Search: black cherry

Black cherries are a combination of sweet and bitter. Photo by Green Deane

Black cherries are a combination of sweet and bitter. Photo by Green Deane

Prunus serotina: Better Late than Never Cherry

Think of the Black Cherry as a chokecherry with some of the choke removed… some…

Not a 100 feet from the house I grew up in there was a stand of chokecherries (Prunus virginiana, PROO-nus  vir-jin-nee-AY-nuh.) It was always a challenge to put in perspective their abundant beautiful cherries with their sharp astringent taste. Of course fermentation helped that a lot and chokecherry wine was a favorite of mine. Fortunately the Black Cherry does not throttle you as much as the chokecherry, but it grabs a little. In between those two is the pin cherry.

Here in central Florida the most common edible cherry we see is the Black Cherry, Prunus serotina (sair-OTT-ih-nuh) though it grows throughout the eastern half of North America, lower parts of New Mexico and Arizona then south into Mexico and beyond. It has been naturalized in Europe. It’s easy to identify. Look at the back of several leaves. On other than a new leaf the mid-rib underneath will have hair on either side near the stem, blond when young turning rust colored to black when old. See photo below.

Blossoms are racemes, or spikes of fruit ripening from one end

Florida is the end of its Black Cherry’s range. Often its leaves are more lance shaped here than usual and can resemble the pin cherry (Prunus Pennsylvania) which does not grow this far south. So if you’re in Florida and you see a bird picking a little cherry it’s an odds on favorite to be the Black Cherry. Unlike the chokecherry, the Black Cherry is a favorite native tree. It has been used for food, woodworking and landscaping. Its inner bark has been concocted for centuries to make a cough syrup. While the Black Cherry makes a fast-growing attractive landscape tree, it is sometimes skipped over because it drops cherries and formal gardeners often don’t like that, though the birds and animals do.

Homemade cherry cough syrup

Black Cherry fruits are important food many birds and mammals.  Numerous songbirds feed on Black Cherries as they migrate particularly farther north in the fall. Among the birds who favor the Black Cherry are the American robin, brown thrasher, mockingbird, eastern bluebird, European starling, gray catbird, blue jay, willow flycatcher, northern cardinal, common crow, waxwings, thrushes, woodpeckers, grackles, grosbeaks, sparrows, and vireos.  Black cherries are also important in the diets of the ruffed grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, wild turkey, northern bobwhite, and greater and lesser prairie chicken.  Animals that like the fruit include the red fox, raccoon, opossum, squirrels, rabbits and bears. White tail deer eat the leaves and twigs. Clearly a tree to watch if you want to see wild life.

Usually the berries are made into wine a jelly. Photo by Green Deane

Usually the berries are made into wine a jelly. Photo by Green Deane

While the fruit is popular the leaves, twigs, bark, and seeds are poisonous to cattle, horses and man. They contain a cyanogenic glycoside that breaks down during digestion creating hydrocyanic acid… better known as cyanide  Most of the livestock poisoning comes from eating wilted leaves, which are more toxic than fresh leaves.  It is estimated that more livestock are killed from eating Black Cherry leaves than from any other plant. This is a case in which browsing animals do not sense it it is bad for them. Oddly, deer don’t have a problem with Black Cherry leaves, twigs or shoots.

The fruit of the Black Cherry has some 17 antioxidants, including anthocyanins, queritrin and isqueritrin. It is also a rich source of melatonin. The fruit contains Vitamin A, B complex vitamins, Vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and traces of copper, selenium, zinc, and cadmium.

Leaves of the black cherry have hair along the main stem, white to dark brown. Photo by Green Deane

Leaves of the black cherry have hair along the main stem, white to dark brown. Photo by Green Deane

There is some debate whether the cherry stones are edible by man after preparation. In some Indian cultures the Prunus genus seed kernels were pounded up. The mash was made into cakes and allowed to dry for a couple of days. Then they were cooked. With some species this gets rid of the glycoside and makes the seed edible. If you experiment, you are absolutely on your own. I recommend you DON’T try it and don’t sue me if you do. Nothing you eat of any cherry should ever have the aroma or taste of almonds (or to some noses, maraschino cherries.)  Any time you have an almond aroma or taste in association with cherries that is cyanide. It can kill you. Avoid it.

In the spring of 2001 hundreds of foals in Kentucky where mysteriously miscarried or stillborn. The problem was traced to Eastern Tent Caterpillars which had fed on the Black Cherry trees in the horse farm region. The caterpillars concentrated the toxic cyanide compounds in their feces which then contaminated the bluegrass eaten by pregnant mares. A spokesman for the University of Kentucky Agriculture Department said: “The unusual weather pattern could have caused the cyanide levels in the trees to be higher…” The university recommended that horse breeders restrict access to pastures when caterpillar populations are high.

Prunus is the Latin name for plum trees which comes from the Greek word  “prunos” meaning plum or cherry. Serotina is Latin “serus” (late) – late maturing fruit. Oddly, the Black Cherry, native to North America, has become an invasive species in Europe because a soil-borne pathogen — Pythium — in the soil in North America that is not present in Europe. That pathogen limits the tree’s range.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Leaves alternate, simple, 2 to 5 inches long, oblong to lance-shaped, finely serrated, very small glands on stem, dark green and lustrous above, paler below; usually small hairs along the leaf mid-rib. The flower is small, white in hanging, narrow racemes 4 to 6 inches long, late spring. Fruit is a dark purple round drupe, nearly black when ripe, 1/3 inch in diameter, bitter-sweet taste. Bark smooth with  short, narrow, horizontal lenticels when young; when older nearly black, breaking up into small, rough, irregular, upturned plates resembling potato chips or corn flakes. Young twigs have an almond-like odor when broken. Crushed leaves smell cherry-ish. The tree is oval in shape. DO NOT CONFUSE WITH THE COMMON BUCKTHORN WHICH LOOKS SIMILAR BUT HAS CURVED VEINS IN THE LEAF AND TWO SEED IN THE FRUIT. THE CHERRY LEAF VEINS ARE STRAIGHT AND IT HAS ONE SEED. If the leaf you have has only a few soft spines around the edge it is the very toxic cherry laurel (Prunus caroliniana.)  It has blue/black hard fruit when and is NOT edible. That species also has two glans on the underside of the leaf near the base of the stem.

TIME OF YEAR: Fruit matures in June in Florida, late summer farther to early fall farther north.

ENIRONMENT: A pioneer species, it will move into old fields, abandoned railways and the like. It likes cool areas best which is why it has stopped southward at the temperate/subtropical line in flat Florida. In Mexico south it is found at cooler, higher elevations. It absolutely will not grow in the shade. This is a tree you will find in full sun.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Free of their stones, the fruits can be made into jellies, jams, pies, wine and liquors. It is used for flavoring in soda and ice cream. A cough syrup is made from the inner bark. You can cook the cherries with their stones and then separate. Throw the stones away.

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The shrub’s fruit ripen over several weeks

Surinam Cherries: You’ll love ‘em or hate ‘em

The Surinam cherry is not a cherry nor is it exclusively from Surinam. It’s also not from Florida but it’s called the Florida Cherry because it’s naturalized throughout the state and real sweet cherries don’t grow well there.

Eugenia axillaris, a second and darker species that grows locally

I will freely admit these little red pumpkins are an acquired taste. Most folks are expecting some kind of cherry taste and they don’t have that. No matter how ripe, there is a resinous quality. To be blunt, you either like them or you definitely do not. More so, they must be picked when absolutely ripe or they are a very unpleasant edible experience.  What is absolutely ripe? There is orange red, the color of cars, and here is blue red, the color of old-time fire trucks and blood. Surinam cherries are edible when they are a deep blood-red. Let me repeat that: A deep blood-red. An orange red one won’t harm you but you’ll wish you hadn’t eaten it. And I know you will push the envelope and try one that is not deep, blue-blood red. Don’t blame me. I warned you. You won’t die or throw up or the like but your mouth will disown you and the next time you will pick a very ripe one. The only one in the picture above that near ripe is the red one on the lower right, and perhaps the one on the lower left, and only if they drop into your hand. When fully ripe they are very sweet and juicy.

Surinam Cherry is closely realted to the Simpson Stopper with similar blossoms

The plant is native of Surinam, Guyana, French Guiana, southern Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay where it grows in wild thickets  on the banks of the Pilcomayo River. It got to North America the hard way. Portuguese voyagers carried the seed from Brazil to India then to Italy and the rest of southern Europe and then to Florida.  It is cultivated and naturalized in Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia, along the Atlantic coast of Central America; the West Indies, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Bermuda and Florida. It is grown in Hawaii, Samoa, India, Ceylon, Africa, China, Philippines, the Mediterranean coast of Africa, Israel and the European Riviera. If you’re in a warm area, that is, you don’t hit 30F too often, there is probably one near you.

Make sure they are deep red, otherwise the taste is very offensive

It was introduced as an ornamental and edible fruit before 1931 in Florida. By 1961 it was widely planted in central and south Florida, especially for hedges. A decade later it was seen escaping cultivation and invading hammocks in south-central and south Florida. In 1982 it became a target of eradication in southern Florida.  It is now reported in 20 wildlife areas as well, and threatening rare scrub habitat. Thus, by eating the fruit and destroying the seeds you are helping the environment. EAT THE WEEDS!  In fact this very day I saw it along a bike trail and did by civic duty and ate as many  ripe ones as I could find.

Prince Eugene of Savoy, 1663-1736

In the mediterranean area it fruits in May. In Florida, depending upon the winter, the fruit begins to ripen around St. Valentine’s day and should be available by the Ides of March and in full fruit by April Fools Day. There are two prime varieties, the common blood-red and the rarer dark-crimson to black, which is sweeter and less resinous. In Florida, the Surinam cherry is one of the most common forgotten plants and over runs many back yards.  In Florida and the Bahamas, there is a spring crop and a second crop, September through November. Some times a third and fourth crop, depending on weather.

Besides being blood-red, the fruit should drop effortlessly into your hand when you touch it. If it doesn’t want to let go, let it be. Collecting should be done twice a day and often the best ones are the ones you have to fight the ants for.  The “cherries” are an addition to fruit cups, salads and ice cream. They can be made pies, preserves such as jelly, jams, syrup, relish or pickles. Brazilians ferment the juice into vinegar, wine, and a liquor. The fruit is extremely high in vitamin C and A. Don’t eat the seeds. One probably wouldn’t kill you but if you think the unripe fruit tastes bad the seed is distaste on steroids. The fruit, I have been told but do not know, can be made into a fine wine.

The scientific name is Eugenia uniflora (yoo-JEE-nee-uh yoo-nif-FLOR-uh.) Eugenia is named for Prince Eugene of Savoy, 1663-1736, a patron of botany and horticulture. He was a great general and spent most of his life fighting in wars, constantly. Apparently it agreed with him. When he died in his sleep at age 72 he was the richest man in the world. Yetif it wasn’t for a fruit would we ever hear of him? Uniflora is from Latin unus, one or single and folium, to bloom, read one leaf.

That said, there are in other warm areas several edible Eugenias and at least one more naturalized in Florida, but it isn’t that tasty. The other edible species include: Eugenia aggregata, Eugenia cabelludo, Eugenia dombeyi, Eugenia klotzschiana, Eugenia reinwardtiana, Eugenia Smithii, Eugenia stipitata, Eugenia uvalha, Eugenia victoriana and Eugenia axillaris, the other one found in Florida.

Surinam Cherry Chiffon Pie

Surinam Cherry Chiffon Pie

by Rowena

The original recipe calls for surinam cherry juice, but  this was made with some fruit pulp. Rinse the cherries and remove stems and flowery ends. Using quick pulses, process a few times then pick the seeds out. The flecks of cherry throughout the pie makes for a pretty presentation when cut and served.

1 pie crust, 9-10 inch diameter, baked and cooled
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin powder
¼ cup cold water
4 large eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup surinam cherry pulp (about 1½ cup fruit)
1 cup whipping cream, sweetened with powdered sugar and whipped to soft peaks

Soften the gelatin in 1/4 cup water. Beat the yolks together with HALF of the sugar and add the fruit pulp. Cook over medium heat until thick, stirring constantly. Add the softened gelatin and stir until dissolved. Cool and set aside.

Whip the egg whites until frothy then gradually add the remaining amount of sugar, beating until peaks begin to hold their shape. Fold beaten whites into cherry mixture and fill pie shell. Chill until firm. Top with prepared whipped topping just before serving. Serves 8-10.

 Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Evergreen, multi-branched shrub or small tree to 30 feet, can be busy, usually shrub size in Florida; young stems often with red hairs and dark red new foliage. Leaves opposite, simple, short petiole, oval to lance shaped,  Flowers white, fragrant, half in across, with many stamens; occurring solitary or in clusters. Fruit  fleshy, juicy, red berry to inch and a half wide, looks like a little red pumpkin, 1-3 seeds

TIME OF YEAR: February to April, September to November in Florida.

ENVIRONMENT: Naturalized in urban areas, a border plant backyard escapee, vacant lots, untended area. In native central America range  it is a thicket tree.

METHOD OF PREPARATION:  Ripe berries raw or cooked. One unripe berry can taint the rest. Learn to identify the ripe ones.  If you slice ripe ones open, take out the seeds, and the fruit sit in a refrigerator for a couple of hours they lost much of the resinous tang.  In Brazil they ferment the juice into vinegar or wine, and sometimes a distilled liquor.

HERB BLURB

Research shows native concoctions of the tree do help in the control of Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM), a yeasty disease endemic in Latin America, where up to 10 million may be infected.  The smelly leaves can be use as an insect repellant.

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Smilax are considered by many as out best spring time green. Photo by Green deane

Now is a good time to harvest smilax tips and Florida betony roots. As warm weather increases, the smilax tips tend to get peppery and bitter (and are better cooked than raw.) Betony tends to not store energy in the heat of summer, reducing their root size. Now, at the end of spring, good sized, pure white root can be dug up.

Betony root has a texture and flavor like a radish but no heat. Photo by Green Deane

Now is the time to inspect any Jambul Trees you know of. Their fruiting can vary as much a six weeks.If I had to guess I would suspect they will be early this year. August is their usual ripening time. Three years ago they were late because of light rains. Also called Java Plum or  Jamun. The tree also demonstrates quite a few principles. One is that the toxin is often on the outside. Why? Because that is where insects, birds and other animals attack first. This is why green potatoes can make you sick if you eat the skins. In the case of the Jambul Tree the skin of the sweet fruit is loaded with tannin, about 10 times more than a red grape. So they are edible but there is a bitter astringency. Sprinkling with salt or soaking in salt can reduce that. 

Even ripe Jambul fruit is slightly astringent. Photo by Green Deane

The major impediment to the tree — though it is a commercial fruit — is the tannins. Salt does mitigate that some when eating them fresh and is reported to lower blood glucose levels. Making wine out of the fruit is a challenge because of the tannin. Often when you make wine you have to add tannin. In this case one has to use strategies to reduce the tannin. This ranges from yeast selection to fining agents that grab onto the large tannin molecules and help them sink to the bottom so they can be left there.  You can read about the Jambul Tree here.

The Toxic Atamasco Lily. Photo by Green Deane

What are they? The first answer is they are NOT edible. The second is they are a threatened species. And the third answer is they are the toxic Atamasco lily, aka Rain Lily ( Zephranthes atamasca.) For a threatened species they are seen in a lot of lawns this time of year prompting many emails asking for an identification. These natives like wetlands but a well-watered lawn after seasonal rains will do nicely. The problem with the Atamasco is that it resembles wild garlic before it blossoms (and even has a bulb!) However, it does not have the telltale garlic aroma. Remember if it smells like a garlic AND looks like a garlic you can use it like a garlic. The Atamasco does not have any garlic/onion aroma. It is not edible. All parts are poisonous. Leave it alone. And while these in the picture have a pink tinge there are also all-white blossoms.

Black Cherries can still be found in season. Photo by Green Deane

Black Cherry has  been mentioned a couple of times earlier this year and that’s the reason for it being mentioned now: It’s still fruiting. The season seems a bit longer this year than usual and I still see them here and there. It is safe to say Black Cherries look better than they taste. There is an initial cherry sweetness but then a residual bitterness takes over whereas chokecherries are bad start to finish. There were four of those trees on the other side of our lawn where I grew up in Maine. They were quite irritating: They looked wonderful but tasted awful (unless made into wine.)  Black Cherries, like the chokecherries, are much better processed into jelly and jwine (or cough medicine from the cambium.) Do not eat the seeds. To read more about the Black Cherry go here.

Chamberbitters, Phyllanthus urinaria, is medicinal not an 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.

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

Foraging Classes: Because of rennovations, we have to meet at a different location at Red Bug Slough in Sarasoata. Normally it is at 5200 S. Beneva Road. Instead we will have to park at Gypsy Street and South Lockwood Ridge Road. Gypsy can be reached by Camphor Ave which runs south of Proctor west of Beneva. 

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

June 11, Red Bug Slough , Sarasota. 9 a.m. Because of rennovations, we have to meet at a different location at Red Bug Slough in Sarasoata. Normally it is at 5200 S. Beneva Road. Instead we will have to park at Gypsy Street and South Lockwood Ridge Road. Gypsy can be reached by Camphor Ave which runs south of Proctor west of Beneva.

June 17, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL 9 a.m.

June 18,  Blanchard Park,  2451 Dean Rd, Union Park, FL,  meet next to the tennis courts. 9 a.m.

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

Chamberbitter, Phyllanthus urinaria.

Chamberbitters, Phyllanthus urinaria, is medicinal not an 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.

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.

This is my weekly newsletter #561. 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.

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Forked tendril grapes a few months from ripening. Photo by Green Deane

Locally there are two group of grapes, single tendril and forked tendril. The singles are blossoming now, the forked ones are growing fruit. Both tend to ripen about September though the single tendril has greater seasonal leeway. The forked tendril grapes are superior in flavor and fruit almost every year. Single tendril grapes fruit very irregularly and are high in acid

Persimmon leaves are very high in Vitamin C.

Persimmons are also green right now. We’ll have to wait until October or so to find some ripe ones. There is a forager folk tale that they ripen only after a frost. As frosts are uncommon in Florida frosts are not necessary for persimmons to ripen, the ripening and any frosts at the same time is just a coincidence. The best persimmons locally are the ones you have to fight the ants for. Native persimmon are astringent until the seeds are old enough to germinate. Then the fruit turns sweet hoping some animal will eat it and spread the seeds around.

Blackbarries are ripening.

Acres of wild blackberries… well, perhaps not acres but certainly a lot of them. Where? On the bike trail between Lake Monroe Park and Gemini Springs Park in south Volusia County. That part of the bike trail wends its way for a little over a mile between two parking lots. Look for the powerlines… this same area will also have bushels of Passiflora incarnata, Maypops… along the way to this location on the southern side are many cattails and to the west of Gemini Springs Park (in the cow pasture) there are a lot of Pawpaws. The things ones see while riding a bike. And… if you like to travel by train there is a Sunrail stop (Debary) directly west of the patch (and a path to said on the east side of U.S. 17-92.) As they are wild blackberries they are well armed. And a reminder that foraging is illegal in Florida so proceed stealthily. Why is foraging illegal? Unanswerable officials have to have something to do. If we had a Commissioner of Ants there would be all kinds of ant rules, do’s and don’t’s and fines et etcetera. The more government the more rules and the more functionaries to interfere with your life. In theory elected official were supposed to make all the rules and be accountable for all of them. If we didn’t like the rules or decisions we vote them out of office. But then politicians made unanswerable committees, commissions and departments to make and enforce rules. These add-on bureaus do not answer to the people or to the elected officials that created them. If a wildlife commission makes a truly stupid decision and citizens don’t like it, tough. Thus the second rule of foraging is “no witnesses.” The third rule is “eat the evidence.” The first rule of foraging is wash your hands BEFORE you go to the bathroom ’cause you never know what you’ve been touching..

Cickasaw plums will soon ripen in full. Photo by Green Deane

Foraging classes: This could be a “Prunus” foraging week. Rummaging around Gainesville this time of year we usually see wild garlic and Chickasaw Plums (not together) The plums are usually still green and sour and should be ripe in a month to six weeks.  Black Cherries are also ripening now but are often more difficult to find because the birds also like them. Cherries and plums are in the same genus, Prunus, so it’s not surprising they are ripening at about the same time.  Also setting fruit are the Flatwood Plums but they are different story and are included in my related article. I have a video on the Chickasaw plum here, Black Cherry here. To read about the Black Cherry go here, the Chickasaw Plum, here.  

May 13, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641.  9 a.m. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house.

May 14, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL., 9 a.m. meet at the bathrooms.

May 20th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte., 9 a.m., meet at the parking lot at Bayshore and Ganyard Street.

May 21st, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 9 a.m., meet just north of the science center. 

May 27th , Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 9 a.m. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park (turn right after entrance.)

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

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.

Sargassum: Edible but sequesters arsenic.

And my book is on pre-order at Amazon.com. It will be printed in October. How many plants will be in it is up for debate at the moment. The covers says 295 but I’ve had them remove a couple that I think were too iffy, recently sargassum seaweed. While it is edible, recent research shows it modern times it collects high amounts of arsenic. 

This is my weekly newsletter #557. 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.

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Chickasaw Plums are starting to ripen. Photo by Green Deane

Chickasaw Plum leaf tips have red terminal glands. Photo by Green Deane

This was a “Prunus” foraging week. While rummaging around our usual class location in Gainesville we sampled Chickasaw Plums. They were not completely ripe but give them a week or two. They are usually all gone by the 4th of July.   Black Cherries are also ripening but are often more difficult to find because the birds also like them. Cherries and plums are in the same genus, Prunus, so it’s not surprising they are ripening at about the same time.  Also setting fruit are the Flatwood Plums but they are different story and are included in my related article. I have a video on the Chickasaw plum here, Black Cherry here. To read about the Black Cherry go here, the Chickasaw Plum, here.  . 

Neolentinus lepideus which until recently was Lentinus lepideus.

It’s been a strange week for edible wild mushrooms. Ringless Honey Mushrooms favor the fall but the right weather conditions in the spring can cause a minor flush of them. This week there were sporadic reports of said about the South and we found some in Port Orange last weekend. I have even seem them on a Banyan in West Palm Beach in July. They give some people digestive upset. Also seen this week was a Neolentinus lepideus, an edible tough mushroom that grows on pines or pine stumps. It’s fairly easy to identify. The stem is extremely strong. It has scales and the gills are ragged. The cap is often brown on top. Nice aroma. DO not eat if growing on treated wood like fence posts (which if often does.) 

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

Before COVID I had monthly classes on the campus of Florida State College in Jacksonville. Then whether the school was open became a constant problem so classes were switched to a different location. We return to the campus this week. 

Saturday, June 11th Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246. 9 a.m. We meet at Building A next to the administration parking lot. Whether the college bathroom are open is always  in question. 

Sunday June 12th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. Meet at the picnic shelter by the tennis courts. 

Saturday, June 18th Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m.  Meet at the bathrooms.

Saturday, June 25th Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park.

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

No plant produces more starch per acre than cattails.

If you were starving and came upon a patch of cattails (blossoming now) you would have great cause for celebration. You have found food and water. You will survive. But if you are not starving and do not have all the time in the inter-connected world you just might find cattails highly overrated. It is true that no plant can produce more starch per acre than cattails, about 3.5 tons under cultivation. And it can produce a lot of starch economically if you can mechanize the extraction. But hand extraction is time- consuming and labor intensive. It is also wet, smelly work all of which can be worsened significantly by harvesting in cold weather. So yes, cattails are food but the time demand is such that harvesting food has to be your prime occupation. A similar argument can be made for kudzu. The roots do have edible starch but it takes a gargantuan amount of work to get the starch out, literally hours of steady pounding. It is not a calorie positive activity. It moves you closer to starvation. But, mechanize the process with some hammers run by falling water — or hammers run by a horse fed on an endless supply of grass — and kudzo becomes a reliable calorie-positive food. You can see my video on cattails here. pounding. I also have an article on Finding Caloric Staples with links to relevant videos. 

Locally the American Beautyberries are blossoming and soon they will have magenta berries. I’m trying to make some into some wine.  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.

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!”

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.

Unfinished businesss: You will note there are no foraging classes on SUndays towards the end of this month. I am moving from Orlando to Lithia Florida, some 100 miles or 20 miles east of Tampa. I hope to hold classes there next year. Thanks to all those who helped and offered suggestions. And 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 #511. 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.  

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The toxic Atamasco Lily is prettying lawns now. Photo by Green Deane

The question was about coordination: When you see perennial “rain lilies”  popping up in lawns, is mushroom season is starting? As we had a weekend of heavy rain – which mushroom want this time of year to get going — it’s hard to tell. At any rate the Rain Lilly aka Atamasco lilly.( Zephranthes atamasca.) are up.They are NOT edible which is good because they are a threatened species.Also sometime called Easter Lilies, Atamasca is from a Powhatan word meaning “stained with red.” Zepharanthes is from Zephyrus, which in Greek mythology is the west wind

For a threatened species they are seen in a lot of lawns this time of year prompting many emails asking for an identification. These natives like wetlands but a well-watered lawn after seasonal rains will do nicely. The problem with the Atamasco is that it resembles wild garlic before it blossoms (and even has a bulb!) However, it does not have the necessary telltale garlic  or onion aroma. Remember if it smells like a garlic AND looks like a garlic you can use it like a garlic. The Atamasco does not have any garlic/onion aroma. It is not edible. All parts are poisonous. Leave it alone. And while these in the picture have a pink tinge there are also all-white blossoms.

Chinese Banyan photo by Green Deane

Following up: During our foraging class in Largo an app identified a tree as a Chinese banyan. however, there are many varieties of the “Chinese banyan” Ficus microcarpa, and varieties with botanical names. It’s a fogggy genus. Most Ficus microcarpa live out their lives as house plants, — think Ficus benjamin —  or as shade trees in  warm municipalities. The next  questions are which variety is it, is the fruit toxic and/or is the fruit edible? Sorting put figs can be difficult. And in the standard references there are no definitive answers for edibility of these figs for humans. Several references agree the sap should not get in your eyes and that the sap is toxic to dogs, cats and horses,  particularly to dogs. Signs that your dog may have been after your fig tree can include heavy drooling, vomiting, and diarrhea. As for the fruit —like most banyan fruit— it generally considered more not palatable than toxic. The one I tasted was sweet. The same can be said for two strangler figs also found in Florida, one native and one not. I eat them occasionally. They can range in tast from dry sponge to fermented sour.

Jack in the Pulpit. Photo byGreen Deane

Jack In The Pulpit are strange plants. They’re listed among the edible species but barely. One unusual aspect about the species is they readily change sex. After reproducing they become males and do nothing but hang out on the forest floor drinking sunlight and making starch. When enough energy has been collected for reproduction — three or four years — they become females… It’s not a species that does much dating. They like damp, sun-dappled places. We see them often during  foraging class in Jacksonville. They are also common along the bike trail through Big Tree Park in Sanford. To read more about Jacks and my microwave experiments with them you can go here.

Black Cherries are both bitter and sweet.

Black Cherry has been mentioned a couple of times earlier this year and that’s the reason for it being mentioned now: It’s still fruiting. The season seems a bit longer this year than usual and I still see them here and there. It is safe to say Black Cherries look better than they taste. There is an initial cherry sweetness but then a residual bitterness takes over whereas chokecherries are bad start to finish. There were four of those trees on the other side of our lawn where I grew up in Maine. They were quite irritating: They looked wonderful but tasted awful (unless made into wine.)  Black Cherries, like the chokecherries, are much better processed into jelly and wine (or cough medicine from the inner bark.) Do not eat the seeds. To read more about the Black Cherry go here.

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

Foraging classes this weekend rang from southwest Florida to near Orlando, in both locations we can identify edible roots you can eat is the food supply falls apart.

Saturday May 28th  Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m.  to0 noon. Meet at the parking lot at Bayshore and Ganyard.

Sunday May 29th Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon Meet at the bathrooms.

Saturday, June 4th Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house.

Sunday June 5th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion.

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

Fruit of the Chinese Tallow tree.

During a class recently I noticed the Chinese Tallow trees are blossoming. The tree poses a challenge. It has an edible fat and a toxic oil. The question is how to easily separate the two. And if “easily” is the wrong descriptor then how can it be made worth a forager’s while? The tree, Triadica sebifera, is an invasive species locally so finding a use for it would help the environment. Also as a source of fat it could literally be a life-saver in time of need because humans cannot survive without fat. In fact one can readily see the white fat (also called wax) on the seeds.  It just doesn’t render easily. Each seed has a thick coating of highly saturated fat, one reason why the species is also called the popcorn tree because when in fruit it looks covered by popcorn. By all reports the outer coating is edible and has been used to make candles, hence calling it wax. In fact the tree was imported from Asia by Ben Franklin specifically to start a candle-making industry in the South. As a saturated fat the outside is very solid at room temperature. Inside the seed is a liquid oil called stillingia. It is toxic to humans.

Chinese Tallow seed oil is toxic.

The “wax” is supposed to melt at 104 F. I’ve tried frying the fruit. The outer coating of fat stays solid. I’ve tried boiling. No luck. My readers have tried broiling — the seeds exploded — and micowaving, they got softer but did not melt.  In China they soften the fruit in boiling water than scraped them over a fine grater.  Separating the fat and the oil was also a science project. Here’s what the student did. First she bought a hand-operated oil expeller. They cost about $150 on the Internet.  She put the entire fruit through the press which also heats the material. Out comes a liquid mass that upon cooling has the solid saturated fat on top and the oil on bottom. She went on to make candles out of the “wax” and used the oil in a lamp which won her three science fairs and two scholarships. Way to go! The next question we ask is whether the “wax” (saturated fat) and the oil will sufficiently separate so the fat can be used as food? Also is it just as stubborn to melt even after being processed this way? My last question would be how digestible is it? The invasive species certainly has a lot of potential. You can read more about the Chinese Tallow tree here.

Lilac blossoms are edible

Memories…For more than 60 years I have associated Lilacs with June. In rural Pownal, Maine, I attended four different one-room schools (no running water, outhouses for restrooms, and certainly no telephone. But there was a record player and the girls were in charge of playing one song after lunch… if we were good. Mrs. Tryon ruled with an iron fist.) Each school held two grades. The fifth and sixth were at the north end of the town. Directly behind that school was a wall of white Lilacs. Whenever they blossomed we knew school was soon to be over for the summer. The exact day of our release varied year to year. We always started the Tuesday after Labor Day. When we got out in June depended on how many days of school was called off during the winter because of snow or cold temperatures. So our seasonal parole date varied every year. Seeing those Lilac blossom was always a joyful time: The torture would soon be over.

Green Deane, striped shirt, front row, 1962

In the greater Olive family the most common blossom color for Lilac is … lilac. And just in case you’re interested there is a 10-day Lilac Festival in Rochester N.Y. every May (Covid notwithstanding.) Not bad for a plant with European ancestry. At the festival they have over 500 different lilacs on some 1,200 bushes. You can even sample Lilac wine. Where do I sign up? Lilac blossoms are pungent and on the lemony side. In the language of flowers — very much practiced in the 1800’s as a means of conveying information — they were assigned three meanings: The lilac Lilac humility, the purple Lilac emotional love, and the white Lilac youthful innocence.  Lilacs don’t grow in Florida. Too hot and humid. Their landscaping substitute is the non-edible Crape Myrtle.

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.

This is my weekly newsletter #509. 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.  

 

 

 

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Wild Plums can be as sweet as cultivated plums. Photo by Green Deane

This was a “Prunus” foraging week. While rummaging around Ocala we saw Chickasaw Plums. They are still green and sour and should be ripe in a month to six weeks.  Black Cherries are also ripening but are often more difficult to find because the birds also like them. Cherries and plums are in the same genus, Prunus, so it’s not surprising they are ripening at about the same time.  Also setting fruit are the Flatwood Plums but they are different story and are included in my related article. I have a video on the Chickasaw plum here, Black Cherry here. To read about the Black Cherry go here, the Chickasaw Plum, here.  

The Indigo Milk Cap is edible and easy to identify. You’ll find them for several months.

It’s been a strange week for edible wild mushrooms. Ringless Honey Mushrooms favor the fall but the right weather conditions in the spring — rain in April or May and cool weather — can cause a minor occurrence of them. This week there were sporadic reports of said about the South. I have even seem them on a Banyan in West Palm Beach in July. Also seen this week were a few mushrooms in the Milk Cap group. They all used to be Lactarius. Some still are but others were renamed Lactifluus (as if mushrooms weren’t confusing enough.) I saw a couple of hot Milk Caps this week — hot as in peppery — and also the one shown left, Lactarius indigo. It is indeed a pretty mushroom and edible though its texture can be a tad grainy. With rains between now and the end of the month the summer mushroom season should get a good start. Hopefully by mid-June the Orlando Mushroom Group (OMG!) can have a forage. 

Note the long stem on the middle leaf.

You’re probably seeing a lot of this and wondering what the species is. This little plant with the little yellow blossom is Black Medic. It’s generally considered edible and like many weeds is from Europe. That kind of excludes it from being a significant Native American food (though some sources call it that… It’s a long story.) The headache is that from a distance of about five or six feet (where most people’s eyes are from the ground) Black Medic can look like Hop Clover. Here’s quick way to tell them apart: Hop Clover tends to have red stems, Black Medic has green stems covered with fine white hair and has a longer stem on the center leaf. After the two species go to seed they are easy to sort out: Black Medic has black seeds… hence the name. Hop Clover brown seeds. I personally don’t view Black Medic as much of an edible but you can read more about it here.

American lostus seeds are choice. 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 lake 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 provide the most calories for the amount of work. The roots are edible but digging them up can be a messy, laborious job because the plant doesn’t suggest there its root is located. Locally American Lotus are easy to find now: Just look for a lake with large yellow blossoms on long stem a foot or more above the water. Further north and west they are a favorite sight on rivers such as the Mississippi. To read more about the American Lotus go here.

Blackberries are ripening

Acres of wild blackberries... well, perhaps not acres but certainly a lot of them. Where? On the bike trail between Lake Monroe Park and Gemini Springs Park in south Volusia County. That part of the bike trail wends its way for a little over a mile between two parking lots. Look for the powerlines… this same area will also have in a couple of months bushels of Passiflora incarnata, Maypops… along the way to this location on the southern side are many cattails and to the west of Gemini Springs Park (in the cow pasture) there are a lot of Pawpaws. The things ones see while riding a bike. And… if you like to travel by train there is a Sunrail stop (Debary) directly west of the patch (and a path to said on the east side of U.S. 17-92.) As they are wild blackberries they are well armed. And a reminder that foraging is illegal in Florida so proceed stealthily. Why is foraging illegal? Unanswerable officials have to have something to do. If we had a Commissioner of Ants there would be all kinds of ant rules, do’s and don’t’s and fines et cetera. The more government the more rules and the more functionaries to interfere with your life. In theory elected official were supposed to make all the rules and be accountable for all of them. And if we didn’t like the rules or decisions we vote them out of office. But then politicians made unanswerable committees, commissions and departments to make and enforce rules. These add-on bureaucracies do not answer to the people or to the elected officials that created them. If a wildlife commission makes a truly stupid decision and citizens don’t like it, tough. Thus the second rule of foraging is “no witnesses.” The third rule is “eat the evidence.” The first rule of foraging is wash your hands BEFORE you go to the bathroom ’cause you never know what you’ve been touching… 

Foraging classes this weekend are in south Carolina. They will resume locally May 14th

Saturday/Sunday May 7th & 8th,  Honea Path, South Carolina, classes at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. each day.

Saturday May 14th Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a. m. to noon Meet just north of the science center. 

Sunday may 15th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon Meet at the bathrooms.

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

Seeding Seablite. Photo by Green Deane

Saw large amounts of Seablite recenty. Depending where you are in the state it is either starting its seasonal run or close finishing it. An excellent contender for a commercial crop it’s in the Chenopodium family. There was copious amounts of it at Canaveral Seashore National Park. I also saw Sea rocket and Silverhead but the prime edible was Seablite. Curiously on the mainland side of the park some of the Seablite was bitter. It is usually a very mild green edible raw or cooked. You can read about Seablite here or see my video here. 

Blueberries, Roan Mt. North Carolina.

One group that is starting to ripen is Blueberries (which can be black.) We saw some in our foraging class Sunday in Wickham Park, Melbourne in a flat wood scrub. Blueberries like soil on the acidic soil, a pH below 7 on a 14-point scale. I grew-up in poor-soil Maine where one could find 120-acre fields of nothing but Blueberries. Yet where I live now, in Florida, Blueberries are found in small colonies in isolated pockets. Why? One answer is Florida is a limestone plate (alkaline not acidic) so it is a waste of time to look for Blueberries unless there are acid-producing pines, oaks or perhaps cypress nearby. I planted Blueberries specifically bred for Florida but one has to tend to the soil — the amount of acid — nearly as much as one has to work daily to keep a pool from turning green. They eventually died, one of my few failures.

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.

This is my weekly newsletter #506. 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. 

On a personal note, my rent is doubling. I need a place to move to. Currently renting a two-bedroom small house.   Email Green Deane@gmail.com

                             To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.  

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Avoid Poison Ivy which is also sprouting. Photo by Green Deane

If you think you are not allergic to poison Ivy you might become one of those people who tell me every few weeks how they ended up in the hospital because they thought they weren’t allergic to it. We are all born with a certain amount of resistance to poison ivy, some are born with none — me — some are born with a lot, my mother. Those are the ones who come contact it many times over many years — usually intentionally — and end up in the hospital as each exposure reduces resistance. Keep playing with fire one gets burnt. I was reminded of that this week. 

Did “Socks” meet his end here? Photo by Green Deane

On Seminole-Wekiva Bike Trail this Tuesday past I rode upon a fellow yelling and throwing Paper Mulberry branches at the highway fence (across from the rest area on I-4.) As that was unusual I stopped. He said a big brown python has taken his cat and was in the bushes. As I am used to going into bushes and I like cats I went in but could not see any python or cat. I did recover his shoe. As there are hundreds of cement road barriers there (for highway construction) a python might find protection in their labyrinth and stay warm for the winter. The biggest python found to date north of Miami was a pregnant 300-pound, 16-footer pulled out of a culvert in Zolfo Springs last February, 75 miles south of Tampa. The fellow on the trail said he stopped at the rest area on I-4 and let his cat — Socks — out. He said he saw the snake by the cat but the cat was unconcerned. Details are sketchy. The man was quite upset… imagine if it had been a small child… He said his girlfriend was still in the rest area looking for the snake. The fellow seemed sincere and had a cut on his ankle apparently from rummage in the brush or climbing the fence. I made three dives in but didn’t see anything except, unfortunately, poison ivy. So I cut my ride short to wash off any poison ivy oil and told him about it. Poison ivy shows up on the third day with me — or 48 hours post exposure — and poor Socks I think was supper. 

Poison Sumac. Note the red stems. Photo by Green Deane

There’s an amazing amount of misinformation about poison ivy on the Internet, even on medical sites that should know better. While there may indeed be three people among the seven billion of us who are absolutely immune to poison ivy, the 6,999,997 rest of us are not. It is more accurate to say we differ in our resistance and rate of expose. Said another way, nearly everyone will get poison ivy if they are exposed to it long enough, including the 20 percent who are really resistant.  For some that is one exposure, for others dozens. The folks who say “I’m immune to poison ivy” are the prime candidates because they are not avoiding it. Over the years I have spoken to many a person who was extremely surprise when they got their first case of poison ivy because they were “immune” and had to got to the hospital. The point is you will get poison ivy at some point if you keep getting exposed to it so the best course of action is to avoid it and keep that day as far away as possible, if ever. Dr. John Kingsbury, who was an expert on toxicology, says the plant cells have to be “breeched” to release the oil, that just rubbing against the plant will not cause a problem. He added, however, that an insect chewing part of a leaf would release the oil so even a small amount of crushed cells can release enough oil to cause a reaction.  He was adamant that soap did no good and that the contamination was immediate. Other views have disagree in the 47 years since he wrote his book saying that non-oil soaps, even plan cold water helps if used immediately.

Incidentally, there is little difference between Poison Ivy and “Poison oak.” There’s no agreement whether they one or two species. Best guess is different varieties of the same species. From our point of view it doesn’t matter. It, or they, are bad.  In fact there are six related species that can give people rashes or other allergic reactions: Mangoes, cashews, pistachios, poison ivy, poison sumac, and Brazilian pepper. Incidentally Poison Ivy climbs trees, Poison Oak does not. 

Poison ivy can climb and cover trees

All that said there are some interesting facts about poison ivy. Only humans, some other primates, and guinea pigs can get it (we also don’t make vitamin C.) Your dog and cat can’t get poison ivy but they can carry the oil, urushiol, on their fur and give it to you, and that oil is active for years. Poison ivy is also a very nutritious, high-protein food for deer as well as rabbits. Some 60 birds eat the fruit and bees visit the blossoms. And truth be told I once got Poison Ivy off the feathers of a duck. 

Will Endres Jr. 1945-2021

What is fascinating is how Poison Ivy works. The oil “locks” onto your skin cells, making the protein sticky, essentially interrupting the chemical signal from the skin to the rest of the body. Thus the area expose is viewed as foreign, so the body attacks it. The result is sores, itching and bleeding. As bad as that is it also has a positive side. Native Americans would put poison ivy sap on warts so the body would get rid of the warts. That’s some interesting thinking. There is also a controversial side to the plant: Eating poison ivy to confer immunity. No doctor would recommend it nor do I. However, Euell Gibbons, the previous generation’s back-to-nature guy, wrote that he ate some every spring and never had a case of poison ivy there after. I knew an herbalist — Will Endres in North Carolina, who did the same thing every year. And I personally have seen a person eat it, again in the spring. She was a retired bio-chemist. There are three theories:

One is they all eat the plant in the spring when perhaps urushiol production is low. Or, two, the mucus that covers our insides protects us and we just digest the oil (the Pennsylvania Dutch ate poison ivy wrapped in bread.)  A third possibility is it does somehow confer a protection. Kingsbury was firm in his thinking that eating it was very dangerous and that the plant was dangerous all year long. Lastly think of poison ivy oil as clear bicycle chain grease. It really can’t be washed off: It has to be washed and rubbed off even though you can’t see it… and no welts as of this writing…   

Black Cherries ripening in June. Photo by Green Deane

Black Cherries usually get mentioned several times every spring. Locally one usually finds them ripening in April. That’s the target month (and for blackberries as well.) But every year if you look around you can find a few that fruit much later such as in mid- to late June. My neighbor has a tree ripening now and I saw some on the Seminole Wekiva trail near the rest area mentioned above.  It is safe to say Black Cherries look better than they taste. There is an initial cherry sweetness but then a residual bitterness takes over whereas chokecherries are bad start to finish. There were four large chokecherry trees on the other side of our lawn where I grew up in Maine. They were quite irritating: They looked wonderful but tasted awful (unless made into wine.)  Black Cherries, like the chokecherries, are much better processed into jelly and wine (or cough medicine from the bark.) Do not eat the seeds. To read more about the Black Cherry go here.

Young Poke is boiled twice before eating. Photo by Green Deane

When is a salad not a salad? When it’s poke sallet. Though they sound the same (both pronounced “salad” and spelling can vary) the one in English means raw greens. The other in French means cooked greens. Unfortunately a popular song in 1968 spelled it the wrong way on the record label and people have been getting sick ever since. (In fairness in the song the lyrics say Annie cooked the greens. She was so poor that was all she had to eat.) Pokeweed has to be cooked, preferably boiled at least twice in two changes of water. In fact I got a message this week from a writer who thought poke sallet meant salad and got ill from eating a salad of raw poke leaves. Don’t do it. This brings up another aspect of pokeweed. People ask me if boiling it twice reduces the nutrition. The answer is hardly at all. The only nutrient pokeweed has is Beta Carotene. That is a fat soluble. Boiling it doesn’t have much effect on the Beta Carotene content (it also has magnesium in the middle of the chlorophyl molecule.) Boiling the poke weed carries away the toxins and makes the magnesium in the chlorophyl more available. Cook your poke! To read more about pokeweed, go here.

Despite my website’s title, Eat The Weeds And Other Things, Too, YUCK! is word that lands in my mailbox regularly, sprinkled through the missives like spice on an entree. It reminds me of what a great language English is. English is not some frou-frou glot of genteel nuances or harmonic sounds. And while it might have started out as German Lite English has borrowed so much from other languages that it’s the largest and most predominate tongue on Earth. But beyond that English is fit. It’s muscular, punchy, to the point. English has brawn. It works out, demands attention, and gets things done. Yelling EXTINGUISH THE CONFLAGRATION will stir few to action. PUT THE FIRE OUT will. Or ouer bord hominem compared to Man Overboard. Latin just can’t hold a candelabra to English.

Hit by a car, taken home on a motorcycle, aged in the frig.

So yes, “yuck,” a taut, vigorous English word populates my emails. Why? The answer is the Acorn Grub video, the Bon Appetit video, articles on the edibility of dogs and cats, Guinea pigs, horses, alligator, armadillos, slugs and snails,  earthworms, scorpions, spiders and some four dozen other insects. I know of a naturalist who starts each class on wild edibles by eating a live beetle he finds in front of everyone. To him all black beetles are edible. “Yuck” you say. Perhaps. So powerful is that one word that several folks have sent just one word emails to me…  Yuck is succinct.  It tells me the writer’s mental state and their opinion, which is fine. In matters of taste there is no debate: Only matters of truth are worthy of debate.  And just as some find these critters “yucky” so to do many find eating weeds “yucky.” I hear from them, also. Some did not like a recent mention of me cooking a duck hit by a car (the one with poison ivy on its feathers.) “Yuck” was the response of choice but the duck was not yucky… I guarantee.  It was just ducky.

Goat on the lam…

Let’s say you were going to take a test. And you knew out of 100 possible questions only seven questions were going to be asked and only those seven. Which would you study for, the 93 questions that will not be asked or the seven that will be asked? One would expect you to study the seven questions you know are going to be asked. It is no different when learning edible wild plants. About 93 percent of the plants are not edible. Around seven percent are (generous estimates say 10% but it varies with geography.) Which should you study if you are interested in edible wild plants? The seven percent that are edible or the 93 percent that are not? Most folks interested in edible wild plants go about it backwards. They don’t go looking for known edibles but wonder what all unknown plants are. Then they ask someone to identify them. More than nine times out of ten it is not edible. Looking for known edibles is far more productive. But if you still have a plant you want identified, post it on the Green Deane Forum. We have a board dedicated to just identifying plants, which is also the most popular board. You can join the forum by clicking on the FORUM button in the menu line.

Do you recognize the Pie In The Sky Actor?

There’s a quaint British detective series which involves an obese chef who is also a senior police detective. (Only the Brits can get away with funding and producing such a show theme.) In one program the main character’s job is to help protect and feed a rather nasty young woman who is to testify against her deadly husband. At the same time the detective-chef is having a difficult time getting quality herbs for his restaurant. The “safe” house where she is staying just happens to have fantastic herbs just growing out back which he discovers. There’s a wonderful exchange about wild food between the avuncular detective-chef and one of the young armed officers protecting the woman. It’s an attitude most of us foragers have seen before. To see the 42-second clip click here.

Teaching a foraging class in West Palm Beach

Foraging classes this weekend are in two familar places: Largo and east Orlando. The former class is small at this writing, the latter is large. As I often say I live with the average. Also note folks are signing up for foraging classes in mid-July in Honea Path, South Carolina. 

Saturday, June 26th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 

Sunday, June 27th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet beside the tennis courts. 

Saturday July 3rd, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday July 17th, Classes at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m at Putney Farm, 1624 Taylor Rd, Honea Path, SC 29654. 

Sunday July  18th, Classes at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m at Putney Farm, 1624 Taylor Rd, Honea Path, SC 29654. 

For more information, to prepay or sign up for a class go here. 

The red cashew apple is edible.

One of the more strange trees is the cashew. The species is closely related to poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, edible sumac, mangos, and pistachios. The cashew itself is an exceptionally toxic tree. The cashew “seed” is actually an enclosed nut inside an enclosed shell. It is surrounded by a toxic sap. The sap is dangerous. The process of making the seed edible is dangerous. While the end product is a tasty nut it is among the least nutritious of tree seeds. Oddly the cashew “apple” is quite edible. You can read more about the cashew here.

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by a 150-video USB. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  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. That will take you to an order form. 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. 

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.

Your donations to upgrade the EatTheWeeds website and fund a book were appreciated. A book manuscript has been turned it. It had 425 articles, 1326 plants and a third of a million words. What it will be when the publisher is done with it next year is unknown. It will be published in the spring of 2023. Writing it took a significant chunk of time out of my life from which I have still not recovered. (Many things got put off.) The next phase is to update all the content on the website between now and publication date. Also note as it states above the 135-video DVD set has been phased out for 150-video USB. Times and formats change. Which reminds me I need to revisit many plants and make some new videos. 

This is weekly newsletter #461. 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.

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The unripe cone of the Norfolk Pine. Photo by Green Deane

Undeveloped seeds in the Norfolk Pine cone. Photo by Green Deane

The Bunya Bunya and Norfolk Pine are closely related. Neither look good in landscaping though the Norfolk Pine is far more common than the Bunya Buyna locally. They both awkwardly stand out. Unlike cones of the Bunya Bunya, which one finds regularly, Norfolk pine cones are more rare. And like their relative they, too, have edible seeds. During a class in Port Charlotte we saw an immature Norfolk Pine cone. The undeveloped seeds were intensely pine flavored.   The Bunya Bunya fruits about every three years. One sees Norfolk Pines regularly but not their cones. Hopefully this tree will drop some mature cones in August which is also about when the champagne mangos in the area ripen (and rot on the ground.)

Dollarweed has its stem in the middle.

Allergic reactions. While a teacher can guarantee that a particular species is edible they cannot control for individual allergic reactions. We now have far more allergic people than half a century ago. The rate was about 3% in 1960 and 7% in 2018. Some think that has been caused by over-protective parents and no child ever unsupervised. We also know kids raised on farms have less allergies than most kids supporting the so- called hygiene hypothesis. When I was young no one ever heard of a peanut allergy or the like. As plants are chemical factories one can expect some people to have an allergic reaction to them. Among wild plants two sometimes produce a mild allergic reaction, Cucumber Weed and Epazote.  Pawpaws carry a huge warning because they can cause a rare anaphylactic shock which is a severe allergic reaction. In a class this past week a fellow had an itchy throat reaction to Hydrocotyle bonariensis, our local common dollar weed. It wasn’t a severe reaction and all is well but it is one to be mindful of. 

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

Foraging classes: On this holiday weekend I have one class, Saturday, in Winter Park. It’s plant-rich location and a good time of year to go treasure hunting. 

Saturday, May 8th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet by the bathrooms. The entrance to Mead is on Denning not Pennsylvania. Some GPS get it wrong. 

Saturday, May 15th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 to noon. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park.

Sunday, May 16th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion.

Saturday, May 22th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the parking lot. 

Sunday, May 23th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park, 9 a.m. to noon.

For more class information, to sign up or prepay, go here. 

Wild Plums can be as sweet as cultivated plums. Photo by Green Deane

It was a “Prunus foraging week. While rummaging around our usual class location we saw Chickasaw Plums. They are just beginning to ripen and should be around for about six weeks. The Chickasaw Plums were not completely ripe but give them a week or two.  Black Cherries are also ripening but are often more difficult to find because the birds also like them. Cherries and plums are in the same genus, Prunus, so it’s not surprising they are ripening at about the same time.  Also setting fruit are the Flatwood Plums but they are different story and are included in my related article. I have a video on the Chickasaw plum here, Black Cherry here. To read about the Black Cherry go here, the Chickasaw Plum, here.  Completely unrelated Tallow Plums are blossoming.

Lactarius indigo mushrooms are difficult to misidentify.

It’s been a strange week for edible wild mushrooms. Ringless Honey Mushrooms favor the fall but the right weather conditions in the spring — May specificially — can cause a minor occurrence of them. This this week there were sporadic reports of said about the South. I have even seem them on a Banyan in West Palm Beach in July.  I saw five agung  Lactarius indigo in Venice, Fl., this week, quite out of season. It is indeed a pretty mushroom and edible though its texture can be a tad grainy. With rains between now and the end of the month the summer mushroom season should get a good start. Hopefully by mid-June the Orlando Mushroom Group (OMG!) can have a forage. 

No plant produces more starch per acre than cattails.

If you were starving and came upon a patch of cattails (blossoming now) you would have great cause for celebration. You have found food and water. You will survive. But if you are not starving and do not have all the time in the inter-connected world you just might find cattails highly overrated. It is true that no plant can produce more starch per acre than cattails, about 3.5 tons under cultivation. And it can produce a lot of starch economically if you can mechanize the extraction. But hand extraction is time- consuming and labor intensive. It is also wet, smelly work all of which can be worsened significantly by harvesting in either cold or buggy weather. So yes, cattails are food but the time demand is such that harvesting food has to be your prime occupation. A similar argument can be made for kudzu. The roots do have edible starch but it takes a gargantuan amount of work to get the starch out, literally hours of steady pounding. It is not a calorie positive activity. It moves you closer to starvation. But, mechanize the process with some hammers run by falling water — or hammers run by a horse fed on an endless supply of grass — and kudzu becomes a reliable calorie-positive food. You can see my video on cattails here.  I also have an article on Finding Caloric Staples with links to relevant videos. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

150-video USB would be a good spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  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. That will take you to an order form. 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. 

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.

Your donations to upgrade the EatTheWeeds website and fund a book were appreciated. A book manuscript has been turned it. It had 424 articles, 1325 plants and a third of a million words. What it will be when the publisher is done with it next year is unknown. It will be published in the spring of 2023. Writing it took a significant chunk of time out of my life from which I have still not recovered. (Many things got put off.) The next phase is to update all the content on the website between now and publication date. Also note as it states above the 135-video DVD set has been phased out for 150-video USB. Times and formats change. Which reminds me I need to revisit many plants and make some new videos. 

This is weekly newsletter #456. 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.

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Fresh lotus seeds from a mature green seed pod. 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 proved to be 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 now: 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.

Jack in the Pulpit. Photo by Green Deane

Jack In The Pulpit are strange plants. They’re listed amongst the edible species but barely. One unusual aspect about the species is they readily change sex. After reproducing they become males and do nothing but hang out on the forest floor drinking sunlight and making starch. When enough energy has been collected for reproduction — three or four years — they become females… It’s not a species that does much dating. They like damp, sun-dappled places. We see them often during  foraging class in Jacksonville. They are also common along the bike trail through Big Tree Park in Sanford. To read more about Jacks and my microwave experiments with them you can go here.

Black Cherries are both bitter and sweet.

Black Cherry has  been mentioned a couple of times earlier this year and that’s the reason for it being mentioned now: It’s still fruiting. The season seems a bit longer this year than usual and I still see them here and there. It is safe to say Black Cherries look better than they taste. There is an initial cherry sweetness but then a residual bitterness takes over whereas chokecherries are bad start to finish. There were four of those trees on the other side of our lawn where I grew up in Maine. They were quite irritating: They looked wonderful but tasted awful (unless made into wine.)  Black Cherries, like the chokecherries, are much better processed into jelly and jwine (or cough medicine from the bark.) Do not eat the seeds. To read more about the Black Cherry go here.

The Toxic Atamasco Lily. Photo by Green Deane

What are they? The first answer is they are NOT edible. The second is they are a threatened species. And the third answer is they are the toxic Atamasco lily, aka Rain Lily ( Zephranthes atamasca.) For a threatened species they are seen in a lot of lawns this time of year prompting many emails asking for an identification. These natives like wetlands but a well-watered lawn after seasonal rains will do nicely. The problem with the Atamasco is that it resembles wild garlic before it blossoms (and even has a bulb!) However, it does not have the telltale garlic aroma. Remember if it smells like a garlic AND looks like a garlic you can use it like a garlic. The Atamasco does not have any garlic/onion aroma. It is not edible. All parts are poisonous. Leave it alone. And while these in the picture have a pink tinge there are also all-white blossoms.

Edible fat and toxic oil all in one seed.

During a class recently I noticed the Chinese Tallow trees are blossoming. The tree poses a challenge. It has an edible fat and a toxic oil. The question is how to easily separate the two. And if “easily” is the wrong descriptor then how can it be made worth a forager’s while? The tree, Triadica sebifera, is an invasive species locally so finding a use for it would help the environment. Also as a source of fat it could literally be a life-saver in time of need because humans cannot survive without fat. In fact one can readily see the white fat (also called wax) on the seeds.  It just doesn’t render easily. Each seed has a thick coating of highly saturated fat, one reason why the species is also called the popcorn tree because when in fruit it looks covered by popcorn. By all reports the outer coating is edible and has been used to make candles, hence calling it wax. In fact the tree was imported from Asia by Ben Franklin specifically to start a candle-making industry in the South. As a saturated fat the outside is very solid at room temperature. Inside the seed is a liquid oil called stillingia. It is toxic to humans.

Chinese Tallow seed oil is toxic.

The “wax” is supposed to melt at 104 F. I’ve tried frying the fruit. The outer coating of fat stays solid. I’ve tried boiling. No luck. My readers have tried broiling — the seeds exploded — and micowaving, they got softer but did not melt.  In China they soften the fruit in boiling water than scraped them over a fine grater.  Separating the fat and the oil was also a science project. Here’s what the student did. First she bought a hand-operated oil expeller. They cost about $150 on the Internet.  She put the entire fruit through the press which also heats the material. Out comes a liquid mass that upon cooling has the solid saturated fat on top and the oil on bottom. She went on to make candles out of the “wax” and used the oil in a lamp which won her three science fairs and two scholarships. Way to go! The next question we ask is whether the “wax” (saturated fat) and the oil will sufficiently separate so the fat can be used as food? Also is it just as stubborn to melt even after being processed this way? My last question would be how digestible is it? The invasive species certainly has a lot of potential. You can read more about the Chinese Tallow tree here.

Classes are held rain or shine or cold. Tropical storms and hurricanes are exceptions.

Two foraging classes are scheduled for this weekend if the weather cooperates. Rain and wind is no issue unless it reaches tropical storm status. We’ll just have to watch the weather.

Saturday, June 6th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fl. 32706. Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Sunday, June 7th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon. This location does not have an official bathroom. 

Saturday, June 13th, a mushroom class in Lake Mary, FL., 9 a.m. to noon.  Details to follow and on Orlando Mushroom Group facebook page. 

Sunday, June 14th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. Meet at the pavilion between the YMCA building and the tennis courts. 9 a.m. till noon. 

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. 

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

Maypop blossom and unripe fruit. Photo by Green Deane

It’s June and Maypops are popping out all over. They are easy to find: Look for a vine that has three-lobed leaves and smooth, green fruit shaped like a large egg to a tennis ball. The fruit ripens to yellow near the base of the vine first. The plant, which smells like an old gym shoe, will put on new fruit until cold weather. Green fruit can be fried like green tomatoes. Sometimes the green ones have seeds mature enough to be tart. Sweet and sour seeds can be scooped out of the yellow fruit and eaten along with their white jelly-like coating. Locally our most common passion fruit is Passiflora incarnata, left. You will read on the Internet that it contains cyanide. It does not though many passion fruits do if not all but P. incarnata. It was specifically tested and definitely does not have cyanide in it’s leaves. The varying amounts of cyanide in other species of passion fruit is one reason why animals don’t eat them and one reason why you should not eat any ornamental passion fruit you may have. Instead of cyanide P. incarnata has GABA, gamma-Aminobutyric acid, which calms you down.

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 408, 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.

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