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Strawberry Tree Koumaria

Strawberry Tree, Koumaria, Koumara, Pacific Madrone, Madrona

Any plant called “strawberry” other than a strawberry is doomed. Strawberries pack a lot of particular flavor and sweetness. Most other things called strawberry do not.

The Strawberry Guava doesn’t. The Indian Strawberry doesn’t. The Strawberry Tree doesn’t, and its sibling, the other Strawberry Tree doesn’t either. These four fruits have their own flavor and appeal that gets lost in the pronouncement that they are not as good as the strawberry. And that is accurate. None of them are as extroverted as the strawberry, but they are not strawberries. You have to get past that.

Like the rest, the Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo,  is doomed in English, as Arbutus mensiesii related Strawberry Tree. In Greek the former is called Koumaria (koo-mar-ree-AH) which is also the name of a town and a heck  of a lot of hotels. The perfectly round fruit of the tree, a favorite of children, is called Koumara (no i.) Goats love the leaves, as do deer. But best of all, Koumara are Koumara, and they’re good unto themselves. A. unedo takes a year to put on fruit and ripen so it is loosing fruit just about the time it is flowering again. Called madronos in Spanish, Corbezzolo in Italian, and sometimes Bearberry in English as well as the Apple of Cain and Cain Apple. The fruit smells like anise but doesn’t taste like that, more along the lines of a woody strawberry, or a cross between guava and nectarine However, unripe it can cause nausea, on the other hand it can ferment on the branch and cause mild intoxication. From a health point of view it does have Vitamin C. The bark has tannins for working leather or as a dye.

A. mensiesii aka A. menziesii

The second Strawberry Tree is A. mensiesii, also called the Pacific Madrone, or Madrona. Native to northwestern North America, it can be found cultivate in non-hot areas of the country. Every September I get several emails from folks wondering if the fruit is edible because there are Internet reports that it is toxic. It is not. Most folks think it is some kind of dogwood, but it is not. It’s berries are edible but astringent. The Indians made them into cider or just chewed them. A more distant relative, the Mayflower, or the Trailing Arbutus, is also an edible. See a separate entry for that.

Arbutus (arb-YEW-tus) means struggle.  Unedo (YOU-nee-doe)  means “I eat only one” from the Latin unum edo. That can be read two ways: It is so good I only eat one, or it is rather it is uninteresting thus I only eat one. We got that in 50 AD from Pliny the Elder (23 AD – August 25, 79), and we don’t know which he meant. Mensiesii honors the discoverer, Archibald Menzies (1754-1842), a Scottish physician and naturalist.

The Arbutuses are in the heath family. Oddly, A. unedo also grows in Ireland where in Gaelic it is called Caithne. Some think it is a pre-ice age hold over. In might have been introduced by the Beaker People around 4,000 BC according to pollen found in bogs.  Incidentally, there is an old Irish folk song “My Love’s An Arbrutus.” The words are by the recipes below.

Koumaria in blossom

Several species in the genus Arbutus are ornamentals. A. andrachne (the Eastern Strawberry Tree) has small edible berries and cinnamon-colored bark. It is often confused with a hybrid, A. andrachnoides , which has small, hard edible fruit and perfectly smooth bark ranging from deep red to bright yellow. Fruit of the Arbutus marina, however, is edible.

When I travel back to the “old country” the two things I notice about plants is how many familiar ones there are. Weeds are cosmopolitan. Then there are the natives. Edible figs grow wild in southern Greece, as does the deadly Oleander but also thyme, basil, savory, rosemary, oregano and marjoram. In Crete the fruit of the Koumaria is made into a local distillation called Koumaro. Having visited Crete many times I think the Cretans can make tail pipe-kicking radiator fluid out of nearly anything.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: The Strawberry Tree, grows to 15 to 35 feet tall, evergreen leaves are dark green, glossy, two to four inches long, up to an inch wide with a serrated edge.Young leaves have red veins.  Blossoms are white (occasionally pale pink), bell-shaped, like a blueberry blossom, honey scented. Fruit is a red berry to 3/4 of an inch through,  rough surface, maturing 12 months. In southern US the tree is about 10 feet tall. Older specimens have gnarled trunk and branches. Many cultivars including “Compacta, Rubra, Elifn King, Quercifolia, Croomei, Melita, and Werner.

TIME OF YEAR: Fruit usually ripens in later summer or fall. Mealy, amber flesh. Tree blooms autumn into winter

ENVIRONMENT: Native to rocky well-drained soil, full sun except in deserts where it needs partial shade

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Out of hand, jams, jellies, pies, candied fruit, wine and spirits. See recipes below.

 Strawberry Tree Jam

Two pounds of fruit

A pound of sugar

Four ounces orange liquor

Slowly boil the fruit with a little water until soft. Press through a mill then reheat with the sugar and liqueur. Simmer until a drop mounds on a chilled dish.

Option: Add some cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and vanilla for added flavor.

Strawberry Tree Jelly

Arbutus berries, sugar, water.

Rinse fruits. Put them in a preserving pan and cover with cold water almost completely. . Bring on the heat and cook for about fifteen minutes over low heat. Pass the fruit through a cheesecloth, pressing well to catch any juice.

Weigh it.  Mix the juice with its weight of sugar.  Simmer over low heat, skimming rather soft at times. Cooking is complete when the juice forms small beads. Cool before placing in jars.

My Love’s An Arbutus

My love’s an arbutus
By the borders of Lene,
So slender and shapely
In her girdle of green.
And I measure the pleasure
Of her eye’s sapphire sheen
By the blue skies that sparkle
Through the soft branching screen.

But though ruddy the berry
And snowy the flower
That brighten together
The arbutus bower,
Perfuming and blooming
Through sunshine and shower,
Give me her bright lips
And her laugh’s pearly dower.

Alas, fruit and blossom
Shall lie dead on the lea,
And Time’s jealous fingers
Dim your young charms, Machree.
But unranging, unchanging,
You’ll still cling to me,
Like the evergreen leaf
To the arbutus tree.

Persimmons might be ripening early this year. Photo by Green Deane

What of persimmons? For years I looked for them to ripen in October, occasionally September. I could always be assured that by Columbus Day there were persimmons to be had. Last year they were late. I even found one tree ripening in January! On the West Orange County Bike Trail last week I ate two almost ripe persimmons — in early August! They had just a little after-consumption astringency. The grapes are early this year, why not persimmons?

Sometimes they shrivel on the tree. Photo by Green Deane

Persimmons suffer from the same problem as the Indian Strawberry. When you hear “Indian Strawberry” you kind of eliminate the “Indian” part and hear “strawberry.” The fruit unfortunately does not live up to the word strawberry in any way except perhaps general appearance from a distance. Eating an Indian Strawberry is not like eating a real strawberry. If you’re thinking “strawberry” it’s a big let down. The problem persimmons have is oriental persimmons which are wildly cultivated. They are huge, sweet, nearly if not seedless, and not astringent. Wild persimmons are small, very seedy, and astringent until extremely ripe. This is cause for disappointment though it shouldn’t be. The astringency is part of the tree’s strategy. It does not want its fruit eaten until the seeds are ready to germinate. So the fruit stays non-palatable until the seeds are good to go then the fruit turns sweet. Also the tree wants only mammals that can taste sweetness to move the seeds around. Members of the cat family, for example, can’t taste sweet so they won’t eat persimmons. Bears and raccoons can taste sweet so persimmons are high on their menu.

Persimmons feed a lot of creatures but not cats.

In case you are wondering dogs, Canadian otters, red wolves, monkeys, apes, horses and humans can taste sweet among many. All felines, bottlenose dolphins, sea lions, harbor seals, spotted hyenas and Asian otters cannot. Generally speaking omnivores can taste sweet and strictly meat eaters usually do not. If you, for example, eat fish whole there is no reason for you to taste sweet whereas if you’re a fruit-eating bat sugar is important. Some animals can detect some forms of sugar — glucose, fructose, and sucrose — but not others such as galactose and lactose. Thus for some “sugar and spice” is not always nice.

Chanterelles have wrinkles and bridges.

Americans inherited a fear of mushrooms from the English. The English are still fungi-phobes but not Europe. A mushroom the British would call “oily” a Ukrainian would call “buttery.” My goal for several years has been to identify the six to one dozen really easy-to-learn local edible mushrooms. Among the easiest and also the tastiest are chanterelles. They can be found from about June to October, maybe even a bit longer than that, and are easy to find and identify. In fact the hardest thing about chanterelles is cleaning them. Ours tend to grow low, we have sandy soil, and rain splatters the grit and debris and chanterelles have a lot of places to collect grit. They don’t have “gills” per se but wrinkles and those wrinkles collect bits of sand and leaf litter. Brushing  doesn’t work well — washing’s a no-no — so I’m trying out techniques with my air compressor.

A new species: Cantharellus coccolobae

Not only don’t chanterelles have gills but they have cross wrinkles, like little bridges between two shores. That gives one confidence when identifying them. And, the list grows. Recently a new chanterelle was named from Florida. We’ve had one species of pink to red chanterelle, Cantharellus cinnabarinus. I found some under a Hawthorn tree this week. But some pink to red ones are also found under Sea Grape trees. They got a new name, Cantharellus coccolobae (named after the Sea Grape genus) and they taste good, too.

Flatwood Plums can take the summer heat.

Locally Chickasaw Plums are about done by June if not sooner. They are definitely a sweet wild edible found in the second quarter of the year. So when we saw a tree full of plums during our foraging class this past week in Ocala they could not be Chickasaws. Flatwood  Plum is a better candidate. They fruit in the third quarter and I’ve seen fruit on them in late September. Alas, they are not as tasty or sweet as their cousins. In fact, even when ripe Flatwood Plums can be bitter or have a bitter aftertaste. This is why they were usually made into jelly. One telling sign was the tree we found in Ocala was not only was it ladened with fruit but the ground was covered as well. Non-sweet fruit doesn’t market well to the animal community. You can read more about wild plums here.

Classes are held rain or shine.

Upcoming Foraging Classes: This past week while foraging we found a wide variety of fruit and mushrooms to talk about. Though cultivated we saw pomegranates, pineapple guavas, avocados as well as wild grapes, creeping cucumbers, hackberries and four species of edible or wild mushrooms.

Sunday, August 27th, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246.  9 a.m.

Saturday, September 2nd, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m.

For more information about the classes go here. 

The Nine-DVD set includes 135 videos.

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

If you read the Green Deane Forum you would know this wild edible.

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

This is issue 270.

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

Vinegar mother can be colored by the liquid it’s in.

Making you own vinegar is not a complex process but following the process leads to success… eventually. Unfortunately many articles on the internet are high on praise and short on process.

Vinegar Flies are necessary to the making of your own vinegar.

I read one in the last few days that said get some fresh cider, put it in a container with a cloth over the top and in a couple of months you will have healthy, delicious vinegar. While that is not impossible it is not probable. I have made a lot of homemade vinegar and the process mentioned above always ended in smelly failure for me. It was only when I knew how to take control of the process did I actually make tasty vinegar of appropriate acid strength to be used for preserving and salads.

The two major steps are collecting an acid bactar that throws a good flavor and then putting it in some low-proof alcoholic beverage to turn it into vinegar. If you want to know the bare process yeast turns sugar to gas and alcohol, acid bactar turns the alcohol into acetic acid which is vinegar. Putting out a container of cider to ferment and turn to vinegar is letting nature choose the yeast and the bacteria. You could get two winners but even one loser turns the must into a mess. To read more about making vinegar go here.

Marlberries, Ardisia escallonioides

Marlberries and I don’t meet too often, about once or twice a year and then usually while I am conducting a class so I don’t have the time to get acquainted better. It’s just not an edible I have “inside” my head, yet. There is also a certain lack of motivation because even at it’s best marlberry is not a great trailside nibble. A complicating headache is there are several malberries of varying quality.

Reportedly found mid-Florida and south I have only seen them in coastal areas such as West Palm Beach on the east coast and near Sarasota on the west coast. The season can vary quite a bit between the coasts as well, as much as two or three months. Around the same time and in the same habitat you can also see Rapanea punctata, one of those mystery pants one finds in the woods this time of year. It looks like a drab cross between a mangrove and a beautyberry. There’s not a whole lot of literature on it so the berries are probably not edible. To read more about the Marlberry and its strange relative go here.

We have a thread on the feral wintercress on the Green Deane Forum.

Wintercress grew in a ditch behind an apartment complex I lived in near Sanford, Florida. How did the Eurasian native Nasturtium officinale, there? It came to North America with the Europeans, found a good home, and stayed. Alabama became the epicenter of cultivating it then later Central Florida. Sanford, by the way, is named for Henry Sanford one of Lincoln’s ambassadors. He is called “General Sanford” but be never served in the military. He got the title for donating a cannon to the Union effort. Sanford was, however, big on big farming and for a few decades made that Orlando suburb the place to go in Central Florida. When President Calvin Coolidge came here in 1929 it was to Sanford he went, not backwater Orlando. The city of Sanford had everything: River, rails and road. But it lacked leadership giving Orlando a chance to make its mousey mark. As Coolidge did so did watercress which is why it ended up in the ditch behind the apartment complex in Sanford. The entire area was truck farms and one of their winter crops was watercress. Peppery like nasturtiums it is edible raw or cooked but make sure you get it from wholesome water. Nasturtium by the way literally means “twisted nose.” Where I collect watercress to be eaten raw is about a half mile down stream from the Wekiva River boil (its main spring and headwater.) But there’s a lot of water hemlock around so I have to pick carefully. To read more about watercress go here.

Foraging class at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Upcoming classes:

Saturday, November 22nd Mead Garden,1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.

Sunday, November 23rd, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 32706. 9 a.m.

For more details click here.  You may wonder why I am taking a few weeks off for classes. Three answers, moving one house to another and a couple of surgeries scheduled before the end of the year. Age catches up to everyone. I should resume a full schedule in January.

These babies can bite and cry for help.

Eat The Weeds On DVD. My foraging videos do not include alligators but they do cover dozens of edible plants in North America. The set has nine DVD and make a good Christmas gift. Each DVD has 15 videos for 135 in all. Some of these videos are of better quality than my free ones on the Internet. They are the same videos but many people like to have their own copy. I burn and compile the sets myself so if you have any issues I handle it. There are no middle foragers. And I’m working on adding a tenth DVD. To learn more about the DVDs or to order them click here.

Green Deane Forum

On the Green Deane Forum we post messages and pictures about foraging all year-long. There’s also a UFO page, for Unidentified Flowering Objects so plants can be identified. Recent topics include: Winter Time Water Cress, Paleo Goodies, Survival Entertainment, An Annual Evening Primrose, Mushrooms, Acorns All Colors And Sizes, Turn On The Water, Nanoscopy, Puff on This, Lab To Determine Plant Composition, Orange Red Berry, Atlatl, Odd Trees, Grinder for Tough Roots, European Mountain Ash Edible? Curly Dock,  Goldenrod of Some Sort, Saffron Crocus Surprise, Cute Little Orange Thing, Indian Strawberry and Kousa Dogwood, and Top Ten Herbs. The link to join is on the right hand side of this page.

It is time to think about going to the Florida Herbal Conference in late February. I’ve taught there for the last three years and will be there again this year. In fact I plan to spend a lot of time there. It’s a must for all southern herbalists and well as those northern ones who want to escape the cold and study their craft in the dead of winter. It always has interesting speakers and great classes. For more information and to register go here.

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

Coastal Ground Cherries, Physalis angustifolia.

It was a very berry weekend and perhaps our last as the nation cycles into the winter season. We started with Coastal Ground Cherries, Physalis angustifolia.

Physalis walteri, also known as starry-hair ground-cherry and sand cherry, looks similar to the Coastal Ground Cherry

Our timing was perfect. The husks were gold to a tan, dry, papery. Inside the fruit was deep yellow to gold, tangy in taste. Ground cherries ripen from green to gold, getting sweeter and tangier as they go along. But they can often have a bitter after taste either from being under ripe or some species just retain some bitterness. A little aftertaste of bitterness is okay but the best is when there is none. Thus one always tastes a ripe ground cherry then waits a minute or so for any bitterness to appear.

You don’t eat the husk, just the ripe fruit inside.

While locally Ground Cherries can fruit nearly all year, they do produce a spring and fall crop. In cooler climes they just have one season ripening in late summer and fall. Here our fall crop tends to be better than our spring one. Spring ground cherries can rot on the plant or get damaged by insects and that is also when I tend to find more bitter ones. But this time of year brings out the best in ground cherries. One can find whole, undamaged, very ripe Ground Cherries in significant numbers. You can make a pie out of them if you can manage to get some home uneaten. Incidentally there is a second local ground cherry that resembles the Coastal Ground Cherry. It’s Physalis walteri, also known as starry-hair ground-cherry and sand cherry. It has star-shaped hairs on the lower edges of the leaf which are visible with a hand lens. Still edible, however. To read more about Ground Cherries go here.

Cocoplums are much underrated as a fruit.

The second “berry” of the day was cocoplums. As we are in a seasonal shift we had to look at several bushes but in time we found enough for everyone to have a taste of the much-underrated fruit. I’m not sure why most wild food writers disparage the cocoplum. I like the pulp’s flavor as well as the seed which tastes like granola to me, or almonds. There are three common varieties, purple, red and white. All are edible and to my palate taste the same. Those who study the various species say the flavor improves with the dark species. As they have a long season and are a common ornamental one can usually collect a lot of cocoplums. To read more about cocoplums click here.

Simpson Stopper berries can be edible when very ripe.

While we are past the season for Simpson Stopper berries one bush did have some very ripe to dry fruit and we got a chance to taste them as well. Leaning towards a sweet orange rind flavor they can be palatable if your timing is right. While they can be eaten out of hand the flavor can be intense so often Simpon Stopper berries are processed into jelly and the like. Like the cocoplums it’s a native used in landscaping, usually as an accent plant but they can also be trained into a long hedge. More about the Simpson Stopper is here. 

Don’t eat too many raw elderberries.

Our fourth berry of the day had a lot to live up to but couldn’t even if it tried. While elderberries get a lot of copy, they are not great right off the bush. Fresh the best they ever get up to in taste is not too bad. Like Dove Plums they benefit greatly from processing, either drying or being made into syrup, jelly, wine or pies. It is also a medicinal plant. The flowers are edible as well. A multitude of foraging books say you can eat elderberries raw but that is true only if you eat a few, for tasting purposes. Larger amounts of raw elderberries can cause nausea and upset the digestive system.

Lemon Bacopa smells like lime to me.

Strange things can happen in foraging. That’s my experience with Lemon Bacopa. It’s a common plant but not found commonly. I have found it five times. The first time was with Dick Deuerling some twenty years ago. The next time was about five years later on a damp woods road. Then about five years after that I found it on the shore of a lake near where I live. If you’re counting that’s a sighting averaging about once every six or seven years or so. This past week, however, I saw it twice, in Wekiva state park and 200 miles to the south on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus. It’s relative, Bacopa monnieri is very common but very bitter. Lemon Bacopa has a wonderful citrus-like flavor which I think is more like lime than lemon. To read about it go here.

Bananas ripening as Oliver Whitecat supervises.

And if you do happen to live in southwest Florida — where I spent the weekend — it’s time to cut off terminal banana blossoms and take the hand inside to ripen. Bananas left on their own outside often spoil before fully ripening. Removing the terminal blossom and cutting the hand off and taking it inside increases the amount of ripe fruit significantly. More so they can take one or two weeks to ripen so you have a steady source of fresh ripe fruit. Bananas also take two years of cold-free weather to produce bananas. Did you know you can cook on banana leaves? To read more about the bananas click here.

The edible Lactarius indigo.

Other interesting sightings this past week included a Pond Apple (on the only Pond Apple tree I have seen other than on Sanibel Island.) We also nibble on False Roselle and mushroom-flavored Blue Porterweed blossoms. At the university I think we found the mother load of ripe Creeping Cucumbers. There were certainly hundreds of them including many at the stage to take home for seeds. It’s unfortunate that they do not make good pickles but otherwise are wonderful little cucumbers. And thanks to the good eyes of Benjamin Dion I got to see the Lactarius indigo mushroom. Incidentally if you ever visit the university tour their food forest, a half-acre of intensely crafted and maintained collection of food plants, shrubs and trees. It’s a good example of how a well-designed small plot can feed a lot.

Green Deane during a foraging class.

Upcoming classes: Thursday, October 30th, Emerson Point Preserve, 5801 17th Street West, Palmetto, FL 34221. This class is part benefits Eat Local Week of greater Sarasota. The class starts at 9 a.m. and goes to 11 a.m., cost is less than usual, $20. To learn more about other events of that week go here.

Saturday, November 22nd Mead Garden,1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.

Sunday, November 23rd, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 32706.

You may wonder why I am taking three weeks off for classes. Two answers, moving one house to another and significant dental surgery including bone transplant. I got hit in the mouth in the fourth grade and it has plagued me via various incarnations for over half a century. This is but one more accommodation of that. If I can speak well by the dates above I will probably add classes on the 29th and 30th as well.

Baby and mom

Eat The Weeds On DVD. My foraging videos do not include alligators but they do cover dozens of edible plants in North America. The set has nine DVD. Each DVD has 15 videos for 135 in all. Some of these videos are of better quality than my free ones on the Internet. They are the same videos but many people like to have their own copy. I burn and compile the sets myself so if you have any issues I handle it. There are no middle foragers. And I’m working on adding a tenth DVD. To learn more about the DVDs or to order them click here.

There’s a wide variety of acorns and flavors.

On the Green Deane Forum we post messages and pictures about foraging all year-long. There’s also a UFO page, for Unidentified Flowering Objects so plants can be identified. Recent topics include: Acorns All Colors And Sizes, Turn On The Water, Nanoscopy, Puff on This, Lab To Determine Plant Composition, Orange Red Berry, Atlatl, Odd Trees, Grinder for Tough Roots, European Mountain Ash Edible? Curly Dock,  Goldenrod of Some Sort, Saffron Crocus Surprise, Cute Little Orange Thing, Indian Strawberry and Kousa Dogwood, Top Ten Herbs, Paleo Goodies, American Beautyberry, and Two Portulacas. The link to join is on the right hand side of this page.

It is not too early to think about going to the Florida Herbal Conference in late February. I’ve taught there for the last three years and will be there again this year. In fact I plan to spend a lot of time there. You should also know there is an early bird special that expires this Friday, October 31st. It’s a must for all southern herbalists and well as those northern ones who want to escape the cold and study their craft in the dead of winter. It always has interesting speakers and great classes. For more information and to register go here.

As previously mentioned I spent the weekend on the southeast coast of Florida. Sunday included a tour of the food forest at Florida’s Gulf Coast University as well as a foraging class. Here’s the crew after some five hours of rummaging around.

Foraging class at Florida Gulf Coast University.

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

Rose hips can be high in vitamin C. Photo by Green Deane

When I was in Maine last week attending a memorial service I noticed some roses were still blooming. Night time temperatures were dipping into the up 30’s and windshields frost-covered in the morning. Still the roses were putting on new blossoms and quite a few other species were still producing, staghorn sumac among them.

The hairs on sumac berries also have vitamin C. Photo by Green Deane

Rose hips are high in vitamin C and can vary in flavor from bitter to Sweet & Sour. Raw you eat only the outside portion, avoiding the seeds. The seeds have tiny hair on them that are very irritating. They were the original itching powder and if consumed can cause what the Aboriginals called “itchy bottom disease.” You can cut the hips in half — if they are large — and let them dry then use the outside to make tea. Or you can use the entire rose hip for tea but pour it through a fine filter to take out the hairs. Another option is to boil the hip then squeeze the pulp through a screen or the like, capturing the seeds. Some people dry the hips and rub them in a sieve to get the hairs off leaving the seeds  — it takes patience. I would expect the rose seeds to have a small amount of cyanide in them — most plants in that family do — but I have not found any serious research on that. Besides the hips rose petals are also edible. The size of rose hips vary as does their persistence to stay on during the winter. To read more about roses go here.

The Wild Wisdom of Weeds by Katrina Blair. Newsletter photo by Green Deane

Foraging is a broad  topic. Some folks are interested in the utility side: Edible, not edible. Others view the foraged plant as part of a larger dynamic, not only the local environment but the Grand Environment at large. And there are folks for whom foraging has a spiritual side. Along those latter lines is The Wild Wisdom of Weeds, Thirteen Essential Plants for Human Survival by Katrina Blair, ISBN 978-1-60358-516-3, Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, Vermont, published in September.

Writing about wild edibles is much like teaching about them. You are faced with a choice: Say a little about a lot of plants or say a lot about a few plants. Neither is right or wrong but it is a choice writers and teachers have to make. In this book Blair has chosen to write extensively about 13 different plants. They were selected because they live in close company to people, are environmentally adaptable group, and usually available fresh. The menu is: Amaranth, chickweed, clover, dandelion, dock, grass, knotweed, lambsquarters, mallow, mustard, plantain, purslane, and thistle.

Dandelion as we see it and how a bug sees it

While all of these global species have been used as food and medicine there is more to it. Blair considers harvesting wild food a “core living skill” with added benefits: “The wild weeds offer a direct link for accessing wild intelligence within each of us. As humans are becoming increasingly distant from daily access to the wilderness, the wild weeds bring a quality of integrity and healing frequencies into our civilized habitats. Over millennia, they have fine-tuned their equilibrium with the changing seasons of nature, increasing their instinctive nature to survive.”  For Blair the collection is both metaphysical and numerical and she chose 13 species for a variety of reasons.

One area where Blair might irritate a few readers — particularly native plant society folks — is an unkindly view towards those who call species “invasive.”  Indeed, what is native, non-native and invasive? Her writing echoes some research regarding biodiversity and “invasives.” For example in North America most of the invasives are from Asia yet Asia has a few invasives from North America. The argument goes that Asia has more invasive species because it has greater biodiversity. Some are suggesting  greater biodiversity is more significant that if a particular plant is invasive or not.

As to practical matters Blair offers much information on harvesting, preparing, eating and preserving your foraged food. She also argues they are good for the local economy, for our health and food security, and are an independent source of medicine that is in tune with our nature. With nearly a year’s worth of pages (358) Blair offers a lot of experience and value in a book that sure to be a plant “Bible” and reference for many.

Honey Mushrooms are six weeks early, will our winter green plants be early, too? Photo by Green Deane

While in Maine I happened to wander around an 80-acre hay field, which when I was a boy was a blueberry field. Still available for harvesting was plantains, clover and blossoming sow thistles. Their last gasp before the snow flies is a reminder that here in The South many of us are coming into one of our prime foraging seasons. Many species of summer and fall up north show up here in the winter time. It is too hot for them in the summer so the debut after fall sets in. Prime among them will be sow thistles, dandelions, chickweed and mustard. Though our nights have been dipping into the 60’s F we are a month or more away from many of these species. Well, that would be the normal answer. But at least one edible that shows up around the second week of november here was six weeks early, Honey Mushrooms. So the foraging season for green plants might be off as well.

Green Deane

Upcoming Classes: Saturday, October 25th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 23000 Bayshore Rd., Port Charlotte, FL 33980, 9 a.m.

Thursday, October 30th, Emerson Point Preserve, 5801 17th Street West, Palmetto, FL 34221. This class is part benefits Eat Local Week of greater Sarasota. The shortened class starts at 9 a.m. and goes to 11 a.m., cost is less than usual, $20. Because governmental agencies are involved the class has to be paid ahead of time. To learn more about other events of that week or to pay for this class go here. (The class link is near the bottom under EatTheWeeds class.) 

135 Eat The Weeds videos are available on DVDs.

Eat The Weeds On DVD. My foraging videos do not include alligators but they do cover dozens of edible plants in North America. The set has nine DVD. Each DVD has 15 videos for 135 in all. Some of these videos are of better quality than my free ones on the Internet. They are the same videos but many people like to have their own copy. I burn and compile the sets myself so if you have any issues I handle it. There are no middle foragers. And I’m working on adding a tenth DVD. To learn more about the DVDs or to order them click here.

Green Deane Forum

On the Green Deane Forum we post messages and pictures about foraging all year-long. There’s also a UFO page, for Unidentified Flowering Objects so plants can be identified. Recent topics include: Grinder for Tough Roots, Atlatl, European Mountain Ash Edible? Curly Dock,  Goldenrod of Some Sort, Saffron Crocus Surprise, Cute Little Orange Thing, Indian Strawberry and Kousa Dogwood, Top Ten Herbs, Paleo Goodies, American Beautyberry, Two Portulacas, Herbalist Question, Another Blue Berry, The Trails Are Getting Longer, Hard Apple Cider, and Pawpaws. The link to join is on the right hand side of this page.

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

Wild Strawberries can be tart to very sweet, photo by All Wallpapers

Fragaria virginiana: Be A Strawberry Sleuth

Fragaria do not like Florida. Only one northern county in the state reports having wild strawberries. But that’s all right. I ate more than my fill growing up in Maine.

Wild Strawberries eeking out a living

In fact, the best strawberry patch was across the dirt road, in a pasture in Pownal, just beyond a huge and well-armed Hawthorn tree.  The strawberries were typical of the wild version, small… but what flavor! I raided that patch annually for some 15 years.

One of my successful moments as a foraging teacher came years later when a native Floridian friend traveling through New Hampshire found  strawberries and identified them on her own. Not bad coming from a state nearly bereft of wild strawberries. Oddly, however, Florida grows literally tons of strawberries and has an annual Strawberry Festival in Plant City that draws hundreds of thousands and big named entertainment.

While growing up, as kids are wont to do, I found the strawberry patch on my own. I simply presumed they were edible. It’s rather surprising kids don’t make more mistakes than they do. Most plant poisonings involve very young children (and young pets.) Julia Morton, a botany professor at the University of Miami and an expert on toxic plants, said young children and young animals will chew on anything regardless of the flavor. Older kids won’t eat things that taste a bit off to them, as many a parent can confirm. Morton also said women are poisoned more often than men because they are curious about plants and will sampled them. Perhaps that’s an echo of their gathering ancestral history. That said men comprise about 66% of my video viewers. The argument is men do more things that bring them into contact with wild plants, such as fishing, hunting, hiking and the like.

Wild Strawberry blossom, note white not yellow

The botanical name for the common strawberry in eastern North America is Fragaria virginiana, frah-GAY-ree-uh vir-jin-ee-AY-nuh. Fragaria is from the Dead Latin word “fragans” meaning sweet-smelling. Virginiana essentially means of North America. The European strawberry is F. vesca (VES-kuh) meaning thin or small. The Greeks call them fraoules (frah-OU-less) where the Dead Latin “fragans” came from.  Beside the usual delicious uses strawberries can settle an upset stomach, the juice from the plant is good for face sores, red eyes and excessive tears. Root decoctions soothe liver problems, staunches menstrual flow, and firms the gums. Nearly every Indian tribe had a medical use for the entire plant. For some 700 years it has also been used as an  ananaphrodisiac, that is, to dull the libido. (Hmmm, I think I’ll skip the strawberry shortcake, thank you.) And a tea can be made from fresh or dry leaves, but not semi-dried leaves.

The “wood strawberry” helped sequence the strawberry’s genome.

Strawberries played a significant role in the lives of American Indians, both as medicine and food. Since strawberries have too much moisture to dry easily for winter use they were consumed in season. The Seneca Indians of the Iroquois Confederacy viewed strawberries as proof of their god’s beneficence and had a Strawberry thanksgiving ceremony. The Dakota called June the “red month” because strawberries were ripe then.

There is a second native strawberry in North America, interestingly called F. chiloensis (kye-loh-EN-sis) meaning “of Chile.” The F. Chiloensis  is larger than the F. virginiana and is found in the western United States and up the west coast.  The two natives were hybridized to make the modern garden strawberry.  (See some unusual recipes below.)

There’s even strawberry wine.

The name “strawberry” comes from “strewn berry” meaning the berries were strewn on the plants. That in time was shortened to strawberry. In the rose family strawberries aren’t really berries or fruit. They are enlarged ends of the plants’ stamen, the male part of the flower. The seeds are on the outer skin of the strawberry rather than inside. There are around 200 seeds per berry. If you find a tasteless strawberry in a northern area it is probably the F. vesco, also called a woods strawberry. In Florida that tasteless strawberry is not a true strawberry but the Indian Strawberry, low on taste but good on nutrition.

Heavy Weight World Champion Joseph Fraizer.

While many states like Florida have a Strawberry Festival  perhaps the most famous strawberry consumption is at Wimbledon, England. There strawberries and cream are eaten between tennis matches. (Your author has been to Wimbledon while an exchange student to the University of London, Whiteland’s College, but preferred Waltney’s Brown Ale to courtside strawberrying.) Lastly, the name of Fraser/Frazier means strawberry… You remember the world heavyweight boxing champ, don’t you? Smoking Joe Strawberry…

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Small plant with five-petaled white flowers, leaves of three, toothed (poison ivy usually does not have fine teeth.)  Blossoms to an inch across, on separate stalks; familiar fruit drooping, small. Ten small green sepals at the base of the fruit. Plant spreads by horizontal runners.

TIME OF YEAR: Late spring, early summer

ENVIRONMENT: Full sun in pastures, fields, moist ground, edges of woods, by sidewalks. Throughout North America. There are no similar looking toxic plants.  (See Indian Strawberry.)

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Numerous, only limited by time and imagination. A trail side nibble, pies, jelly, jam, cakes, drinks, deserts, the list is nearly endless. See recipes below. Strawberry leaf tea is laxative. Do not use wilted leaves. Only fresh or totally dry leaves.

Champagne Sorbet with Berry Medley

*   1 (750 milliliter) bottle champagne

* 1/4 cup white sugar

* 1 pint strawberries

* 1 pint blueberries

* 6 fresh mint leaves (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour champagne into a shallow metal pan or bowl, and stir in the sugar. Cover with plastic wrap, and place in freezer. Freeze for four hours, whisking every 30 minutes. The frozen mixture will be firm and granular.

2. Spoon the sorbet mixture into a blender or food processor, and process until smooth. Return to the metal container, cover, and re-freeze for up to 48 hours.

1. 3.Combine strawberries and blueberries in a small bowl. Spoon berries into the bottom of champagne flutes or wine glasses, and top with sorbet. Garnish with mint sprig if desired.

 Strawberry Roses

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups mascarpone cheese

* 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* 1/2 cup whipped cream

* 16 large strawberries, washed and dried well

* 1/4 cup coarse granulated sugar

* 2 teaspoons lemon zest

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat the mascarpone cheese, confectioners sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream. Spoon cheese mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star tip.

2. Leaving the stem end in tact, cut off the tip of each strawberry, and carefully remove the core using a small, thin knife. Stand strawberries upright (stem end down), and slice through the tip toward the stem. Do not cut completely through. Repeat, slicing a total of four times. Each strawberry will have eight sections. Roll the strawberries in the sugar.

3. Gently open each strawberry and fill each with the cheese mixture, using a circular motion. Arrange strawberry roses on a platter, and sprinkle with lemon zest.

The roses are easier to form if strawberries are at cool room temperature when filling.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

INGREDIENTS

* 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

* 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

* 1/2 cup white sugar

* 1/2 cup olive oil

* 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar

* 1/4 teaspoon paprika

* 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

* 1 tablespoon minced onion

* 10 ounces fresh spinach – rinsed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces

* 1 quart strawberries – cleaned, hulled and sliced

* 1/4 cup almonds, blanched and slivered

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and onion. Cover, and chill for one hour.

2. In a large bowl, combine the spinach, strawberries and almonds. Pour dressing over salad, and toss. Refrigerate 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

 Citharexylum fruticosum: Edible Guitar

The Fiddlewood tree is not high on the list of edibles. As some authors state, only kids eat the fruit, lots of seed, sparse on pulp. But it has some personal history to me — remotely — and is also a medicinal tree.

Fiddlewood, Citharexylum fruticosum

First edibility: The fruit resembles red wild cherries when unripe, and perhaps that is where the first disappointment arises. Like the Indian Strawberry the association implies something it is not. (The same thing happens with the Suriname Cherry.)  And the taste of the Fiddlewood fruit when ripe is not great. It depends on how hungry you are though opinions vary. Many like it. The fruit has two stones, is sweet and is available all year in its native range, which is where it is warm

The botanical name is Citharexylum fruticosum (sith-ar-RECKS-sil-lum  froo-tick-OH-sum) a name that can take us on quite a linguistic journey because “cithera” means guitar. So why is it “fiddlewood?”  Almost directly translated the botanical name means “lyre wood shrubby”  Put in better terms it could mean “guitar wood tree” or more directly  “shubby kythera.” (KITH-ah-rah)  Kythera (a lyre is kythara, kith-THA-rah) is also the Greek word from which we get “guitar” … kith-THA-rah… get-TAR…see it? Hear it? The Fiddlewood tree is also called the Guitar Tree. To explain it all we have to go to Greece.

Unripe berries are reddish

One can navigate by sight from the western end of Crete northward to the southern tip of the Greece mainland in The Mani, where the Spartans lived. Cretans and Maniotes call themselves First Brothers and have much in common in dress, cooking and customs.  From Crete’s Gramvousa Peninsula you can see Little Kythera, some 20 miles away. Little Kythera (Antikythera) sits on a fault line and a few decades ago part of the small island rose 20 feet, a change that is still quite visible today. That is also where a brass sextant of sorts (the Antikythera Mechanism, below right) was found in 1901 proving celestial calculations with an instrument was possible two thousand years ago. Little Kythera as of this writing has 44 permanent residents.

Antikythera Mechanism

Incidentally, the ferry in season, see photos below, lands twice a week at Little Kythera doing the nautical equivalent of a “touch and go.” The football-field-long ferry backs up to the dock, lowering the gang way as it backs up. The very moment the gang way is over the dock it drops. All things going off or on do so in about a minute. The gang way lifts a few inches and the ferry leaves immediately, cranking the gang way up the rest of the way while over open water. The docking, exchange, and departure takes less than five minutes.

From Little Kythera you can see Crete to the south and Kythera to the north, taller but farther away. And Kythera is indeed shaped like a lute or a guitar. A large island, it has some 3,000 permanent residents plus an airport. Interestingly, some 100,000 Greeks in Australia claim ancestry to Kythera and try to return at least once a year, in the Greek summer, which is conveniently the Australian winter.  Kythera is the birth place, so to speak, of Aphrodite. The island was first inhabited by the Minoans and then the Phoenicians, both of whom wanted the Murex, a tiny shell fish whose minute anal gland was the only source of royal purple dye in ancient times. How they discovered that is anyone guess.  From Kythera one can see Little Kythera to the south and to the north the southern tip of the main land called Peloponneus, specifically “The Mani” from where we get the word “maniacs” in English because of how tenaciously they fought. It is one area of Greece never occupied by the Turks or the Germans.

If you take the day-long ferry from Crete it lands at Little Kythera, Kythera, then on the mainland at the little city of Gythio, whose sole industry in the past was collecting the royal purple as well… there’s about 10 square feet of ruins there right beside the road.  Gythio was also the home port of the Spartans and the area where this writer’s family comes from.

Ripe fiddlewood berries are black-ish

Now which came first, the instrument then the naming of the island or the island and the naming of the instrument is a debate. But, kythera …kythera…came to mean lyre and from kythara we got guitar and from that we got the fiddlewood tree. How? When Linnaeus was naming plants the English words “violin” or “fiddle” were not common in his time plus he preferred classical names. He knew the wood was used to make musical instruments so he named it  “guitar wood shrub” Citharexylum fruticosum. That got stretched into Guitar Tree and then Fiddlewood Tree. Now you know.

The most common name for the tree in the Caribbean islands is “old woman’s blisters” read it’s used for a lot of ailments. Boiled twigs and decoctions are used if you’re chilled. When mixed with Strongback and Spoonbush it is used for sores. Boiled with mahogany, lignum vitae, Doctor Club roots, Snowberry and papaya latex, it was used to aid indigestion… or perhaps create it…. Also beware… insects of all sorts love the tree so you will encounter them, in numbers. The fruit plup is edible but not prized. Do not eat the seeds.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Fiddlewood Tree

IDENTIFICTION: Citharexylum fruticosum: Shrub or tree to 30 feet, short trunk or several trunks, erect branches, compact. Leaves opposite, oblong to oval, with pointed or notched tip, to six inches long, glossy, yellow-green leathery, with orange stalks. Flowers white, tubular, five lobed, 1/8 inch wide, fragrant, in hairy clusters to six inches long. Fruit half-inch wide, brown or orange red when unripe, purple black when ripe. Sweet, two seeds.

TIME OF YEAR: All year

ENVIRONMENT: Coastal pine lands and hammocks

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Ripe fruit edible raw, but not great.  Do not eat the seeds.

Backing up to the dock at Little Kythera

Right, backing up to the dock at Little Kythera, Greece. The ferry comes by twice a week in season, south to Crete one day, north to the mainland the next. Below left is Kythera showing the “neck” of the guitar.  The large picture is the small city of Gythio, home port of the Spartans and of this writer’s ancestors in the villages of Karea to the southwest and Konakia to the northwest.  A small island just a few hundred feet off to the left of Gythio was where Paris and Helen spent the night consummating their love, starting the Trojan War, or so the romantic story goes.

The link to the university’s site to buy the book — I do not get a cut — is here.

The list of known edibles in the book is below. Many of them are covered in separate articles on site.  Click on the common name.

Page 10:   Commelina diffusa, young tips boiled in ample water, blossoms raw. Dayflowers.
Page 11:   Murdannia nudiflora, same as above.  Doveweed.
Page 14:   Cyperus esculentus, tubers, raw, boiled, roasted or candied, oil from tubers, seeds roasted as a coffee substitute. Chufa
Page 19:   Cyperus rotundus, edible after drying, fresh are an insect repellant. See above.
Page 26:   Anthoxanthum odoratum, dry leaves as tea, grain, caution as it is a blood thinner.
Page 31:   Cenchrus echinatus, use as grain after burning off spines, or winnowing between leather pads. Sandspurs.
Page 32:   Cenchrus incertus, same as above.
Page 34:   Dactyloctenium aegyptium, dry seeds to make a flour, or mush, beer et cetera. Crowfoot Grass.
Page 65:   Allium vineale, wild garlic, use like said. Wild Onion, Wild Garlic.
Page 67:   Mollugo verticillata,  leaves as potherb.
Page 71:    Amaranthus blitum, Livid Amaranth, use cooked like spinach.
Page 72:   Amaranthus hybridus, Smooth Pigweed, use cooked like spinach.
Page 73:   Amaranthus verdis, Slender Amaranth, use cooked like spinach.
Page 88:   Cirsium horridulum, all true thistles are edible, first year root raw or cooked, second year stalk peeled raw or cooked, leaves anytime peeled of spines, raw or cooked. Bull Thistle
Page 89:   Conyza canadensis, barely edible as a spice, significant medicinal. Horseweed.
Page 90:   Eclipta prostrata, young leaves and shoots cooked.
Page 91:    Emilia fosbergii, from non-flowering plant, young leaves raw, or cooked, occasional use, long-term use can cause liver tumors.
Page 92:    Erechtites hieraciifolia, raw or cooked, an acquired taste. Fireweed.
Page 103:  Hypochoeris radicata, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) False Dandelions
Page 105:  Lactuca canadensis, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) Lettuce Labyrinth
Page 107:  Pyrrhopappus carolinianus, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) False dandelions.
Page 109:  Sonchus asper, young leaves cooked (usually boiled.) Sow Thistle.
Page 110:  Taraxacum officinale, young leaves cooked, blossoms as tea or to flavor wine, panckakes, roasted roots. Dandelions.
Page 113:  Youngia japonica, young leaves raw or cooked. False Hawksbeard.
Page 115:  Capsella bursa-pastoris, young leaves for seasoning or greens after boiling, seeds as pepper, grind root add to salt and vinegar for horseradish substitute. Peppergrass.
Page 116:  Cardamine hirsuta, leaves and seed pods for seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 117:  Coronopus didymus, leaves and seed pods for seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 118:  Descurainia pinnata, leaves and seed pods for seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 119:  Lepidium virginicum, same as Capsella bursa-pasatopris. Peppergrass.
Page 120:  Sibara virginica, young leaves and seed pods as seasoning. The Little Mustards.
Page 128:  Erodium circutarium, young leaves boiled. Stork’s Bill
Page 129:  Geranium carolinianum, young leaves boiled, very bitter, more a medicinal. Stork’s Bill
Page 130:  Glechoma hederacea, young leaves cooked, much written about this plant. Henbit
Page 131:  Lamium amplexicaule, young leaves raw or cooked. Henbit.
Page 132:  Lamium purpureum, young leaves raw or cooked. Henbit.
Page 133:  Prunella vulgaris, young leaves raw or cooked, tends to be bitter raw.
Page 134:  Stachys floridana, root edible raw or cooked, leaves dried for tea, leaves boiled as famine food, musty flavored. Florida Betony
Page 137:  Desmodium triflorum, threeflower ticktrefoil, in India traditionally boiled then mixed with dry fish. Yum. Tick Clover
Page 141:  Medicago lupulina, seeds edible, leaves edible cooked but implicated in auto-immune diseases. Iffy. Black Medic
Page 146:  Trifolium compestre, leave edible raw or cooked, blossoms, too. Family does not digest well.
Page 147:  Trifolium dubium, leaves edible raw or cooked, blossoms too. See above.
Page 148:  Trifolium repens, leaves edible raw or cooked, blossoms too. Clover.
Page 150:  Vicia sativa, seeds cooked, leaves cooked, but some reports of toxicity in the lab, not in the field.
Page 152:  Modiola caroliniana, leaves used to make a drink. Carolina Bristle Mallow
Page 154:  Boerhavia diffusa, tender young leaves and shoots – cooked and used as a vegetable, root – baked, rich in carbohydrate and protein, though the flavor is bland and the texture sometimes woody. Seeds – cooked. It can be ground into a powder and added to cereals when making bread, cakes et cetera. If the root chemically burns mouth after cooking do not eat. Red Spiderling.
Page 157:  Oxalis intermedia, leaves raw or cooked, entire plant edible. Sorrels
Page 158:  Oxalis stricta, leaves raw or cooked. See above.
Page 159:  Plantago aristata, young leaves raw or cooked, young seed spike raw or cooked, seeds raw or cooked. Plantains
Page 160:  Plantago lanceolata, same as above
Page 161:  Plantago major, same as above
Page 162:  Plantago virginica, same as above
Page 163:  Polygonum aviculare, young leaves, seeds, and blossoms, raw or cooked (probably P. caespitosum, too.) Blossom the hottest but also bitter. Large raw amounts can raise blood pressure..
Page 165:  Rumex acetosella, young leaves raw or cooked (makes a nice tartlet with sour cream.) Root – cooked. It can be dried, ground into a powder and made into noodles. Seed – raw or cooked. Easy to harvest, but the seed is rather small. A drink similar to lemonade is made by boiling the leaves. Sheep Sorrel
Page 166:  Rumex crispus, young leaves and seeds, raw or cooked, similar to above.
Page 168:  Portulaca oleracea, entire plant above ground raw or cooked. Purslane.
Page 172:  Duchesnea indica, berries raw, leaves cooked. Reports of it being poisonous are simply wrong. Indian strawberry
Page 176:  Galium aparine, young shoots and leaves raw or cooked, seed roasted make an excellent coffee substitute. Old leaves toxic with silica.  When the plant is young it stimulates the immune system and is good for the lymph system. Goosegrass.
Page 190:  Centella asiatica, Gotu Kola, leaves edible raw or cooked, better cooked. Pennyworts.
Page 191:  Daucus carota, root cooked, thin and stringy, flower clusters can be french-fried to produce a carrot-flavoured gourmet’s delight, the aromatic seed is used as a flavouring in stews et cetera, the dried roasted roots are ground into a powder and are used for making coffee substitute. Wild Carrots.
Page 192:  Hydrocotyles, young leaves raw or cooked, better cooked, too many leaves raw will lower your blood pressure. Pennyworts.
Page 193:  Parietaria floridana, young leaves, stems, flowers raw or cooked, diuretic, can make some itch, try sparingly at first. (In more than 20 years I have not met anyone who gets the itch.) Pellitory.
Page 196:  Viola, above ground parts edible raw or cooked. Romans made blossoms into wine. Root is toxic.  Violet Virtues.
Page 197:  Viola arvensis, same as above
Page 198:  Viola rafinesquii, same as above

I did not list many of the grass seeds as edible, but probably they are as I do not know of any native toxic grasses in North America.

Though the seeds are toxic the arils can be eaten whether red or purple.

Fruiting is afoot, foot fruit that is, Podocarpus macrophyllus (aka Kusamaki or Inumaki). Locally it can fruit anytime, and sporadically does. But, somewhere around August is our prime time. Add a month or more as you head north, earlier if you’re farther south.

The Podocarpus comes with a warning. The hard, bluish-green seeds are toxic. It is only the fleshy soft aril that is eaten. I have eaten many arils without any unexpected effect. Some universities say they are edible, a few say mildly toxic. I suspect if there is any toxicity related to them it is the woody core that goes through the aril. If in doubt don’t consume the woody core, and to be on the safe side children, who are a lot smaller than adults, should avoid the woody core. Again, a reminder, the seeds on the end are toxic.

The fruit can be made into pies and jelly and eaten out of hand. Botanist tell us the aril is a tasty inducement to creatures to spread the seeds around. Works for me. To read more about the Podocarpus click here.

Food is where the water is.

A Site for More Ayes: If you are thinking about organizing a class in your area — read other than my regularly scheduled locations — here’s what to look for in a class site. (I will also make a post of this.) I have found large, old, city parks are usually the best locations. They have parking, drinking water and bathrooms. (The mind’s capacity is directly related to the bladder’s capacity.)  It should have a proven body of water. I mean, an existing pond or lake (or shore or brackish water.) I say that because one place I was invited to had plenty of lakes on the map but none on the ground (the map they used was decades old and the water long gone.)  When I arrived at another place to hold a class I asked the organizer where the body of water was, as I saw no lake or pond. He told me right below me, that he had a high water table…. The site should be a few acres or more so we can wander around different plant habitats. The addition of a field or a not-so manicured lawn is also good. Usually the less well-kept the better. State parks are usually not good locations for a wild edible plant class. There are some species there but the greater variety is found in suburbia. And the location should have an address. That’s so folks can find it. Here my near-term class schedule:

Saturday, July 28th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, (near Daytona Beach) 32127. 9 a.m.

Sunday, July 29th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. FL. (near Deland) 32706., 9 a.m.

Friday, August 10th, Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave., Ocala, FL, 34471, 9 a.m.

Saturday, August 11th, Boulware Springs Park, 7902 S. E. 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL, 32601. 9 a.m.

Sunday, August 12th, Florida State College,  11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, FL, 32246 9 a.m.

I am still trying to firm up a teaching tour up to North Carolina and back. Looking for suitable sites in Savannah (and great one was suggested but is closed) Charleston SC, Charlotte NC, and around Boone North Carolina.

Tom Hanks when he finally makes fire in the movie Cast Away. Everyone who has made fire by friction has had that same moment.

Going to rub two sticks together and make fire? Locally willow is often used for the base. The drill can be several materials. Among those used are dog fennel and caesar weed. Sometimes the roots of those two can also be used for the base, which saves having to also find a willow tree. If I remember correctly dog fennel has a kindling temperature of 700 degrees, but you want a piece for a drill that is not hollow. One can also see why Caesar weed is a good choice. It was imported into Florida by the government to make fiber, so it has a lot of material to make dust and hence a coal. Cattail stalks also make a drill but can be flimsy. Cottonwood is also a good choice in that you can use it for the drill and the base. Not the quickest to set a coal but it usually has dry branches lying around so one does not have to go look far for materials.

Native grapes have clusters not bunches

Grapes are early this year. I usually start looking for ripe muscadine grapes locally in September. During a class this past weekend in Lake Alfred we saw native grapes in two areas fruiting heavily, and most of the ones I tried were sweet, unlike some years.  Remember we have two basic kinds of grapes locally, the native mucadines and the escaped cultivars. The muscadines have clusters of grapes, usually four to eight, and are often acidic, and have a single tendril. The escaped cultivars have European history. They have a bunch of grapes but about half the size of commercial grapes. They are sweeter, lower in acid, and have a forked tendril. To read more about grapes go here.

No matter what it’s called the Indian strawberry as little taste.

It just may be that the name of anything that begins with “mock” should also not be called what ever follows “mock.” Mock Duck comes to mind. It’s tasteless gluten, not like duck no matter how imaginative one is. Mock Strawberry, aka Indian Strawberry, is another mocking munchie. It tastes like… nothing… or close to nothing and it’s in season in various parts of the country. If it is tasteless why eat it? Well, it’s not totally tasteless with just a hint of watermelon. But it does have some nutrition, and looks good in a salad.  Those leaves can be added to a salad or made into tea. To learn more about the Indian Strawberry click here. To learn about true strawberries read this.

Pet bat getting a bath.

And in the category of I didn’t know that but it makes some sense bats are aural voyeurs. They listen for mating insects then swoop in for a two-for-one special while the bugs have got their … ah … guard down. In Australia mating locusts are more likely to be dinner than single locusts still looking for a good time. And German researchers, analyzing video taped movements of some 9,000 flies, found mating could increase the flies’ death rate as much as 21 percent, which brings new meaning to the phrase “dinner date.”  Next question though is how do they really know this? Well… the researchers took dead, noiseless files and mounted them — so to speak — on a shed ceiling then played back sounds of mating flies versus celibate flies and watched the bats go batty… sonar sex… seems rather flighty to me… At least two trees with edible parts, baobab and kapok, are pollinated by bats.

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