispy plant does have the saving grace that it is all edible, raw or cooked and it requires very little cooking. Add it last. There are several non-edible species that can resemble it so there are some of key points to remember. First, it does not have any white sap, it grows in a circular mat, and the blossoms have five white sepals but usually only three stamens, sometimes four or five but usually three, which is a bit odd for a five-sepal plant. Look for it in dry, sandy locations including waste ground. For all of its wide-spread presence in North America it is actually native to the tropical Americas. You can read about Carpetweed here. 

Magnolia blossoms in vinegar

Forty-seven years ago I was a foreign exchange student attending Whiteland College which was part of the University of London. I remember well four things about my time there. One was that they use Magnolia blossoms as a condiment. I thought that strange at the time. It’s a very intense flavor. You can make it yourself by dicing then lacto-fermenting the blossoms for a few days, draining, then storing it in the frig adding a little white wine and sugar helps. You can do the same thing with Nasturtium seeds. They smell horribly for three days but they taste great once drained and stored. You can also flavor vinegar with the white blossom petals (not as good I think.) 

Magnolia virginiana leaves are easy to identify.

Magnolia grandiflora leaves can be used like a bay leaf, but have a bitter note.  A close relative, the “Sweet Bay,” Magnolia virginiana, has been used that way for at least centuries and is highly esteemed for that use. The “Sweet Bay” a very common tree in damp areas and easy to identify. You can read about the Magnolias here. And what were the other three memorable items from the exchange? All the hallways in the college — which is now an upscale condominium — were named after local streets. So you didn’t live in room 213. It was 213 Wadsworth Way. The college had a ratio of  ten to one women to men and its patron saint was St. Ursula, the saint of virgins which might explain why the college no longer exists. And right across the hedgerow was a hospital with the most awful name on a huge wrought iron banner over the drive way. It was: The Royal Hospital for the Incurably Ill.

Foraging Classes are held rain or shine or cold.

Foraging classes: I spent most of the month of June moving from the Orlando area to the Tampa area so I won’t resume two classes per weekend until the second week of July. And of course, for a few days at the end of June my internet service won’t exit, so responses will be late. 

Saturday, July 2nd Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon

For more information, to pre-pay or sign up go here

Richardia scabra is mistaken for Chickweed.

If a plant does not cause acute illness then judging when it might make you ill is difficult to say. It might take months of consumption (or perhaps with something like canned fiddlehead ferns, years.) One of those possible plants is Florida Pursley, aka Richardia scabra. I do know of a couple people who ate a leaf and had no problem. They mistook it for chickweed. I know of someone who ate several leaves at once and had gastrointestinal distress. And the roots are reportedly an emetic. More telling is that we have little information about how if at all it was used by Native Americans. That often is a clue it’s a plant to avoid, at least from a food point of view. If a plant is not in the ethnobotanical literature either the natives didn’t use it, we didn’t ask, or they didn’t tell us. It is best to stick we plants that we know for certain were used for food.

Yellow American Lotus, photo by Green Deane

Yellow ponds, that’s how I think of it, or in some places, yellow rivers. That’s because the American Lotus is in blossom. The first time I saw a small lake of these blossoms was when an old dry lakebed was deepened for a housing development. The next spring suddenly what was for decades a dry lake was full of American Lotus blossoms. This is because the seeds can stay viable some 400 years, or so the experts report. Talk about a survival food! There are multiple edible parts on the American Lotus but I prefer the seeds. I also think when collecting by hand the seeds provided  the most calories for the least amount of work. The roots are edible but digging them up can be a messy, laborious job. Locally American Lotus are easy to find: Just look for a lake with large yellow blossoms on long stems. Further north and west they are a favorite sight on rivers such as the Mississippi. To read more about the American Lotus go here.

You get the USB, not the key.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by 171-videos on a 128-GB USB, see left.  The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy especially if social order falters.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. Or you can make a $99 donation, which tells me it is for the USB (include a snail-mail address.)  I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. I had to stop making them as few programs now will read the ISO files to copy them. Burning a set also took about three hours. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Fermenting potatoeswith yogurt, make a water filter, nixtamalization at home, Stale Bread and Cod Liver Oil, Life’s a Grind, Killing Bugs with Tobacco Plugs, Eating weeds: Is it safe? Have they mutated? Not the Eastern Red Bug but the Pink Tabebuia, African Tulip Tree, Asparagus densiflorus, Green Deane’s Book… You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

Eattheweeds, phto by Kelly Fagan

Unfinished businesss: My book Eat The Weeds is scheduled to be published the 12th of May 2023. Let’s hope there is still paper available then. National in scope it will have 296 species, color photos, 284,000 words and 753 pages (they cut out 75 species.) It will soon be available to pre-order.

This is my weekly newsletter #513. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste.

                             To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.  

Some two dozen mushroom enthusiasts joined Joshua Buchanan and the Orlando Mushroom Group for a hunt Saturday. Fortunately several days of rain made finding mushrooms easy. Photo by Green Deane

Sugar maples are famous for their syrup but how many species of trees can you actually tap? In North America the answer is at least 22. “Sugaring” was a special time of year in New England. Warm days and near freezing nights in the spring started the sap flowing out of the roots back towards the top of the trees. A tap and a bucket produced pails of mildly sweet sap. Hours of boiling reduced that to maple syrup. Have you ever heard of Maple Walnut Ice Cream. It was common in sugaring country.

Sycamores drop a lot of leaves.

The largest group of trees you can tap are maples ( Sugar, Black, Red, Silver, Norway, Boxelder, Bigleaf, Canyon, Rocky Mountain, and Gorosoe.) The birches can also be tapped (Paper, Yellow, Black, River, Gray, and European White Birch.) If I remember correctly no native group of Europeans ever tapped them for food until they learned of the practice in North America. Trees in the walnut group can also be tapped: Butternut (my mother’s favorite) Black Walnut, Heartnut, and English Walnut.

There are two outliers which grow locally. One is Hophornbeam or as I called it growing up, Ironwood. It also has edible seeds. The other tappable species is a very common native and ornamental: The Sycamore. It takes about four to five times more Sycamore sap to get a gallon of syrup than from a Maple. The biggest surprise is that Sycamore Syrup tastes like butterscotch. Processing a natural plant does not always have the outcome you intend. Seagrapes, for example, have a unique taste. Make them into jelly, however, and their originality disappears and they taste like apple jelly. And while birch syrup is a unique and commercial product. It can taste quite similar to molasses.  You can read about Sycamores here, Ironwood here. 

VItis munsoniana getting close to ripening. Photo by Green Deane

Will wild grapes be early this year? The general calendar date for them is September first. In Maine in the past school always started the Tuesday after Labor Day. A couple of weeks later I’d be late for school and home because of grapes and apples. I walked two miles each way and that took me past hedgerows of Concord Grapes. A couple of weeks apples in the nearby orchard got y attention. Before modern slang “scrumping” meant stealing local fruit usually by kids. And that I did though most of these vines and trees were around old farmsteads and not tended. Locally grapes have shown up in August even late July. Here it is mid-June and this past week I saw several getting ready-to-ripen clusters on local muscadines. (I was hunting mushrooms at the time but that’s how one often gets a lead on food to come.)  These are in the single-tendril group. I suspect the forked-tendril ones will wait until September to ripen.   You can watch my video on grapes here and read about them here.  

Classes are held rain or shine.

Foraging classes this weekend are on the west coast, New Port Richey and Port Charlotte. 

Saturday June 20th, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot. 9 a.m. until noon. 

Sunday, June 21st, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m to noon. Meet at the parking lot at Bayshore Drive and Ganyard Street 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday, June 27th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon. Third time is a charm. This class has had to be rescheduled twice because of weather. This is also the only location without any official bathrooms. 

Sunday, June 28th, Haulover Canal, Merritt Island National Refuge, north of the Kennedy Space Center, 9 a.m. to noon. This is contingent on the park being open. I will get a definite answer this coming week.  

For more information, to pre-pay for a class or to sign up go here. 

Locally the American Beautyberries are blossoming and soon they will have magenta berries. I’m going to try to make them into some wine this year.  That said Beautyberries are near the bottom of the list on flavor, insipid more than offensive. But they make a great jelly… and perhaps a blush wine. They are not good pie material and in muffins they turn green. The shrub itself has been known for its ability to repel insects. “Diane” wrote a letter from  in praise of the Beautyberry and insect control

Edible berries and the leaves repel insects.

“We have been plagued by mosquitoes and those biting deer and horse flies while riding our horses in the woods. Last week we had to dismount and brush about 30 of them from underneath our horses bellies just in order to keep them from going crazy and bolting off. Even though we don’t like using the traditional store-bought horse fly sprays, we did try several over the last couple of years and none of them really work all that well. After reading [your article] we experimented this weekend with the beautyberry. We cut small branches we tucked into their tack. We also rubbed some fresh leaves all over ourselves and the horses. We could not believe the results! We had a two-hour ride each day this past weekend and we’re not troubled by any biting insects. There was an occasional fly that attempted to make a problem but was easily shooed away. We are so lucky to have tons of this bush growing all over our pastures. It is also along every trail that we ride on so it is easily acquired along the ride as well. Thank you!”

Is it time to take the Creeping Fig out of the edible realm?  Photo by Green Deane

What is it? The answer is barely edible. Many years ago while sipping a beer at an outside bar in Ybor City I saw a prolific vine on a brick wall with what looked like a large green fig. I was reasonably sure it wasn’t a product of the beer so some research was in order. It was a Creepin Fig. The main problem with the species — besides barely making it into the edible realm — is growth pattern. The leaves and vines of the fig when young are very small then at some point the plant transforms itself into a large vine with leaves having little resemblance to what it used to be. Then it produces green fig-like fruit. The fruit basically is not edible. But the expressed juice jelled in water is. That’s a bit strange. To read about it, go here.

Richardia is generally not edible.

If a plant does not cause acute illness then judging when it might make you ill is difficult to say. It might take months of consumption (or perhaps with something like canned fiddlehead ferns, years.) One of those possible plants is Florida Purley, aka Richardia scabra. I do know of a couple people who ate a leaf and had no problem. They mistook it for chickweed. I know of someone who ate several leaves at once and had gastrointestinal distress. And the roots are reportedly an emetic. More telling is that we have little information about how if at all it was used by Native Americans. That often is a clue it’s a plant to avoid, at least from a food point of view. If a plant is not in the ethnobotanical literature either the natives didn’t use it, we didn’t ask, or they didn’t tell us. It is best to stick we plants that we know for certain were used for food.

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

Changing foraging videos: My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been selling for seven years. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy. The DVD format, however, is becoming outdated. Those 135 videos plus 15 more are now available on a 16-gig USB drive. While the videos can be run from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The150-video USB is $99 and the 135-video DVD set is now $99. The DVDs will be sold until they run out then will be exclusively replaced by the USB. This is a change I’ve been trying to make for several years. So if you have been wanting the 135-video DVD set order it now as the price is reduced and the supply limited. Or you can order the USB. My headache is getting my WordPress Order page changed to reflect these changes. We’ve been working on it for over three weeks. However, if you want to order now either the USB or the DVD set make a $99 “donation” using the link at the bottom of this page or here.  That order form provides me with your address, the amount — $99 — tells me it is not a donation and in the note say if you want the DVD set or the USB. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.

This is weekly newsletter 410, If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Labor Day used to mean more than hurricanes threatening the east coast from Florida to Maine. In the olden BC days… before computers… Labor Day also meant you went back to school the next day. School also let out sometime in June. Your release date was never exact because several “snow days” were built into the calendar every year. If they weren’t used up we got out in early June. If it was a bad winter then we got out mid-June. We also were not too far removed from harvest time on both ends of the school year. 

I walked to school daily, five miles round trip, and that was my preference. The wander took me past blueberry fields, Concord grape hedgerows, apple orchards and a great view of New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington some 60 miles away. In the fall I was scrumping every morning and afternoon for six weeks or so. This daily Too & Fro also included crossing the Royal River which was really more of a serf stream except during the spring floods. (Fished and fell into the Royal a lot. Found my first black pearl there and caught my first eel there.) All that wild fall fruit always ruined my supper but then again my mother was a horrible cook so it worked out well.

In September and October you also sized up last year’s now dry wood. We had two wood stoves. And once there was snow that meant “pulping” which is cutting next year’s firewood so it can “season” that is dry for a year. Plants were also part of school letting out in spring. I noticed way back in sixth grade that when the (edible) Lilacs blossomed school was nearly out for the summer… and summer vacations were wrongly named: For most kids where I grew up it meant farm work until school started in September. For me it was three full months of working in the hay fields, a hot, dusty, wasp-punctuated job. My mother collected horses (and other farm animals) and they had to be fed so into the fields I went, indentured labor. There was also summer gardening, 70 days of it. I only escaped all that by volunteering for the Army in 1969 when Vietnam was hot…  young men can make stupid decisions… but I never hayed again.  

Many years ago I was coaxed into getting a beer at a small eatery in Tampa’s Ybor City. The beer was not memorable but the brick wall on one side of the outdoor patio was. It had a vine I had never noticed. It took awhile but I identified it as a Creeping Fig (and many other names.) It is also something of a chameleon: The young vine on first glance does not look much like the old vine so one can indeed find it and not know you have found it. Also given the right support — such as a strong fence — the vine can cover the entire fence to the extent the vine looks like a long line of shrubs. But then it produces green fig-like fruit. Only the sap of them makes it barely into the edible realm. To read more about the Creeping Fig go here.

Enjoy what you can of this Labor Day dodging Hurricane Dorian. The tempest should be past by this coming weekend. I have a class in downtown Winter Park Saturday — foraging in an urban setting — and a class at Ft. Desoto south of St. Petersburg Sunday (which should avoid most of Dorian’s wrath.) Note the hurricane-cancelled class in Ft. Pierce has been rescheduled for September 15th. I am also presuming that by the fourteenth Wickham Park will be reopened.

Saturday September 7th, 329 N. Park Avenue, Winter Park. 9 a.m. to noon.  Parking is free in the parking garage behind Panera’s.  This is a class specializing in finding wild edibles in an urban setting.

Sunday September 8th, Ft. Desoto Park, 3500 Pinellas Bayway S. St. Petersburg Fl 33715. Meet by the bathrooms at the parking lot of the “bay” fishing pier (not the “gulf” fishing pier.) 9 a.m. to noon. There is a fee to get into the park. The fishing pier is about halfway along the SW/NE road along the southern end of the park.

Saturday, September 14th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park.

Sunday September 15th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon. The preserve has no official bathroom or drinking water so take advantage of the various eateries and gas stations before arrival. 

To read more about the foraging classes or to sign up for a class and or pay for a class go here.

October 11-12-13, foraging classes at Putney Farm, Honea Path, South Carolina.

Still on my list of things to do: A regional book, Edible Plants of the Gulf South, says the Liatris species are edible. I’ve been looking at them for 39 years. At the moment however, the only spot I know where they grow is in a non-pick state park. If I can find a good patch elsewhere it will be time to experiment. There are a couple of reasons to be excited about the Liatris. First, they are fairly easy to identify, and where they do grow there’s usually a lot of them. But what’s more interesting is that some experts think they can live for a century or more waiting for just the right conditions to flower, usually right after a forest fire. It seems the corm is dependent on fire to tell it when to send up a sprout.

Many years ago I remember Dick Deuerling talking about the Liatris but I don’t remember him mentioning it was edible. Dick was the professor emertitus of foraging here in Florida leaving us in his 90’s six years ago. Uncooperative knees kept him from foraging as much as he would have liked in his latter years. As for Edible Plants of the Gulf South, I would be careful. I have found a few discrepancies that makes me add a note of caution. The book mentions Pyracantha fruit are edible but fails to mention the seed should not be eaten. In discussing Sumac no mention is made of edible shoots and branch tips. And the book repeats the old advice that Nuphar lutea root is edible. I have tried for some 30 years to figure out a way to make that root edible, all ending in bitter failure. I do not know of any professional forager anywhere in the world who recommends it.  I have even raised it myself in good water and harvested it young to see if that made any difference.  It didn’t.

There is one reference in the 1600’s by naturalist John Josselyn who said of the Nuphar, “The Indians eat the roots, which are long a boiling they taste like the liver of sheep.” Frankly, tasting like the liver of sheep would be a grand improvement.  A Dr. Edward Palmer, presumably the one who traveled to Indian reservations in the 1800s, said squaws dove into ponds for the roots but preferred to raid muskrat dens for them. However, he made that observation in California and identified the plant as  N. advena.

If I can get pseduo scientific for a moment. Technically, Nuphar lutea does not grow in North America. For a long time many botanists thought there was just one Nuphar, the lutea. Other botanists disagreed and said there were different species because, gasp, they don’t all look alike.  The One-Species School ruled until 1997 when modern research showed there are some 15 different Nuphar. Thus the point has to be made that if there are several species of Nuphar in North America some might be edible some not. I know the ones here in Florida, Nuphar Lutea subsp advena,  are not, or at least I have not made them so. That said, Dick Deuerling did tell me once that he did harvest a local Nuphar root and found it edible after boiling. .. Maybe it was a mutant. He is the only person alive that I know of that can make the claim he at Nuphar root and that it was good.

To read the Nuphar confusion in its entirety click here:

Poke weed (Phytolacca americana) is a rite of passage for many new foragers. Common, toxic, and tasty when prepared properly, no one forgets the first serving of poke weed they collected on their own and consumed. Once past that comes the common question, “can you eat the berries?” The answer is no. However, Professor Julia Morton said the cooked berry juice was edible, though drinkable would be more accurate. Now we know poke weed berry juice has another use. Researchers have found that the red coloring of the berries when painted on fiber-based solar cells creates greater conversion of light into electrical energy.

Fiber-based solar cells are very efficient having the ability to generate twice as much power than “traditional” solar cells. Usually plastic fibers are stamped onto plastic sheets, using the same technology used for attaching tops of soft-drink cans.  After that, an absorber (in this case, dye from the pokeberries) is sprayed on the cells.  The results is a lightweight, adaptable electrical source that can be shipped anywhere in the world at a low cost. Not bad for a toxic plant some would make illegal.

And you thought it was you: Mosquitoes prefer to bite beer drinkers over non-beer drinkers. French researchers used 25 volunteer beer drinkers and 2500 mosquitos (and as a control 18 volunteers drinking water, and 1800 mosquitos.) Before you start feeling sorry for the volunteers know the mosquito activity was not biting but rather taking off and flying up wind towards the volunteers. Now, one might ask, why research such an issue? Apparently in malaria-infested areas 20% of the population account for 80% of the cases of malaria. The researchers were looking for a correlation between increased alcohol consumption and malaria cases. Their conclusion is that getting malaria is not always just a random event.  As alcohol consumption increases, or moves into an area, so to does malaria. Incidentally, body temperature and amount of carbon dioxide exhaled did not influence mosquito behavior.

Someone once said that coincidences is just God’s way of letting you know he exists. If that’s so it has to apply to innocent coincidences, I think, like getting a random seat at a concert in a foreign country and ending up sitting next to the mother of one of your student (that happen to me in Scotland.) Then there are other coincidences such as every time I get a home owner’s meeting notice left at my door (rather than mailed) I get a notice within two weeks from the county that my front yard is “over grown” and in violation of code… a not-so-innocent coincidence. It is the tenor of the times and I think it will happen to more people as we come to realize laws just aren’t “green.”   I repurposed this audio from a decade ago that I did about that for  National Dutch Radio into a recent video here. 

While I would like to broadside home owner associations one has to recognize what they are doing, which is representing property owners who expect and want a certain kind of physical look and use to their property (and that does not include growing vegetables in the front yard.) What is ignored is that I, too, want a certain physical look and use to my property. They want decapitated grass putting greens for lawns. I want nature and food. We have opposing use in mind and right now they inherited the legal clout. Thus three things have to happen.

The grass fanatics, and Lawn Enforcement Officers, have to learn that au natural is good and that lawn is not good for the environment or the economy.  In short we have to get away from the idea that one is allowable in suburbia and one is not. At the same time we have to be aware of everyone’s property rights (at the moment if you want something other than lawn your property rights are being excluded from the legitimate column.)

It is rather odd when one thinks about it. My neighbor dumps herbicides on her lawn, and pesticides and fertilizer. She plants toxic ornamentals and drains off precious water to keep the entire artificial concoction alive. If you ate any part of it it would make you sick or kill you (indeed, such lawns are the source of nearly all children poisonings.)  There are no living creatures about her lawn, no bugs or birds et cetera. Her toxic, sterile front yard is legal.  My front yard is not pesticided, herbicided, fertilized nor draws off water. It is full of life and provides food as well.  It is illegal. As they say, what’s wrong with this picture? The problem is people, in and out of  authority, think grass is good, non-grass is bad. That has to change.

Americans grow only one crop more than lawn grass, and that is corn. We grow more lawn grass than wheat. We spill some 17 million gallons of gas and oil annually taking care of that lawn grass. Homeowners use 10 times more fertilizer and pesticides than they need to, and lawns take up to 60% of the fresh drinking water in urban areas. And while all of that may be illegal, it is irresponsible.

At some point not only does my kind of front yard has to become legally acceptable but my neighbor’s yard should become taxable for the burden it causes. In other words, if she wants to keep an environmentally harmful stretch of chemicalized decapitated grass and child-sickening ornamentals, she should be taxed and that money used to help undo the effects of her pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, water use and buffet of poisonous plants.  She is harming the environment, presenting a threat to children, and getting a free ride.  The near century-old notion that lawns are better and the suburban standard must give way to new permaculture views.

The law, the home owners associations and the code enforcers should respect the property rights of BOTH groups of homewoners, not just one. That way I can eat the weeds and she can have putting green. But instead of fining me for my environmentally friendly front yard tax her for maintaining a toxic dump. Not only will the environment be better off for it but governments will have a new source of revenue, a lawn tax, by the square foot.

Donations to upgrade: If you’d lie to donate to this website and newsletter you can use this Go Fund Me link, this PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  And I am in the process of writing to folks who are interested in exchanging some webmastering for foraging classes. As they used to say when we had television with antennas, stay tuned.

This is weekly newsletter 371. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

Pownal, Maine, in fall looking southeast from Bradbury Mountain. My westward walk to school took me over the hill behind the long white house that wasn’t there then. Photo by Green Deane

In the olden BC days… before computers… Labor Day meant you went back to school the next day. School also let out sometime in June. Your release date was never exact because several “snow days” were built into the calendar every year. If they weren’t used up we got out in early June. If it was a bad winter then we got out mid-June. We also were not too far removed from harvest time on both ends of the school year. 

Harold Grandholm, a high school classmate, raking blueberries during “summer vacation.”

I walked to school daily, five miles round trip, and that was my preference. The wander took me past blueberry fields, Concord grape hedgerows, apple orchards and a great view of New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington some 60 miles away. I was scrumping every morning and afternoon for six weeks or so. This daily Too & Fro also included crossing the Royal River which was really more of a serf stream except during the spring floods. (Fished and fell into the Royal a lot. Found my first black pearl there and caught my first eel there.) All that wild fall fruit always ruined my supper but then again my mother was a horrible cook so it worked out well. In September and October you also sized up last year’s now dry wood. We had two wood stoves. And once there was snow that meant “pulping” which is cutting next year’s firewood so it can “season” for a year. Plants were also part of school letting out in spring. I noticed way back in sixth grade that when the (edible) Lilacs blossomed school was nearly out for the summer… and summer vacations were wrongly named: For most kids where I grew up it meant farm work until school started in September. For me it was three full months of working in the hay fields, a hot, dusty, wasp-punctuated job. My mother collected horses (and other farm animals) and they had to be fed so into the fields I went, indentured labor. There was also summer gardening,  70 days of it. I only escaped all that by volunteering for the Army in 1969 when Vietnam was hot…  young men can make stupid decisions… but I never hayed again.  

Foraging classes are held rain, shine, hot or cold. Photo by Nermina Krenata

Foraging classes this weekend are in and out of town. In town Saturday is a foraging class at Blanchard Park. It’s a nice location and allows me to make the 2 p.m. mushroom hunt west of Lake Mary (See below.)  Sunday’s class is long the Peace River in Port Charlotte, always a pleasant location with salt-tolerant plants. Plenty of room in both classes. 

Saturday, September 8th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. Meet at the pavilion east of the tennis courts near the YMCA.

Note: The afternoon of Sept. 8th there is a Mushroom Class just west of Sanford Fl. For more information go to the Orlando Mushroom Group on Facebook or see below. 

Sunday, September 9th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street. 9 a.m

Saturday, September 15th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 32706.  9 a.m.

Sunday, September 16th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL33771. 9 a.m. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park.

Sunday, September 23rd, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m. Meet just north of the science center. 

For more information or to pay for a class go here. 

OMG! The Orlando Mushroom Group in the field collecting mushrooms. Photo by Green Deane

As you can see in the schedule above the Orlando Mushroom Group (OMG) will be holding its first fall mushroom hunt this Saturday, Sept 8th. The foray is led by Joshua Buchanna. I will be there as a beast of burden, go for, bottle washer, compass carrier et cetera… Cost is $10 per adult. The class is about three hours long give or take a thunderstorm or two. OMG is a local group I started and is one of several mushroom pages I created on Facebook. We own the domain Orlando Mushroom Group so if you are good at volunteering your skills at creating websites we’d like to hear from you. The others pages I started are Florida Mushroom Identification Forum, Southeastern U.S. Mushroom Identification, Edible Mushrooms Florida, and Edible Wild Mushrooms. In total they have over 7,000 members and many published experts. Little ol’ OMG has some 300 members. I have not populated Edible Wild Mushrooms (there are only so many hours in a day…) Saturday’s location provides a wide array for mushrooms from edible to toxic. We walk mostly on mountain bike trails, woods roads, or in open grassy woodland. You can sign up on the OMG page or let me know. 

The Nine DVD set includes 135 videos.

All of Green Deane’s videosavailable for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for this newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each for a total of 135 videos.  Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. The DVDs make a good gift for that forager you know especially on long, cold winter months. Individual DVDs can also be ordered or you can pick and choose. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right hand side of this page (if your window is open wide enough.)  Or you can go here.

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com and fund a book have gone well and made it past the half way mark. Thank you to all who have contributed to either via the Go Fund Me link, the PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  The goal now is to expand the forum page and the means to display more foraging teachers. And a special thanks to Thomas Sorrentino for your recent donations. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Need to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Maybe you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Topics have included: Tea, Salt and Amla, Small Bush and Flower, Ragweed? Pine Cough Drops and Needles, Odd Vine? Hunting and Trapping Ethics. Knife Accidents. Some Kind of Lespendeza and Survival Garden. You can join the forum by clicking on the button in the menu line.

Turn inside out, scrape the seeds. Photo by Green Deane

Many years ago I was coaxed into getting a beer at a small eatery in Tampa’s Ybor City. The beer was not memorable but the brick wall on one side of the outdoor patio was. It had a vine I had never noticed. It took awhile but I identified it as a Creeping Fig (and many other names.) It is also something of a chameleon: The young vine on first glance does not look much like the old vine so one can indeed find it and not know you have found it. Also given the right support — such as a strong fence — the vine can cover the entire fence to the extent the vine looks like a long line of shrubs. But then it produces green fig-like fruit. Only the sap of them makes it barely into the edible realm. To read more about the Creeping Fig go here.

This is weekly issue 320. 

If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here. Or you can use my Go Fund Me  link, or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794

• 475
• His name was Will Endres and he was a North Carolina herbalist…Poison ivy, foraging classes, horse mint, ground cherries, foraging USBs, the Green Deane Forum, Southern Wax Myrtle, https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-475-september-21-2021/474

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-474-september-14-2021/

  Chance happens in foraging. 

  Coralwood, Kudzu, Foraging Classes, Favolus Mushrooms, learning edibles,  foraging USB, the Green Deane forum, aroma and cyanide

  473

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-473-september-7th-2021/

  It would be convenient if Pindo Palms fruited regularly. 

  Pindo palms seeds, Canna, Foraging classes, Ghost Pipes, Labor Day, Tallow Plums

  472

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-472-august-31-2021/

  Are there any Shiitake mushrooms locally? 

  Train Wrecker, Chicken of the Woods, Foraging Classes, Dogwood, Hackberries, Kudzu, foraging DVDs and the Green Deane Forum 

  471

  A white Water Hyacinth was seen recently in the Little Econ River east of Orlando. 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-471-august-24th-2021/

  Water hyacinth, Foraging Classes, Wild grapes, Tumble Weed, Goldenrod, Swamp Mallow, Foraging USBs, the Green Deane forum, Donations  

  470

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-470-august-17th-2021/

  One way northern and southern climates differ is the greater array of non-native species that are constantly being imported and or found in southern climates.

  Torell’s Eucalyptus, Chaya, Guavas, Java Plum, Ground Cherries, Coco-plums, Natal Plum, Dragon Fruit, Podocarpus, Persimmons, Foraging USBs, Green Deane Forum, Donations, the Two-Leaf Nightshade 

  469

  Plants remind one that weather is less dependable than we might think. 

  Jambul, Chanterelles, Cactus Fruit, Sugarberry, Doveweed, Foraging Classes, Isabelline, Foraging USBs, the Green Deane Forum, and Donations

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-469-august-10-2021/

  468

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-468-august-3-2021/

  Yes, there are land crabs in Florida and the rest of the gulf coast.

  Land crabs, Foraging classes, Grapes, Podocarpus, Horsemint, Saw Palmetto, Goldenrod, Russian thistle, USBs, Green Deane Forum, donations. 

  467

  Candyroot, Foraging Classes, Wild Grapes, DVDs, Green Deane Forum, Donations, Saw Palmetto, Barnyard Grass, Brookweed 

  Is it the season or is it the rain?

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-467-july-27th-2021/

  466

  This summer’s foraging classes at Putney Farm in Honea Path South Carolina are now history

  Foraging in South Carolina, American Beech, Sourwood, Birches, Moringa, foraging Classes, Sumac, Country Wine, Saw Palmetto, foraging USB, Green Deane Forum, and Donations

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-466-july-20th-2021/ 

  465

  Newsletter #465, July 13th, 2021

  Kousa Dogwood, Sassafras, Wild Carrots, Birches Apples

  Apples, Mushrooms, Podocarpus, Foraging Classes, Knotweed, Cactus, Peppervine, Foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, donations, 

  464 

  In real estate it is location, location, location. 

  Blue Indigos, Milk Caps, Jelly Fungus, Strawberry Guava, Foraging Classes, Pandamus Grass, Smilax, Foraging DVDs, Green Deane Forum and Donations

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-464-july-6th-2021/

  463

  Podocarpus are not fickle but they are slightly unpredictable. 

  Podocarpus, Java Plum, Stillwater Canoe, Mushrooms, Foraging classes, Atamasco Lily, foraging USBs, the Green Deane Forum, and donations  

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-463-june-29th-2021/

  462

  If you think you are not allergic to poison Ivy …

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-462-june-22-2021/

  Poison Ivy, Socks and Pythons, Black Cherries, Pokeweed, Yuck, Foraging Classes, Cashews, USBs, the Green Deane Forum, Donations.  

  461

  Sycamores, bacteria, Foraging Classes, Beautyberries, USBs, the Green Deane Forum, Donations, Sweet Acacia

  Sugar maples are famous for their syrup but how many species of trees can you actually tap?

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-461-june-15th-2021/

  460

  What can be said about the Jambul Tree?

  Jambul, Foraging Classes, Maypops, Pindo Palms, Chaya, Foraging USBs, Green Deane Forum, Donations, 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-460-june-8th-2021/

  459

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-459-june-1st-2021/

  For more than 60 years I have associated Lilacs with June.

  Lilacs, American Lotus, Foraging Classes, Chinese Tallow Tree, Eastern Hemlock, foraging USBs, the Green Deane Forum, Donations, toxic Atamaso Lilies. 

  This week’s debatable question is “can you eat elderberries raw?”

  Elderberries, Two-leaf Nightshade, Foraging Classes, Morning Glories, foraging USBs, the Green Deane forum, donations, Jack in the Pulpit 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-458-may-25th-2021/

  457

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-457-may-18th-2021/

  Acres of wild blackberries….

  Blackberries, foraging is illegal, Sea Blite, Foraging classes, Sea Purslane, foraging videos on USBs, the Green Deane Forum, 

  456

  The Bunya Bunya and Norfolk Pine are closely related.

  Bunya Bunya, Norfolk Pine, Allergic reactions, foraging classes, Chickasaw Plums, Blue Mushrooms, cattails, foraging videos on USBs, and the Green Deane Forum, 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-456-may-4th-2021/

  455

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-455-april-27th-2021/

  Is it edible? 

  Evening Primrose, False dandelions, Yucca, Foraging classes, foraging videos on USBs, the Ghreen Deane Forum, 

  454 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-454-april-20-2021/

  Pineapple Guava, Hercule’s Club, Usnea, Miner’s Lettuce, Foraging Classes, Paper Mulberry, Where do you forage, Foraging Videos, the Green Deane Forum, Brookweed, 

  Perhaps no ornamental has been championed as much as the Pineapple Guava

  453

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-453-april-13-2021/

  It’s about time to make a prediction.

  Ringless Honey Mushrooms, Eastern Coral Bean, Foraging Classes, Watercress, Marlberries, Foraging Videos, Green Deane Forum, Donations, 

  452

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-452-april-6th-2021/

  On the east coast of my native state of Maine about seven miles south of Portland is the Town of Scarbrough.

  Paper Mulberries, Foraging Classes, Deer Mushrooms, Hercules Club, USB Videos, Green Deane Forum, Donations.

  451 

  Which tree has more life, the Mulberry or the Moringa? 

  Mulberry, Atamasco lily, Foraging Classes, Blueberries, Huckleberries, Watercress, Foraging USBs,  the Green Deane Forum, Smilax, 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-451-march-30th-2021/

  450

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-450-march-23-2021/

  wisteria, Cherokee Rose, Deer Mushrooms, Foraging Classes, Hydrilla, Garlic, video USBs, Green Deane Forum, Donations

  The weather may be chilly still it’s a hot time of year for foraging. 

  449 

  It’s not June that’s busting out all over but rather Vacciniums, mostly blueberries.

  Vacciniums, groundnuts, evening primroses, foraging classes, video USBs, Pawpaws, Florida Pennyroyal,

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-449-march-16-2021/

  448

  The Greeks were perhaps the first people to call things what they were such as “yoke mate” for spouse or “shiny leather” for the Reishi mushroom.

  Bottlebrush tree, Candyroot, Loquats, Mulberries, Foraging classes. USB, the Green Deane Forum 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-448-march-09-2021/

  447

  Fireweed, Latex Strangler Vine, Foraging Classes, Clover, Bacopa, Violets, USBs, Cashews 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-447-02-march-2021/

  Fireweed/burnweed has a flavor chefs love. 

  446

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-446-feb-23-2021/

  Loquats, Loquat wine, Wild Garlic, Foraging Classes, Chickweed, Lamb’s Quarters,  Toxic Butterweed, Bulrush, USBs, and the Green Deane Forum, 

  While driving around have you seen a tree with large, dark green leaves and yellow fruit?

  445

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-445-feb-16-2021/

  Can you eat red mangroves?

  Mangroves, foraging classes, plantagos, Passion Flowers, Black Medic, USBs&DVDs, Alligator pendent, and the Green Deane Forum  

  444

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-444-february-9th-2021/

  Young and tender describes them best: Elm leaves we nibbled during our foraging class in Gainesville Saturday.

  Elms, Eastern Red Bud, Foraging Classes, Ragweed, Cattails, Coquina, Mole Crabs, USBs & DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, nickerbeans, alligator tooth. 

  443

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-443-february-2-2021/

  If you look across local lakes now you will see ruby red splotches on the horizon. 

  Maples, Drymaria, Foraging Classes, Seaweed, USBs & DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, Jabuticaba, 

  442

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-442-january-26-2021/

  Violets, False Hawk’s Beard, Foraging Classes, Stink Horns, Weed Seeds, USB & DVDs, the Green Deane Forum 

  A common blossom that’s easy to identify is the wild violet. 

  441

  Our mighty stinging nettles are up.

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-441-january-19-2021/

  Stinging nettles, Sow Thistle, Foraging Classes, Chickweed, Wild Geraniums, Silverthorn, USBs & DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum 

  440

  The Western Tansy Mustard is one of our shortest-lived wintertime forageables. 

  Western Tansy Mustard, Eastern Gamagrass, Begonias, Foraging Classes, Spiderworts, USBs&DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-440-january-12th-2021/

  439

  Our tasty winter green chickweed is in its glory. 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-439-january-05-2021/

  Chickweed, Sheep Sorrel, Oxalis, Latex Strangler Vine, Pellitory, Black Medic, Geranium, Horsemint, Henbit, Shepherd’s Purse, Plantain, Wild Mustard Radish, Canna, Cattails, Foraging Classes, Botany Builder #12, USB & DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum

  438

  What difference can 172.4 miles make?

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-438-december-29th-2020/

  Goji berry, Sea Rocket, Black Medic, Harlequin Glorybower, Foraging Classes, Nagi Tree, Glasswort, USBs & DVDs, the Green Deane Forum 

   

  437

  At what point does a “wild” plant become an edible plant?

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-437-december-22-2020/

  Florida Thatch Palm, Sleepy Hibiscus, Cereus, Bauhinia, Foraging Classes, Cockroach Berry, Silverthorn, USBs and DVDs, the Green Deane Forum 

  436 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-436-december-15th-2020/

  Usually we see Christmas Berries about April. 

  Christmas Berries. Foraging Classes, Sow Thistle, Mustards & Radishes, Black Calabash, USBs & DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum  

  435

  Our first sighting of one of our winter comestibles happened Saturday

  Chickweed, Ringless Honey Mushrooms, Foraging Classes, Henbit, Wild Geraniums, Peltate, Is this Plant Edible? foraging USB & DVDs, the Green Deane Forum,  

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-435-december-08-2020/

  434 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-434-december-01-2020/

  Winter Podocarpus, Acerola, Foraging Classes, Chufa, Redflower Ragweed, Weeds of Southern Turf Grasses, foraging USBs &DVDs, the Green Deane Forum.

  Actually there’s nothing wrong with the photo per se, it’s the time of year that’s different.

  433

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-433-november-24-2020/

  Every April of so we go looking for Wild Garlic…

  Wild Garlic, Big Caltrop, Foraging Classes, Ghost Pipes, Balm of Gilead, USBs & DVDs, Green Deane Forum 

  432 

  We are shifting mushrooms seasons from terrestrial to trees or ground to wood.

  Lion’s Mane, Gooseberries, Foraging classes, Sea Purslane, Foraging in urban areas, USB and DVDs, the Green Deane forum 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-432-november-17th-2020/

  431

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-431-november-10-2020/

  While looking for the yellow-blossomed Dandelions…

  Dandelions, Mustard and radishes, Plantains, Foraging Classes, Brazilian Pepper,Skunk Vine, USBs & DVDs, the Green Deane Forum 

  430

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-430-november-3-2020/

  During our foraging class in West Palm Beach Sunday we saw inch-high sprouts of the winter edible Pellitory.

  Pellitory, Poor Man’s Peppergrass, Foraging classes, Seaweed, Jelly Fish, Southern Wax Myrtle, Stinkhorns, Jack Ol Lanterns, USBs & DVDs, the Green Deane Forum. 

  429

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-429-october-27-2020/

  During our foraging class Sunday in Gainesville we dug up a couple of Winged Yams. 

  Winged Yams. Tropical Almond, Foraging Classes, Roses, Bay Leaves, Citron Melon, the Honeycomb Mushroom, USBs and DVDs, the Green Deane Forum.

  428

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-428-october-20-2020/

  Country Wine, Foraging Classes, Chinese Tallow Tree, Caesarweed, Cambium, USBs and DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, and Ceibas

  Three reasons prompted me to resurrect my wine-making past. 

  427

  Mother Nature has her own schedule.

  Ringless Honey Mushrooms, Golden Rain Tree, Foraging Classes, Dragon Fruit, Partridgeberry, DVDs & USB, the Green Deane Forum

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-427-october-13-2020/

  426

  Fall is a good time to write about Yellow Pond Lilys.

  Yellow Pond Lilys, Persimmons, Monstera deliciosa, Turkey Tails, Foraging Classes, Sida, sumacs, two sages and a pusley, USBs and DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-426-october-6-2020/ 

  425

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-425-september-29th-2020/

  The question isn’t whether Reishi mushrooms grow in North America. 

  Reishi mushrooms, Wax Myrtle Berries, Foraging Classes, American Beautyberries, Sea and Wood Oats, Ground Cherries, Anoles, Chestnut Bolete, DVDs and USB, the Green Deane Forum. 

  424

  Horsemint is in season and easy to find. 

  Horsemint, Crowfoot Grass, Foraging Classes, Apples, the aroma of wild food, plant pronunciations, foraging DVDs and USB, the Green Deane Forum,  

  423

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-423-september-15th-2020/

  No one told the Ringless Honey Mushrooms it isn’t November.

  Ringless Honey Mushrooms, the Syzygiums, Foraging Classes, Heartwing Sorrel, Bacopa, Groundnuts, USB and DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum 

  422

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-422-september-8th-2020/

  Pindo and Queen Palms, Canna, Indian Pipes, Foraging Classes, Scrumping, USBs and DVDs, the Green Deane Forum. 

  421

  In the backwoods of Maine where I grew up Dogwoods were small.

  Perennial Peanut, Kousa Dogwood, Sugarberry/Hackberry, Foraging Classes, Ground Cherries, foraging DVDsUSBs, the Green Deane Forum. 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-421-september-01-2020/

  420

  Gracie gets the prize. 

  Black Trumpets, Persimmons, foraging classes, Kudzu, Wild Apples, the toxic False Parasol, foraging USBs and DVDs, and the Green Deane forum. 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-420-august-25th-2020/

  419

  Last Sunday’s foraging class — Haulover Canal — was a hot one with a lot of walking.

  Tallow Plums, Foraging Classes, Goldenrod, Saw Palmettos, White Spiderling, Sumac, foraging DVDS & USBs, 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-419-august-18th-2020/

  418

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-418-august-11-2020/

  There is probably some Syzygium in your kitchen.

  Bunya Bunyas, Syzygiums, Chanterelles,  Cactus Tuna, Sugarberry, Doveweed, Isabelline, foraging DVDs and USB, the Green Deane Forum…

  417

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-417-august-04-2020/

  Wild mints can be prima donnas.

  Horsemint, Russian Thistle, Foraging Classes, Goldenrod, Swamp Mallow, foraging videos, Green Deane Forum, Pindo Palms 

  416

  With apologies this newsletter is starting with the foraging class schedule.

  Wild Grapes, foraging class schedule, Pepper Vine, Podocarpus, Country Wine Update, Sumacs, Saw Palmettos, Foraging Videos, Green Deane Forum, Black Gum

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-416-july-29th-2020/

  415

  July is passing and that means many different things to foragers depending upon your location on the rotation.

  Forked-tendril grapes, pindo palms, cactus, foraging classes, the false roselle, barnyard grass, strawberry guava, foraging DVDs & USB, the green Deane Forum, 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-415-july-21-2020/

  414

  It’s called Pandanus and Screw Pine and a lot of other names as well.

  Pandanus Grass, Smilax walteri, Foraging Classes, Knotweed, Pineapple Weed, Tamarind, Toe Biters, foraging videos on USB, and the Green Deane Forum 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-414-july-14th-2020/

  413

  Is it time to rethink Magnolias? 

  Magnolias, Foraging Classes, Podocarpus, Florida Wine, Bread and Beer, Foraging Videos on USB, Green Deane Forum, Strawberry Guavas

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-413-july-7-2020/

  412

  First an apology to those who showed up for a class last Sunday at Haul Over Canal to find, like me, the road closed.

  Chamberbitters, foraging classes, Grapes, Magnolias, videos on USB, Green Deane Forum, and Bacopa 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-412-june-30th-2020/

  411

  What can be said about the Jambul Tree? 

  Jambul Tree, Foraging Classes, Morning Glories, Boletes, Poke Sallet, Tindora, Foraging Videos on USBs, and the Green Deane Forum 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-411-june-23-2020/

  410

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-410-june-16th-2020/

  Sugar maples are famous for their syrup but how many species of trees can you actually tap?

  Tapping trees, grapes, foraging classes, American Beautyberries, Creeping Fig, Richardia, videos on USBs and the Green Deane Forum 

  409

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-409-june-9-2020/

  There’s an old song “what a difference a day makes.”

  Mushroom class, foraging classes, Natal Plum, Surinam Cherries, Foraging videos on USBs, the Green Deane Forum. 

  408

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-408-june-2-2020/

  Yellow ponds, that’s how I think of it, or in some places, yellow rivers.

  American Lotus, Jack in the Pulpit, Black Cherries, a toxic lily, Chinese Tallow Tree, Foraging Classes, Maypops, Videos on USBs, and the Green Deane Forum.

  407

  In the realm of plant populations there is endangered, threatened then rare. 

  Candyroot, American Lotus, Foraging Classes, Eggs, USBs and the Green Deane Forum 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-407-may-26-2020/

  406

  This was a “Prunus” foraging week. 

  Chickasaw Plums, Indigo Milk Cap, Black Medic, Foraging Classes, Cattails, Foraging Videos, Podocarpus, Wine Making, Blue Porter Weed, Green Deane Forum, Wild Pineapple. 

   https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-406-may-19-2020/

  405

  We are in between mushroom seasons, so to speak.

  Boletes, Society Garlic, Gopher Apples, Foraging Classes, Foraging DVDs/USBs, Botany Builder #28, Maypops, Toxic Cherry Laurel, Cochineal Dye, and the Green Deane Forum. 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-12-may-2020/

  404

  This week’s debatable question is “can you eat elderberries raw?”

  Elderberries, Grapes, Common Plant Names, Redflower Ragweed, Fakahatchee Grass, Ground Nuts, Foraging Classes, Foraging videos, Wild Coffee and Coralberry, the Green Deane Forum. 

   

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-05-may-2020/

  403

  Now is a good time to go looking for blackberries. 

  Blackberries, Pineapple Guava, the Bacopas, Foraging Classes, Foraging Videos now on USB drives, Eastern Coral Bean, Coquina, Green Deane Forum, and Cotton 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-28-april-2020/

  401-402 

  At one time there were just Opuntias.

  Cactus, Gopher Apples,  Deerberries, Foraging Classes, Mushrooms, Foraging DVDs, Persimmons, Avocados, Paper Mulberry, Pawpaw, Smartweed, Green Deane Forum and YUCK!, 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-april-14-21-2020/

  400

  Watercress grew in a ditch behind an apartment complex I lived in near Sanford, Florida…

  Watercress, Wild Garlic, Marlberries, Chokeberries, American Nightshade, Chamberbitter, Green Deane Forum, Donations, DVDs 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-7-april-2020/

  399

  Blossoming this time of year is the Eastern Coral Bean, sometimes called the Cherokee Bean.

  Eastern Coral Bean, Sea Blite, Foraging Classes, Pineapple Guava, Foraging DVDs, Variegated Mahoe, Australian Pine, Bananas, Green Deane Forum, Donations, Making Wine 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-31-march-2020/

  398

  If you have an established ivy gourd…

  Ivy Gourd, Swinecress, Foraging Classes, Cashews, Henbit, Purslane, DVDs, Green Deane Forum, Donations, Basswood, 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-24-march-2020/

  397

  A common blossom that’s easy to identify is the wild violet.

  Violets, Seablite, Loquats, foraging classes, Redflower Ragweed,  Latex Strangler Vine, Green Deane Forum, Donations, DVDs, Ivy Gourd 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-17-march-2020/

  396

  Fireweed/Burnweed has a flavor chefs love.

  Fireweed/Burnweed, Clover, Foraging Classes, Waning Weeds, Fungi, Creeping Cucumber, Bacopa, Pennyroyal, DVDs, Green Deane Forum, Donations 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-10-march-2020/

  395

  A few newsletters ago it was mentioned the Mulberries were in blossom.

  Mulberries, foraging classes, Pawpaws, Time Change, Dandelions and False Dandelions, Winter Plants and Wintergreen, Green Deane Forum, DVDs, Donating, and foraging photo #19 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-3-march-2020/ 

  394

  Species in the Rumex genus can be difficult.

  Rumex, Foraging Classes, Citron Melons, Loquat, Clover, Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDS, Donations, 

   https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-25-february-2020/

  393

  What are those white blossoms?

  Plums, Hawthorns, Pawpaw, Foraging Classes, Blewit, Wild Garlic,  Plantagos, Green Deane Forum, DVDs, Donations, Botany Builder #38.

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-18-february-2020/

  392

  It’s time for my annual warning about Butterweed

  Butterweed, Bulrush, Foraging Classes, Wild Pineapple, Red Powder Puff, DVDs, Creeping Indigo warning, Green Deane forum, donations, 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-11-february-2020/

  391

  Most trees in the Pea Family are toxic but not all of them.

  Eastern redbud, Cattails, Pines, Foraging Classes, Coquina and Mole Crabs, Acorns, Plantagos, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-04-february-2020/

  390

  While driving through the middle of the peninsula this week I noticed Lambsquarters in their most common seasonal place: Citrus groves.

  Lambsquarters, Foraging Classes, Passifloras, Doveweed, Axils, Jelly Fish, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, Donations 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-28-january-2020/

  389

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-21-january-2020/

  Cladonia is a large genus of edible but not tasty lichen.

  Lichen, foraging classes, Botany Builder 28, Wild Lettuce, Removing Invasive Species, Botanical Names, Black Medic, Foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, Donations

  388

  It’s rather obvious that wintertime foraging varies where you live.

  Winter Foraging, Chickweed and edible friends, Foraging classes, Sublimed sulfur, A cheap foraging book, Details and Solanum Americanum, Oyster Mushrooms, DVDs, Donations and the Green Deane Forum. 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-14-january-2020/

  387

  Eastern Gamagrass, aka Fakahatchee Grass, is an edible you don’t see and then you do.

  Eastern Gamagrass, Ivy Gourd, Foraging Classes, Teas, Botany Builder #10, Carpetweed, Donations, Foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-7-january-2020/

  386

  There’s no reason to buy mustard greens now.

  Wild mustard and radish, Butter and Ruby Boletes, Foraging Classes, Edible Blossoms, Surinam Cherries, toxic Creeping Indigo. 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-31-december-2019/

  385

  It’s a good time to mention the toxic Butterweed and Rattlebox.

  Butterweed, Foraging Classes, Roses, Hawthorns, Euell Gibbons and Nutrition, Rattlebox 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-24-december-2019/

  384

  Plants give you something to look forward to especially if you know where and when to look.

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-17-december-2019/

  Wild Garlic, Chickweed, Goosegrass, Sow Thistle, Stinging Nettles, Dandelions, Sycamore, Foraging Classes, Tar Vine, Desert Horse Purslane, Green Deane Forum, DVDs, Go Fund Me, Urban Crawl

  383

  Mother Nature can be fickle and it’s almost always tied to weather.

  Grapes, Swinecress, Silverthorn, Foraging Classes, False Hawk’s Beard, Jelly Ears, Botany Builder #31,  Cactus, the Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, Go Fund Me 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-10-december-2019/

  382

  Pyracanthas are furious in the fall.

  Pyrachanthas Chinese and Siberian Elms, Silverthorn, Foraging Classes, Drymaria, Botany Builder #30, Magnolia Blossoms, Ginkgo, Foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, Go Fund Me, Pollination in a word, and Remembering Nefertiti

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-3-december-2019/

  381

  This time of year two wintertime foragables come up, one quite esteemed the other barely edible.

  Henbit, Wild  Geraniums, Foraging Classes, Chickweed, Horse Nettle & Tropical Soda Apple,  Bananas

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-26-november-2019/

  380

  wild Mustards and radishes, Toxic Water Hemlock, Smartweed, Foraging Classes, Golden Rain Tree, Skunk Vine, Scat Contamination, Lady Bugs, and Lion’s Mane 

  Many foraging books are what I call “Ohio-centric.”

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-19-november-2019/

  379

  Dandelions, Seaweed, Foraging classes, Jellyfish, Wax Myrtle Berries, the Stinkhorn and Jack O’Lanterns, Mustards and Radishes, the Green Deane Forum, Donations, and foraging DVDs  

  Dandelion blossoms, ten pounds of sugar, and two cakes of bread yeast became my first batch of wine.

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-05-november-2019/

  378

  Edible Mushrooms, Foraging Classes, Tie Change, Blue and Red Sages and Oakleaf Flea Bane, Chinese Elm, Christmasberries, Wild Mustards, donations, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum. 

  Unusual rains last week coaxed more life out of several edible mushroom species that were seasonally put to bed a month ago.

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-29-october-2019/

  377

  Cucumber Tree, Paul Dreher, Sida, Turkey Tails, Foraging Classes, Palmate Leaves, Richardia, Perennial Peanut, Caesarweed, Botanical Names, Donations, Foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum. 

  Foraging is treasure hunting for adults

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-22-october-2019/

  376

  As is often the case one can walk past edible species many times and not notice them.

  Cinnamon, Dragon Fruit, Foraging Classes, Sumac, Persimmons, Yellow Pond Lily, Donations, Foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-15-october-2019/

  375

  The fruiting of species can be a mystery. 

  Cocoplums, Simpson Stopper, Coconut borer, Southern Wax Myrtle, Foraging Classes, Ringless Honey Mushrooms, White American Beautyberries, Wood Oats, Donations, foraging DVDs,  the Green Deane Forum 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-08-october-2019/

  skipped a week, wordpress down

  374

  Panicum is a very common group of edible native and non-native grasses in Florida and North America.

  Panic Grass, Aromas, Plant Pronunciations, Foraging Classes, Purslane, Pindo Palm Wine, Donations, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-24-september-2019/(opens in a new tab)

  373

  It’s the time of year to talk about Saw Palmetto berries.

  Saw Palmettos, Tallow Plum, Foraging Classes, Wild Apples, Elevation, Donations, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum

  Newsletter 17 September 2019

  372

  Seagrapes are coming into season.

  Seagrapes, Doveweed, Foraging near roads. Foraging Classes this week, Black & Sweet Gums, Isabelline and Mushrooms of the Gulf South. 

  Newsletter 10 September 2019

  371

  Newsletter 03 September 2019

  Labor Day used to mean more than hurricanes threatening the east coast from Florida to Maine.

  Labor Day, Creeping Fig, Foraging Classes in spite of Hurricane Dorian, Liatris, Poke Weed, Yellow Pond Lilly,  Poke Weed, Mosquitos & Beer, Lawns Aren’t Green, donations, 

  370

  It’s the time of year when Horsemint is easy to find. 

  Horsemint, Cocoplums, Natal Plumbs; Mushroom, Chitin, Arsenic and Insects; Stevia and Ragweed, Foraging Classes, Railroad Tracks, Goldenrod, Go Fund Me

  Newsletter 27 August 2019

  369

  I never receive mail about Lion’s Ear.

  Newsletter 20 August 2019

  Lion’s Ear, Brazilian Nightshade, Foraging Classes, Sida, Gopher Apples and Tallow Plums, White Chicken of the Woods, Go Fund Me, Foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum. 

  368

  The Water Hyacinth is blooming and no doubt many people are irritated by that.

  Newsletter 13 August 2019

  Water Hyacinth, Milk Cap Mushrooms, Foraging Classes, Kudzu, Green Deane Forum, DVDs, Go Fund Me, and I need a webmaster. 

  367

  Bunya Bunya get no respect 

  Bunya Bunya, Red Spiderling, Goldenrod, Sugarberry, Foraging Classes, Horsemint, Sweet Gum/Black Gum, The False Parasol: A mushroom to avoid, Green Deane Forum, Russian Thistle and railroad tracks, Foraging DVDs, Go Fund me, and I need a webmaster.

  Newsletter 6 August 2019

  366

  What’s in season to forage? Many species now perhaps because of unusual weather pattens this year.

  What plants can you forage for now, what mushrooms can you forage now, foraging classes, Blue Porter Weed, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, Go Fund Me 

  365

  It’s common yet uncommon, that is, not rare but you don’t notice it too often. 

  Hawthorns, American Lotus, Upcoming foraging class schedule, Chanterelles, Burgoo and Loblollies, Donations, the Green Deane Forum, foraging DVDs 

  Newsletter 23 July 2019

  364

  One more abbreviated newsletter with schedule because I have been teaching out-of-state. 

  Newsletter 16 July 2019

  Newsletter 23 July 2019

  363

  Newsletter 9 July 2019

  This and next week’s newsletters (July 9 & 16, 2019) are abbreviated because…

  362

  One would think that with a name like “Barnyard Grass” one would find the species in barnyards. 

  Barnyard Grass, Strawberry Guava, Seaside Gentian, Spanish Needles, Toxic polypore, Foraging Classes, Teaching in South Carolina, Go Fund Me, the Green Deane Forum, foraging DVDs 

  Newsletter 2 July 2019

  361

  Yes it is edible but….

  The other White Chicken-of-the-Woods, Two-Leaf Solanum, Norfolk Pines and the Bunya Bunya, Foraging Classes Florida,  Foraging Classes South Carolina. Go Fund Me, the Green Deane Forum, and foraging DVDs 

  Newsletter 25 June 2019

  360

  Ground cherries locally tend to have two seasons, spring and fall. 

  Ground Cherries, South Carolina Foraging Classes, new food crops, Florida Foraging Classes, the Winged Yam, Passion Flower, the toxic Cherry Laurel, Go Fund Me, the Green Deane Forum, foraging DVDs

  Newsletter 18 June 2019

  359

  Yellow ponds, that’s how I think of it, or in some places, yellow rivers.

  American Lotus, South Carolina Foraging Classes, Local Foraging Classes, the toxic Atamasco Lily, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Juniper Berries, Go Fund Me, Green Deane Forum, DVDs, the Chinese Tallow tree 

  Newsletter 11 June 2019

  358

  From a foraging point of view it was a very berry weekend starting with Coastal Ground Cherries, Physalis angustifolia in Port Charlotte.

  Ground Cherries, Cassine, Marco Island, Classes in South Carolina, Foraging Classes Florida, How Safe Is Foraging, Go Fund Me, the Green Deane Forum, DVDs  

  Newsletter 4 June 2019

  357

  The first time I ever saw red poppies growing was in Athens on my first visit to Greece

  Corn Poppies, Impatiens, Smartweed, Mushroom Update, Foraging Classes, Botany Builder #28 Echinate, Blue Porterweed, Green Deane Forum, Go Fund Me, DVDs, and Wild Pineapple 

  Newsletter 28 May 2019

  356

  If you were starving and came upon a patch of cattails you would have great cause for celebration.

  Cattails, Kudzu, Acorns, Lantana, Foraging Classes, Gopher Apples, Go Fund Me, and foraging DVDs 

  Newsletter 21 May 2019

  355

  The American Nightshade is a much-maligned plant

  American Nightshade, Ground Cherry, Blueberries et cetera, Carolina Bristle Mallow, Foraging Classes, Juniper Berries, Donations, the Green Deane Forum, foraging DVDs

  Newsletter 14 May 2019

  354

  There’s an odd kind of mulberry here in Florida. 

  Basswood (The Linden/Lime Tree) Chestnut Bolete, Foraging Classes, Kudzu, Wild Pineapple, Winged Yam, Foraging DVDs, Ivy Gourd, Donations, Gamagrass/Fakahatchee Grass, the Green Deane Forum 

  Newsletter 7 May 2019

  353

  There’s still time to look for Sea Blite, a seasonal salt-tolerant species that’s here this month, gone next month

  Sea Blite, Sugarberry, Foraging Classes, the Mahoe, Partridgeberry, Marlberries Revisited, DVDs, Donations and the Green Deane Forum. 

  Newsletter 30 April 2019

  352

  By April Stinging Nettles are usually gone for the season.

  Newsletter 23 April 2019

  Stinging nettles, Green Mushrooms,  Suriname Cherries, Wild Garlic, Foraging Classes, Miner’s Lettuce, Confederate Jasmine, Florida Pennyroyal, Redvein Abutilon, DVDs, Go Fund Me, and the Green Deane Forum 

  351

  If you are in the habit of eating wild mushrooms

  Newsletter 16 April 2019

  Five Edible Wild Mushrooms, Pineapple Guava, Eastern Coral Bean, Forestiera segregata the Florida Privet, Weekly Foraging Classes, Wild Edibles and locations they like, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, and Go Fund Me 

  350

  Watercress/Wintercress grew in a ditch behind an apartment complex I lived in…

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-09-april-2019/

  Watercress, Wild Garlic, Upcoming Foraging Classes, Marlberries, Chokeberry, Making You Own Vinegar, Usnea, DVDS, Green Deane Forum, Go Fund Me, A Leafing Hickory 

  349

  Tallow Plums are something of a botanical mystery.

  Newsletter 2 April 2019

  Tallow Plums, Wild Garlic, Blueberries and relatives, Toothache Tree as a source of pepper, Foraging Classes, Eastern Coral Bean, American Nightshade, Soon it will be mushroom season, Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, Go Fund Me. 

  348

  A few newsletters ago it was mentioned Mulberries were in blossom…

  Newsletter 26 March 2019

  Mulberries, Creeping Cucumber, Coco-plums, Foraging Classes and a new location, toxic Butterweed, Suriname Cherries, Green Deane Forum DVDS, Fermenting Spiderwort, Go Fund Me…  

  347

  Pawpaws can be among the most difficult and easy wild fruits to find.

  Newsletter 19 March 2019

  Pawpaws, Eating Grass, Foraging Classes, sickening Tropical Sage, Wisteria, Gladiolus, Raceme vs Spike, the Green Deane Forum, DVDs, Go Fund Me. 

  346

  With an impossible scientific name and strong aroma Fireweed is often over looked by the foraging community.

  Fireweed, Mayflowers, Lilacs, Pussy Willows, Foraging Classes, Mistetoe, Green Deane Forum, DVDs, Go Fund Me, Drying Loquats

  Newsletter 12 March 2019

  345

  Most foragers know Smilax tips are edible.

  Newsletter 5 March 2019

  Smilax berries, Marlberries, Daylight Saving Time, True Thistles, Coquina & Mole Crabs, Botanical Names, Foraging Classes, the Green Deane Forum, DVDs, and Go Fund Me 

  344

  Heads up, literally: Loquats are ripening.

  Newsletter 26 February 2019

  Loquats, Blackberries, Mulberries. Maypops, Creeping Cucumbers, Dollarweed, Strange Time of Year, Foraging Classes,  Eau de Rodent, Turkey Berry,  Toxic Tomatoes, the Green Deane Forum, DVDs, Go Fund Me, 

  343

  Lamb’s Quarters… Fat Hen… and where to find it.

  Newsletter 19 February 2019

  Lamb’s Quarters, Citron Melons, Last Average Frost Date,  Maple Seeds, Eastern Red Bud, Pink Tabebuia, Loquats, Pawpaws, Surinam Cherries, Cocoplum, Wild Mustard, Wild Radish, Blackberries. Agaricus campestris, Foraging Classes, Go Fund Me, DVDs, Green Deane Forum, Plantago rugelii  

  342

  The Western Tansy Mustard is one of our shortest-lived winter-time forageables.

  Newsletter 12 February 2019

  Western Tansy Mustard, Bittercress, Micro-Mustards, Black Medic, Foraging Classes, Florida Herbal Conference, Doveweed, the Larch, Tulips, Go Fund Me, Green Deane Forum, DVDs,  

  341

  Going north to forage is always pleasant this time of year. 

  Newsletter 5 February 2019

  Wild Garlic, Black Cherry vs Laurel Cherry, Elderberries, Foraging Classes, Lawns Aren’t Green, Florida Herbal Conference, Go Fund Me, the Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs 

  340

  Yeah… that’s a mouthful…

  Male Pine Cones, Poorman’s Pepper Grass and Maca, Perennial Peanut, Foraging Classes, Seaweeds, Dandelions, Nicker Beans, Florida Herbal Conference, Go Fund Me, the Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, and Trametes lactinea.

  Newsletter 29 January 2019

  339

  An often overlooked wild edible is Bulrush.

  Newsletter 22 January 2019

  Bulrushes, Candyroot, Florida Pennyroyal, Sow Thistle, Wild Pineapple, Florida Herbal Conference, Calliandra, Foraging Classes, Blewits, Magnesium Deficiencies, DVDs, Green Deane Forum, Go Fund Me, Spanish Cherries 

  338

  Newsletter 15 January 2019

  A common blossom that’s easy to identify is the wild violet. It’s cultivated brethren is the pansy.

  Violets, foraging mistakes, upcoming foraging classes, the Florida Herbal Conference, Bauhinias, False Hawks Beard, Green Eyes, Florida Privet, foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, Go Fund Me, Swinecress, Stink Horns, and Lawns Aren’t Green. 

  337

  Newsletter 08 January 2019

  There are Plantains that look like tough bananas and there are Plantains that are low and leafy plants. 

  Plantains/Plantagos, Fleabane, Goji Berry, Sycamore tree, Sublimed Sulfur, Richardia, Foraging Classes, Foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, Go Fund Me.  

  336

  Newsletter, 01 January 2019

  Newsletter, 01 January 2019

  Making their winter debut are our stinging nettles and they might have the second-worst nettle sting on earth.

  Stinging nettles, Sow Thistles, Chickweed, Foraging Classes, Podocarpus Mystery, Hen Bit, the “Bills”, Wax Myrtle Berries, Foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, Go Fund Me

  335

  Newsletter 18-25 December 2018

  Newsletter 18-25 December 2018

  Newsletter 18-25 December 2018

  A winter edible you should be scouting for is Galium aparine, or Goosegrass…

  Goosegrass, Jelly Ears, False Hawk’s Beard, Roses, Nickerbeans, Christmasberry, Dandelion, Lemon Bacopa and it’s evil bitter sister Water Hyssop, Foraging Classes, Pinellas County, Foraging Videos, Go Fund Me, Green Deane Forum, Thistle Seeds, 8th Annual Urban Crawl 

  334

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-11-december-2018/

  Pyracanthas are furious in the fall. Their brilliant red berries stand out in every landscape 

  Pyracanthas, Gingko, Chickweed, Hibiscus, Bauhinia, Foraging Classes, Death By Apple Seeds, Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, Go Fund Me, can you ID the edibles? 

  333

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-04-december-2018/

  Both the Chinese and Siberian elms have several edible parts.

  Chinese and Siberian elms, if an animal can eat it, West Indian Chickweed, upcoming Foraging Classes, Passiflora lutea, the Green Deane Forum, Go Fund Me, Foraging videos, and oaks   

  332

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-27-november-2018/

  Foragers benefit from bad ideas. 

  Silverthorn, Little Mustards, Creeping Cucumber, Foraging Classes, Go Fund Me, Wax Myrtle, Green Deane Forum, Indian Pipes, Foraging Videos, 

  331

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-20-november-2018/

  The seasons are changing and so is the foraging with a shift into not only fall but winter plants.

  Christmasberry, Sugarberry, Foraging Classes, Carpetweed, Beefsteak Polypore, Go Fund Me. Green Deane Forum, Foraging videos

  330

  Common plant names can be so misleading. 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-13-november-2018/

  Silk Floss Tree, Pandanus Grass, Sand Spurs, Stinging Nettle, Foraging Classes, Chicken of the Woods, Go Fund Me, Foraging DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum  

  329

  We don’t have the opportunity to often use the word “windfall”…

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-november-06-2018/

  Chinese elm, pines and inner bark, jellyfish, wild oaks and sea purslane, foraging classes, personal notes, donations, DVD and the Green Deane Forum 

  328

  The tree is easy to find but is it edible? 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-30-october-2018/

  Golden Rain Tree, Daylight Saving Time, Back Yard Foraging and Pets, Foraging Classes, Smartweed, Go Fund Me, DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum

  327

  Learning about edible wild plants seem intimidating at first.

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-23-october-2018/

  Ringless Honey Mushroom, Foraging Class Schedule,  Morning Glories, Go Fund Me, DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum, 

  326

  Our Sumacs are happy. 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-16-october-2018/

  Sumacs, Persimmons, What is Edible? Foraging Classes, Perennial Peanut, Sea Grapes, Go Fund Me, Green Deane Forum, foraging DVDs, 

  325 

  This might be a good time to write about Yellow Pond Lilys.

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-09-october-2018/

  Yellow Pond Lily, Papaya and Castor Beans, Sida, Turkey Tails, False Turkey Tails, Foraging Classes, DVDs, Go Fund Me, Green Deane Forum. 

  324

  Is it edible? Yes, no, maybe…

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-2-october-2018/

  Chinese Tallow Tree, Caesarweed, Horsemint, Oyster Mushrooms, Foraging Classes, DVDs, Go Fund Me, the Green Deane Forum. 

  323

  Seasons can be subtle

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-25-september-2018/

  Seasons, Jambul Tree, Mushrooming, Saw Palmaettos, Foraging Classes. Toxic Caterpillars, Foraging Videos, and the Green Deane Forum. 

  322

  It was on the side of the bike trail, half squished.

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-18-september-2018/

  Persimmons, Ringless Honey Mushrooms, Bananas, Foraging Classes, Peppervine, Foraging Videos, Green Deane Forum, 

  321

  In the backwoods of Maine where I grew up Dogwoods were small.

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-11-september-2018/

  Kousa Dogwood, Canna, Ground Cherries, Cocoplums, Foraging Classes, Foraging DVDs, Go Fund Me, the Green Deane Forum, OMG!, Carpetweed, Indian Pipes 

  320

  In the olden BC days… before computers…

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-04-september-2018/

  Fall foraging, foraging classes, DVDs, Green Deane Forum,  Go Fund me, Creeping Fig 

  319

  Still unpacking from my road trip (which is my excuse for this shorter-than-usual weekly newsletter.)

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-28-august-2018/

  Mushroom class, foraging class in South Carolina, Foraging Classes, Kudzu, Radium Weed, DVDs, Go Fund Me, the Green Deane Forum  

  318

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-21-august-2018/

  This is an abbreviated newsletter

  Foraging class schedule for August and September 2018

  317

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-14-august-2018/

  Bunya Bunya get no respect in countries where people have plenty of food.

  Bunya Bunya, Norfolk Pine,  Black Gum, Sugarberry, Erect Spiderling, Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, Foraging Classes, Go Fund Me, 

  316

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-08-august-2018/

  There’s an old phrase: “Sometimes you have to bow to the absurd”

  Chanterelles, Black Trumpet, Sumac, Foraging Classes, Horsemint, Green Deane Forum, DVDs, Go Fund Me, 

  315

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-31-july-2018/

  Putting on black fruit now is the much-debated Peppervine, Ampelopsis arborea.

  Peppervine, Pindo Palms, Foraging Classes, Americaln Lotus, DVDs, Green Deane Forum, Where the wild food is.  

  314

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-24-july-2018/

  Our foraging class in Port Charlotte this past week was above and beyond if you like fruit.

  Cocoplums,  Jambul Tree, Mangos, Ground Cherries, Foraging Classes, Fermenting Mushrooms, Blue Porterweed, Foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, 

  313 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-17-july-2018/

  Millions of dollars and many decades have been spent trying to eradicate the edible pictured above.

  Latex Strangler Vine, Beefstake Polypore, Sugarberry, Foraging Classes, Eastern Gammagrass, Purslane, Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, Lawns Aren’t Green, 

  312

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-10-july-2018/

  Lobsters… no, not the kind from the sea but the woods: Lobster mushrooms. 

  Magnolias, Lobster Mushrooms, Foraging Classes, Carpetweed, Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, Bacterial Considerations, 

  311

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-3-july-2018/

  There’s a wonderfully aromatic plant that prefers to hide most of the year.

  Horsemint, Tallow Plum, Orlando Mushroom Group, Pecan Truffles, Foraging Classes, and DVDs 

  310

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-26-june-2018/

  Podocarpus does not, as they used to say, have an attitude.

  Podocarpus, Simpson Stopper, Orlando Mushroom Group, Foraging Classes, Jack In The Pulpit, Green Deane Forum, and foraging DVDs. 

  309

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-19-june-2018/

  Paper Mulberries are related to bread fruit. 

  Paper Mulberries, St. John’s Mint, Black Gum, Podocarpus, Poison Sumac, Foraging Classes, DVDs, Green Deane Forum, Blue Porterweed

  308

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-12-june-2018/

  Sorting out Morning Glories, Maypops and plants with cyanide, a Bolete with no name, Foraging Classes, Eating Little Red Bugs, the Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs,  

  307

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-05-june-2018/

  Yellow ponds, that’s how I think of it…

  American Lotus, Black Cherry,  Foraging Classes, Toxic Atamasco,  Milk Caps. The Old Man of the Woods, Green Deane Forum, Chinese Tallow tree, foraging DVDs, 

  306

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-29-may-2018/

  Yucca is not Yuca. Or said another way: YOU-ka is not YUK-ka.

  Yucca, Matchhead, Oaxaca Lemon Verbena, Doveweed, Ficus Racemosa, American Nightshade, Foraging Classes, DVDs, Green Deane Forum, Eastern Hemlock 

  305 

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-22-may-2018/

  The Orlando Mushroom Group (OMG!) met Sunday for their first fungal foray of the year. 

  Orlando Mushroom Group, Pawpaws, Foraging Classes, Pregnancy and Plants,  Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, Go Fund Me, and Chanterelles. 

  304

  Spiderworts got me in trouble once

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-15-may-2018/

  Spiderworts, Pond Apples, Sea Oxeye, Foraging Classes, OMG mushroom hunt, Go Fund Me, Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, Botany Builder 26,   

  303

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-08-may-2018/

  Not all of botany is settled.

  Grapes, Ivy Gourd, Eastern Gamagrass, Foraging Classes, DVDs, Green Deane Forum, Go Fund Me, the Orlando Mushroom Group, 

  302 

  Sea Purslane and Purslane are not the same species

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-01-may-2018/

  Sea Purslane, Sargassum, Morning Glories, Foraging Classes,  Foraging DVDs, Green Deane Forum, Orlando Mushroom Group, Go Fund Me, Jack in the Pulpits, 

  301

  The American Nightshade is poised to fruit heavily.

  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-24-april-2018/

  American Nightshade, Blackberries, Orlando Mushroom Group, Common Fungi of South Florida, Foraging Classes, Ivy Gourd, Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, Go Fund Me, 

  Newsletters in chronological order

•  29 November2016:  https://www.eattheweeds.com/newsletter-6-december-2016/ Issue 235: What do you see #25, Beautyberries, Simpson Stoppers, Wild Pineapples, Where To Find Wild Edibles. Foraging Classes, A possible edible shrub? Bananas, Foraging DVDs and the Green Deane Forum
• 22 November 2016:  Issue 234 Dandelions, Goji Berries, Wapato, Foraging Classes, Foraging DVDs, the Green Deane Forum
• 15 November 2016: Issue 233: Chinese Elm, Wild Lettuce, Horsemint, Smartweed, Beautyberry, Brazilian Pepper, Winged Sumac, Foraging Classes, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum,
• 08 November 2016:  Issue 232. Cucumber Weed, Honey Mushrooms, Creeping Cucumber, Tallow Plum, Christmasberry, Foraging Classes, Green Deane DVD, and the Green Deane Forum.
• 01 November 2016: Issue 231: Edible Wild Radish, Deadly Water Hemlock, Peppery Smartweed, Crushed Acorns, Foraging Classes, DVDs and the Green Deane Forum
• 25 October   2016: Issue 230: Tropical Almond, How Kids Learn, Foraging Classes, Dove Plums, the Green Deane Forum and foraging DVDs.
• 18 October 2016: Issue 229: Do you need to know the botanical names? Morning Glories, Persimmons, Yam A, Foraging Classes, Green Deane Forum, DVDs, Acorn Bread.
• 11 October 2016: Issue 228: Harvesting windfall, is the ground polluted? the Green Deane Forum and foraging DVDs
• 04 October 2016: Issue 227: Carpetweed, foraging and bacteria, foraging classes, the Green Deane Forum, and foraging DVDs.
• 27 September 2016: Issue 226: Acorns, Creeping Fig, Jewels of Opar, Foraging Classes, Ft. Desoto, Chaya, Green Deane Forum, foraging DVDs.
•  20 September 2016: Issue 225: Hackberry – Sugarberry, Kudzu, Skunk Vine, Foraging Classes, Persimmons, Green Deane DVDs and the Green Deane Forum.
• 13 September 2016: Issue 224: Water Hyacinth, Panic Grass, Foraging Classes, DVDs, Pindo Wine, the Green Deane Forum
• 06 September 2016: Issue 223: Learning how to forage, what’s in season now, foraging classes, Green Deane DVDs, the Green Deane Forum.
• 30 August 2016 was a fifth Tuesday. No newsletter was published.
• 23 August 2016: Issue 222: Beautyberries, grapes, Pindo Palm, Simpson Stopper, Horsemint, Saw Palmetto, Persimmons, Maine Blueberries, milkweed pods, foraging classes., DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, medicinal and edible mushrooms.
• 16 August 2016: Issue 221: Horsemint, Pindo Wine, Begonias, Goldenrod, Foraging Classes, Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, Beautyberries,
• 09 August 2016: Issue 220: Black Cherry, Black Gum, Black Pepper Vine Fruit, the North American Ebony, persimmon, foraging classes, DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum.
• 02 August 2016: Issue 219: Pindo Palms, White Boerhavia, Water Hyssop and memory, Hackberries, Foraging Classes, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, and Wild Grpaes
• 26 July 2016: Issue 218: The Jambul Tree, Norfolk Pine, Hairy Cow Pea, Magnifying Glass, Foraging classes, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum, and Simpson Stoppers.
• All data on site between April 16 and June 8th were lost because of Hostgator’s incompetence. That included many newsletters.
• 12 April 2016: Issue 203: Finding Pawpaws, blossoming Eastern Coral Bean, fruiting Mulberries, the Mahoe, Partridgeberries in Florida! Upcoming foraging classes and ForageFest, the Green Deane Forum and DVDs.
• 5 April 2016: No newsletter because of hacking attempt.
• 29 March 2016: Issue 202: Ivy Gourd or Tindora, Bidens alba, Fermenting, Loquats, Foraging Classes and DVDs.
• 22 March 2016:  Issue 201: Linden Tree, Fermenting Spiderwort, Avocado Seeds, Foraging Classes, DVDs
• 15 March 2016: Issue 200: Identifying Garden Weeds, Loquats, Butterweed, New Class Location, Upcoming Foraging Classes, the Green Deane Forum, Foraging DVDs, 200th Newsletter!
• 8 March 2016: Issue 199: Garden weeds, finding edible weeds, Western Tansy Mustard, Foraging Classes, Sow thistles, Green Deane Forum and  DVDs.
• 1 March 2016: Issue 198: Florida Herbal Conference 2016, Poor Man’s Pepper Grass and Maca, Foraging Classes, Seaweed, Free Mustard Seeds, Green Deane DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum.
• 23 February 2016: Issue 197: The Eastern Redbud and Chickasaw Plum, Wild Radishes and Mustards, Earthskills and Florida Herbal Conference 2016, Upcoming Foraging Classes, Free Mustard Seeds, Green Deane DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum.
• 16 February 2016: Issue 196: Sow Thistles, Thorns, Spines and Prickles, the Green Deane Forum, Foraging Classes. Florida Herbal Conference, Free Mustard Seeds, Green Deane’s DVDs.
• 9 February 2016: Issue 195: Silverthorns, Plantagos, Foraging Classes, Florida Herbal Conference, Foraging DVDs, free Red Mustard seeds.
• 2 February 2016: Issue 194: Tulips, Mustards, Dandelions, Doveweed, Florida Herbal Conference, Foraging Classes, Green Deane Videos, Free Mustard seeds, and the Green Deane Forum: Did you ever eat a larch?”
• 26 January 2016: Issue 193: Eastern Gamagrass, Florida Herbal Conference, Sea Blite, Queen and Pindo Palms, Opuntia and Nopales, Foraging Classes, Green Deane DVDs.
• 19 January 2016: Issue 192: Silverthorn, Sheep’s Sorrel, Free Red Mustard Seeds, Stinging Nettles, Henbit, Chickweed, Foraging Classes, DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum
• 12 January 2016: Issue 191: Roots revisited: Ivy Gourd. Wild Teas. Foraging Classes, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum.
• 5 January 2016: Issue 190:Stinging nettles, Purslane, Oxalis, Mystery Root, Foraging classes, DVDs, Green Deane Forum.
• 29 December 2015: Issue 189:Goosegrass, Christmasberry, Natal Plum, Yaupon Holly, Bananas, Nicker Bean, Ground Cherry, Sea Purslane, Sea Blite, Coral Berry, Gracilaria, CLasses, DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum
• 22 December 2015: Issue 188: Ringless Honey mushrooms, Deer Mushrooms, Tamarind, Mahoe, Tropical Almond, Fifth Urban Crawl, Foraging Classes, DVDs, Green Deane Forum,
• 15 December 2015: Issue 187: Silverthorn, Peppergrass, Chickweed, Foraging Classes Green Deane Videos, the Green Deane Forum, fifth annual Urban Crawl.
• 8 December 2015: Issue 186: Wild lettuce, Osage Orange, Ginkgos, Cashew Trees, Pineapple Guava, Turk’s Cap, Foraging Classes, DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum.
• 1 December 2015: Issue 185: Tropical Soda Apple aka Horse Nettle, Henbit,  Stork’s Bill and Cranesbill,
• 24 November 2015: Issue 184; Chickweed, pomegranate peelings, pines, homemade mustard, foraging classes, the Green Deane Forum, and DVDs
• 17 November 2015: Issue 183; Seaweed and Lichen, where to forage, Foraging Classes, DVDs, Green Deane Forum.
• 10 November 2015: Issue 182:Wild Drinks, a book review; Wax Myrtle Berries, Wild Radish, Foraging Classes, the Green Deane Forum, and DVDs
• 3 November 2015: Issue 181:Black gum, Seagrapes, Doveweed, Foraging near Roads, Classes, Green Deane Forum, and Videos.
• 27 October 2015: Issue 180:Foot fruit: Podocarpus and Cashews, Sandspurs, Pony Foot, Foraging Classes, the Green Deane Forum and Videos
• 20 October 2015: Issue 179:What is a Ceiba and how do you say it? Partridgeberry, Ringless Honey Mushrooms, Red Bays and Magnolias, Laurel Wilt, Pellitory aka Cucumberweed, Foraging Classes, and the Green Deane Forum
• 7 October 2015 no  newsletter published because site had to be backed up because of hackers.
• 6 October 2015: Issue 178:Tallow plum, White Beautyberries, Sumac, Sea and Wood Oats, Cactus and Nopales, Foraging Classes, Green Deane Forum,
• 29 September was a fifth Tuesday, no news letter published then.
• 22 September 2015: Issue 177: Frost, and ripening vegetables and fruit, Foraging Classes, the Green Deane Forum
• 15 September 2015: Issue 176:Purslane and a look-alike, Pepper Vine, Upcoming Foraging Classes, Heartwing Sorrel, Green Deane Forum,
• 8 September 2015: Issue 175: 18 edibles along the Seminole-Wekiva Trial, Foraging Class Schedule, and the Green Deane Forum.
• 1 September 2015: Issue 174: Kudzu, wild apples, mountain foraging, upcoming classes, the Green Deane Forum
• 18 and 25 August, no newsletters as Green Deane was on vacation hiking in the Carolinas.
• 11 August 2015: Issue 173:Horsemint, Foraging along railroad tracks, Goldenrod, Swamp Rose Mallow, Foraging Classes, Green Deane Forum.
• 4 August 2015:   Issue 172:Ripening grapes, saw palmetto fruit, Yellow Anise, Green Maypops, Large Boletes, Foraging Classes, Green Deane Forum.
• 28 July 2015: Issue 171:Citron Melons, three edible mushrooms; Blue Lactarius, the Old Man of the Woods, and Chanterelles. Lone Star Ticks and Armadillos in the news, Foraging Classes and the Green Deane Forum
• 21 July 2015: Issue 170:Tasty Tamarind, Tropical Almonds, the lesser-known Silk Bay, Foraging Classes, The Green Deane Forum, Are the Seasons Changing?
• 14 July 2015: Issue 169: Are all Portulacas edible? Which yam is it? Elderberries. Foraging Classes. Taking a Bee Hive Home, and The Green Deane Forum.
• 7 July 2015:  Issue 168: Paper Mulberries, Pindo Palm, Yaupon Holly, The Timucua, Pawpaws, plant books, upcoming foraging classes, the Green Deane Forum.
• 30 June 2015: Fifth Tuesday, no newsletter.
• 23 June 2015: Issue 167: Sea Blite, Glasswort, Creeping Fig, Foraging Classes, Green Deane Forum.
• 16 June 2105: Issue 166:Laco-fermenting, toxic Atamasco Lily, Smilax, Sword Ferns, Foraging Classes, Green Deane Forum,
• 9 June 2015: Issue 165: Latex Strangler Vine, American Lotus, Dock Seeds, foraging mistakes, early season Podocarpus, Reishi mushrooms, foraging classes, Green Deane Forum
• 2 June 2015: Issue 164: Ivy gourd, Honey Mushrooms, Wild Food Plants of Hawaii, Classes, Green Deane Forum.
•  26 May 2015, no newsletter because of hackers. 
• 19 May 2015: Issue 163:Gopher Apples are blossoming as are Groundnuts. Candyroot is getting showy, Blueberries are ripening. The Simpson Stopper has three kinds of leaves. Wild Coffee and Coralberry Confusion, Upcoming Classes, and the Green Deane Forum,
• 12 May 2015: Issue 162: Watercress, Wild Garlic, Upcoming Foraging Classes, Green Deane Forum, Botany Builder 28, Does anyone want to guess?
• 5 May 2015: Issue 161:Wild Pineapple, Ground Cherries, Horsemint, Three kinds of wild grapes, upcoming foraging classes, Botany Builder 27, edible Pluteus petasatus, the Green Deane Forum
• 28 April 2015: Issue 160:Blackberries, Pickling Betony roots, Elderberry, Smilax, Juniper Berries, Upcoming Classes, Green Deane Forum, What Do You See #24.
• 21 April 2015: Issue 159: Distance and Elevation, Paper Mulberry, Red Mulberry, Basswood, False Hawk’s Beard, Upcoming Foraging Classes, Green Deane Forum, Botany Builder #26,
• 14 April, 2015: Issue 158: Pineapple Guava, the Tallow Plum, where to look for edible plants, upcoming foraging classes. the Green Deane Forum, and What Do You See #23
• 7 April 2015: Issue 157: ForageFest 2015, Lantanas, Weeds of Southern Turfgrasses, A Beginner’s Guide of Edible Florida, foraging in Port Charlotte, non-edible Nicker Beans, foraging classes, the Green Deane Forum, and What Do You See #22
• 31 March 2015: Issue 156: Is it time to reassess Nuphar roots? Identifying the Simpson Stopper. Foraging Instructors. What ’s in Season, Foraging Class Schedule, Green Deane Forum, What do you see #21.
• 24 March 2015: Issue 155: Mulberries, Wild Cucumbers, Edible Palms, Sea Rocket, Which Blueberry? Green Deane Forum. Upcoming Foraging Classes, What Do You See #20.
• 17 March 2015: There was no newsletter.
• 10 March 2015: Issue 154:Paw paws, Pennyroyal, Dandelions, Green Deane Forum, Foraging Classes, Daylight Saving time, What Do You See #19
• 3 March 2015, Issue 153: Florida Herbal Conference 2015, Turpentine Pines, Banning Mulberries, Foraging Classes, the Green Deane Forums, Bird Peppers, and What Do You See #18
• 24 February 2015: Issue 152: Eastern Redbud, Plums, Limequat, Foraging Classes, Seasonal changes and Mulberries, Florida Herbal Conference, Green Deane Forum, and What Do You See #17.
• 17 February 2015: Issue 151: Pepper Grass, Wild Geraniums, Paper Mulberry, Foraging Classes, Guest article: Bees, Butterflies, and Moths, Florida Herbal Conference 2015, the Green Deane Forum, and Winter Buds10 February 2015: Mystery diced root,  Florida Earthskills 2015 is history, Florida Herbal Conference 2015 is next,  foraging classes, Green Deane Forum, the 150th newsletter.
• 27 January 2015: The Wax Myrtle, Mustards & Radishes, Hairy Cowpea, Green Deane Forum, Earthskills 2015, Florida Herbal Conferece 2015, How Ungreen of Us.
•  20 January 2015: Goji berries, Plantagos, Black Medic, Green Deane Forum, Earthskills 2015, Florida Herbal Conference 2015, and Chain of Contamination
• 13 January 2015: Poorman’s Pepper Grass, Creeping Cucumber, Bulrush, Green Deane Forum, Earthskills 2015, Florida Herbal Conference 2015, classes, Wild Pineapple, Creeping Indigo warning, Calliandra haematocephala, What Do You See #16. 
• 6 January 2015: False Hawk’s Beard, Roses, Earthskills gathering, 2015 Florida Herbal Conference, Foraging Classes, Pellitory, Goosegrass, Less Money More Weeds
• 30 December 2014: New Year Leaves, Bauhinias, Pansies, Classes, DVDs, Green Deane Forum, Earthskills Conference, Florida Herbal Conference, Janus, the Roman God who looks both ways, 4th Annual Urban Crawl.
• 23 December 2014: Are cattails really that good? Is the Moss Rose edible? FORAGER! Classes, DVDS and the Green Deane Forum.
• 16 December 2014: Sycamores, Wild Mustards, When a Description Doesn’t Fit, Upcoming Classes, Green Deane DVDs, The Green Deane Forum, Florida Herbal Conference
• 9 December 2014: Wild edibles in downtown Savannah, Georgia, Pyracanthas, Ginkgop, Swinecress, Henbit, herbalism vs foraging, upcoming foraging classes, Green Deane DVDs, and the Florida Herbal Conference.
• 2 December 2014: The Cabbage Palm, Sow Thistle, Weeds vs. Cultivated Crops, DVDs, Green Deane Forum, and the Florida Herbal Conference.
• 25 November 2014: Pellitory, Usnea, Thanksgiving, foraging classes, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum and the herbal conference.
• 18 November 2014: Persimmons, Indian Pipes, Cactus fruit, Lantana, foraging classes, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum and the herbal conference.
• 11 November 2014, no newsletter as Green Deane had dental surgery.
• 4 November 2014:    Making Vinegar, Marlberries, Wintercress, Florida Herbal Conference, Upcoming Classes, DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum, all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.
• 28 October 2014: Ground Cherries, Cocoplums, Simpson Stopper, Elderberries, Lemon Bacopa, Bananas, Lactarius Indigo, Upcoming Classes, DVDs, The fourth Florida Herbal Conference, and Florida Gulf Coast University.
• 21 October 2014: Roses, Book Review: The Wild Wisdom of the Weeds, upcoming foraging season, classes, DVDs, and the Green Deane forum.
• Oct 7and 14 no newsletter because Green Deane attended an out-of-state memorial service.
• 30 September 2014: Date Palms, Mushroom Season, Red Tide, Foraging Classes, DVDs, Green Deane Forum.
• 23 September 2014: Is Portulaca pilosa edible? Gopher Apples, What’s in Season, Class Schedule, DVDs, the Green Deane Forum.
• 16 September 2014: The Tallow Plum, a neat way to clean tunas, looking for yams, the beautyberry is happy, upcoming classes, DVDs, and the Green Deane Forum
• 9 September 2014: The passion fruit, where is it safe to forage, the Jambul Fruit, Puss Moth Caterpillar, Classes, DVD, and the Green Deane Forum.
• 2 September 2014: Sumac, Bananas, Cana, Old Man of The Woods, Podocarpus, Answer to What Do You See #16, Green Deane Forum, DVDs.
• 26 August 2014: Pine nuts, wild cucumbers, hiking in North Carolina, foraging classes, What Do You See #16, Green Deane Forum and DVDs.
• 19 August 2014: No newsletter, Green Deane hiking in the Carolinas.
• 12 August 2014: No newsletter, Green Deane hiking in the Carolinas.
• 5 August 2014: No newsletter, Green Deane hiking in the Carolinas.
• 29 July 2014: Bunya Bunya, Ganoderma mushrooms, upcoming classes, where to find the strangler latex vine, the Green Deane Forum and DVDs.
• 22 July 2014, American lotus, Fifth Annual Mushroom Intensive, Portulacas, Foraging Classes, The Green Deane Forum, and Podocarpus
• 15 July 2014, Black Cherries, Strawberry Guava, Horsemint, Basswood, Mushroom Workshop, White Indigoberry
• July 1st and 8th, no newsletter as Green Deane was on vacation.
• 24 June 2014: Drehear Park, Jambul, Purslane, Classes, DVDs, changing servers.
• 17 June 2014: Chickasaw Plums, the deadly Water Hemlock, a Monsoon of Mushrooms, the answer the What Do You See #15, upcoming classes, the Green Deane Forum and DVDs.
• 10 June 2014: Jack In The Pulpits, Seasonal Changed, Podocarpus, Junipers, What Do You See 15, Answer to What Do You See 14, Foraging Classes, the Green Deane Forum, and DVDs.
• 3 June 2014: No newsletter because of attempted hacking.
• 27 May 2014: Memorial Day and the Corn Poppy. Where do you forage? What Do You See #14.
•  2o May 2014: Discovering Chaya; a new loop; Florida’s Wild Edibles, a book review; classes and DVDs.
• 13 May 2014: Caloric staples: Cattails, Kudzu, Acorns; Seasonal Changes; “Giant Hog Weed” on the Green Deane Forum; Upcoming Foraging Classes; DVDs; What Do You See 13 Answers, all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.
• 6 May 2014: Blackberries, the Water Hyacinth, Of Butterflies and Bees, What Do You See #12 and 13, Green Deane Forum and DVDS.
• 29 April 2014: Fifth Tuesday of the month. No newsletter published that date.
• 22 April 2014: Wild Garlic and Onions, Fleabane, Surinam Cherries and Mulberries, What Do You See 12, the answer to What Do You See 11, the Green Deane Forum, Classes and DVDs.
• 15 April 2014:  Florida pennyroyal, Pawpaws, A new edible Redvein Abutilon, Birds and Loquats, What Do You See #11, answer to What Do You See #10, upcoming classes, DVDs
• 8 April 2014: Mulberries, Magnolia Vinegar, Surinam Cherries, What Do You See 10, answer to What Do You See 09, Upcoming Foraging classes, Book Review: Foraging With Kids, DVDs.
• 1 April 2014: The Tropical Chestnut, the Eastern Redbud, Miner’s Lettuce, Upcoming Foraging Classes, What do You See #09, answers to What Do You See 08, Book Review: Guide To Wild Foods And Useful Plants, DVDs, Barbie…
• 25 March 2014: Finding “wild” edibles, Wild Cucumber, Basswood, Black Medic and Hop Clover, Upcoming Classes,  Brevard Botanical Garden Plant sale, What Do You See 08, answer for What Do You See 07, and DVDs.
• 18 March 2014:  Golf courses revisited, rain brings the mushrooms, spring greens are putting on, got an article for the newsletter? Classes, DVDs, What Do You See #07, answers to #06,  Birmingham Plant Sale, Book Review: Foraging & Feasting.
• 11 March 2014:  Finding wild edibles, Dandelions, False Dandelions, Time Change, What Do You See #06, Spring is Here, Upcoming Classes, DVDs, Guest Articles Request.
• 4 March, 2014: Winging it with maple seeds, Turk’s Caps, Florida Herbal Conference 2014 is history, how to avoid the toxic Cherry Laurel, What Do You See? #05 and the answers to #04, looking for a travel trailer and holding classes in west Florida and beyond.
• 25 February, 2014: Sheep Sorrel, mystery mushroom, upcoming classes, Botany Builder 39, What Do You See? #04, Answer to What Do You See 03,  DVDs and close encounters of the slithering kind.
• 18 February 2014: Nettle season, the evergreen Water Hyssop, White Clover, Boletes, our guest article: Plant Nutrition, upcoming classes, the Florida Herbal Conference nears, What Do You See #3 and the answer to What Do You See #2,
• 11 February 2014: Blewit Mushroom, Wild Garlic, Botany Builder #38, Plantago Power, Guest Article: Is it really Global Warming?  What Do You See #2 and last week’s answer and more all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.
• 4 February 2014: What is White Snow? The Silverthorns are fruiting. Which Ganoderma is it? Botany Builder #37. What Do You See #1, and new feature. EarthSkills gathering Florida is this week, Florida Herbal Conference is this month, all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.
• 28 January, 2014: Cooking up mustard roots, Botany Builder #36, why doesn’t epazote freeze? Class Schedule, EarthSkills 2014, Florida Herbal Conference, DVDs, looking for Mr. Good Transportation, and guest writers.
• 21 January 2014: Tansy Mustard, Swine Cress, Botany Builder #35, Part II of  guest writer Dewayne Allday’s To Shroom or not to Shroom, EarthSkills 2014 gathering, Florida Herbal Conference 2014, and upcoming foraging classes.
• 14 January 2014: Start looking for Silverthorn fruit, Henbit, Amaranth and Bitter Cress in local garden, Botany Builder #34, guest writer Dewayne Allday, To Shroom or not to Shroom, EarthSkills 2014 gathering, Florida Herbal Conference 2014, and upcoming foraging classes,
• 7 January 2014:   Plantagos are ready for harvesting, Chickweed by Heather Pierce with recipes, Botany Builder 33, How safe is foraging? Class schedule, the Florida Herbal Conference, and Green Deane’s DVDs.
• 31 December 2013: No newsletter published that date.
• 24 December 2013: Vibrant chickweed, abundant pellitory, eat your Christmas tree? The Third Annual Urban Crawl with violet recipe, the common sow thistle, Botany Builder #32, Bottled scallions and the Green Deane Forum, what is foraging? upcoming classes and DVDs,
• 17 December 2013: The Green Deane Forum, the Tropical Almond, Botany Builder 31, Over Foraging, ETWs Archive, Mushrooms to be found, three thefts, Green Deane DVDs.
• 10 December 2013: Wild Radishes and Mustards, Juniper Berries, Amelia Island, Egan Creek Greenway, The Blue Heron Inn, and Botany Builder #30: Peltate. From the Archive: Is this Plant Edible?
• 3 December 2013: Sow thistles are sprouting, the wild lettuce is up. How many raw elderberries should you eat? The Silverthorn is in blossom, swinecress will soon be here, and Botany Builder #29.
• 26 November 2013: Strangler Latex Vine still fruiting, seasonal Little Mustards, Stinging Nettles, Forest Kindergarten, a dear visitor, Florida Herbal Conference, Foraging DVDs, and Botany Builder #28: Lianas.
• 19 November 2013: Chickweed is back! Along with stinkhorns, train wreckers, making dandelion wine, walnuts in the news, Florida Herbal Conference, DVDs, and foraging instructor updates.
• 12 November 2013: Sargassum, other sea veteables, eating jellyfish, cooking with sea purslane, the wood oats alternative, classes, DVDs, Florida Herbal Conference and an insect invasion.
• 5 November 2013: The seasonal change is upon us and winter foraging should be picking up. There’s acorns to be collected, a yam blossom to see, and a luffa surprise. The Florida Herbal Conference is coming up, and shoveling snow all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.
• 29 October 2013: No newsletter published that date.
• 22 October 2013: The Tropical Almond, Smartweed, Dudaim Melon, Polyporus Tenuiculus, Florida Herbal Conference, and Green Deane’s DVDs.
• 15 October 2013: A new edible, Perennial Pea; early-season cucumber weed; going out of season sea-grapes, persimmons, coco-plums, simpson stopper; begonias-hemlock, honey mushrooms, a calculating cat, Florida Herbal Conference, and DVDs.
• 8 October 2013: Black Gum, eating Anoles, the Green Deane Forum, Chestnut Bolete, 2014 Florida herbal conference, Green Deane’s DVDs, and 2000-year old seed sprouts.
• 1 October 2013: Sumac’s in season, persimmons, saw palmettos, creeping cucumbers, three iffy edibles, trust, the genus Lactarius, language and grazing.
  24 Septemner 2013: Ever eat a Norfolk Pine? Snacking on Hairy Cowpeas blossoms. Dare you eat a Saw Palmetto berry? Persimmons are coming into season. Sign up early for the Florida Herbal Conference. Recent rains will stimulate mushroom sightings. Change in the newsletter policy. DVDs as selling.
• 17 September 2013: Cereus fruit, ground nuts, 5,000 questions, upcoming classes, herbal conference, my mystery mushroom, DVDS.
• 10 September 2013: Remembering wild apples, the aroma of wild plants, coming to terms with botanical names, a purslane recipe, the Florida Herbal Conference and DVDs,
• 3 September 2013: Blooming horsemint, Kudzu, classes, Ganoderma curtisii, make a berry picking bucket, upcoming conferences and DVDs.
• 27 August, 2013: Blossoming Coral Vine, Eastern Gamagrass, Grapes, Foraging Classes, Rattlesnakes, Poison Sumac, and Puffballs
• 20 August 2013: Podocarpus and fruit wines, thank you cards, class schedule, DVDs, and for what it’s worth.
• 13 August 2013: Fireweed is gourmet?  Pindo Palms, Bitter Gourd, native grapes, Mt. Washington, Blueberries, persimmons, upcoming foraging classes and a common toxic mushroom the Green Parasol.
• 6 August 2013: Osage Orange, Saw Palmettos, foraging teachers, upcoming foraging classes, seasonal mushrooms, and how we love our pets.
• 30 July 2013: Getting Cereus about blooming cactus, the Monadas for medicine and spice, DVDs, our native Anise trees and remembering Dick Deuerling.
• 23 July 2013, Where to look for weeds, Pineapple weed, Toe Biters, 2 million views, DVDs, and a tribute to mom, Mae Lydia Putney Jordan.
• 9 July and 16 July 2013 no newsletter due to a death in the family.
• 2 July 2013: The tasty Bunya Pine Cone, natal plums, willows, botany builder, classes and your pick for a new vegetable.
• 25 June 2013: The orange Paper Mulberry, the orange Hackberry, Green Deane’s DVDs, Environmentalism, upcoming classes, and the Tree of Heaven all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green
• 18 June 2013: Chickasaw plums, ivy gourd, the false roselle, toxic daturas, hand lenses, classes, and who’s manipulating whom?
• 11 June 2013:  Getting food out of the Chinese Tallow Tree, harvesting young wild yams, pickled Betony root, the deer are raining what? And upcoming classes.
• 4 June 2013: The maypops and pawpaws are putting on fruit, yucca are blossoming, black cherries are ripe and the black nightshade berries are ripening. That and a new class location, Seminole-Wekiva.
• 28 May 2013: Sea purslane, sea oats and wood oats, a profusion of coco-plums,  easterngammagrass and how to eat cicadas
• 21 May 2013: The Prunus are a fruiting, the winged yam, where to find sea blite, should you eat Black Medic, Smilax are in blossom, and new video about Wild garlic/Onions.
• 14 May 2013: No newsletter that week
• 7 May 2013: Blackberries, Lemon Bacopa, Surinam Cherries, Basswood, Linden Tree, recent articles and the city of Winter Park spraying cattails because they are not aestheticallypleasing in the park.
• 30 April 2013: How to tell sow thistles apart, creeping fig, lawns, and why can’t I eat this?
• 23 April 2013: The sweet aroma of the candyroot, the surprising relative of the Hairy Cowpea, Barnyard Grass, the Rose Apple and releasing bio-controls.
• 16 April 2013: St. Nicholas Monastery and Tropical Almonds, Pellitory Itch, Vacant Lots, Bamboo Cove, Botany Builder #26, and the calming effects of nature.
• 9 April 2013:  Pawpaws are blossoming, are there any poisonous look alikes, the bugs are coming, cold weather, and $1.6 million for a frog phobia.
• 2 April 2013: The wild onions/garlic are fruiting, how to tell the edible Black Cherry from the toxic Laurel Cherry, toxicity in Elderberries, and more Grass is God rebellion.
• 26 March 2013: Finding fireweed, digging up betony roots, drying loquats, Botany Builder #25, Coppicing, Road Kill, and spreading seeds.
• 19 March 2013:  The Queen Palm, changing weeds from edible to noxious, velvet leaf, crabgrass, Botany Builder #24, Samaras, New Articles, House Calls, Suriname Cherries, Nopales, and The Drunken Botanist all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.
• 12 March 2013: Mulberries, Creeping Cucumber, Coco-plums, Smartgrass, Botany Builder 23, pinna, winter plant facts, time change, GD videos coming.
• 5 March 2013:    Goosegrass, pawpaws, Christmasberry, Botany Builder 22 stipules, cultivating wild plants, Apps, Scrub jays.
• 26 February 2013: Sheep’s Sorrel, White Snow, new articles, shocking news about bees, the Australian Pine, hydrilla, and worms
• 19 February 2013: Loquats, poison hemlock, turkey berries, toxic tomatoes, conferences, Lake Woodruff, osage orange and turtle travails.
• 12 February 2013: The ever elusive chickweed, solar oven and nut sheller, the tale of two nettles, wild lettuce, more hard-headed government, new mushroom book, the Maslin technique, ragweed, upcoming classes and loss of habitat
• 5 February 2013: A close up of usnea, a likeable lichen. The silverthorn is in full fruit, find aromatic wild garlic, identify watercress. There’s also the Thistle Epistle, Frostbites, Mulberries, the herbal conference and up coming classes, all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.
• 29 January 2013: Smilax, non-edible nicker beans, seasonal eating, naughty knotweed, front yard gardening and decapitated grass, pool fish pond, and upcoming class schedule in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green
• 22 January 2013:  What you can do with a wild wing yam, Florida Pennyroyal, a special Hawthorn you should know about, my latest videos and articles, is eating nutrition good for you? Don’t eat the rattlebox. Sugar Cane and winning environmental bar bets.
• 15 January 2013:  Haulover Canal, Seablite, classifing plants, clovers, thistles, sow thistles, wild lettuce, Florida Herbal Conference, rising wheat prices.
• 8 January 2013: Maples are beginning to seed, find local Goosefoots, where the wild food is, the taste test, Florida Herbal Conference, microscopes, and Eugene Handsacker’s shell game

• 1 January 2013: Chickweed, sublimed sulfur, herbal conference, Green Deane’s DVDs, Weeds of Southern Turfgrasses, Turks Cap, Oxalis, Violets, Plantagos, and the prime mistake foragers make.

• 25 December 2012: Christmas in Florida, identifying chestnuts, what about ground cherries, winter vines, the toxic Mexican Poppy, the annual urban crawl and natal plums, Canada’s maple syrup much-to-do,

• 18 December, 2012: How to tell a mustard from a radish. Which cactus pad should you pick? The February Florida Herbal Conference, a traditional urban crawl

• 11 December 2012: Finding sumacs, magnolia blossoms as spice, the Florida Herbal Conference, follow ups on pollination and Featherstonehaugh, fertilizer, Maygyver and Nefertiti.

• 4 December  2012: Finding Winged Yams, our little winter mustards, pollenating creatures, Florida Herbal Conference, the Green Deane Forum, Mushrooms a la David Spahr and Dr. Kimbrough, Alligators with marijuana and Featherstonehaugh, all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.

• 27 November 2012: The mustards of wintertime, how to sort out hollies, learning about mushrooms, growing weeds from seeds, dandelions, and the fate of Edward Archboldall all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.
• 20 November 2012:  It’s holly season, and wild mustard time along with seasonal little mustards. Also in the newsletter: The Pond Apple, Florida’s Herbal Conference, Thanksgiving lore, wild pumpkins, Botany Builder 21 and faded underwear, all From The Village Green.

• 13 November 2012: Going nuts with hickories and acorns;, Spanish Needle tea, good for some of what ails you, why bumble bees can’t fly, and the Florida Herbal Conference,

• 6 November 2012: Hackberries (Sugarberries) Fireweed, “bad” landscape trees, weighty issues, bikes, time and the 2013 Florida Herbal Conference, all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.

• 30 October 2012:   Which came first, grains or tubers? Groundnuts, wild rice, armadillos, clouds, a follow up on snails and Oh Deer, all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.

• 23 October 2012:  Oak trees are masting (dropping acorns) new articles, mushrooms, snails, turtles, False Hawk’s Beard, and more in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.

• 16 October 2012:  The winter greens of chickweed, bittercress and poor man’s pepper grass; Solanum americanum, when not to eat; solar oven update, Halloween rant, the impact of weeds, updated articles, the Untouchables, and ginkgo gastronomics.

• 9 October 2012:    A new crop of sandspurs, confusing Poke berries and Elderberries, nettles for clothes, blue honey, new article about Pandanus, preserving fall foliage, cooking with pine needles and a cockroach eating contest.

• 2 October 2012:  Pandanus and Ivy Gourd, digging sticks, growing zones and recording setting pumpkin.

• 25 September 2012:  Chaya, confusing nettles, winter weeds, new articles, yams, the dangers of foraging, tales of a city lot.

• 18 September 2012: Fuzzy marbles, sweet and sour maypops, food and medicine, recently added articles, sumac hiar, vultures and belladona.

• 11 September 2012:  Finding tart food, a look at sumac and the false roselle, a new herbalism book and resource, the Green Deane Forum, Sea-Grapes, and scorpions

• 4 September 2012:   Get Gopher Apples while you can, Getting High, the effect of elevation on plant seasons, a yam for colder weather, a bike with no pedals, and is you cat making you ill?

• 14 August 2012: Maypops are coming into season; what do you know about cyanide; how to get rid of chiggers; Man of the Earth big root deep down; sorting out wild grapes, and earthworms.

• 7 August 2012: Eastern Gamagrass, Asian Clams, new articles posted, Creeping Cucumbers, Upcoming classes, Chinese Tallow Tree, Green Dean Forum, What’s the Buzz.

• 31 July 2012:    Sea Purslane on the grill, when is a clover not a clover? What to do about spices. Archiving newsletters. Class schedule. Growing Patio Potatoes and yams. Fined for growing food and holding birthday party
  all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.

• 24 July 2012 : The Podocarpus is coming into season, grapes are early this year, where to hold a foraging class. my class schedule, making friction fire, is that really a strawberry and sonar sex… all in this week’s newsletter, From The Village Green by Green Deane

• 17 July 2012 :  Coco-plums are in season, as is Silverhead. Why is Black Point in Maine called that and where does Bidens grow in Brazil? American Holly, scorpions, armadillos and how to make your own sourdough bread, all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.

• 10 July 2012:  A flower that tastes like a mushroom, fear of foraging, nutrition, what is a pirogue, and my class schedule, all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.

• 3 July 2012: Sorting out ground cherries, hairs on plants and why we need to know them, Class Schedule, an upcoming road trip, a great garden party, and Lichen In Space, all in this week’s Green Deane’s Newsletter, From The  Village Green.

• 26 June 2012: Sorting out blueberries, or, how to figure out what the plant is. Is This Plant Edible and changing views on edibility. And upcoming classes all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.

• 19 June 2012:   What to eat strawberry guavas, which wild edibles should pregnant women avoid, are you collecting seaweed for supper? Lawn grass and code enforcement. Upcoming classes all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.

• 29 May 2012:  Surinam Cherries are ripening but they aren’t cherries. Firethorn berries are green but wait a few weeks. Botany builder #20. What’s barnyard grass? Visit the Green Deane Forum. Bicycles in the news. How to tattoo a banana, all in this week’s Green Deane newsletter From The Village Green.

• 21 May 2012:  Pineapples that don’t exist, Guerrilla Gardening, upcoming classes and exactly what is the meristem stage? All in this week’s newsletter “From The Village Green” by Green Deane.

• 7 May 2012:  Can Rescuegrass rescue you? Why forage and what are “naked” seeds? This an more in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green by Green Deane.

• 23 April 2012: Wild Garlic is heading, spurge nettles are rooting, sea blite is ready for picking, and eastern coral beans are showing you where they are. Did Green Deane actually get poison sumac and what did the spam filter catch? That and more in this weeks newsletter From The Village Green.

• 9 April 2012: Peppery smartweed, the “yuck” factor, kudzu, the winged yam, pennyroyal, budget cut benefits, and more in this week’s From The Village Green, Green Deane’s Newsletter.

• 2 April 2012: Where the weeds are. Going to a gym. Compound leaves. Rumex, Topi mambo, Water Lettuce, Duckweed, Edible Flowers Part 19, Classes, Green Deane Forum and “For What It’s worth” all in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.

• 26 March 2012:  What’s in and out of season? The Florida Herbal Conference. How do you find edible plants? Pictures or drawings? Upcoming Classes, and more in From the Village Green, Green Deane’s newsletter.

• 19 March 2012: Where to find papaws. Can you eat grass? Four new articles: Sida, False Roselle, Edible Flowers Part 18, Gout Weed. Can you eat tropical sage? Botany Builder #14, that and more in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green.

• 5 March 2012: The Eastern Redbuds are confused. A 30,000 year old flower? What might you do if you catch the flu. Sorting out the Perseas. Five new articles.  Arrest made in burning down the world’s oldest Cypress. Class schedule. Green Deane Forum update, all in From the Village Green, Green Deane’s Newsletter

• 20 February 2012: Wild Radish is turning fields yellow, harvesting nopales, milkweed vine and the evolution of the garden, two new articles, a forum update, this week’s classes, and ducks, all in “From the Village Green” this week’s Green Deane Newsletter.

• 6 February 2012: The Green Deane Forum, a place to meet other foragers and share questions and successes,  Brazilian Pepper, a staple that grows in teh shade, Botany Builder 14, Herbal Conferencem, Cliamate change. All in this Green Deane’s newsletter this week, From The Village Green.

• 23 January 2012:  What to do with Brazilian Pepper. Tapping Trees a new way. What’s the difference between a tree and a shrub? Herbal Conference, and I didn’t know that all in this weeks newsletter From The Village Green.

• 16 January 2012:  Persimmons and frost, saving weed seeds, Botany Builder #12, an herbal invitation, African bees and more in this weeks newsletter from Green Deane.

• 9 January 2012: The stinging dwarf is back, who is Sunny Savage? Passiflora, epiphany and manatees; new articles, what’s the difference between roots and rhizomes? Wild cucumbers, upcoming classes and the newsletter.

• 2 January 2012: Pigging out on swinecress. A prescription for walnuts? Snow. New articles on reeds, dahlias, nutrias and edible flowers part nine; Botany builder #10, classes, and how many wild edibles should you know, in Green Deane’s newsletter this week From The Village Green

• 26 December 2011:   A yam what am a yam; peppergrass; Janus the god of gates; Did you know? New articles; Urban Crawl and upcoming classes; Botany Builder; a Christmas memory and more in Green Deane’s newsletter this week, From The Village Green.

• 19 December 2011: Chickweed is up locally. Here’s another good reason to forage. What does -ifera mean? Turtle Mound. Canna Island update. Wild Radishes, and more in Green Deane’s newsletter this week, From The Village Green

• 12 December 2011: Pellitory’s in season. How many apple seeds can you really eat? Botany Builder #7, monocots and dicots. Classes this week. Why are two wheels not part of the green movement? All in Green Deane’s newsletter this week From The Village Green.

• 6 December 2011:  The controversy over Palmer Amaranth, Tools of the Trail, Poison Plant Handbook, Botany Builder, Did You Know, and upcoming classes, in this week’s newsletter From The Village Green

• 28 November 2011:  Crowfoot Grass, A grass dictionary, Botany Builder: blade and margin; Thanksgiving.

• 21 November 2011:  The Chinese Elms are fruiting, what about what the animals eat, a chickweed relative, what is a pappus, a look at a yellow passion flower and a bit of reminiscing in Green Deane’s latest newsletter, From The Village Green.

• 14 November 2011:  Telling the difference between a wild radish and a wild mustard. How many wild edibles are there? What do you need to know to get started? Why cook bamboo shoots? Botany Builder and this week’s classes, all in Green Deane’s latest newsletter.

• 8 November 2011:  Look alikes, tell the difference between edible elderberry and toxic water hemlock, discoveries found during this week’s class, what’s peltate?

• 31 October 2011:  The Halloween and foraging connection…. Seedlings… I.T.E.M.-izing. Battery Acid and pokeweed. Rev7, the Botany Builder and more in Green Deane’s newsletter this week, From The Village Green.

• 24 October 2011:   Fresh this week:  The new website is up. Are you harvesting sumac berries now or young sow thistles? A “new” edible was found during our foraging class. What about genetically modified foods?  What every runner or    bicyclist should hear about. And did Green Deane really get poison ivy and how you can avoid it. All in Green Deane’s latest newsletter.

• 1 September 2010 Cost of food, paper mulberry, liatris, pokeweed, wasabi

• 1 August 2010 Watervine, Smilax, Does’t Grow Here, Pomegranates

• 1 July 2010  Jelly Palm, Cactus, Clockwise, Birch Allergies

• 1 June 2010  Why forage, How safe is foraging, Sea Blite, Ilex vomitoria

Is it time to take the Creeping Fig out of the edible realm? You can read about it below. Photo by Green Deane

As you can tell the new Eat The Weeds website is partially up because you got this newsletter. It is still far from functioning well. Indeed, even finding a way to change the font size on photos seems to be a significant WordPress secret (all the fixes so far havent’t worked. Sorry about that.) The archive page is not working but the search function is getting better. The Forum went down the moment the new site went up and the DVD button is not working among other bugs… but we will get to them in time and I hope to crowd fund the cost of the update. It is the first facelift the site has had in almost a dozen years. Those fence boards are going, too. Never did like them. As for wild edibles…

Always check Ringless Honey Mushrooms for a white spore print. Photo by Green Deane

While mushrooms have been a minor side of Eat The Weeds one species is coming into season that you might want to identify. I totally understand any hesitation about eating wild mushrooms. It took me almost four years of study before I was brave enough to try one.  Part of that is Americans inheriting the British phobia about wild mushrooms whereas in Europe attitudes are different. Mushrooms we would call “oily” Europeans call “buttery.” Besides their complexity another issue is transience. I can study an oak tree hours every day for a year. Many mushrooms are in season only for a short time so it can be difficult studying them. We have just about passed out of chanterelle season for the year but are in the midst of Ringless Honey Mushrooms. They have been popping up for weeks in the Central Atlantic states. In north Florida they’re ending their season. I saw some in Deland two weeks ago. I usually find them in the Orlando area the first to second week of November. While you can find Ringless Honey Mushrooms any month of the year they do favor the fall. (I once found them growing on a Banyan in West Palm Beach in July!)

Ringless Honey Mushrooms grow from one crowded spot. Photo by Green Deane

Most language about mushroom — “mycolese” — can be dispensed with. There’s really no reason to call a stem a stipe et cetera. But some words are handy and one is cespitose. It means all growing from one point (think of a big bouquet coming out of a small vase.) Ringless Honey Mushrooms are cespitose. They also always grow on wood (like a tree, stump or buried root.) They do not have a ring around the stem under the cap, and Ringless Honey Mushrooms drop a white spore print. That is critical. It is, among other things, how you make sure they are not any of similar toxic mushrooms. The others drop rusty to purple spore prints. Opinions on the edibility of Honeys vary. I cook young caps about twice as long as usual and find them very tasty. Some folks parboil them first then cook them. Experts rate Honeys from “not edible” to “choice.” You can read more about Ringless Honey Mushrooms here.

Foraging classes are held rain or shine. Photo by Nermina Krenata

FORAGING CLASSES: Now that most of the hurricane season has passed, including clean up, we are moving into some prime foraging time before our not-so-cold winter moves in a couple of months from now. Classes this weekend include Sarasota’s Red Bug Slough, an interesting place that is changing as they de-brush it. We also usually wander for a while in the local neighborhoods that have several edible native and ornamentals planted.  Then Sunday is at Blanchard Park in Orlando. The park follows the Little Econ river providing quite a few water plants of interest.

Saturday, October 21st, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. Meet at the play set by the parking lot.

Sunday October 22nd, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. Meet by the tennis courts near the WMCA building.

Saturday, October 28th, Wickham Park. 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, Fl. 9 a.m. Meet at the “dog park”inside the park

Sunday, October 29th, Bayshore Park, Bayshore Drive, Port Charlotte, 9 a.m. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street.

Saturday, November 4th,  Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. Meet by the tennis courts near the WMCA building.>

To learn more about the classes go here. 

Brought to my attention before the site went down was issue over the edibility of the Creeping Fig. A Forum member, Josey, quite knowledgeable, thinks the Creeping Fig we have locally might not be the one used to make “Grass Jelly.”  This fig has alway vexed me some in that I rarely got much to eat off it and Josey might have an answer: There is a Lowland Variety and an Highland Variety. He writes:

Even with the right species it’s hard to squeeze an edible out of the Creeping Fig. Photo by Green Deane

“Has anybody successfully made the jelly from the seeds?  I tried this two years ago with some creeping fig I found in Florida and had no success.   I came to the conclusion that only the mountain variety, Ficus pumila var. awkeotsang works particuarly well for that purpose.  The lowland variety planted in Florida is different. I don’t think variety awkeotsang is to be found anywhere in North America. This is further complicated by the fact that the plants here don’t produce viable seeds because North America doesn’t have the right kind of pollinators.  It is the seed that is responsible for forming the aiyu jelly of East Asia.  Different fig species require different agaonid wasp species unique to them for pollination.  Because Florida doesn’t have the pollinating wasps from Southeast Asia that are unique to Ficus pumila, the plants never produce viable seed.  Thus the species can spread only by vegetative means. For this reason, I’m somewhat skeptical that the jelly could be made here even if one had the correct mountain variety.  There is supposedly a way to cook the seeds of the lowland variety into a different sort of jelly (not aiyu jelly), but that didn’t work for me.  This is likely because there are no viable seeds in the fruit of the Florida grown plants.  If anyone has successfully made jelly, then perhaps it is possible for non-viable empty seeds to still form jelly.  I am curious to know if this is possible.”

I am curious as well. I will try some cooking ’cause squeeze the fruit was only barely productive. You can read my article on the Creeping Fig here but note it might have to be updated.

Cereus fruit is soft and semi-sweet. Photo by Green Deane

Also fruiting now are Cereus cactus. Kind of like grapes, Cereus are fairly easy to identify but exactly what species is a challenge. Frankly it is a challenge one does not have to accept. Most Cereus cactus, except perhaps the commercial “Dragon Fruit” are shaped like small pink footballs, about four inches long.  They are attached rather strongly so nippers or the like are best to cut them off.  The best thing to do is toss them in the refrigerator for a while then cut them open like two little boats. The white flesh has the texture of overripe watermelon. The black seeds are soft and edible (unlike most cactus seeds which are extremely hard.) The cactus themselves are called “candle” cactus as they are usually but not always an unbranching trunk. They are also called Peruvian Cactus. The headache associated with species identification is there are a lot of “fake” species names made up by sellers.  Another problem that can make cactus  tough plants to ID is having to resort to counting spines and length.  You can read more about them here.

All of Green Deane’s videos available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for this newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each.  Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. They make a good gift for that forager you know. Individual DVDs can also be ordered. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page or if it is not working yet you can go here.

Do you know these two plants that produce edibles? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified? On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations around the world share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. One special section is “From the Frightening Mail Bag” where we learn from people who eat first then ask questions later. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is issue 274.

If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here.

A native and an ornamental Gammagrass is widespread. Photo by Jim Allison. 

The odd thing about Gammagrass is that while it is a native I rarely see it in the wild. It’s almost always — locally — a planted ornamental grass. Thus Gammagrass is fairly easy to find in landscaping. We saw some blossoming in Port Charlotte during a foraging class last Sunday. It’s odd to think of grasses as blossoming but they do and that is one of the things

Tripsacum dactyloides at Willowbrook Reach

that makes Gammagrass stand out (see photos above.) Gammagrass also has, if not a boatload of names, then a hayload of names, around a dozen. Perhaps the oddest is “Ice Cream Grass” because cattle like the grass so much it’s like ice cream to them. In landscaping Gammagrass is usually a border species with several large clumps in a row. It can get quite tall — nine feet — and flowing but in landscaping Gammagrass is usually trimmed to a couple of feet and bristly. Unlike cattle we humans are usually interested only in either the unusual “blossom” or the hard, yellow grain. Best use is to pop the grain like popcorn or used like wheat berries. You can read about Gammagrass here.

Time Change Misery

Now is the time for my semi-annual rant about time change. I’ve written two article about it. I will freely admit I do not like time change and that I ignore it. For eleven years I have refused to “spring forward” or in autumn “fall backwards.” I stay on standard time. I do not change my clocks, my eating habits, my animals’ eating habits or my bed time. Why? I am out of sorts for weeks if not months. (I have the same long-term problem with travel. When I lived in Japan it took me nearly two months to get used to the 13-hour difference.) For the next several months I just have to remember that when I need to interact with the outside world they think they are an hour ahead of me. That is one reason why my foraging class this week is on a Saturday, to avoid on Sunday first-day problems time changes cause.  One article is Daylight Slaving Time and the other is It’s About Time. 

Classes are held rain or shine.

Foraging Classes: Except for hurricanes foraging classes usually are held as scheduled. We’re hungry when we are cold and wet so foraging classes are held when it is wet, when it is cold, and when it’s hot.

Saturday, March 11th Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817, 9 a.m. We meet at the tennis courts next to the WMCA building.

Sunday, March 19th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m. We meet just north of the science center.

Sunday, March 26th, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, 32246. 9 a.m. We will meet at building “D” next to the administration parking lot.

Sunday, April 2nd, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 9th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park (turn right after entrance, go 1/4 mile, dog run on right, parking at run or on previous left.)

Saturday, April 29th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street.

To read more about the foraging classes go here.

Perhaps Caesar Weed has more uses than we knew.

Foraging is treasure hunting for adults. It’s also constant learning. One is always adding little bits of knowledge here and there. Recently three tid-bits came my way. At the Florida Herbal Conference I was chatting with Andy Firk about the ginger family. He had an impressive presentation on said. I knew the leaves of the Alpinia zerumbet (Shell Ginger) were dried, powdered and used to treat high blood pressure in areas such as India. I learned from Andy that food is cooked in the leaves to add a cardamom-like flavor. That was a factoid I needed to store away.  Later this week I received an email for a lady here in Florida whose house is covered with Creeping Fig. It barely makes it into the edible realm. However she reports the vine reduced her summertime electricity bill by 50%. Interesting though I wonder what the vines tendrils might do to the structure it is hanging on to. Then I heard from Joshua Buchanan who mentioned reports of using Caesar Weed seeds for flour. That was new to me. I checked one of my book references and indeed the seeds have been used to thicken soups and the like. Not sure that stretches to other flour uses. Publications that often mention that something is edible don’t report how that is made so. Caesar Weed seeds — just a few millimeters long — are arranged like a small cocklebur. They catch on your clothes (and fur.) So, I’m not sure how the seeds are extracted. It’s something new to investigate.

The Nine-DVD set includes 135 videos.

Now’s the time to get a jump on spring. All of Green Dane’s videos available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for the newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each. Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. They make a good birthday gift for that forager you know. Individual DVDs can also be ordered. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page or you can go here.

Mayflowers. Photo by Christie Orr

It’s unusual to smell Mayflowers in March. At least that’s what I thought in 1977. I moved from Maine to Florida in January of that year and it snowed in Florida the day I arrived. What a welcoming present. And then in March I smelled Mayflowers… but they weren’t Mayflowers. It was citrus blossoms. To my nose the aromas are very similar though I doubt I could ever get a Mayflower and a citrus blossom together to compare. Mayflowers blossom in May, at least in New England.

My springtime as a child was measured by three plants: Pussy Willows, Mayflowers and Lilacs. Lilacs always blossomed about two weeks before school let out for the summer. Exactly when that was depended on how many snow days we took off from school that year. A few were always built in. But did get a full 90 days off. As for Lilacs, they are edible. Nearly everyone had at least one Lilac planted in their yard. They won’t grow in warm Florida so Crape Myrtles are the landscaping substitute.

Lilacs meant school was out soon.

First to “blossom” in the spring were Pussy Willows. So called because the blossom can remind someone with an imagination of the pads on cat’s feet. They were always out even when there wasn’t green leaf to be seen or there was some snow here and there. Mildly medicinal and a famine food, when you saw Pussy Willows (Salix discolor) winter might not be over but then was in sight.

Pussy Willows were always the first to brave spring.

Pussy Willows were followed by mud season. That when the frost in the ground melts during the daytime making dirt roads a mire of mud that froze into ruts at night. That’s also when we’d go picking May flowers on local hill and mountains. The normally green slopes would be covered with leafless trees making the rocks easier to see when walking. And the Mayflowers would be in the leaf litter and on mossy rocks.

My mother, Mae Lydia Putney, learned to forage from her mother. Photo by William L. Putney.

My mother picked Mayflowers because her mother did because her mother did and so forth on back no doubt. Yet somewhere along the line the part about them being edible must have been forgotten, not mentioned, or became secondary to their fragrant statement of spring. My mother said she liked to pick them because they were the first spring flower and sign the winter was over. No doubt some hungry people thought the same about them in the past. And perhaps because they were edible Mayflowers were also the only flowers my mother would allow in the house. She had a superstition about flowers inside the house and folks dying. Somehow Mayflowers were excluded from that ban. You can read about them here.

Can you identify these edibles? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum.

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified? On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations around the world share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

EatTheWeeds Time Capsule: 2010

Smilax Syntax

From thefe roots while they be new and fresh being chopt into fmall pieces & ftampt, is strained with water a juice that maketh bread, & alfo being boiled, a very good fpoonmeate in manner of a gelly, and is much better in tast if it bee tempered wih oyle.

While that is close to my spelling the report was written by astronomer Thomas Hariot in 1590 about the root of the smilax (bona nox.) Thom was the fellow who introduced the potato to Ireland. He was in Virginia with Sir Water Raleigh’s expedition to have a look around some 420 years ago. Translated he wrote:

From these young, chopped and crushed roots you get a liquid to make bread, and after being boiled, it’s a good jelly-like soup, too, but it tastes better if oil is added.

Smilax tip. Photo by Green Deane

That the tips of many smilax is a tasty green is well-known. And a starch can be settled out of the root, but it requires far more energy to get the starch than calories one gets out of it. Ten pounds of mature roots produce one pound of starch after many hours of work over several days. A better guess by the ethnobotanists is the Amerindians — or who I like to call the First Foragers — used the starch not to make bread but as a thickener, like corn starch. In that case it was the use not the calories that was important.

Few folks, however, know you can also eat the very young roots cooked as is. Simply roast or boil them. As they age they get woody and tough. But when young and tender they make, as Thom said, very good fpoonmeate.

This is issue 247.

If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here.

A Live Oak with Spanish Moss and Resurrection Ferns in Winter Park, Florida. Photo by Green Deane

Acorns may be coming into season but they are not a settled foraging topic. There are many areas of disagreement.

Brown acorns and green ones that have let go of their cap can be used. Photo by Green Deane

When can you harvest acorns? Generally they are ready in the fall — now — but a more helpful answer is when they are on the ground and or when they will let go of their cap when you pick them. This means you will get a mixture of brown and green acorns. But as long as they have or will let go of the cap you can use them. Which species are better is a matter of great debate, or even which family. Are the red oaks better than the white? Which family has more tannins? There are wide variety of opinions. We do know red oak acorns stored for a few years than white oaks. One other difference that no matter how long you leach them red acorns will still retain a bit of pinkness.

Method of preparation varies greatly with some camps hostile to other views. Entire books have been written just on how to rid the acorns of their irritating tannins. You can use cold water, hot water, fast running water even lye. You can bury them in a river bank or find trees with almost tannin-less acorns. (I know of one in Lecanto, Fl. at the Greek church there. )

Acorn grubs are edible raw or cooked. Photo by Green Deane

Generally one prefers larger acorns to smaller one because you get more nut meat for about the same amount of work. Also the more orange the acorn’s flesh the more tannins it will have and the more work will be needed to leach it. What I find interesting is that it is apparently difficult if not impossible to get create a species of oak with acorns without tannins. I have heard reports of such species now and then but very little that is credible. More to the point humans have lived off acorns for so long if it were possible to create a tannin-less acorn it probably would have been done long ago. You can read more about acorns here.

Creeping figs from China. Photo by Green Deane

Many years ago I was coaxed into getting a beer at a small eatery in Tampa’s Ybor City. The beer was not memorable but the brick wall on one side of the outdoor patio was. It had a vine I had never noticed. It took awhile but I identified it as a Creeping Fig (and many other names.) It is also something of a chameleon: The young vine on first glance does not look much like the old vine so one can indeed find it and not know you have found it. Also given the right support — such as a strong fence — the vine can cover the entire fence to the extent the vine looks like a long line of shrubs. But then it produces green fig-like fruit. Only the sap of them makes it barely into the edible realm. To read more about the Creeping Fig go here.

Talinum paniculatum, photo by Seed And All.

A few times every year one discovers another wild edible. Often it’s an ornamental imported to fancy up flower beds or landscaping. But I leaned of a new one lately from a friend — thank you Janice —and the species is also native to the warm areas of the United States: The Jewels of Opar, Talinum paniculatum. (tah-LINE-uhm puh-nick-you-LAH-tum.) One source, Cornucopia II, calls it the Caruru and Flameflower and says: “The leaves and stems are blanched and used in green salads, cooked in soups, or eaten like purslane.” This make sense as it is related to purslane. Surprisingly the highest concentration of the species is in central Florida. I need to go look for it (but I also know a backyard where it’s growing so I can study it there before finding it in the wild.) Unfortunately it’s reporting is sporadic, a few counties here, a few counties there, from South Carolina to Texas. No doubt it is more wide-spread but has not be officially found by an official botanist and approved by an official botanical committee.

Classes are held rain or shine.

Upcoming Foraging Classes:

Sunday, October 2nd, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 2200 East Lake Road, Port Charlotte, 9 a.m. Cross street Ganyard.

Sunday, October 9th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m.

Sunday, October 16th, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, 32246. 9 a.m.

To learn more about the classes go here. 

Last week some friends and I visited Fort Desoto Park in St. Petersburg to check it out as a possible location for foraging classes. The first thing you should know about the park is that it is smothered in poison ivy. It is virtually everywhere there is not a road, path, lawn or beach. Do not reach for anything anywhere without first looking for poison ivy. It’s the most dense concentration of the species I have ever seen.

Green Deane testing a chaya for stinging quality. Photo by Nermina Krneta

We started at the only fishing pier and the first thing you notice is a mother load of fruiting Sea Grapes. Large, small, short and tall. You can still find some now but next August put it on your calendar to visit the park and gather sea grapes in abundance. Also in abundance are sand spurs and they cover most of the upper beach along with the famine food Beach Morning Glory aka Railroad Vine aka Goat’s Foot, Ipomoea pes-carpae. Sand spurs are sandlot sadists — take needle nose pliers with you — but if prepared correctly are nutritious and tasty. The cooked root, stem and leaves of Beach Morning Glory can be eaten in small quantities. Otherwise they become medicinal.

Ground cherries are sweet but must be tested for bitterness.

Among other edibles we saw were some ground cherries in season, Smilax, Sea Oats, , native Blue Porterweed, Crowsfoot Grass, Panic Grass, fruiting Opuntia, and a blown over cultivated Chaya Tree, which is related to our Spurge Nettle. It was a cultivated Chaya because the leaves did not sting me.  Half the leaves can be removed from a Chya and it will survive. The wild ones do and some of the cultivated ones as well. But there are some cultivated Chaya which do not sting. The most unusual find of the day was a persimmon hurst. I have in some 30 years of foraging in Florida seen only one other stand of persimmons.

Do you know what edible this is? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum. Photo by Green Deane

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified? On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.  You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

The Nine-DVD set includes 135 videos.

All of Green Deane’s videos are available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for the newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each. Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. They make a good gift for that forager you know. Individual DVDs can also be ordered. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page or you can go here.

This is Newsletter 226.   

If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here.