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Pines are found around the world

Pines: Not just for breakfast anymore

Euell Gibbons became famous for asking, “have you ever eaten a pine tree?”

You want brown unopened cones with prickles

A lot of folks had a laugh over that, but perhaps Euell will have the last laugh. We all probably have an ancestor who ate a pine tree or part of it now and then. I know I did. And people may eat pine again. It’s a family with over 200 species and has served man well, famine food to ship masts. So much has been written about this family let me see if I can say a few things others haven’t.

Where ever there have been pines and people the people have depended on the pines. Besides food, they had and still have medical uses. Pines have been used for the making of stimulants, laxatives, diuretics and vermifuges, among many including Shikimic acid, the main crude ingredient in Tamiflu.

“male” pine cones and pollen

There are actually two groups of pines, softwood pines and hardwood pines. The soft pines have needles that are found in groups of five on twigs. Their wood is actually low in density. Hard pines have needles in groups of two or three per twig. Their wood is moderate in density.  This may seem like a technical distraction but often telling pines apart is very difficult and how the needles arrange themselves is important… unless you are making pine needle tea, then just put a few needles or the tip of a young branch in hot water and you’ll have a nice serving of Vitamin C. Pine needle tea saved many a sailor in olden days from scurvy. (Despite what some websites say, in tea form the pine needles are no threat to pregnant women. In fact let me explain that.)

The basis for this rumor is a veterinary study decades ago. If you are a cow and you eat many pounds of Ponderosa Pine needles you have a 5 to 8 percent chance out of 100 of having an abortion or still-birth. If you boil a huge amount of pine needles in water for hours down to a small amount of gross liquid and you drink it, then maybe it would cause an abortion. A few of needles soaked in hot water is no threat to anyone except for possible allergies. Here’s what famous forager Euell Gibbons had to say: “When I was a boy we used to eat ponderosa pine for pleasure . . . called it “slivers”. In the spring the bark is really gorged with starches and sugars and tastes quite sweet. It’s also high in vitamins.”

The cambium of the pine (between the bark and the wood) can be boiled or roasted as a famine food, and makes a reasonable flour. Fried in olive or coconut oil it’s actually tasty. The cambium near the base of the tree is better than the cambium near the top of the tree. That bit of advice always struck me as odd as if I would climb a pine to get a strip of bark off the top when the bottom is so close and handy. And of course nearly everyone has had a pine nut or two. Animals like the pine nuts as well, including squirrels, turkey, quail, and brown-headed nuthatches.

The collecting of pine nuts for human use is a debatable issue. Some 20 species of pine have nuts big enough to harvest for human food. If foraging is a hobby, then go ahead and collect a few (put the brown, unopened female cones near a fire to make them open and release the seeds.) If in a survival situation, however, one could expend more energy collecting pine nuts than energy gotten from the pine nuts so it is a significant decision to make when out of food. Female pine cones can weigh up to 10 pounds and be two feet long. The pinyon pine, where we get the familiar pine nut in the US, is the only pine with one needle per twig.

Most pine seeds are too small to eat

But, there is more to the pine than nuts, cambium, and needles. Like the cambium, the young male pine cones can be boiled and eaten. What is a male pine cone? Well, they are small, soft and papery whereas the female cones are woody and tough.  Male cones really shouldn’t be called cones. Technically they are microsporangiate strobili. Say that at a cocktail party and see how many conversations you start.  (Hint: micro-spore-WREN-gee-ate  stro-BYE-lee) The best I can do is that a male pine “cone” looks like a small cluster of toasted coconut bits shaped like orzo.  See picture, upper right. If you have a better description let me know.

Indespensible pine pitch

Here is another little known fact: During certain times of the year my pickup is covered with a light yellow dusting. Starting in winter here and going into spring the pines have sex on their minds and the fellows are releasing pollen. For some pine pollen means misery from sniffling and sneezing. But pine pollen is more than just the mere powder of pine lust.

Pine pollen is a large particle, and since it depends on the wind, it can’t travel too far. It also has a waxy coating on it’s surface which makes it a minor allergy trigger, though a few folks are allergic to it. When the pine is pollinating other trees that are more significant allergens are secretly pollenating such as birch, cedar, oak and sycamore. Often folks who think they have a pine allergy are actually allergic to one or more of those other trees.

Which brings me back to pine pollen.  It has over 200 identified elements from vitamins to proto male hormones… yeah, it’s a guy food.  It’s been called the natural testosterone, androstenedione, but that is a marketing exaggeration.  It has about 27 nanograms per 0.1 grams of dry weight, not suitable for the bulking up weightlifters want, but available none the less. Putting the pollen under the tongue keeps it from being destroyed by the digestive system.

Androstenedione is an adrenal hormone produced in humans.  Reduce androstenedione by one molecule and you have  testosterone, which both men and women have in different amounts. Androstenedione can raise testosterone levels. The effect lasts about a day.  And this is how the Native Americans used it, for extra energy when they needed it. So when on the run, grab a little pine pollen. Pine pollen also seems to have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system as well.  How do you collect it? Put a sack over the microsporangiate strobili and shake, if it is the right time of the year, lick the hood of your car.

And what about shikimic acid and the flu? Processed shikimic acid prevents the flu from reproducing, thus reducing symptoms and the duration of the flu. The drug Tamiflu is made from the seed pods of the Chinese star anise tree which is 7% shikemic acid. Researchers have found that White Pine needles have enough shikimic acid, 3%, to make its extraction commercially viable.  Spruce also have the acid and it is presumed other pines do in varying amounts.

The English name pine comes from the Greek Pitus thru Latin Pinus (PIE-nus and PEE-nus)  by way of French “pin.” Contemporary Greeks say ;’ PEF-ko.” That takes us now to how the Greeks use pine, and that is to flavor a white wine called retsina.

Greeks have been making retsina for a few thousand years. It was an acquired tasted by accident. They stored their white wine in clay containers lined with pine pitch (to keep them from weeping.)  The wine took on the subtle flavor of the pitch. Now days, retsina comes in a wide range of flavors, from delicate to intense. I have several relatives who make it. One of my fondest memories of Greece was having cloudy, young, homemade retsina high in the mountains after a meal of kid roasted on an olive wood fire. There’s one other advantage to retsina: Take it to a party and no one will steal your wine. To make your own retsina the short way, put a pea-size piece of pine pitch  in a bottle of cheap chablis and let set in the refrigerator for a long time.

Young pine roots are edible as are stripped pieces of their bark. The bark can be seeped in water for its sugar and the water drank. Also, many pine trees have burls on a limb and those can be broken off and used as a throwing stick or mallets.

NOTE: The “Australian Pine” is NOT a pine. It can not be used like true pines.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Pines are evergreen and resinous trees growing to 100 feet tall, the adult tree has long needles in clusters of three to five up to 18 inches long.

TIME OF YEAR: Needles and inner bark available year round, young male cones and pollen in spring.

ENVIRONMENT: Pines grow well in acid soils, some on calcareous soils; most require good drainage, preferring sandy soils to accommodate a large tap root up to 12 feet.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Needles raw as a nibble or in hot water for tea, or chopped and used like rosemary. Inner bark near base is edible, preferably cooked, can be made into a flour, very high in vitamins A and C, young male cones boiled, pollen eaten as is.  The core of young roots are edible raw when peeled of the outer bark. The young root bark can be seeped for its sugar content.

HERB BLURB

Icelanders of the 1400’s took pine sap mixed with honey to ease lung troubles. Oriental herbalists use pine knots as medicine, especially for arthritis.

Spatchcocked Chicken

Traditionally a spatchcock is a game bird that is prepared for roasting, broiling or grilling by removing the backbone and sternum of the bird and flattening it out before cooking. In this recipe the pine needles are used like rosemary.

3 ½ – 4 pound young chicken,

Sea salt and ground pepper

2 tablespoons young pine needles or shoots, minced

2 -3 tablespoons lime juice

Rinse chicken with cold water, dry. Remove extra fat, trim off wing

tips. Place chicken breast side down and using poultry shears cut along

backbone, starting at the neck. Repeat on the other side of the backbone

Spread the two sides apart and press down on the breast so that the chicken

lies flat. Season both sides with salt and pepper and lemon juice.

Build a charcoal fire on one side of your grill;. Place chicken skin side down at the edge of the fire with legs closest. Turn over when skin starts to brown. Turn and move chicken to the side of the fire and cover with a large  disposable aluminum pan. This creates a “mini” oven providing high heat off the direct fire. The  grill cover can be used, but the browning and flavor will be less. Cooking time varies, depending on the fire and the size of the chicken. Check the temperature at 20 minutes after turning. When the temperature in the thigh reaches 175 degrees, remove from the heat and let sit, sprinkle with chopped pine needles, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

Pine Needle Tea

You can make pine needle tea two ways. One is to pull three or four needles off a tree and stick them in a cup of hot water. Wait a few minutes then enjoy with or without sweetener.

Or collected a handful of pine needles. Needles nearest the trunk are higher in Vitamin C. Chop the needles and put them into a tea ball. Bring water to a boil. Take off the boil. Steep the pine needles for 3-5 minutes. The tea is delicate.

Pine Infused Vinegar By Pascal Bauder

Pine Infused Vinegar, photo by Pascal Bauder

Pine infused vinegar: Apple cider vinegar and pine needles were placed in a jar for 6 weeks after water bath canning. The ratio is around 50% pine needle and 50% vinegar. Extremely sharp (pine needles have this lemony/tart flavor) so I also added some of my pine sugar (pine needles powdered with organic sugar) to it. It’s delicious, sort of sweet and sour with a pine touch. It was quite cloudy so had to filter it twice. Soon in a couple of restaurants in Los Angeles. For the vinegar infusion I used fresh needles and for the pine sugar I used dehydrated ones. So it’s a mix really. Just apple cider vinegar and pine was quite…sharp which is why I added the sugar.

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  • Chinese Tallow Tree  (1)

    Popcorn Tree, Florida Aspen, Tallow Tree

    There is a lot of debate whether the white waxy aril of the Chinese Tallow Tree is edible or not…

  • Chocolate Vine, Abeki: Any plant with “chocolate” in the name is sure to get attention. And when it’s also called an invasive species then even more so.
  • Christmas & Maiden berries

    Crossopetalums: Edible Berries & Medicine

    When I was an undergrad in music it was a revelation to learn that by studying music you also studied history:…

  • Christmasberry, Wolfberry, Goji  (1)

    Christmas, Wolf, Goji, They’re All Berries
    It’s called the Christmasberry even though it fruits in April, and while it is one of several “Christmas Berries”…

  • Chufa For Two  (1)

    Cyperus esculentus, C. rotundus: Serious Sedges
    There are two edible Cyperus locally: One that tastes like hazelnuts and one that smells and tastes to me…

  • Cider Barrel Rules  (2)
    My mother was a horrible cook.I used to joke she thought I was a Greek god: Every meal was either a burnt offering or a sacrifice.I learned to cook…
  • Cider Hard, But Quick and Easy  (22)

    How To Make Hard Cider
    You can make hard apple cider the difficult way, or the quick and easy way. I prefer the easy quick way. I’ve made a lot of beer and…

  • Citron Melon, Tsamma  (6)

    Citron Melons: Abandoned Preserves
    Are they edible?

    Even people who do not forage want to know if the little watermelons they see in citrus groves are…

  • Civilized Food

    While making my purslane video I was thinking back to a family friend who refused to eat purslane because it was a “weed.”

    It had taken over about one third…

  • Climbing Fig, Creeping Fig  (3)
    If there is one thing about the Internet that irritates the sap out of me it is how mistakes proliferate rather than get corrected. I have ranted about…
  • Clover, Available Around The World  (7)

    Clover, Available Around The World
    Hay may be for horses, but clover is for people…well…. almost.

    I was forever nibbling on clover blossoms when I…

  • Coco-Plums

    Chrysobalanus icaco: Multi-Colored Fruit
    Coco-plums are three quarters patriotic: They can be red, white, or blue ( and yellow.)

    Actually, the “blue” is deep…

  • Coconuts: It’s A Matter of Degrees

    Coconut, An Equatorial Palm
    Popular media and commercial production have made the coconut a common cultural item, even if you live thousands of miles away…

  • Codium Compendium

    Codiums: Edible around the world
    Oceanographers like to call Codium a minor seaweed because it is not commercially exploitable. Yet where it is found around…

  • Common Reed  (1)
    Some 20 years ago I pondered upon the identity of what appeared to be a very tall grass in a former marlpit in Port Orange, a few miles south of Daytona…
    • Cooking Like A Caveman

      The Mesolithic Era is not a sexy topic that will win friends and influence people at parties. But, it is something foragers should think about. If you are a…

    • Cooking without Pots or Pans  (2)

      Mesolithic Cooking: It’s the Pitshttps://www.eattheweeds.com
      How do you cook without pots or pans?

      It’s a question our distant ancestors never asked because pots and pans didn’t…

www.eattheweeds.com

  • Coontie Courage

    Zamia Floridana: Making Toxins Edible
    This plant is included here in case 1) society falls apart; 2) You live in Georgia or Florida and need starch…

  • Coquina: Tasty Tiny Clam
    Coquina: Donax: Good Eats
    Ounce for ounce there is probably no more delicious seafood than Coquina. The problem is getting an ounce of it, so we usually…
  • Coral Bean: Humming Bird Fast Food
    Erythrina herbacea: Part Edible, Part NotThe (eastern) Coral Bean is one of those damned if you do, and damned if you don’t kind of things. Parts of…
  • Coral Vine

    Antigonon leptopus: Creeping Cuisine
    The Antigonon leptopus ( an-TIG-oh-non LEP-toh-puss) inspires local names everywhere it grows: Tallahassee Vine, Honolulu…

  • Corn Poppy
    Several plants have relatives whose reputations are difficult to live down. The Natal Plum is one. Related to the oleander the delicious plum suffers from…
  • Corn Smut:   Mexican Truffles. Corn Smut. Raven Scat.  Ustilago maydis gets more unappetizing the further one goes down its list of names. The Aztecs called it huitlacoche.  The Mexicans call it a delicacy.
  •  Crabgrass Was King  (3)

    Forage, Grain, Flour, Manna, Pest
    Americans did two interesting things when they moved from the farm to suburbia: They surrounded their homes with toxic…

  • Cranberries, Lingonberries

    Get Your Annual Vaccinium Every Year
    Frozen cranberries are just as sour as fresh ones.

    I know that because when I was a kid skating on frozen ponds in Maine…

  • Creeping Cucumber: Melothria Pendula  (2)

    Cute Cuke! Melothria Pendula

    The Melothria pendula is a little cucumber with a big reputation.

    That said, when it comes to the “creeping cucumber”…

  • Crowfoot Grass, True Grits

    Dactyloctenium aegyptium: Staple Grain
    Grasses can be a pain in the …ah… grass…

    First, books about grasses are few and incredibly expensive. Next,…

  • Dad’s Applewood Pipes  (3)
    Time edits your memories. It sands off the rough edges that were once painfully sharp. It makes some moments clearer by evaporating the fog of being…
  • Dahlia Pinnata
    Here’s the good news: At least one species of Dalhia has edible roots. Here’s the bad news, there are some 20,000 cultivars, maybe even thousands more. A…
  • Dandelions: Hear Them Roar  (3)
    Dandelion Wine and Coffee and SaladDandelions and I go back a long ways, more than half a century.When I was very young in Maine my mother…
  • Dayflowers, Often One Petal Shy  (4)

    Commelina diffusa: What a day for a dayflower
    Common names can be a headache when one is trying to index a plant. The plant to the lower right is commonly…

  • Daylily Dilemma  (3)

    Daylily: Just Cloning Around
    The daylily, a standard plant in foraging for a century or more, has become too much of a good thing and now presents a significan…

  • Dead Man’s Fingers
    Decaisnea fargesii: True Ghoul Blue
    There are three Dead Man’s Fingers: A seaweed, a mushroom, and a shrub, all so-called because of the way they…
  • Does Anyone Know What Time It Is?  (2)
    It is time for my semi-annual rant and wish that G.V. Hudson had a different hobby. Hudson, a New Zealander, collected insects and was a shift worker. In…
  • Does The Nose Know?

    What Does a Word Smell Like?

    During nearly every class I have students smell three or four plants — depending upon the season — and I ask them what common…

  • Dog and Cat  (1)
    Most Westerners would starve than eat their pet, and understandably so. There is a tacit agreement between pets and their owners. In exchange for putting…
  • Doveweed

    Murdannia nudiflora: Tiny Dayflower Kin
    In India the Doveweed is a famine food. That should give you some idea of how it lines up in the culinary kingdom. The…

  • Drymaria Cordata, Tropical Chickweed  (3)

    Drymaria cordata: Kissing cousin chickweed
    Drymaria cordata is one of those plants that confounds the mind. You know what it resembles: Chickweed. It has one…

  • Duckweed

A Weed Most Fowl. Do ducks eat duckweed? Yes and no. Do humans eat duckweed? Yes and no. Domestic ducks tend to eat duckweed, wild ones don’t.…

Foragers tend to ignore seaweed.

  • Ear Tree, Sound Food

    Lend Me An Ear Tree

    Just about anyone who has spent anytime in a warm climate will some day find on a sidewalk a black seed pod that looks like a human…

  • Earthworms  (7)

    Cooking with Earthworms
    The cartoon strip BC once had its peg-leg poet write: “The bravest man I ever saw was the first one to eat an oyster raw.”

  • Eastern Gamma Grass:   Someone who supposedly knew their grasses wrote there are no toxic native North American grasses.
  • Eastern Red Bud: Pea Pods Tree  (5)
    Cercis canadensis: In The Bud of TimeIt’s one of those trees that if you don’t see it at the right time you’re not looking for it the rest of the year.…
  • Eating In Season  (1)
    There is little doubt that eating certain fiddlehead greens can significantly increase ones chances of cancer. In fact, science says they cause cancer. On…
  • Edible Flowers: Part One  (1)Nasturtium, Calendula, Spanish Needles, Arugula, Squash, Cilanto, Bee Balm, Carnation, Dandelion, Lilac
    Which blossom will be your favorite edible…
  • Edible Flowers: Part Two  (9)Tulips, Yucca, Begonias, Blue Porterweed, Queen Ann’s Lace, Dill, Gladiolas, Wapato, Impatiens, CitrusTulips are one of those wonderful flowers you…
  • Edible Flowers: Part Three  (2)Mayflower, Chrysanthemum, Cornflower, Rose, Daylily, Elderberry, Chicory, Johnny-Jump-Ups, Linden, BananaA rite of spring in the frozen north, or at…

Spiderwort, Marigolds, Rosemary, Smartweed, Pineapple Weed, Chamomile, False Roselle, Lavender, Forsythia, Borage

Apple, Fuchsia, Sweet Goldenrod, Basil, Gorse, Bauhinia, Eastern Redbud, Angelica, Honeysuckle, Eastern Coral Bean
Apple Blossom
Every seed in every apple…

  • Edible Flowers: Part Six  (1)Burnet, Magnolia, Fennel, Garden Sorrel, Tansy, Pink Wood Sorrel, Sunflower, Pineapple Guava, Prickly Pear, PansiesBurnet (Sanguisorba minor) is…
  • Edible Flowers: Part Seven  (1)Scarlet Runner Bean, Peony, Hyacinth Bean, Clover, Jasmine, Chervil, Water Hyacinth, Plantain Lily, Meadowsweet, Perennial PhloxScarlet Runner Bean is…
  • Edible Flowers: Part Eight

    Society Garlic, Anise Hyssop, Black Locust, Gardenia, Fragrant Water Lily, Strawberry, Marsh Mallow, Maypops, Milkweed, Hollyhocks

    It’s clearly not…

  • Edible Flowers: Part Nine  (1)Mahoe, Moringa, Pineapple Sage, Plum, Hawthorn, Cattail, Papaya, Purslane, Tuberose, Wisteria
    Mahoe’s Blossoms Change Color
    One of the more fascinating…

Alliums, Oregano, Pinks, Peas, Okra, Galium, Ginger, Scented Geraniums, Primrose, Mustard/RadishThe author of “Florida’s Incredible Wild Edibles” Dick…

Coral Vine, Citron Melon, Milkweed Vine, Dayflower, Evening Primrose, Kudzu, Stock, Dame’s Rocket, Freesia, Dendrobium phalaenopsisThe Coral Vine has…

  • Edible Flowers: Part Twelve  (2)Forget-Me-Nots, Calamint, Mimosa Silk Tree, Clary Sage, Petunia x hybrid, Balloon Flower, Yarrow, Corn Poppy, Daisy, Sweet AlyssumThe story I heard…
  • Edible Flowers: Part Thirteen  (1)Sesbania Grandifolia, Lemon Verbena, Szechaun Buttons, Horseradish, Tea Olive, Tiger Lily, Currants, Honewort, Thyme, Indian Paint BrushSesbania…
  • Edible Flowers: Part Fourteen  (2)
    Manzanita, Rose of Sharon, Tea, Campanula, Artichoke, Saffron, Samphire, Sage, Parsley, Common MallowWestern states often seem to get short-changed in…

Mango, Catnip, Pignut, Lovage, Salsify, Hairy Cowpea, Fritillary, Mint, Cow Slip, BirchDid you know mangoes and poison ivy are botanical kissing…

Oregon Holly Grape, Snapdragon, Caesar’s Weed, Golden Alexanders, Loroco, Safflower, White Sagebrush, Puget Balsam Root, Yellow Commelina, Bitter Gourd

Black Salsify, Coltsfoot, Yellow Pond Lily, Mexican Hyssop, Carambola, Baobob, Kapok, Durian, Italian Bugloss, BlueweedEdible plants collect a lot of…

Chinese Perfume Plant, Queensland Silver Wattle, Cloves, Chinese Lotus, Blue Lotus, Screwpine, Turpentine Tree, Sweet Autum Clematis, St. Anthony’s Turnip, Quince

All 20 articles in one article

  • Eels
    Eels: Lunch, Slip Sliding Away…
    I can remember the first time I caught an eel. It was in the Royal River in Pownal Maine, using an earthworm on the…

Eggs for Survival and Food
Eggs would seem like a simple foraging topic and it is, and it is not. My copy of the U.S Department of the Army…

  • Elaeagnus Et Cetera

    Edible Elaeagnus
    First it was “poisonous.” Then it was “not edible.” Later it was edible but “not worth eating.” Actually, it’s not toxic but tasty, and easy…

  • Elderberries: Red, White and Blue  (10)

    Sambuca’s Fine For Elderberry Wine
    Start your New Year off right with a glass of elderberry wine or elderberry blossom champagne. Don’t have any?…

  • Epazote: Smelly Food of the Gods
    Mexican Tea, Dewormer: EpazoteHere is my dedication to being comprehensive: I am going to write about a plant I do not like.Why don’t I like…
  • Eryngo, Tough Sweetie

    Eryngiums: Elizabethan Eryngo Candy

    While the edible versions are not widely distributed in North America, Eryngo (ERR-in-go) was too pretty a name to be…

  • Evening Primrose  (5)

    Oenothera biennis: Foraging Standby

    The Common Evening Primrose has long been a foraging standby and for a century or so was a common vegetable found in…

  • Experience and Judgment

    Sometimes a toxic plant can give even an experienced forager reason to pause.

    When I was making a video last week I saw a beautiful growth of watercress,…

  • False Dandelions For Lunch  (2)

    Pyrrhopappus, Hypochoeris: Dandelion Impostors
    Most people don’t notice False Dandelions because they have the real thing. But here in the South where…

  • False Hawksbeard

    Crepis Japonica: Seasonal Potherb
    If the Crepis fits….wear….ah…eat it

    Crepis japonica gets no respect. You won’t find it in field guides on edible…

  • False Roselle  (1)I can’t do a stir-fry without visiting a tree. Actually, the False Roselle is a shrub not a tree but the point is made. Its leaves have just the…
  • Fiddlehead Ferns, Signs of Spring

    Fiddlehead Fanatics
    If poke weed tests your foraging bravery, fiddleheads test your foraging philosophy.

    Pokeweed can kill you within hours if you make a…

  • Fiddlewood  (1)

    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,…

  • Field Testing Plants for Edibility  (7)

    I am dead set against it because it can kill you. I will make a large argument against it, and a small argument for it.

    “Field testing” is running through a…

  • Figs, Strangler, Banyan and Strangler  (4)

    Wild Ficus: Who Gives An Edible Fig?
    It’s only 90 miles to the east, and 117 to the west, but the Strangler Fig and Banyan trees will grow farther south and…

  • Finding Caloric Staples  (8)
    An Australian study tells us that modern day hunter gatherers get  two thirds of their food from animals, one third form plants.
  • Firebush:
    The Firebush is probably one of the most commonly planted unknown edibles. They are usually arranged in the landscape…
  • Fireweed Sale  (1)

    Erechtites hieraciifolia: Edible Pile Driver

    When I go to Greece I always stay a few days in Athens to get used to the time change and visit in-town…

  • Fish Sauce and Rotten MeatFish Sauce, Rotten Meat, and Other Garbage
    There was a great scene from an episode of Barney Miller, a popular sitcom in the 70’s based in a…
  • Fishtail Palms  (3)

    Caryota: Fishy Toxic Palms

    Often the botanical name of a species tells you nothing about the plant. Magnolia comes to mind. It’s a person’s name. However…

  • Five Mile Walk

    Can you live off the land? Can anyone these days? I suppose the answer depends on what land, what you know, and whose else is also trying to live off it.

    Whe…

  • Flamboyant FuchsiaMention “fuchsia” and most folks who recognize the word will think of a bright color. Personally I think of Fuchsia’s edible fruit and flowers.…
  • Flowering Rush

    In one area of its native range — Israel — it’s endangered becauses of dwindling habitat. In another part of the world it is an invasive weed, and you can…

  • Foraging After Dark

    I took a residential walk this evening to identify trees after dark. Yes, after dark. Now why do a silly thing like that?

    I know someone who has his foraging…

  • Foraging Before There Was Botany

    Foraging before there was botany had to be a lot easier than after botany. Someone showed you what was edible and that was that. Of course somewhere back along…

  • Foraging for Beginners

    I was asked to write a short piece for a survivalist blog on getting started in foraging:
    How are a Musician and a Botanist Alike?
    As a professional musician I…

  • Foraging in Florida  (1)

    Of all the “survival” skills foraging is probably the most difficult to learn, or certainly the one that takes the most time and personal fortitude. It is one…

  • Foraging Myth Busting  (3)

    As many of you already know I am highly critical of the Internet as a source of information on foraging. This is not to say there isn’t quality information…

  • Forsythia Foraging For Forsythia
    If you study the eating habits of North American Indians you learn one thing quite quickly. They weren’t mono-green eaters.…
  • Garlic Mustard: Gather Garlic Mustard now for pesto or it may disappear presto… well… maybe not immediately but if one university succeeds Garlic Mustard will become hard to find or extinct in North America.
  • Galinsoga’s Gallant Soldiers
    Galinsoga ciliata: Quickweed is fast foodQuickweed does not look edible or gallant. In fact, it looks like a daisy that lost a fight. But it, and a…
  • Gar: Treasured Trash Fish  (1)

    Eating Gar, a Taste of the Primitive
    There are two things you need to know about the Gar. The first is that it is very edible, really. The second is that…

  • Geiger Tree, Scarlet Cordia
    Cordia sebestena: Foraging Geiger Counter
    Foragers eat the mild fruit of the Geiger Tree and care not about the particulars. Botanists care about particular…
  • Getting To The Leaf Of The Problem

    Why sudy with someone? Because student foragers see what they want to see rather than what’s in front of them. Let me give you consistent example.

    There are…

  • Giant Taro
    One can ignore large leaves for only so long, and the Alocasia macrorrhiza has big leaves, up to four feet long. As one might suspect, it also has a large…
  • Ginkgo: Putrid Perfection

    Going Nuts Over Ginkgo Biloba Nuts

    Though the Army sent me to Japan I didn’t see my first Ginkgo biloba (GINK-go bye-LOW-buh) tree until I attended the…

  • Glasswort Galore  (3)

    Salicornia bigelovii, Brackish Nibble
    Glasswort does not sound like breaking glass at all, though it does crunch a bit.

    Salicornia bigelovii (sa-li-KOR-nee-a…

  • Golden Dead Nettle  (1)
    Lamiastrum is in the eye of the beholder.If you want a ground cover that will grow in dry, shady places, Lamiastrum is exactly what you’re looking for.…
  • Golden Rain Tree

    Showers of Golden Rain Tree

    The scallions didn’t have a chance.

    My Taiwanese friend liked to grow scallions in a postage stamp garden in her back…

  • Goldenrod Glorified  (1)

    Solidago Odora: Liberty Tea

    After the Boston Tea Party of 1773 the colonists had only one good alternative: Goldenrod tea, and not just any Goldenrod,…

  • Gooseberries

A century can make a lot of difference.

 

Galium aparine: Goosegrass on the Loose

You don’t find Goosegrass. It finds you.

Covered with a multitude of small hooks, Goosegrass, Galium…

  • Gorse, of Course

    Ulex europaeus: Edible Gorse or Furze Pas
    Gorse has edible flowers. It also has thorns… Really bad thorns.

    In August 2005 an Englishman, Dean Bowen,…

  • Gout Weed  (6)
    Gout Weed does not sound too appetizing. Nor do some of its other names: Ground Ash, Ashweed, Pot Ash, White Ash, Ground Elder, Dog Elder, Dwarf Elder,…
  • Gracilaria, Graceful Redweed

    Gracilaria: The pot thickens
    People eat a lot of seaweed. They just don’t know it. In the industry it is called covert consumption vs overt consumption. What…

  • Grapes of Path  (3)

    Vitis: Wild Grapes
    Who ever first wrote the phrase “grapes of wrath” certainly must have been trying to identify a particular grape vine.

    Grapes are at the…

  • Grass and Tree War  (1)
    Point of view, thinking differently… Consider:What if plants are more goal-orientated than we think them to be? After all, we put ourselves on the…
  • Great Grandmother Cat  (1)

    One of the reasons why Eat The Weeds exists is to advocate eating the wild foods around you but also to be another voice in the growing chorus that is…

  • Green Deane’s Bio, and Oliver, Too  (1)

    If you have any comments or suggestions please send them to GreenDeane@gmail.com. The B&W picture is from a Christmas long ago. That’s Tinkerbell on my…

  • Green Deane’s Videos On You Tube
    While these videos are still on You Tube and will soon be on DVDs, these links below do not work. In creating the page one character was dropped from every…
  • Ground Cherry, Wild Husk Tomatoes, Almost  (2)

    Physalis: Tomato’s Wild Cousin
    I discovered ground cherries quite by accident.

    It was back in the last century. I raided a particular field…

  • Ground Ivy  (2)
    Most of the time when someone mentions Ground Ivy the comment usually is something like “How do I get rid of the damned stuff?” Here at ETW we have have…
  • Groundnuts and Bridge Diving

    For the second time recently I was reminded of development. My favorite field of lamb’s quarters is now an upscale gated community. And where I used to forage…

  • Groundnuts: Anti-Cancer Treat  (3)

    Groundnuts: Dig ’em
    I will never forget the first time I dug up Apios americana, groundnuts. I got poison ivy. Oddly it showed up in the crook of one elbow,…

  • Grub-A-Dub-Dub
    It had to happen. If you forage for wild foods at some point you run in to grubs and related insects and you wonder… edible? And once you’re past…
  • Guinea Grass Panic Attack

    Panicum maximum and then some
    I eat grass. Actually we all do — rice, wheat — but my local trail nibble is Guinea grass, a relative to millet. I’d like to…

  • Guinea Pigs, Cavy, Cuy
    Peruvians eat more than 65 million guinea pigs every year. That should answer any question about edibility.Sixty-five million guinea pigs (a 2005…
  • Hairy Cowpea  (4)
    It’s called a Cowpea but it’s not THAT cowpea, and it has a famous relative that no one calls by its botanical name.So which Cowpea is it? Vigna…
  • Halloween Editorial  (2)

    Halloween today is the most debatable of non-holiday holidays. With a past that perhaps goes back to Roman times it became in the Christian era All Hallows…

  • Hardy Orange: Is the Hardy Orange edible? That depends on how hungry you are, or which century you live in.
  • Have Dewberry, Will Travel

    Dewberries: Rubus Trivialis

    Dewberries go far in the world, for a lowly vine. They can reach up to 15 feet long, one node root at a time.

    Essentially a…

  • Hawthorne Harvest

    The Crataegus Clan: Food & Poison
    The very first Hawthorn I ever saw — and the only one I knew for quite a while — grew on the other side of the dirt…

  • Henbit: Top of the pecking order  (2)

    Henbit: Springtime Salad Green and More

    It was a zig and a zag for me. I heard the name as an edible for many years and saw the plant often but never…

  • Hercules’ Club: Speak Softly But…

    Hercules’ Club: Zanthoxylum Clava-Herculis

    I sometimes feel sorry for my neighbors, who have lawns of decapitated grass. I’m sure my wild-looking…

  • Hickory Harvest  (2)

    Cayra coffee, or Hickory Java
    Hickories are not a migraine, but when you’re learning trees hickories can be a headache.

    Just as plums and cherries are bothin…

  • High Bush Cranberry  (1)
    I miss High Bush Cranberries. They don’t grow within a thousand miles of here, and they aren’t really cranberries. But they are hearty and familiar fare in…
  • Hit With A Plank  (1)

    There’s an old joke. A man had a mule sit down under a load. Mules can be very stubborn. And despite all his efforts the man couldn’t get the mule to get up. I…

  • Hollies: Caffein & Antioxidants  (4)

    Holly Tea With Vitamins A & C

    This time of year in the South — late fall, early winter —some of the hollies are so scarlet with berries that even…

  • Honeysuckle Heaven

    Lonicera japonica: Sweet Treat
    The honeysuckle family is iffy for foragers. It has edible members and toxic members, edible parts, toxic parts, and they mix…

  • Hornbeam, Ironwood, Blue Beech

    Carpinus caroliniana: Musclewood
    British author Ray Mears must have been thinking of the Hornbeam when he said a forager mustn’t pass up food no matter how…

  • Horse Meat
    “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”We’ve all heard the phrase, and it comes from when horse was on the menu. It was rather significant phrase to me as…
  • Horsemint, Spotted Beebalm

    Monarda Punctata: Bergamot’s Bud
    First the good news: Horsemint makes a nice, intentionally weak tea. Stronger brews are used in herbal medicine. The…

  • Horseweed, Mare’s Tail  (1)

    Conyza canadensis: Herb, Fire, Food
    Conyza will light your fire!

    If you’ve ever made fire with a bow and drill — you know, the Boy Scout way — you also know…

  • How Do Things Pan Out?
    When Europeans began to migrate into tracts of North America what was the one thing they had the native Americans wanted more than anything else? Rifles?…
  • How Ungreen Of Us  (29)
    I’m reaching retirement age. I’m also reaching the point of being tired of being told how green we are today and how ungreen we were in the past. Oh? When…
  • Hyacinth Bean

    Hyacinth Bean: Purple Protein, and More
    I’ve never understood the brouhaha over the Hyacinth Bean. Is it edible or is it not?

  • Hydrilla:     There is only one species of Hydrilla, verticillata.
  • Ignite of the Iguana  (6)

    The cookbook’s title says it all. South Florida, parts of Texas and Hawaii have iguana issues. While teaching a class in West Palm Beach last fall I could not…

  • Indian Pipes, Gold, and Emily Dickinson  (8)
    Monotropa is almost a monotypic genus. Instead of having one species in the genus there are two: Monotropa uniflora and Monotropa hypopithys.Most…
  • Indian Strawberry  (5)

    Potentilla indica: Mistaken Identity
    One of the first things my uncle’s second wife said to me when I moved from Maine to Florida was “they have strawberri…

  • Ipomoea: Water, Land & See in Gardens

    Glorifying Morning Glories
    Three of the pictures below are are not of the same Ipomoea. It’s three different species, but that should tell you something.…

  • Is This Plant Edible?
    For a surprisingly simple question there is often a complicated answer. If it’s sea kale, then the answer is yes, top to bottom. It is edible. It is…
  • Is wild taro in Florida edible?  (10)

    IS WILD TARO IN FLORIDA EDIBLE?
    “Wild Taro.” My research to date (fall, 2011)

    Is the wild taro in Florida edible? In one word, no. In two… may……

  • It’s About Time  (1)

    I spend a lot of times in the woods, and also afloat. Three things you should always know in such environments are the cardinal directions, time of day, and…

  • Ivy Gourd, Scarlet Gourd, Tindora  (2)

    Coccinia grandis: Cucumber’s Versatile Kin
    I was riding my motorcycle one day when I rumbled over a raised railroad track in an industrial area and to my…

  • Jabuticaba: In it’s native Brazil the Jabuticaba is by far the most popular fruit.
  • Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and Jill

    Arisaema triphyllum: Jack and Jill and No Hill
    For a little plant there’s a lot to write about with the Jack-In-The-Pulpit. Where does one start? What does…

  • Jambul  (1)Syzygium: A Jumble of Jambul
    The Jambul tree makes you wonder what people were thinking.For a half a century or so the United States Department of…
  • Japanese Knotweed: Dreadable Edible  (9)Japanese Knotweed gets no respect. Nearly everywhere it grows it’s listed as a prolific, noxious, invasive, dangerous bad-for-the-world,…

Stomolophus meleagris: Edible Jellyfish
“Music to the teeth” is what the Malaysians call them.Americans may not eat jellyfish, but the…

  • Jerusalem Artichoke: Root Them Out  (5)
    There used to be a huge patch of Jerusalem Artichokes here in Central Florida beside the Interstate. Now they’re under a new exit ramp, and that was the…
  • Jerusalem Thorn, Paloverde

    Parkensonia aculeata’s Thorny Past
    As foragers we are indebted to past writers and at the same time constrained by them.

    People who chronicled how Native…

  • Jujube TreeZiziphus zizyphys: The Misspelled Jujube
    If you don’t find the Jujube tree, it will find you. The Jujube is covered with long, sharp thorns. They…
  • Jumbie Bean, White Lead Tree  (2)

    Leucaena leucocephala: Food and Fodder
    Professor Julia Morton, the grand dame of toxic and edible plants in Florida, had this to say about the Jumbie…

  • Juneberry

    Amelanchier arborea: Busting Out All Over
    Juneberries are as American as apple pie. In fact, they are more American than apples.

  • Junipers:  In the cobweb recesses of my mind I have two memories of junipers
  • Katuk Kontroversy  (2)

    Edible Katuk: Sauropus androgynus

    Katuk grows reluctantly in my yard. It likes truly tropical climes and I am on the subtropical/temperate line. But it’s…

  • Kochia
    Immigration brought weeds from around the old world to the new world. Quite a few of them came from southern Russia — the grassy steppes — to the…

The Kousa Dogwood is one of those plants that makes you ask: What is it?Its large, bumpy, red fruit looks like a…

  • Kudzu Quickie  (4)Kudzu: Pueraria montana var. lobataThe government tells me that what grows up the street isn’t there.It’s kudzu, you know, the plant that…
  • Landmarks

    Landmarks — accomplishments — are like a melody. Regardless of your taste in music, music is more than organized sound. Music firmly places you in time. When…

  • Language of Flowers: A flower is a flower is a flower. But in Victorian England, one of the most self-repressed societies in modern times, the practice of using flowers to communicate was developed.
  • Lantana  (3)

    Lantana camara: Much Maligned Nibble

    Ask anyone who has heard of the Lantana camara and they will tell you it is poisonous. And they are right. Unripe…

  • Lawn Garden

    Can you have a “garden” that you ignore?

    I don’t see why not.
    Is That A Garden?
    Indeed, some might argue that is what my front lawn currently is. I really…

  • Lemon Bacopa: Let’s Call It Lime Instead
    Lemon Bacopa, a misnamed edible nativeCall me cranky, but I think Lemon Bacopa has the wrong name.And, since it is wrongly named and no one comments on…
  • Lemon Grass

    Cymbopogon citratus: A Real Lemon
    Technically Lemon Grass is naturalized in only one county in Florida, but you can find it in many yards and landscaping, and…

  • Less Was Far More  (4)
    West of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, I stopped today and collected some thistle and took a few pictures. More than 50 years ago I marveled at the same plant…
  • Lettuce Labyrinth  (9)

    Sorting Out Species
    Sorting out wild lettuce is one of the more difficult foraging tasks and may require you to watch a plant all season.

  • Lion’s Mane

          I see Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus) on the same oak log every fall at the same time to the day.

Foraging is a treasure hunt because with perhaps 6,000 edible species in North America there is always a surprise now and then such as the Litchi Tomato.

  • Living off the Foraged Land

    I am not a survivalist per se, though every day I do break my personal best record of consecutive days alive.

    That said, I know many survivalists. They tend…

  • Locusberry

    Byrsonima lucida: Food and Medicine

    The Locusberry rises to the occasion. When the soil is poor it is a foot-high tree. When the soil is good, it can be…

  • Looking for Lettuce
    I like my 14,000 subscribers, and the email I get. Many of the questions I can answer or I can refer the writer to where the answer can be found. But….…
  • Loquat: Getting A Grip on Grappa  (2)
    Lovin’ Loquats: Eriobotryae Japonicae
    Long before there were couch potatoes there were couch Loquats.Loquats are homebodies. Most people who live beyond…
  • Madeira Vine, Lamb’s Tail, Mignonette Vine  (1)

    Anredera cordifolia: Pest or Food Crop?
    The Madeira Vine is a love/hate relationship. You will either hate it — as many land owners and governments do — or…

  • Mahoe, Sea Hibiscus

    Hibiscus tiliaceus: Edible Chameleon
    It’s difficult to find a hibiscus you don’t like, including the Mahoe.

    In fact, to this writer’s knowledge all…

  • Mahonia Malange: When I first heard of the Mahonias it was a bit irritating. They’re widespread shrubs in the western United States and here I was in Florida. But as time revealed, we have a Mahonia here, just not a native.
  • Make My Day
    It was one of those moments. I was biking along a rails to trails, stopping and taking pictures of this and that plant for past and future blogs. Better…
  • Mallow Madness  (2)
    Lunch Landscaping: HibiscusMy mother’s favorite flower is the Rose of Sharon, which of course didn’t even go in one of my ears and out the…
  • Mangrove Mystery  (1)

    Mangroves: Marvelous Muck Masters

    I did an unknown favor years ago that may stump some stuffy botanist in the near or distant future, and a mangrove…

  • Maple Manna  (1)

    Maples: How Sweet It Is
    Maple Walnut Ice Cream. It’s amazing what you can do with two trees and a cow. It was the prime ice cream of choice when I was young.…

  • Marijuana Machinations: You can’t rummage around the woods as a forager without running into someone’s marijuana patch.
  • Marlberries and Ardisias kin

    Ardisias: Berries on the cusp of edible
    The Ardisias are a confusing family in Florida.

    There is the native Marlberry (Ardisia escallonioides) that has…

  • Mayapple, Mandrake  (2)

    Podophyllum peltatum: Forgotten Fruit
    The first time I saw a mayapple I was certain something that strange had to be toxic, and it is, unless totally…

  • Mayflowers, Trailing Arbutus

    Epigaea repens: Spring Sentinel and Nibble
    It was an annual family ritual. Every spring when the snow had finally melted we’d go through the low Maine…

  • Maypops Mania  (6)

    Maypops: Food, Fun, Medicine
    As popular as they are, Maypops get stepped on a lot, but that doesn’t keep them down.

    They are one of five hundred kin in…

  • Media Interviews With Green Deane

    This is Green Deane being interview for the local PBS station for Thanksgiving, 2009. This show was voted their best episode of the year. http://www.wmfe.org/au…

  • Melaleuca, Tea Tree, Sweetener, Pharmacy
    The Melaleuca tree is the most invasive “weed” in the state of Florida, quite a feat when you consider there are…

  • Mesquite  (1)

    Mesquite’s More Than Flavoring: It’s Food
    If Euell Gibbons was still around he might ask, “have you ever eaten a Mesquite tree?” rather than his famous…

  • Milkweed Vine, Latexplant, Strangler Vine  (13)

    Morrenia odorata: Menace or Manna?
    One spring I was looking for poke weed when I spied a liana I had not seen before. It had a large fruit that looked…

  • Milkweed, Common  (3)

    Asclepias: Some like it hot, some like it cold
    The question is to boil or not to boil.

    Actually that’s not quite accurate. There is general agreement…

  • Milo, Portia Tree, Seaside Mahoe  (2)

    Thespesia populnea: Coastal Cuisine
    One of my uncles had the type of personality that where ever he hung his hat, that was home. The Milo is much the same…

  • Mimosa Silk Tree  (7)

    Albizia julibrissin: Tripinnated Lunch
    I was drinking “Mimosas” — orange juice and champagne — about 20 years before I discovered the Mimosa tree was…

  • Mole Crabs  (8)

    Emerita: Mole Crab Munchy Crunchies
    Mole crabs are probably the most common ugly food there is, though most people don’t know they’re edible.

    Fishermen…

  • Mole Crickets and Lawns

    The name of my website is “Eat The Weeds (and other things too.)” If you wander around the long index — or click on the category “critter cuisine” — you…

  • Mole Crickets, Kamaro  (1)

    Mole Crickets: Digging Your Lunch
    Nearly everyone knows crickets are edible — cooked — but few ever mention the ugliest of them all, the mole cricket.

  • Monkey’s Apple: Monkey’s Apple is proof kids will eat anything.
  • Monkey Puzzle Tree

    Lunch Drops In

    My good friend Saul is a luthier. He repairs premium wooden instruments. It is not unusual for him to be working on a Stradivarius or a…

  • Monkeys and Weeds
    Put five monkeys in a large cage. Then put a step ladder in the cage with a banana on top. Soon the monkeys learn to go up the step ladder and get the…
  • Moringa, More Than You Can Handle  (6)

    Moringa oleifera ….Monster…. Almost
    If you have a warm back yard, think twice before you plant a Moringa tree.

  • Morels are perhaps the most foraged and prized fungi in North America.
  • Motorcyclists and Mushroomists. I used to have a friend named Randy Armentrout. He died about 20 years ago of a brain tumor. We knew each other well and attended many a social function…
  • Mountain Ash, Rowan: Long before Henry Potter Rowanwood wands were popular  ancients carried talismans of the tree to ward off evil and ate the fruit.
  • Mugwort  (3)
    Like some other plants with famous relatives Mugwort gets lost in the negative publicity.Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, is completely over shadowed…
  • Mulberry Express

    Mulberries: Glucose-controlling hallucinogen

    I used to get a lot of dates using mulberries.

    Not to sound sexist, but women like sweet food. And when…

  • Musseling In:  His name was Hap Davis, gardener, woodsman, hunter, fisherman, teller of tall tales.
  • Mustard, Wild, Tender And Tough  (2)

    Cutting the Wild Mustard: Brassica & Sinapis
    Lorenzo’s Oil and Canola, Too
    If you can’t find a wild mustard growing near you, you must be living in…

  • Mustards, The Little
    Coronopus, Descurainia, Cardamine, Erucastrum & Sibara
    There are numerous “little mustards” that show up seasonally, to populate lawns and local…
  • Nagi Tree, Japan’s Calm Tree

    Nageia nagi: Forgotten Landscape Edible

    I discovered the Nagi tree quite by accident, and added another edible to the list. I was in Mead Gardens in Winter…

  • Nandina Not Bamboo

    Not So Heavenly Bamboo: Nandina
    It’s not heavenly nor is it a bamboo, but Heavenly Bamboo is an edible, barely.

    Naturalized in many part of the world…

  • Nasturtiums: Nature’s Nose Nabber
    Peppery Nasturtiums Natives of Peru. Do the peppery nasturtiums make your nose twitch? Then you know how they got their common name. “Nasturtium” means…
  • Natal Plums Num Num  (4)

    Natal Plum: Incredible Edible Landscaping

    A good reputation is hard to maintain when your closest relative has a reputation for killing people. That’s…

  • New Jersey Tea

    Ceanothus americanus: Revolutionary Tea
    New Jersey Tea wasn’t always called that. It was Red Root Tea until the Boston Tea Party. With no tea from China…

  • Non-Green Environmentalism  (1)
    Early on I developed two interests. One was foraging for wild plants. It assured me food where ever I went. The other was watching clouds, one of the few…
  • Nostoc Num Nums

    Nostoc: Nasal Nostalgia and Edible, Too
    My website is “Eat The Weeds and other things, too.” Well this one of those other things. While I have put seaweed…

  • Nutria, Coypu  (1)
  • I have a close friend who’s Cajun. He said his family was so poor growing up in the bayou that if it moved they cooked it and threw it on rice. That…
  • Nutrition or Food?

    The 20th century was a hundred years of significant changes in what we eat. In 1900 food was … well… food, and real. No food pretended to be something it…

  • Oaxaca lemon verbena

    Lippia alba: Oaxaca lemon verbena
    It all started with a little tour of his back yard.

    He’s an aging Greek professor and doesn’t like lawn, so his back yard…

  • Only Plant In Its Genus  (16)
    Call it an occupational hazard but I began to wonder one day how many genera were unique, that is, they had just one edible species in them, the so called…
  • Osage Orange  (13)

    Maclura pomifera: The Edible Inedible
    Sometimes everybody is almost wrong.

    If you google “Osage Orange” or “Maclura pomifera” (mak-LOOR-uh pom-EE-fer-uh…

  • Oxalis: How To Drown Your Sorrels  (2)
    Sorrels are like McDonald’s restaurants: No matter where you are on earth there’s one nearby.That’s because the sorrels, properly…
  • Palmer Amaranth  (1)
    A farmer’s headache is not necessarily a forager’s delight.Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus Palmeri) has been a foraged food for a long time. It was used…
  • Palmetto Weevil Grub: Grugru

    Rhynchophorus cruentatus: Raw or Fried?
    Here’s what you’re looking for: A palm or plametto that is dying. The growing tip is dead, bent or otherwise…

  • Pandanus: During several visits over the course of a year it looked like a large berm of tall grass, about the size and height of a one-story house.
  • Papaya Proliferation

    Carica papaya: Survivalist plant

    Papaya comes from the grocery store, unless you live where it seldom freezes. Then it is another wild edible, naturalized in…

  • Paper Mulberry  (2)

    Broussonetia papyrifera: Paper Chase
    If you are a forager, you will be told two things constantly: One is that the plant of your admiration is “poisonous.”…

  • Partridgeberry: Split personality  (1)
    Mitchella repens: Madder BerryThe Partridgeberry will not save you from starving but it can make your salad prettier and might keep you alive or ease…
  • Pawpaw picking up is rare  (8)

    Pawpaw Panache

    Finding your first pawpaw is a thrilling moment.

    I can remember exactly where it happened and when. It was the summer of 1987 in…

  • Pellitory, Up Against The Wall Weed

    Pellitory: Parietaria is a Whiz
    Finding greens locally in the cooler months isn’t much of a challenge unless you’re looking for Pellitory . It likes to hid…

  • Pennyroyal Florida Style  (2)

    Florida Pennyroyal: Piloblephis Rigida
    You will thoroughly enjoy tea made by Florida’s native pennyroyal, or maybe even a Mint Julep Floridana.

    An…

  • Pennyworts Making Sense  (12)

    A Pennywort For Your Thoughts
    It’s one of those practices of civilization that plants with little flavor or calories — lettuce for example — are…

  • Peperomia:  I went to college in Maine where winter lasts from about November 1st to October 31st.
  • Peppergrass: Potent Pipsqueak  (3)

    Lepidium Virginicum: Bottlebrush Peppergrass

    There are two ways of thinking about peppergrass, either as a real neat wild treat, or an obnoxious, noxious…

  • Perilla, Shiso   (2)
    The first Perilla I ever had came from a can, just like the kind sardines snuggle in. The leaves were very spicy and were used that way, as a spice. Later…
  • Persimmon Provisions  (3)

    Persimmons: Pure Pucker Power
    About the only bad thing you can say about a persimmon tree is that it has pucker power, if you pick it at the wrong time.

  • Pick Of The Littering

    If flowers could think they would view man as an errand boy. That floral perspective would also explain one of man’s more annoying habits.

    Scientist who…

  • Pickerel Weed

    Pontederia cordata: In a PR Pickerel
    Pickerel Weed Primer
    If the Pickerelweed could commiserate, it would find a friend with the Natal Plum. The Natal…

  • Pigeon Plums, Dove Plums, Pigeon Seagrape, Tie-TongueCoccoloba diversifolia: Seagrape Sibling
    The first time you see a Pigeon Plum it will look familiar. In the same genus as the Seagrape it shares a…
  • Pigweed Potpourri  (7)

    Chenopodium album: Getting Goosed!
    My first recollection of Chenopodium album, pigweed, came around 1960 via a neighbor named Bill Gowan.

    Mr. Gowan was…

  • Pillbugs, Woodlice, Roly Pollies  (4)
    Armadillidium vulgare: Land Shrimp
    What shall we call them? Roly Pollies? Pill Bugs? Woodlice? Sowbugs, or a half a dozen other names?They are…
  • Pineapple Weed

    Matricaria matricarioides for Your Tea & Salad
    A hard-packed gravel driveway is the last place you would expect to find a delicate plant that makes an…

  • Pining for You  (5)

    Pines: Not just for breakfast anymore
    Euell Gibbons became famous for asking, “have you ever eaten a pine tree?”

    A lot of folks had a laugh over…

  • Plant An Alarm Clock

    I don’t need an alarm clock. I have a cardinal.

    I don’t know exactly which cardinal it is, and if I did I might be tempted to shoot him. Cardinals are early…

  • Plants Can’t Run  (1)

    Plants can’t run. That’s why the vast majority of them are unpalatable or lethal. Guesstimates range from 5 to 10 percent of plants are edible. Let’s split the…

  • Podocarpus macrophyllus  (4)Podocarpus: Your Own Hedge Fund
    One can’t learn everything at once, and so I came to know the Podocarpus macrophyllus late in my foraging…
  • Poison Ivy Ponderings  (28)
    I did something this past week I have not done in some twenty years. I got poison ivy.Given what I do for a living, running around the wild all the…
  • Poisonous and Irritating Plants of Florida  (4)

    Below is a circular published by the state of Florida in 1978. I think it is no longer in print though I have a hard copy. It is reproduced below. Visual…

  • Pokeweed: Prime Potherb  (11)

    Can Be Deadly But Oh So Delicious: Pokeweed
    Poke weed will challenge your commitment to foraging.

    It is not the most commonly eaten food from a poisonous…

  • Pony Foot: Are they edible? That is often asked about a little lawn plant called Pony Foot, or Dichondra carolinensis.
  • Poplars and Aspens

    Populus deltoides: Popular Poplars and Aspens

    I know where there is one (1) Eastern Conttonwood. For a popular Poplar it is not common locally. Fortunately…

  • Practicing Homelessness

    There are less Christmas parties this year than in the past, with economic conditions reducing the usual yuletide cheer. Still, there are some traditions.…

  • Prepared for Life  (2)

    We met by accident in the woods. I had hiked for a few miles already and he had just entered the trail.

    When ever I go into the woods, or on water, I am…

  • Prickly Apple, Apple Cactus, Fragrant Apple Cactus

    Harrisia Trio: Endangered Edibles All

    Just as it is important to know what to eat, it’s as important to know what not to eat, or if you do, how to do it…

  • Puffballs, Small and Gigantic  (2)

    Lycoperdon perlatum: Edible Puffballs
    I avoided mushrooms for a long time, and with good reasons. Some of them are on par with cyanide and arsenic and…

  • Purslane: Omega 3 Fatty Weed  (8)

    Purslane: Any Portulaca In A Storm

    Her name was Zona. She was a grand friend-in-law

    She had been a friend of the family for about a century. To be…

  • Pyracantha Jelly and Santa’s Belly

    Firethorn: Pyracantha Coccinea
    I don’t think it is a coincidence that “ho ho ho bellies and Pyracantha jelly jiggle into the season just before…

  • Pyrrolizidine on my Mind  (4)
    How much pyrrolizidine is too much? Or perhaps the better question is how little is too much?First, what is pyrrolizindine? Pyrrolizidine (pie-row-L…
  • Quack Grass  (4)
    Plants of little use often have only one common name, or not even that. Plants that are valued or are a pest usually have too many names such Quack…
  • QueenPalm: The Queen Palm and I got off on the wrong frond. Before I met one I had read it was toxic. There are a few toxic palms but the Queen Palm is not one of them.
  • Radish, Mustard’s Wild Rough Cousin  (7)   Raphanus Raphanistrum: Radical Radis. The Wild Radish has an identity problem. It looks similar to it’s equally peppery cousin, the wild mustard. In…
  • Ragweed: Some 18 generations ago — 600 years ago give or take a few centuries — some Natives Americans stopped cultivating a particular crop and may have moved on to maize. About 150 years ago — five generations — American farmers were raising crabgrass for grain when they, too, moved on to corn, the descendant of maize. So what crop did the Indians stop growing? Ragweed, the most hay-fever causing plant in the world.
  • Raspberry Razz  (3)

    Rubus ideaus: Delicate Raspberry. Raspberries were the first wild fruit I noticed on my own and ate as a kid.

  • Ravishing Radish Greens  (2)

    I didn’t cut the mustard this morning. I cut the radish… radish greens to be specific, Raphanus raphanistrum, said RA-fa-nus raf-an-ISS-trum.

    The only bad…

  • Real Food Rules!  (3)

    This blog all started with hot dog relish.

    I happen to like sardines on whole wheat toast with onions and mustard. (Regardless of what you think of…

  • Red Bay for all seasonings
    Persea borbonia, palustris, humilis, and americana, too

    Having a famous relative can make one grow in the shadows, as three Perseas know too well.There…
  • Redflower Ragweed: The first time I saw Redflower Ragweed I thought I was seeing two species at once some weird combination of Tassel Flower and Fireweed. It’s way too big and has the wrong leaves to be a Tassel Flower but the blossoms remind one of a Tassel Flower but the rests of the plant looks life Fireweed/Burnweed.
  • Reindeer Moss  (1)

    Edible Cladonia: What’s not to Lichen?
    Lichen can be harder to tell apart than twins in the dark. My guess my picture above is of Cladonia Evanii…

  • Resources
    The quickest and safest way to learn foraging is with a local expert. You not only learn what there is to know but do not spend time learning things you…
  • Ringless Honey Mushrooms: The first time I thought I saw the Ringless Honey Mushroom was on my neighbor’s lawn.
  • Root Beer Rat Killer  (1)

    It’s not smart or nice to lie about plants. It can get someone hurt. But the truth can sometimes be elusive, even with plants.

  • Rose Apple: The apple is in the Rose family but the Rose Apple is not though it can sometime taste like rose water… and watermelon… but not apples.
  • Roses
    I’m not sure I found wild roses or they found me.I grew up in Maine. The local soil was usually either ground-up glacial sand, clay, which is decomposed…
  • Rumex Ruminations  (1)
    Mainer Merritt Fernald, who was the Harvard wunderkind of botany from around 1900 to 1950, said all of the 17 native Rumex species in North America…
  • Russian Thistle, Tumbleweed

    Salsola kali: Noxious Weed, Nibble & Green
    When you first encounter a Russian Thistle it is the very last plant you would consider edible. Wiry, tough,…

  • Saffron Plum

    Sideroxylon: Chewy Ironwood
    The Saffron Plum is not yellow or a plum, that is, it is not a Prunus. And it is called a Buckthorn but it isn’t one of those…

  • Saltwort, Turtle Weed and Reef Banana

    Batis Maritima: Salt of the Earth
    It has a dozen or more names, but no one is quite sure about its scientific name, Batis maritima, (BAT-is mar-IT-i-ma.)

    Fora…

  • Sandspurs: Sandlot Sadists  (2)

    Sandspurs: Cenchrus’ Secret

    If I were ever to invent a torture it would be dragging someone naked through a field of sandspurs.

  •  Sargassum Sea Vegetable  (1)

Sargassum: Not Just for Breakfast Any More
Sargassum — Gulf weed — comprises a huge number of seaweeds in all oceans, both bottom dwelling and free…

  • Sassafras: Root Beer Rat Killer  (7)

    Sassafras Albidum: Beaux Gumbo

    Bet your sweet sassafras: If you’re on the young side ask anyone not on the young side: Root beer used to taste a lot…

  • Satinleaf, Olive Plum

    Chrysophyllum oliviforme: “Chewy Olives”

    “Turn left at the Satinleaf.”

    That’s not an unusual direction in an area where Satinleafs grow, they are that…

  • Saw Palmetto Saga  (4)

    Serenoa Repens: Weed to Wonder Drug
    Rotten cheese steeped in tobacco juice
    That’s how starving shipwrecked Quakers described the flavor of the saw palmetto…

  • Sawgrass, A Cut Below The Rest  (1)

    Cladium jamaicense: Water finder

    In Wekiva Springs state park in Florida there is a high and dry stretch of scrub pine and palmetto bushes, and oddly,…

  • Scarlet Runner Bean

    Two beans are grown for beauty, the Hyacinth Bean, edible with precautions, and the Scarlet Runner Bean, also edible.
    Humming Bird at “Emperor” Blossom
    It’s…

  • Scorpions  (1)

    Southern Fried Scorpions
    If I were going to rely on scorpions in Florida for sustenance, I would starve to death.

    In over 30 years of rummaging…

  • Sea Blite, Seepweed

    Suaeda linearis, maritima: Edible Blite

    While most people find Sea Blite next to the sea, I find Sea Blite on the other side of the barrier…

  • Sea Buckthorn, SallowberrySea Buckthorn: Sour Source of Vitamin C
    If you are collecting Sea Buckthorn you’re probably cold.Just as some edibles are found only in tropical…
  • Sea Club Rush  (2)

    Scirpus maritimus: a Tough Root to Crack
    If you mention Sea Club Rush among foragers they give you a very blank stare. Understandably so. It was a fall-back…

  • Sea Kale
    Sea kale is nearly the perfect primitive food. It’s difficult to imagine it not being on primitive man’s menu.We know from middens that seafood was…
  • Sea Lettuce, UlvaUlva: Sea Soup & Salad
    Ulva is the greenest seaweed you will ever see from shore, or in the sea for that matter.Ten species, all edible, are…
  • Sea Oats

    Uniola paniculata: Feeling your sea oats
    Opinions vary on Sea Oats. Not on flavor. They taste good. The questions are, are they endangered or not, and which…

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Nopales blossoms will turn to purple fruit. Photo by Green Deane

Nopalea Cochenillifera: Cactus Cuisine

Be brave when you collect cactus.

Of course, good gloves and tongs help. With those tools you can have a very steady and nutritious supply of a tasty wild edible, and not only in warm areas. Cactus grow from Alaska to Argentina, or chilly Canada to chilly Chili, and other parts of the world. People have been eating Nopalea/Opuntia for at least 9,000. It’s not too late to join them.

Many flower stamens

For example, Opuntia, the most common of the edible cactuses, is native to every U.S. state except Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Hawaii, the four states farthest from its native area, Central America (yes, Opuntia are native to southern Alaska and have become naturalized in Hawaii.)  That said, I seem to remember seeing some growing in southern Maine in the woods when I was a kid, and I can remember the exact spot. So if not native, they did survive there. Some other families of cactus with edible members are Cereus, Hylocereus and Saguaro. There is probably an edible cactus near you. It also might be healthy: A close cousin, Opuntia Ficus-Indica, seems to have good effects on blood lipids. It also has antioxidants and might help in repair of DNA. O. ficus-indica is the cactus most often found for sale in stores.

Proflific blossom turn into fruit

Here in Florida there are several kinds of edible cactus. A very common one I have planted in my yard — but can be found growing wild everywhere — is Nopalea cochinellifera, (Noh-PAL–ee-uh koh-ken-ill-EE-fer-uh) also called the cochineal cactus. It was Opuntia cochinellifera (oh-PUN-she-ah  koh-ken-ill-EE-fer-uh) but was given it own genus. It can grow in to a 12-foot tree-like cactus and requires much trimming to keep it in check. Both the fruit and the pads are edible after de-spining. Many references say the N. cochinillifera has no spines but they ar wrong. It has little tuffs stuffed with microscopic needles called glochines or glochids (best remove by a blast of water, and or burning off. Hot wax as last resort or duct tape.)  “Glochis” is a Greek word meaning “the point of an arrow.” If you get one in your finger you’ll understand.

I got my Nopalea 19 years ago the true forager way. I was in Daytona Beach going to their annual Greek Festival. While walking on the sidewalk I saw one pad — technically a cladode. It had broken off a parent plant and lay on the walkway. I took it home, you know, be kind to homeless plants and all that. Now I have several N. cochinillifera and more cactus than the neighborhood can eat.

Besides food, the blossoms of the N. cochinillifera are a wonderful fuschia. They attract bees, butterflies and those rare  little feathered helicopters, hummingbirds. The pear-shaped fruit are ripe when deep red to purple. A large cactus can have virtually hundreds of fruits

Fruit pulp tastes like raspberries.

Harvesting: The best thing to do is spray fruits and pads with water to reduce the amount of glochids. Pick the fruit with heavy leather gloves then wash them again and or burn what spines there might still remain off — a butane torch works well, a candle flame, or a deftly held propane torch. You then peel them for the soft red fruit flesh inside. It can be eaten raw or cooked and has a raspberry like flavor. Just be sure to take the seeds out. They are very hard and can break your teeth. Grind them into flour.  I use often use the cactus fruit to make a salad dressing, especially when I am making a backyard salad. The pads are treated the same way, eat them as is or peeling them and eating the inner part of the pad, raw or cooked. Some say it is an acquired taste but I don’t think the flavor is that far out of the mainstream to say that. Besides everything other than mother’s milk is an acquired tasted. If you can get the spines off you can also eat the outer part of the pad. Just as the Nopalea has a history behind it so to does its name.  Let’s take the species name first.

Pads can be used like a vegetable

Cochenillifera in Latin means “cochineal bearing” but is from the Greek word for red, “kokinos.” That’s because the cochineal insect lives off that particular cactus and others in the family. That might be almost interesting except you may have eaten that exact insect at one time, or more specifically, a product produced from their crushed, little dehydrated bodies: Cochineal dye. Actually, only the female cochineal provides the red dye and it takes some 75,000 to make one pound, 155,000 to the kilogram. Sometimes in the wild you will see a Nopalea or Opuntia pad flecked with white gray, or even covered with white or gray cotton. That’s a cochineal condo.  The hard part is each of the scale-like insects has to be harvested by hand, when they are around 90-days old.

These cactus seeds are tough and need to be ground or roasted.

Until artificial dyes were invented, cochineal dye was the main red dye from food to fabrics. In the 1400s, eleven cities conquered by Montezuma each paid a yearly tribute of 2000 decorated cotton blankets and 40 bags of cochineal dye. During colonial days Mexico had a monopoly on cochineal dye and it was that country’s second largest export after silver. Cochineal went out of favor and flavor when chemical dyes came in but the organic movement and rejection of artificial dyes has brought it back. Cochineal trumps chemicals, as it were. If you use a cosmetic or have eaten a product with any of these ingredients, you have used or bitten the bug: Cochineal extract, carmine, crimson lake (or lac) natural red 4, C.I. 75470, E120, or even “natural coloring” when the product is any shade of red, scarlet or orange. Cochineal is one of the few water-soluble dyes that resist fading.

Cactus with yellow blosoms and pads are edible

The genus name, “nopal” means cactus in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, wrongly reported as “Spanish” for cactus. No, the Aztecs had the word first. Opuntia, however, is very removed from the New World. It is from a Greek word, Opos. Opos is an area near Lokria on the island of Euboea, which is northeast of Athens. The Greeks say the island’s name as EH-via (see how Latin has perverted the Greek it imported.)  Evia is a favorite get away and one end of the island is only about 100 tidal-torn feet from the mainland. In the Opos area, according to Pliny and Theophrastus, there grew a spiny plant. There also grew figs. Figs are one of the few foods with a latex sap that we can eat (see Natal Plums.) That sap was used as rennet in making cheese. Rennet makes the solids in the milk separate from the liquids so it can be made into cheese. The adjective form of the opos is opuntios, meaning “of Opos.” It came to mean fig-shaped. The cactus, which has spines and a fig-shaped fruit (kind of) got named Opuntios. That was then degraded via Latin to Opuntia, and where I get linguistically irritated when it comes to English.  The original word is Greek and is spelled with a T. The T is pronounced as a T, not an S. Yet when you say “oh-PUN-tia” there is always someone around who will try and correct you with “oh-PUN-see-ah.”

Incidentally that cheese-making technique was mentioned in the Iliad and later by Aristotle. It was used well into the 1800s until bacterial ways were found to curdle milk.  The technique was so common it was mentioned in several farming “books” by ancient Greeks and Romans.

Opuntia littoralis was introduced to Mediterranean area long ago and flourishes in its mild climate, such as in the south of France, southern Italy, and Sicily where it is a culinary speciality called ficurinnia. In Greece the fruits are called frangosyka (French figs) or pavlosyka (Paul’s figs). The prickly pear also grows in Malta where it is a typical summer fruit and used to make the popular liqueur, Bajtra. There the opuntia is a common dividing wall between Maltese fields.

Nopales pads with fruit

Nopalea is good for you. There is some lab evidence that it lessens low-density cholesterol, though not reported is whether that was large molecule LDL or small molecule LDL. It’s the small molecule LDL that harms (as of this writing.) The exact nutritional value is not set with several sources giving differing amounts. But, it is low in calories and sodium, high in fiber and vitamin C. It also helps control blood sugar and, according to lab work, reduces the effects of a hangover if eaten before drinking. One word of caution, besides avoiding the spines: Never eat any part of any cactus that has white sap.

Grilling Steak and Nopales

Below are some recipes, though they are as common on the internet as spines on a cactus. One note of forecaution: Eating ripe opuntia fruits can turn ones urine reddish. Thought you’d like to know rather than it be a surprise.  My two favorite ways of preparing Opuntia/Nopales pads is to pick young ones, brush off the glochids, julienne the pads, and fry in oil. Or, grill them and put them in a sandwich. Delicious. Of course, you can always skip the cactus collecting and give Nopales a try from the can or with commercially harvested pads. Both are found in many supermarkets these days.  And let me be honest, I used to cheat a little. Many times when I was serving a dish of a “wild” food — to a group known to have a few squeamish people in it — I would actually buy the “wild” product in the local market, keeping the receipt. That way if someone said they got sick from the “wild” food it was 1) highly unlikely or 2) the grocer’s problem not mine.

Scrub cactus pads well, remove any spines. Cut around the spiny nodules and remove them, completely. (Not necessary with young thin pads. Use whole) Grill the leaves over charcoal for 10 to 12 minutes per side. Thicker pads take longer. Brush pads with oil occasionally  while grilling. Serve hot.

Cactus Jelly

One to two quarts or so of cactus fruit  (1.5 pounds)

3 cups sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice**

6 ounces liquid fruit pectin    Boiling water

Cheesecloth

Place fruit in a large saucepan or kettle. Cover with boiling water, allow to stand for 2-3 minutes, and pour off water. (This aids in softening stickers of the fruit.)  Peel fruit, cut into pieces, and place in a medium-sized  saucepan. Cover fruit with water and boil at high heat for 5 minutes. Pour boiled mixture through cheesecloth. Drain as  much juice as possible. Discard seeds. Measure juice. Combine cups of cactus juice, sugar , and lemon juice in  large saucepan. Bring mixture to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to medium-high, add liquid pectin, and cook mixture for 8-12 minutes, or until the mixture begins to thicken. Skim off any foam that may have formed. Pour mixture into hot, sterilized, canning jars and seal as usual.  Process jars immersed in a Boiling Water Bath for five minutes to seal the lids.

 Cactus Monterey

1  pound cactus pieces

1 small tomato

1/4 small white onion

1 jalapeno pepper

1/4 bunch cilantro

1/4 cup shredded Monterrey jack cheese (or of choice)

1 teaspoon salt (optional)

4 tablespoons avocado or low heat olive oil

Steam the cactus until softened. Drain the cactus. Lightly fry all the other ingredients except for the Monterrey Cheese. Combine fried ingredients with the cactus and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Top with cheese before serving.

 

CACTUS FLOWER WINE by Jack B. Keller, Jr.

  • 2-1/2 quarts firmly-packed cactus flowers
  • 2 lbs granulated sugar
  • 1 11-oz can 100% white grape juice concentrate, frozen
  • 1-3/4 tsp acid blend
  • 1/8 tsp grape tannin
  • 6-1/4 pints water
  • 1 crushed Campden tablet
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • 1 pkt Champagne wine yeast

Wash the flowers and put in nylon straining bag with a dozen marbles for weight, tie bag, and place in primary. Heat 1 quart water and dissolve sugar. Cool with frozen grape juice concentrate and remaining water and add to primary. Add remaining ingredients except yeast and stir well. Cover primary and wait 10-12 hours before adding activated yeast. Recover primary and stir daily. When specific gravity drops to 1.020, drip-drain bag and transfer wine to secondary. Affix airlock and set aside. Rack after 45 days and again after another 45 days, topping up and refitting airlock each time. If fermentation has finished, wine should be clear or begin to clear, although pollen will continue to settle for another 1-2 months. Rack again 60 days after wine has cleared, top up and reattach airlock. Set aside another 90-120 days to bulk age. Stabilize, sweeten to taste and rack into bottles. May taste after 6 months in bottle.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Nopalea/Opuntia can usually be distinguished by flat, rounded pads that are actually jointed stems. They’re usually covered with two kinds of spines, fixed brittle needles and tiny glochids that stick to you instantly. Blossom vary greatly from bottle brush to rose-like. They are a large family, two genera, so learn your local varieties. Duct tape is good for glochid removal, or hot wax.

TIME OF YEAR: Blossoms in spring or summer in some climes, year round in others, pads edible year round, fruit in season.

ENVIRONMENT:  They grow from northern Canada to southern South America, rainy Florida to dry deserts.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Young pads are edible whole. Older pads are usually peeled or have spine eyes removed.  The best pads are shiny and not too thick. They get fiberous then woody as they age. The inner flesh of the red fruit is edible having a flavor similar to raspberries. Juice from the inner fruit can be used as is or made into ade or jelly. The hard seeds must be ground before eating. The inner flesh of some pads of many if not most species is also edible, can be sour. If your cactus has milky sap. DON’T EAT IT.  You’ve got the wrong plant.

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Tallow or Hog Plum, growing near Haul Over Canal by the Space Center in Florida.

Many common names of plants reflect man’s close relationship with farm animals. On the porcine list there’s more than a dozen Pigweeds in the United States, several Sow Thistles, Swinecresses, and quite a few Hog Plums one of which is fruiting locally, Ximenia americana.

Also known as the Tallow Plum it supposedly fruits all year but I’ve only seen fruit on my local species in the summer or fall. You can find it in scrubby, dry, sandy ground usually with saw palmettos and scrappy little oaks and the like. Also all my finds have also be within a few miles of the coast. Quickly perishing off the tree, they have a soft avocado texture and a lime-like flavor, tart but sweeet as well. The seed oil is edible but the seed is not beyond just a few. Very young leaves are edible thoroughly boiled but I have ot tried that because they do contain what would be cyanide. The species also has a lot of herbal uses. What’s also interesting is that the shrub can be parasitic. To read more about the Tallow or Hog Plum, go here.

First you sweep the tunas around a large screen box to remove most of the spines.

First you sweep the tunas around a large screen box to remove most of the spines.

When you see a good idea, let people know about it! I saw this posted by Tony Troler on Facebook ( Edible Wild Plants page) and got his permission to post it here. The bane of harvesting edible parts off cacti are spines, not only big ones but in particular very small ones called glochids, which are hair-like and about an eight-inch ling that can make your life miserable and make you swear and swear off cactus. The spines can be washed off the fruit and burned off but here we see a different technique: Brushed off. Tony said he saw some native doing something similar so he built a screen box and got a couple of brooms. It’s made of two-by-fours and hardware cloth (think of it as screen on steroids.) If you were diabolical you could save the spines for torturous itching powder but we won’t get into that…

Then they get some individualized attention with a hand broom.  Great job Tony!

Then they get some individualized attention with a hand broom. Great job Tony!

You can see the despining is in two stages. First is sweeping them around the big box rolling them against the screen to get most of the spines off. The second stage is brushing with a smaller hand brush to make sure all the spines and glochids are removed. If you are going to harvest cactus fruit, “tuna” as they are called, I recommend you get a heavy pair of gloves and use them only for that purpose. The glochids can work their way through lesser gloves. Once cleaned there’s a variety of things that can be done to the tasty fruit and their seeds. To read more about Cactus click here.

Vines that produce round "air potatoes" do not have the root we want to find. Photo By Green Deane

Vines that produce round “air potatoes” from tan to dark brown to red do not have the root we want to find. Photo By Green Deane

There are at least six true yams in Florida and the greater south eastern United States. (For marketing reasons sweet potatoes —Ipomoeas— were and are called “yams” but are not actually yams thus not considered here with the true yams.) Two true yams are native and not of any edible interest, Dioscorea floridana and D. villosa (the latter was the original source of chemicals for birth control pills.) D. sansibarensis is rare and toxic and shows up only in the southern tip of Florida. It’s “air potatoes” — how many yams reproduce vegetatively —  can actually be dark red to blue red. We have no interested in them.  D. polystachya (Yam C on my parent website EatTheWeeds.com) is found in only one northern Florida county but is found in 25 other states and is naturalized in a wide swath from Maryland west to about Arkansas including much of the Virginias and Carolinas as well as southern Ohio and northern portions of the gulf states. I have seen it while hiking in western North Carolina near Tennessee. It has edible small air potatoes and skinny roots.  Also called the Chinese Yam it has been long cultivated for food.

We want to find the roots of vines that produce these kinds of "air potatoes." Photo by Green Deane

We want to find the roots of vines that produce these kinds of “air potatoes.” Photo by Green Deane

Locally that leaves two more Dioscorea, the alata and the bulbifera, Yam A and Yam B respectively on the my website. D. bulbifera is of secondary interest to us. While its root can be boiled twice and eaten it doesn’t seem to root much here in Florida. Even at the end of a long vine I usually find only this year’s rooting air potato and not a true root storing energy. In places like Australia it does put on softball-sized roots and is consumed but finding a root here is unusual. It has round air potatoes, either tan or dark brown often with light or dark warts. The key is they are roundish and we are not interested in them. That leaves one yam left and that is the prime D. alata, Yam A on my parent site. Its root is staple food and the largest caloric payoff in Florida from a foraging calories-in/calories-out point of view (and it can be cultivated in colder climates where there is no threat of escaping.) The easiest way to find D. alata is to start looking now for its distinctive air potatoes. We use its air potatoes to find the vine to find the edible large root. Its air potatoes are not round. They are misshapen and dark brown, occasionally green to white at the tip. They are shaped like an I or an L or a Y or a lump or combinations there of. But, they are not round. While there are many other characteristic to identify the alata, this time of year the easiest thing to do is study all the air potatoes vines you see and look for misshapen dark brown air potatoes. You can read more about D. alata, Yam A, here, D.polystachya, Yam C, here, and D. bulbifera, the lesser of the three, Yam B, here.

Beautyberries are in full fruit now. Photo by Green Deane

Beautyberries are in full fruit now. Photo by Green Deane

If you have been looking for beautyberries and have not been able to find them now is the time to go scouting. Locally bushes are very heavy with ripe berries. Nearly every mother where these berries grow have told their children the berries are poisonous. They are not but raw they are rather insipid. However they can be dried to make an anti-oxidant tea and when processed make a very pretty and tasty jelly. Most objections to the plant comes from its berries having a mild flavor and its leaves being rather smelly. However those leaves can be used as an insect repellant (externally.) To read more about the Beautyberry, go here.

Green Deane Teaching A Foraging Class

Green Deane Teaching A Foraging Class

Upcoming Foraging Classes: If you sent me an email about a birthday forage in October email me again. I had some mail issues and that email was lost. Here is the current schedule: Saturday, September 20th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, FL 32127, 9 a.m.; Sunday, September 21st, Wickham Park, 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335, 9 a.m. Sunday, September 28th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 23000 Bayshore Rd., Port Charlotte, FL 33980, 9 a.m. Saturday, October 4th Mead Garden,1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m. We will be sharing the park with bird watchers… just to let you know…; October 18/19 TBA; Saturday, October 25th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 23000 Bayshore Rd., Port Charlotte, FL 33980, 9 a.m. For more details click here. 

EatTheWeedsOnDVD-FullSet-small

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

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: Berry Tree of Some Sort, Need a Smile? Processed foods are Diabolical, Bean/Pea Pod, Florida Makes Living off the Grid Illegal? Concord Grapes Anyone? Hazelnuts, Botanical Vick’s Inhaler, Persimmons, Tomato Advice, A goldenrod of Sorts, Foraging Rules, American Beautyberry, and Another Olive Like Fruit. 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.

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Contemporary Hunter-Gatherer

An Australian study tells us that modern day hunter gatherers get 64% of their energy from things that move, 36% from plants, basically two thirds flesh, one third non-flesh. The creatures we eat are usually nutritionally dense. This does not hold true for plants. While plants can provide important minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and necessary trace elements most of them don’t pack a caloric punch. Many if not most plants take more energy to collect, prepare and consume then we get back in calories. Dandelion greens could be a classic example.

Dandelion Greens

We have to find the dandelion greens, pick them, clean them, and in a true survival situation find the fuel to cook them, something to cook them in and good water to cook them in. That takes a lot of energy and time. For that dandelion leaves offer us little, and while the root is edible it is quite bitter. Conversely, a starchy root that is edible raw, such as sea kale, Crambe maritima, would be a prime edible. It has a large root, particularly at the end of the growing season and is edible raw. It’s easy to find, easy to dig up. That’s energy positive. It’s a caloric staple. Unfortunately it does not grow in warmer climates but Bull Thistle does and is easy to find. They populate pastures. Sea Kale populates European shores and can be found on the California and Oregon coasts.

Blossoming Sea Kale

In a survival situation (frankly life in general) if you are not taking in more calories then you are expending to get food you are inching towards starvation. This is why we don’t climb a pine tree to get a teaspoon of pine nuts tasty and edible as they are. When one needs to forage caloric staples become the prime food focus right after animals.

After a recent class in West Palm Beach I was asked to compile a list of local caloric staples. It’s not quite as easy as one might think. In the south end of the state there are edible coconuts. On the north end no coconuts but some almost two-season bull thistles. In between there’s quite a smattering of calorie positive wild food. This list is not meant to be definitive and not necessarily in caloric order though generally it is.

Winged Yam must be cooked.

If I had to pick one local wild plant to top the list it would be the Winged Yam (Dioscorea alata.) It is the yam you buy in the grocery store just gone wild. Under cultivation they grow long and tubular and often over 100 pounds. Left on their own in untilled soil they get lumpy and usually weigh between five and 20 pounds. Easy to identify, the root is usually just a few inches below the surface thus it takes very few calories to dig them up. Not edible raw they do need to be cooked, boiled or roasted. But one would use them just like one would potatoes. Said another way every Winged Yam you see in the wild, on average, is like finding a 10-pound bag of potatoes. Also, it is slightly watery hence another name, the water yam. But that liquid serves a purpose. If you cut a root in half the water seals the uncooked half, preserving it. My video is here. 

Milkweed Vine fruit tastes like potatoes and zucchini.

Next on the local menu is Milkweed Vine (Morrenia odorata). Resembling a chayote (Sechium edule)  it has more vitamin C than the oranges it climbs over as a vine. Indeed, that is why Florida has spent millions of dollars to eliminate it, unsuccessfully. Nearly all of the plant above ground is edible but prized is the fruit. It should be picked when about the size of a tennis ball then boiled or roasted for about 40 minutes. The flavor is a cross between a zucchini and a potato. More to the point unless hit by a hard frost or a bad freeze the vine produces continually.  Abundant, continuous production, nutritious and tasty. The fruit of the Milkweed Vine is a significant caloric staple. I have a video  about it besides the article above.

Groundnuts also have to be cooked.

Third on my list would certainly be ground nuts, Apios americana, of which I also have two videos. Found nearly everywhere there is water east of the Rockies some people eat hundreds of pounds of them a year. Like the Bull Thistle ground nuts are nearly impossible to misidentify. The above- ground pea vine has leaflets of three, five, or seven, usually five sometimes nine. In the fall it has maroon pea-like flowers and puts on pods with edible seeds (cooked.) The nuts, actually tubers, are about the size of hens’ eggs, lumpy and brown, but they are arranged like a string of pearls. Lump then root, lump then root. They can fork and they do like to grow amongst other roots. But they are fairly easy to harvest and a full of calories and nutrition, and up to 26% protein. They must be cooked first, however. The greatest problem with ground nuts is they like to grow in the same locations as poison ivy so one has to be careful in their collection. And while they naturally elect to grow in damp spots they will readily grow in your normal vegetable garden. Video I here.  Video II is here. 

American lotus seeds are delicious cooked.

Fourth and highly seasonal is American lotus. There are two caloric staples with the American lotus, another plant that is nearly impossible to misidentify: The seeds and the roots. While the roots are edible like the lotus roots one finds in Asian markets, they are buried deep in the muck usually under several feet of water. Should the lake drain, they would be a staple worth going after, or if you have a backhoe. You could also cultivate them in shallow ponds. Otherwise we are interested in the seeds. When the seeds are ready to harvest literally thousands of shower-nozzle seed head can be gathered if you have something like a canoe and a knife. One person collects the other paddles. The seeds are like an elongated marble. They can be boiled like peanuts or roasted or dried et cetera. They do have a small green center (a tiny lotus plant) that is bitter and usually removed before eating the rest of the seed. Their flavor is very compelling, real food. Their video is here. 

Bull Thistle roots is edible raw or cooked.

Fifth place would be the Bull Thistle, of which I have two videos as well. Like the yam it will have a larger root near the end of the season (or first year in northern climates) or at the very beginning of the second season before it uses the energy stored in the root to reproduce. The plant is nearly impossible to misidentify and all the members of the genus (Cirsium) are edible. The root is edible raw or cooked. As mentioned above the best place to find them are in pastures. Usually pastures are not polluted and about the only two plants uneaten are pawpaws, an occasional yucca, and bull thistles. Above ground parts are edible as well but require more work where as the root is fairly easy to dig up. It is calorie positive. Video I, and, Video II.

Cooked spurge nettle roots peels easily.

The Spurge Nettle should be added to the round up as well.  Cnidoscolus stimulosus has a totally undeserved reputation for having roots buried very deep. In my several decades of foraging for them the root has always been within a foot below the surface. Here’s the problem: First, the root is brittle. Next it takes on a similar coloring of the ground it’s in. Third the root has a tap root that does go deep. So what happens is most folks actually throw the root away in the first few shovels of dirt then follow the tap root to great and unproductive depths because the root is buried under the dirt they have piled up. Boiled, peeled, and the center string removed, the al dente root tastes like pasta. My video is here. 

Coconuts are nutritious but take a lot of work.

As this is Florida I would be remiss if I did not add coconuts to the list. The ones at the southern end of the state are indeed edible. But, like all coconuts they are a bit of work to get at. They are a source of food, water, transfusion liquid, fat, sugar and fiber. About the only down side to the coconut, besides a pain to open, is too much of the liquid is laxative. But coconuts bring up a problem that is associated with the next caloric staples, they take energy to get. In this case, climbing a coconut tree (make a pair of rope handcuff except to go around your feet, holding them together. That is how you use your feet to climb a coconut palm.) Again, like many of the caloric staples, the coconut is nearly impossible to misidentify.

Cattails produce more starch than any other plant.

Nothing produces more starch per acre under cultivation than cattails, more than 6,000 pounds. They are also nearly impossible to misidentify and can be found mostly east of the Rockies. Cattails have been called the supermarket of the swamp but I think that is excessive because their starch requires some work to get. First, you are likely to get wet getting the roots (actually rhizomes) and the roots are usually in some very smelly swamp muck. Personally I roast the roots which is getting the most (good tasting) caloric bang for the work buck. The starch can be crushed out of the roots and settled off with water but that takes time and energy best suited to a village setting, ample time, and many hands. More so unlike the items above cattail starch is much like flour, nearly tasteless unless cooked some way. The video is here. 

Yellow Spatter Dock pods are full of edible seeds.

Yellow spatter dock seeds were a staple of the Klamath Indians of the Pacific Northwest. Despite glowing reports on the internet the root is not edible. However the properly prepared seeds are very tasty. Improperly prepared they are foul. I have warned you. Have patients with the seeds. Like American Lotus seeds, it is easy for one person in a canoe to collect a huge amount of seed pods at one time. You then put the seed pods in fresh water and let them rot for three weeks. Two weeks is not enough. You need at least three weeks of rotting to turn the bitter seeds sweet. Sometimes you can find some seeds that aren’t too bitter and can be cooked fresh but usually they are far better after the enzymes caused by the rotting have a chance to work their magic. If  you cut a pod open you can see the kernels line up on either side looking like little yellow seed corn. Incidentally, dry and whole they pop like popcorn, only not as big. Sometimes they are not too bitter and can be cooked as is. And while several traditional foraging books say the root is edible it is not. Don’t believe me? Go get a root and cook it any way you choose (I’ve tried them all.) If you eat it be prepared to throw up. The video is here. 

Processing acorns takes time.

There is no doubt that acorns are good food, once leached of their tannins. As I mention in the article Wild Flours it’s all about energy in and energy out. Whether acorns are calorie positive is a good debate. I suspect so but not by much. The reason is time. Collecting acorns goes fairly quickly, sorting out the potential good ones from the bad is easy. Drying them for a day or two in the sun requires little effort (though wildlife might try to steal a few.) What takes the time is shelling them. Putting them in the sun a few days helps but shelling is time consuming by hand (a good job for kids.) A mechanical nut sheller turns a job that takes hours into minutes and is worth the investment if you have a lot of acorns you can harvest. At this writing the shellers, which can be used on other nuts, run about $150. Once shelled the acorns need to be ground and then leached of their tannins. That can take a lot of time and energy depending on whether you are near fresh water or not. The bottom line is under good conditions acorns are calorie positive, under bad conditions a waste of time. Acorns were my fiftieth video. 

Pine cambium is bland in flavor, edible raw or cooked.

For local and international consumption one has to mention pine cambium.  As long as it is a member of the Pinus genus the white inner back is edible and very nutritious. A pound of pine cambium is like nine cups of  milk. Not bad, and the flavor is not piney. The cambium can be eaten raw, dried, powdered and added to bread and soups, fried or boiled. Boiling is the least desired means of cooking and brings out the worst in pine cambium. Video here. 

Wild Rice is a staple in many northern climates.

I would add wild rice to the list, and it is easily harvested, but not that much of it grows locally. It does grow here and there along the St. Johns but I’ve never found enough to harvest beyond a sample. In other areas it was a staple of Native Americans and is a sought-after gourmet food today. Like the Nuphar and Lotus seed pods, a person with a canoe can collect a lot of wild rice if he can find it. The usual method is to use one stick to bend the rice over the canoe and used the other stick to knock it off. You can then return to the same site a few days later and harvest again as not all the rice ripens at the same time. Wild rice also offers only a short window for harvesting, ten to fourteen days usually. It, too, requires some processing.  If it is going to be one of your caloric staples you have to watch it very closely.

Barnyard Grass needs a lot of pounding to winnow.

Also in the grass realm is Barnyard Grass, (Echinochloa crus-galli.) Barnyard grass isn’t difficult to identify. It usually grows in very damp spots and has lower stems that are red/purple. It was a staple for many Indian tribes but is difficult to dehusk. The seeds require a lot of  pounding before winnowing. On the positive side the plant can produce a crop in as little as 42 days. The key to the successful collection of Barnyard Grass involves finding a good size colony which should come into season all at the same time. One good place to find them is drying up holes in lakes low in water. Eastern Gamagrass can also be used.

Saw palmetto berries, strong flavored but nutritious.

One could add to the list Queen Palm Fruit (essentially mainline sugar like sugar cane) Pindo Palm fruit,  (video) with sugar and pectin, and Crowfoot Grass seeds (Dactyloctenium aegyptium) small, but fragile and easy to collect.  Add a palm grub or two and you have a balanced meal. And do I dare add Saw Palmetto berries, Serenoa repens? They do taste like vomit but are very nutritious, and the seed oil is good for cooking. Video here.  Cabbage Palm fruit is also reported as a staple of local indigenous tribes but they are a lot of work. Personally I think they ate the paint-thin pulp off the fruit then sprouted them then used them. Video here. 

Bunya Bunya seeds. Photo by Green Deane

PS: I wrote this original article about a decade ago. If I had one more possible stable to add it would be the seeds of the Bunya Bunya. The tree is an ornamental along the gulf coast and up the west coast of United States. When the “cones” are on the ground the seeds are edible (same with the Norfolk Pine.) The seeds are starchy, some times easy to get at and other times not. They are a good source of calories but not that common. Article here, video here. 

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