Search: Sour orange

Two different species of grapes blossoming next to each other, a bunching forked tendril grape on our left; a clustering single tendril grape on our right. Seen a Wickham Park . Photo by Green Deane

Forked-tendril species produce better grapes. Photo by Green Deane

Our local muscadine grapes are fickle, unreliable. Vitis munsoniana and V. rotundo rarely fruit irregularly. They can skip several years between fruitings. When they are going to fruitthey  start now with blossoms ending with grapes ripening about September.  Noticing where the grapes are blossoming now can save time this fall. Vitis munsoniana and V. rotundo are “single tendril” grapes with clusters of acidic grapes and are one of two large groups of grapes locally. The other group is forked tendril, they fruit regularly have sweet grapes that grow in a bunch. Clearly of the two one wants to find the forked tendril grape which is usually vitis aestivalis. Remember that grape seeds are teaardrop shaped. You can read about grapes here a video here. 

fermented mashed potatos.Photo by Green Deane

If you study cooking in the 1800s nothing went to waste. Many recipes from that era are basically making a meal out of leftovers. Such as turning stale bread into a pie. One trick from that time period is fermenting mashed potatoes (no not into vodka.) Mixing yogurt into mashed potatoes and letting it ferment a few days, kind of like building in sour cream. Once fermented treat/eat like yogurt. When I was growing up my mother professed to being a horrible cook while her mother — who grew up in poverty — was well-known for being a great cook. A while after I started studying 18th century cooking I realized my mother’s cooking wasn’t bad but centuries old. In fact something called The Poor man’s Meal from the depression era was something we had at least two nights a weekImagine my surprise when I saw a video of it on You Tube entitled depression era cooking! 

“Beggar’s pudding” from 1773 was stale bread repurposed for your family or the poor. I had half a loaf of homemade sour dough leftover. It was a good candidate for Beggar’s Pudding which is: Bread, sherry, ginger, currants or raisins.  In the 1700s almost any fruit could have been used and cider for sherry. Ginger was an inexpensive seasoning you could grow at home. Many recipes from the 1700s don’t include amounts. For this I used that half a loaf of bead,  a cup of marsala instead of sherry, a tablespoon of ground ginger, a teaspoon of coarse salt, a grind of nutmeg, a cup of golden raisins and a third of a cup of white sugar. Pour the hot water over the bread to soften, pour off any excess water, mix all the ingredients then put into a buttered pie dish, dot the top with butter and bake at 325F for 35 minutes. Serve cold. Brown sugar would be better

Fermenting the lighter green segmented cucumber worm. Phto by Green Deane

In Ft Pierce last week we saw a lot of ripe creeping cucumbers, Melothria pendula, so I decided to ferment some. If you look closely you’ll see a  worm being pickled. As I’m sure I’ve already consumed some  worms in the past I won’t fetch it out until the pickling process is complete. Fermenting food for preservation is a simple processed. While there can be variations, it is basically one tablespoon of non-iodized salt per cup of water. Pour the brine over the non-washed material being pickled making sure what you are pickling is kept submerged in the solution (that which pops out will mold.) Let it ferment for about three weeks. We will try these in a future class (Sorry there is only one worm to taste.) The salt discourages bad bacteria but encourages lacto bacteria which eats the carbohydrates turning them into tart acidic acid 

Fermented Spiderworts. Photo by Green Deane

Blooming strongly now are Spiderworts. Most of them have a blue blosssom. The entire plant above ground is edible. I often chop them and ferment them into a sauerkraut. They are more fiberous than cabbage making a tough sauerkraut but tasty. Occasionally you will see one with a gray  or white or red blossom. Officially there are nine different species of spiderworts locally. The one I see most often is Tradescantia ohiensis.

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

Visiting two favored locations this weekend, Larago where there’s a lot of wild garlic, and mead garden which has a lot of vaiety

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

Sunday April 10th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon Meet at the bathrooms.

Saturday April 16th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. to noon Meet at the pavilion

Saturday April 23rd, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the parking lot of Ganyard St, and Bayshore Blvd. 

Saturday April 30th,Saturday April 30th Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave., Ocala, FL, 34471.9 a.m. to noon.  Meet at the entrance to the pool, aka Aquatic Fun Center. To meet the demands of the city of Ocala, this is a free class, If you want to make a donation afterwards that is at your discretion.

Sunday May 1st, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. 9 am. to noon meet at the dog park inside the park. 

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

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

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

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

Clover prefers low nitrogen soil.

Clover is one of those wild edibles that is both overstated and understated. The overstatement is from writers who offer it as a great human food full of this and that to keep us healthy. The understated part is that it can harbor a fungus that inhibits clotting and somewhere around a half-a-cup of raw leaves can make you throw up. Individual experience, of course, can vary and there are several different species of clover with different characteristics. Pictured here is a nice little White Clover which is blossoming now mostly in lawns and athletic fields. A few leaves can be eaten raw. They are high in protein for a leaf. The blossom fresh or quickly dried can be used for tea. There is also Crimson, Red, Sweet and even Tick Clover.

Oenothera laciniata, cutleaf evening primrose

There are two blossoms you might be seeing now. One is the non-edible vine Carolina jassamine (Gelsemium Sempervirens.) You will see it draping over fences and bushes. The other in the southern version of the Evening Primrose, generally considered not edible (but I haven’t proven that to myself.) The northern version of the Evening Primrose, Oenothera biennis, is called a “lost vegetable.” It was cultivated in Europe for about a century. There is a debate whether it is native to Europe or North America. Our Evening Primrose is O. laciniata, or the Cutleaf Evening-primrose. Unlike its northern sibling our local Evening Primrose does not grow tall, is a ground hugger, and is not considered edible. I have been meaning to try a little part of the blossom. A quarter of a century ago Forager Emeritus Dick Deuerling told me it was not edible. That said, Dick had texture issues and said he only ate the “good stuff.” So he could have been saying he didn’t eat it. It’s a plant I’ve been meaning to explore. The natives ate several other Evening Primroses including O. albicaulis, O. biennis, O elata ssp. hookeri, and O. triloba. Another evening Primrose you might find in the northern part of the state is O. fruticosa. It’s not considered edible, either. 

Florida Pennyroyal is also in blossom. Photo by Green Deane

If you are one to wander around sandy scrub in Florida this time of year you will see the low blooms of the Florida Pennyroyal. It’s quite an unusual plant in that it is monotypic, meaning the only plant in its genus. It’s found along the Central Florida Ridge though I have seen it also on the east coast of the state. There are a few plants in the Bahamas and maybe one or two in southern Georgia. It has the unmistakable aroma of pennyroyal. A species that looks vaguely similar, Florida Rosemary, has no noticeable strong aroma. Florida Pennyroyal used to be the third most common nectar plant in the state but fell off for some unknown reason and was replaced by Bidens alba, the Spanish Needles. Florida Pennyroyal was used extensively by the natives and has culinary uses. To read more about it go here.

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

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

Green Deane Forum

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

This is my weekly newsletter #502. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Nostoc… for when you are really hungry.

BC’s philosopher Wiley.

In the old cartoon series BC, Wiley, a peg-legged curmudgeon, was the strip’s philosopher. One day he opined: “The bravest man I ever saw was the first one who ate an oyster raw.” He could have easily penned “who ate nostoc raw.”  

Nostoc can resemble a pile of disintegrating dog scat. Not exactly appetizing. If you add that there are some 300 hard-to-identify species Nustoc barely creeps into the realm of edible. As one might presume in parts of the world where there are billions to feed they eat it… and other places, too.  Perhaps the easiest stop to find locally it is on the ground cover one walks on in nurseries. Apparently it is the cause of much slipping and falls. In the wild I see it now and then in high and dry ground with much water nearby and moisture in the air. It is particularly common near Haul Over Canal on the northwest scrubby side. 

Nostoc was a mystery for centuries as folks thought it was alien and was seen after a variety of celestial events. We now know it is an algae plumped up by passing rain. Some flies like to lay eggs in it, apparently with bad effects. An article in the 2008 Journal of Ethnopharmacology reported in the Peruvian highlands Nostoc commune when eaten as food can produce the neurotoxic amino acid BMMA. From the Abstract:

Is Nostoc a no-no? Photo by Green Deane

“In the mountains of Peru, globular colonies of Nostoc commune (Nostocales) are collected in the highland lakes by the indigenous people, who call them llullucha. They are consumed locally, traded for maize, or sold, eventually entering the folk markets of Cusco and other neighboring cities. Throughout highland Peru, Nostoc commune is highly salient as a seasonal dietary item, being eaten alone, or in picante — a local stew — and is said to be highly nutritious. Nostoc commune has been known to produce unusual amino acids, including those of the mycosporine group, which possibly function to prevent UV damage. We analyzed 21 different Nostoc commune spherical colonies from 7 different market collections in the Cusco area for the presence of beta-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), a neurotoxic amino acid produced by diverse taxa of cyanobacteria, using four different analytical techniques (HPLC-FD, UPLC-UV, UPLC/MS, LC/MS/MS). We found using all four techniques that BMAA was present in the samples purchased in the Peruvian markets. Since BMAA has been putatively linked to neurodegenerative illness, it would be of interest to know if the occurrence of ALS, Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s Disease is greater among individuals who consume llullucha in Peru.”  This was echoed in a Chinese study.

Some have argued this is also why you should also not eat Alfalfa or Black Medic because of BMAA. Other studies disagree, such as “Toxicity and bioaccumulation of two non-protein amino acids synthesised by cyanobacteria, β-N-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) and 2,4-diaminobutyric acid (DAB), on a crop plant.” (Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 15 January 2021.)  All that said there is a general rule about algae and that is never eat blue-green algae. Green yes, blue-green never. A nitrogen fixer, you can read more about  Nostoc here. 

Engarde! From my Sword Fern video.

This is my 500th newsletter. Some quick math suggests that’s about a decade of correspondence but it’s actually 16 years worth. The first newsletters were monthly. Back then I had to do the mailing as well. It was quite a chore. If one email address was wrong — or the mail box full –the entire mailing was aborted and there was no hint which address triggered the rejectiion. Now the mailing costs $40 a month (if I keep editing out folks who subscribe but never read the newsletter.)  

Topics covered in that first newsletter were: Water Vine, Smilax, Doesn’t Grow Here, Kudzu, Elderberry/Water Hemlock, Pomegranate Ponderings, the fact that elephants do not like chili and feeding cows curry reduces their methane production by 40%. The newsletter is published on Tuesdays because research 16 years ago said that was the day of the week an email was least likely to be deleted unread. It also gave me a one day break from teaching foraging classes on the weekend. I did not start the newsletter on a whim (or for advertising.) 

Green Deane in his journalism days four decades ago. Photo by Wang Su-mei

Some 40 years ago I was working journalist on daily newspapers. I covered law and crime and wrote features on the side. I also freelanced for national magazines and later ended up as an assignment editor for a TV station. I left that job because that was the beginning of “making” news rather than reporting news… The TV reporters, we called them “twinkies,”  were good-looking but more often than not empty headed and had to be told what questions to ask. Anyway, on one newspaper the reporters had to write a weekly column. It was actually the editor’s job to write one new column a day — a running feature, on the top of page three — but instead he farmed it out to seven writers. There were restrictions: It has to be about a local issue, it could not be an opinion piece, and had to be relevant to the coverage area. Those of us who had to write a weekly column came to loathe it. It was a re-occuring migraine and often one did not have anything to write about, and, unlike today, fiction and advocacy was not allowed. 

So I knew the newsletter pitfalls when I started this endeavor.  Fortunately there is always something to write about in the foraging world and the newsletter takes up only about one day per week, first word to mailing. I do not post newsletters on Facebook regularly because I deliberately chose not switch over to that medium. It’s too capricious and unreliable even if it would save some $500 a year. I also tend to end up in Facebook Jail regularly and always completely by surprise. The things that offend Facebook is ever-increasing. 

And of course a newsletter is pointless without readers. Thank you for tolerating all these years of repetition, typos and misspellings. The mistake are all my own. 

Possible Book Cover Photo

What of the book? Some seven years ago I proposed a book to some publishers: They collectively said no. Then one, in October 2020, said yes and could I deliver the book in 90 days to be printed in 2021? So I put my life on hold and wrote the book in 90 days turning it in on time (years of newspaper deadlines made that possible.) Then they said thanks but we won’t start it until 2022 and put it on sale in 2023. Bummer: Slow-forward: They are starting to put the book together. The good news is they are keeping most of the 430 articles I sent (covering more than 1500 species.) It is international in scope (European weeds went everywhere the Europeans went.) What makes this forth-coming book different, besides my endless ranting about dunk botanists and Dead Latin, is each entry — or almost every entry — includes nutritional information about the plant: Vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants et cetera. That comprised most of the research as I already had the bulk of material written for my website. And yes there are color pictures, most of which I took over the years. The biggest headache, of all things, was vitamin A. It is expressed in a variety of ways that don’t easily translate into one metric. I finally gave up and kept all the various metrics. I might have preprints by October, three years after the project started. Actually this is my third book. My first one was in 1990 called 1001 Facts Somebody Screwed Up, followed by 1001 More Facts Somebody Screwed Up. Neither had 1001 facts. They did together way back at the beginning before editors got their delete buttons on it. Anyway, that publisher went out of business and sold the right to publish those book to cover debts. So one can still buy them but I have not seen a royalty check from them since 2000. And that, “dear readers” as Dear Abby use to write, is the publishing world. I dive had some short fiction published along the way most notably in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. 

Smoking Salmon

Where I grew up the Alder was called a trash tree. Why? It took over freshwater wetlands and filled in ponds. Not a strong wood, long lived or large. Folks never mentioned it’s prime wood for smoking meat and other comestibles… such as cheese. Smoking can preserve and flavor.

Pairing the wood to the food to be smoked is perhaps more an art than a science, an exercise in personal taste. I am more inclined to use what I have on hand or tinker with it a little. I’ve been saving wood for particular applications. So far my stash includes maple, white oak, apple, mesquite, and avocado. Surprisingly citrus wood is difficult to come by. 

Camphor gets a bad rap on the internet. I used to burn camphor in my fireplace. The Chinese make a famous duck dish using camphor smoke for flavoring. American barbecue pages all scream Camphor wood is toxic… however one commercial smoke house in northwest Florida uses camphor wood particularly on fish. And many sites warn cherry is toxic though you can buy cherrywood expressly for smoking particularly seafood. (I think perhaps they are confusing different species.)  They also approve of a western juniper but condemn an eastern juniper and mistakenly call them cedars.  All condemned the sycamore…. which is used for skewers and wooden spoons and bowels et cetera. They say Sycamore has a resin. Sycamore is quite close to the maple. I’m collecting sycamore sap now for syrup. Maple sap is clear, like water. Sycamore sap is — collectively — dark orange. Maybe it does have a resin… I will have to burn some and report. 

Sycamores is a hardwood not used for smoking.

Meats, seafoods, and cheese are foods that are regularly smoked. (I wonder if hard-boiled eggs can be smoked?) Delicate smoke for mild foods, stronger flavored for red meats et ali. Getting general approval for smoking is Acacia, Alder, Almond (I’d question that as I do Prunus caroliniana. Perhaps they mean Sweet Almond.) Apricot, Ash, Aspen (well aged, it can be sappy unless quite dry) Australian Pine (which is not a pine but closer to the oaks than conifers. The wood and dampened needles are used) Beech, Birch, Blackberry Roots, Bottlebrush Tree, Bunya Bunya cone leftovers, Butternut, Carob, Carrotwood, Chestnut, Coconut Husks (be careful, they have flaming gas jets, I know that from personal experience.) Corn Cobs, Cottonwood, Dogwood, Fig (sparingly) Grape Vine, Gorse, Guava, Heather, Hickory, Honey Locus, Jabuticaba, Jackfruit, Kiawe, Lead Tree (Leucaena leucocephala)  Lilac, Lychee, Madrone, Magnolia (I presume M. virginiana which is also a good wood to grow oyster mushrooms on) Manzanita, Mulberry, Nectarine, Oak (white and red) Olive, Orange (the latter for pork, also grapefruit, lemon, lime) Osage Orange (blended with oak) Peach, Pear, Peat, Pecan, Persimmon, Pistachio Shells, Pimento, Plum, Red Mangrove (Rhizophora racemosa) Santol, Sassafras, Seaweed (washed) Starfruit, Straw, Sugarcane, Tamarind, Willow, and Walnut, Black and English. 

Sourwood is chewed but not eaten.

Some woods are in …limbo… like the Sycamore and Sweet Gum (all the gum trees taste bad.) Another one is sourwood. Natives cooked meat on sourwood sticks so it can’t be all that bad. No reports on Southern Wax Myrtle, some report Crape Myrtles can be used. If the Bradford Pear could be used to smoke food it would help eliminate that non-productive, invasive ornamental species. As it is related to the apple perhaps it can. I’ve also got three gallons of dried Queen Palm kernels I’m going to try. They have a coconut-flavored. I wonder how they would smoke and taste… explode perhaps? You don’t use conifers for smoking (such as true pines, firs, hatmatacks, cypress et cetera.) They throw a foul flavor.

A loquats ripen the get sweeter.  Photo by Green Deane

Perhaps the next two species do not need repeating but I’ll assume you are a new reader. Loquats are in full fruit now particularly in the middle of the state. In south Florida they will be around for two or three more weeks. In north Florida they are just beginning to ripen. They’re usually fruit for six to eight weeks in each location. Like Star fruit they start out green turn light yellow and tart then slowly turn deep golden and very sweet. Unlike green star fruit green loquats are NOT edible. In fact there is one report in the literature in which a green loquat killed a child. Don’t eat the green fruit. They also naturally have a small amount of arsenic, enough to trigger tests for said. You can read about loquats here and a video here. 

Butterweed’s blossom does not resemble a mustard. Photo by Green Deane

This. too, has been mentioned earlier but bears repeating: Butterweed is toxic. The warning is prudent because the plant — before it blossoms — resembles a generic mustard. However, unlike all mustards, Butterweed has a mild flavor whereas all mustards have at least some pungency. If you mistakenly eat Butterweed raw or cooked it will damage your liver. Once the plant blossoms it does not resemble any mustard as the flowers are quite different. Mustards have four-petaled blossoms, Butterweed’s blossom looks like a yellow daisy. The plant likes to grow in damp places and gets to be about a yard high when at the blossoming stage. Unfortunately the leaves have a nice texture and a mild taste. That tells you immediately that it is not a mustard.

Foraging Classes as the cold moderates and the chance of rain increases. This weekend I am in Ft Pierce, at a rather strange preserve, and this Sunday at a familiar standby, Mead Garden in Winter Park.

Saturday March 26th,  George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon. This location does not have official bathrooms or water. 

Sunday March 27th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday April 2nd,  Dreher Park, West Palm Beach, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405., 9 a.m. to noon. Meet just north of the science museum. 

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

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

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

Green Deane Forum

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

This is my weekly newsletter #500. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

— The hunt for a place to move to continues. Looking for a fixer upper on agicultural land preferably on the southern half of the state. Quiet and the ability to raise ducks or a goat or two a priority. Internet not a necessity. Failing that perhaps rent a mother-in-law cottage. I grew up on a farm and can husband animals and raise a garden. If you know of anything please let me know. GreenDeane @gmail.com.  Failing that buying an RV and finding a place to park is plan C. 

Osmanthus americanus and fruit, also called Devilwood. Photo by Green Deane

Mistakes can be fruitful. Several years ago I notice what appeared to be some kind of wild olive — Forestiera ligustrina, with round fruit — at Spruce Creek south of Port Orange. In fact there were several of them in one area. I didn’t study them, I just noticed they were there. (My personality is to not rush into new plants or mushrooms.) Then a few years later at Eagle Lake in Largo there was a planted “Florida Privet” — Forestiera segregata — heavy with  fruit. It looked similar to the first though everything overall was smaller. However “Forestiera” and wild olive was linked in my mind. 

The Forestiera in Eagle Lake had small, pointed oval fruit. I could not find any references on edibility. It has a relative, however, F. neomexicana, the Desert Olive, whose fruit were “used like olives.”  This made me take a second closer look at the trees in Spruce Creek as the fruit were larger. My blindere was being stuck to the Forestiera genus and I didn’t look at other genera in the wild olive family. After studying the leaves and their arrangement the trees in Spruce Creek they were actually Osmanthus americanus, a different and edible wild olive called Devilwood.  

Osmanthus americanus fruit after brining. Photo by Green Deane

The main problem with these wild olives is they are bitter (so much so they were used only for making ink or a mixed with clay for body paint.  As I also had seen someone eat them I brined a few hoping to remove their bitterness. It worked. They do taste like olives but the layer of pulp is paper thin. I brined them in a 10% solution that I changed once a week for a month. I also kept them submerged in the brine as one does when one lacto-ferments. Even though the pay off is small, adding another edible to the list is good. And as there is plenty of salt I don’t think making them edible is a difficult chore. Besides edible fruit the blossoms can be used to flavor or scent tea. I think they are too skimpy to collect any oil from plus that might concentrate some unwanted lipid compounds. The other headache is while I have published sources that say the wild olives are edible the internet says no. Some natives reportedly used F. segretata berries as an emetic ( I doubt they brined them.) 

Rorippa palustris, Bog Yellow Cress

All mustards are edible, no matter where you are on earth, no matter what the species. And for several years I’ve seen a mustard that was like many others, not too distinguished but definitely in the mustard family. Several times I have wondered if it was a Sibara, a Erucastrum, or one of many the cresses that show up in our winter. This week a possible answer was provided while at Eagle Lake: A Cress, genus Rorippa, R. palustris, the Bog Yellow Cress and closely related to Sibara. There are ten Rorippa in Florida and four versions of the palustris (good luck sorting them out.) I haver found them near fresh water, not in it, but in places where rainwater can stand.

Aspargus densiflorus, are the fruit edible?

Perhaps it was a week for discovery. I have seen someone eat the red fruit of the ornamental Asparagus Fern prompting me to hit the library (I don’t hit the internet because most sites cut and paste copy each other. You can read the exact same entry on multiple sites. Books in the library tend to not copy each other.) There are, officially, six Asparagus in Florida: A. aethiopicus, A. densiflorus, A. officianlis, A. plumosus, A. setaceus, and A. sprengeri.   A. officinalis is the garden Asparagus so we know that is edible and has escaped from cultivation here and there. Other known edible species include A. aphyllus (cooked bitter shoots) and A. cochinchinensis (fruits and roots after the roots are preserved in sugar… bitter I suppose.) All of the species are in the lily family which makes them deadly to cats and perhaps toxic to dogs and horses, too.  Several sources agree the red Asparagus fruit is not too toxic and the sap can irritate the skin some. Several of the species are thorny and can cause dermatitis. There are many Asparagus mentioned in the Journal of Economic Botany but none of ours are covered. Francois Couplan, author of The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America, says while the seeds in the red fruit can be used as a coffee substitute the red fruit” are rich in saponins and can cause digestive trouble and hemolysis.” (Hemolysis is rupturing red blood cells, a common problem with many wild peas and why they are either not edible or only used as a famine food, that is, for a short duration.) He writes the roots of several European species of asparagus are eaten raw or cooked.  Australia does not consider A. densiflorus toxic. I would not have explored the plant except I know someone who ate some fruit and did not appear to experience any acute issues. Maybe they are a trailside nibble. 

The large blossoms of the African Tulip Tree, a monotypic genus. Photo by Green Deane

Fourth on the discovery list this week was the African Tulip Tree, which was right next to the Coralwood Tree in Dreher Park, west Palm Beach. It was blossoming heavily thus drew notice. Like several species perhaps the edibility is slight but it is inside that realm. Cornucopia II says on page 49: “The flower buds contain a sweet, water liquid that is considered tonic. Winged seeds are said to be edible.* Pharmaceutical research on the species reports that “Spathodea campanulata is traditionally used in the treatment of various disorders. The bark pulp is used in oedemas, skin diseases like herpes and sores. In Gabon, the crushed bark and flowers have been applied to ulcers. The cold leaf infusion is used to treat urethral inflammation and bark decoction has been reported to be used to treat kidney disorders. In Senegal, the bruised leaves and flowers are used in wound treatment and ulcers. The flowers are employed as diuretic and anti-inflammatory, while the leaves are used against kidney disease, urethra inflammation and as an antidote against animal poisons. Also, the leaf decoction has been used for the treatment of gonorrhoea and women‘s pelvic disorders. In Ghana, the bark infusion is used for the treatment of dysentery and stomach ache.” And the flower buds can be used by kids like a water pistol: Just squeeze them.

Incidentally, the next entry in Cornucopia II after the African tulip Tree is the Pink Trumpet Tree, Tabebuia impetigonosa of which there are many locally. The inner bark is brewed into a tonic tea that was favored by Ghandi and Czar Nicholas II of Russia. *Curiously most of the plants I am interested in are in the first 170 pages of Cornucopia II. I rarely ever have a reason to look at anything in the next 705 pages. Thus my copy is falling apart at page 170.

Classes are held rain or shine or cold. (Hurricanes are an exception.) Photo by Kelly Fagan.

Foraging Classes: Braving the cold weather of Jacksonville this weekend with a class on the northeast side of the city in Atlantic Beach. Then Sunday then back to a favorite location, Mead Garden in Winter Park.

Saturday February 26th, Tide Views Preserve, 1 Begonia Street, Atlantic Beach Fl 32233 (near Jacksonville Fl.) 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot. 

Sunday February 27th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday March 5th,  John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Sunday March 6th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m. to noon. 

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

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

Silverthorn berries ripen in about Valentine’s Day. Photo by Green Deane

Silverthorn is definitely in fruit. We’ve been seeing ripening berries for several weeks and found a lot of sweet ones this past weekend. Locally it is a very common hedge plant that is rather easy to identify. It has green waxy leaves that are silver on the back with rusty freckles. The fruit is about the size of a jelly bean and light red with silver and gold sprinkling. You can read about it here, and a video here. Also flowering this week and will be fruiting soon is Eastern Gamagrass. A clumping ornamental (and native) it has a frilly flower spike that turns into grains that can be used like wheat if you can get them out of their husk. You can read about it here. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

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

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: California Wild Mushroom Parties, A Good Reason To Eat Wild Garlic, Black Walnuts and Amaranth, Sea Salt and Plastic, Wild Mustard? Heavy Metals. Oriental Persimmons. What is it? Pine Cough Drops and Needles, Skullcap, Malodorous Plant? Another NJ Tree, Maypop? Roadside Plant, Unknown in Sudan, Please Help Identify, and Preserving Prickly Pear Bounty. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is my weekly newsletter #496. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Ice Plant is native to South Africa.

Natives in northwest United States had a saying: When the tide is out the table is set. I use a variation in my foraging  classes: Food is where the water is. Foraging is treasure hunting for adults. An unusual edible we saw this weekend in Port Charlotte was Carpobrotus edulis, the ice plant. It was in a neighborhood near Bayshore Park on Sibley Bay Street. My only other sighting of this species was a few years ago on the land side of Fred Howard Park, Tarpon Springs. You can also find it at the Nature Park in Punta Gorda. Ice Plant resembles purslane on steroids. Definitely not native, it’s a succulent-looking ground cover often put into coastal landscape. Leaves are less than two-inches long, opposite, evergreen, lance shaped.  The plant gets to about a foot high and is drought tolerant. The pink blossom with a yellow center is cactus-like. Leaves are used in salads. Fruits are eaten raw, dried, cooked or pickled or used in chutneys and preserves. Also edible are C. aequilaterus and C. deliciosus.

Enteromorpha some times called Ulva. Photo by Green Deane

The tide was quite low at Port Charlotte so we got to see some sea lettuce, Ulva lactuca, (bottom right) looking like green plastic wrap. Sold commercially it’s one of the more tasty local sea weeds (or as they are called now sea vegetables.) Sea Lettuce is more commonly found after a steady onshore sea breeze. Free floating it starts out attached to a shell or rock. If you find lots of a sea lettuce-like plant  but it’s stringy, not wrapper-like, that is the  Enteromorpha version (photo left). The second thing you might notice about the Enterophrphas besides looking stringy is they are a similar bright light green as the Ulva. Some taxonomists have given up and call them all Ulva or all Enteromorpha. Enteromorpha in Dead Latin mangled from Greek literally means intestine-shaped, Ulva means sedge in Dead Latine or wolf in Gaelic (sometimes a girl’s name.) Both groups are also called Green Nori.  What is native, what is not,  and what are their ranges is officially “unclear.” They can also be found inland at salty springs and also the Great Lakes. As far as I know all Ulva and Enterophorpha are edible. The various Enteromorpha species are E. intestinalis, E. clathrata, E. flexuosa, E. compressa, E. linza, and E. prolifera. Like Ulva, they are edible raw, cooked or preserved. In fact a restaurant at Port Canaveral used to see a Sea Lettuce salad. 

Sea Lettuce is perhaps the best of our local seaweeds.

Since most seaweed is edible, and nutritious, why isn’t it consumed more often? Taste and texture. I’ve collected Sargassum and prepared it many ways. Semi-drying and frying isn’t too bad but Bladderwrack is better, Sea Lettuce better still. Sea Lettuce is about the best in the Americas. Not surprisingly most land animals including birds don’t like seaweed. However, it does make good mulch and fertilizer. So while one may not use it directly in the diet it can still help sustain you with uses in the garden. During Victorian times it was highly used in English agriculture. Here are some of my articles on seaweed: Bladderwrack,  Caulpera,  Codium,   Gracilaria,   Sargassum,  Sea Lettuce, and Tape Seagrass.

Foragers benefit from bad ideas. One of those is taking plants from one place on earth to another. We harvest and eat a lot of local plants that came from somewhere else. One of them is so far from home that it fruits in February.

Silverthorn berries are ripening now.

The Silverthorn is native to Southeast Asia. It came to North America as an ornamental about 200 years ago. Early botanists were sure it would not become an invasive pest because they said the fruit were not nutritious for birds. Thus, the birds would not eat them and spread the seeds around. The problem is no one told the birds that (and if birds did not spread the seeds around in Asia, what did?)  In some areas the Silverthorn is an invasive species and forbidden. In other areas it is still sold as an ornamental. We call it tasty and we has some almost ripe ones Sunday in Sarasota.

Silverthorn fruits ripen about Valentine’s Day, give or take a week or two.  The bush hides the blossoms and they are a bit strange looking, if not futuristic. The four-petaled speckled blossom turns into a red jelly bean-like fruit with gold and silver speckles. They are bitter and or sour until ripe. The shelled seed is also edible. Altogether the fruit is high in vitamin C, lycopene, and Omega 3 fatty acids. And that is a tasty treat in the middle of winter even up into north Georgia. To read more about the Silverthorn go here.

Unidentified shrub with what appears fruit turned into galls. Photo by Green Deane

There are at the least two ways to look at plants: As a whole comprising of parts, or, parts that comprise a whole. This is not a riddle or a paradox. Beginners tend to see whole plants not their parts and experienced foragers tend to see parts that either do or do not make the whole. Beginners will make such mistakes as identifying Florida Pursley for Chickweed because they have a similar shape even though they are very different in size and hairiness. Similar confusion happen with Oakleaf Flea Bane and Plantagos — both have stem threads — Elderberries and Water Hemlock because of similar leaves and blossoms and environment preference. Experience foragers see a whole comprised of parts and it all works or it does not. If a plant were a jigsaw puzzle beginners see the general shape and notice there is a picture. Experience folks see the pieces, the picture in detail and the shape that then make a whole. When you’re used to looking at plants it can sometimes look right but something is naggingly wrong (usually one of the parts, so always be sensitive to that little doubt.) This shrub to th right — still unidentified by me — resembles a Marlberry but… the arrangement and low amount of fruit is wrong (according to Marlberries I have seen.) And the taste of the black fruit was surprisingly palatable whereas marlberries are usually barely edible. The whole of the shrub is suggests Marlberry, the parts do not. Also the fruit seems to become galled and the seed disappears. So it’s still on the “I don’t know list” though it is nursery-raised and I would thus presume probably a native as it was intentionally planted in a park. I’d suggest a Foresteria but it’s fruit is bitter and this is sweet. In foraging “close” is not good enough. 

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

Foraging Classes: Classes this week are in Winter Park, north of Orlando, and John Chestnut Park, not far from Tarpon Springs  

Saturday February 5th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Sunday February 6th,  John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Saturday February 12th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion.

Sunday February 13th,  Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 

Saturday February 19th,  Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m. to noon, meet just north of the science center. 

Sunday February 20th,  Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion next to (east of) the tennis courts.

Saturday February 26th, Tide Views Preserve, 1 Begonia Street, Atlantic Beach Fl 32233 (near Jacksonville Fl.) 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot. 

Sunday February 27th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m. to noon. 

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

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

If you look across local lakes now you will see garnet red splotches on the horizon. Those are maples putting on new leaves. Are maple leaves edible? Yes and seeds, too. Are they prime foraging food? Opinions vary. The delicate samaras (see right) happen to be red but they can also be green. Later the auto-rotating wings will turn brown. Locally the trees are so heavy with seeds they appear red from a distance. As for eating them what you need to do is taste them first. If they are not bitter you can tear off the wings and eat them raw though some folks eat the soft wings as well. If they are bitter they need to be cooked in boiling water, cooled, then tasted. They should be less bitter. You may have to boil them again. Non-bitter seeds can also be roasted or sun-dried. Some Native Americans sprouted the seeds for a treat. I do not know of any toxic maple seeds to humans but red maple (Acer rubrum) leaves and seeds are toxic to horses. That said I do recall we had two red maple intentionally planted in the barnyard. My step-father liked the looks of them. Our horses — definitely leaves eaters — left them alone. To read more about maples go here.

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

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

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: California Wild Mushroom Parties, A Good Reason To Eat Wild Garlic, Black Walnuts and Amaranth, Sea Salt and Plastic, Wild Mustard? Heavy Metals. Oriental Persimmons. What is it? Pine Cough Drops and Needles, Skullcap, Malodorous Plant? Another NJ Tree, Maypop? Roadside Plant, Unknown in Sudan, Please Help Identify, and Preserving Prickly Pear Bounty. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

Jabuticaba fruit grows on the trunk and limbs of the tree.

In its native Brazil the Jabuticaba is by far the most popular fruit. The Dutch knew about it in 1658. Jabuticaba made it to California by 1904. It’s a common ornamental and there are many “cultivars:” Sabara, Paulista, Rajada, Branca, Ponhema, Rujada, Roxa, Sao Paulo, Coroa, Murta, and Mineira. Per 100 grams Plinia cauliflora fruit has 45.7 calories, 0.11 grams of protein, 0.08 grams of fiber, 0.01 grams of fat and 12.58 gams of carbohydrates. Vitamin A is absent but it has 22.7 mg of vitamin C which is about a third of your daily need. The B vitamins are B1 (thiamin) 0.02 mg, B2 (riboflavin) 0;02 mg, and B3 (niacin) 0.21 mg. Two minerals are reported: Calcium 6.3 mg and phosphorus 9.2 mg. It is also called Myrciaria cauliflora.

It’s a short tree planted in warm areas of North American and a common ornamental in Florida and the Gulf Coast. One is reported to sustain an 18F freeze and continued to thrive and fruit. Jabuticaba means “like turtle fat” referring to the fruit pulp, or, it means “tortoise place.” Take your pick. Myrciaria is from the Greek myrike (μυρίκη) which was the  Greek name for the “tamarisk” a tree that is aromatic. In English it becomes Myrtle. Cauliflora means cauliflower-like. Plinia is Dead Latin for filled, full, rich, whole, perfect, well-equipped. You might remember from history Pliny the Elder and Younger. 

This is my weekly newsletter #493. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

In time Henbit can get a foot high.  Photo by Green Deane

When lawns aren’t mowed food grows. The weather’s been good and our winter plants are happy. In foraging classes these last two weeks weve seen Sheep’s Sorrel, Oxalis, Pellitory,  Black Medic, Wild Geraniums, Horsemint,  Chickweed  and Henbit. The latter was a favored spring time green with Native Americans because it’s mild rather than peppery. and while in the mint family it is not minty. It’s edible raw or cooked. An edible relative, “Dead Nettle” looks very similar but is more purple.  Henbit is called “Henbit” because chickens like it. It’s usually found in sunny, non-arid places. To read more about Henbit go here.  Surprisingly what we haven’t seen yet is Stinging Nettle.  Perhaps the nights have not been cool enough. Fast growing it’s usually around for a couple of months or so. 

Swinecress is an easy to identify winter mustards.

During the classes seasonal mustards were also on display. Poor Man’s Pepper Grass is everywhere. Hairy Bittercress was found nearby as was Swine Cress (article here, new video here.) Also well-represented this past week was Shepherd’s Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris, a much milder relative of Poor Man’s Pepper Grass. They have similar blossoms but differently shaped leaves and seed pods. The Shepherd’s pods look more like hearts than “purses.” One interesting aspect about Shepherd’s Purse is that I personally have never seen it growing south of the Ocala area. It’s found in 18 northern counties of Florida, one west central Florida county, Hillsborough, one southern Florida county, Dade, and throughout North America. It’s just kind of sparse in the lower half of the state. Also not see yet this season is Western Tansy Mustard. You find it in dry, sandy places like corrals. 

Wild Radish and Mustard are in blossom now. Photo by Green Deane

Driving back on the Beach Line” from our Lori Wilson Park meet up we saw miles of wild mustard growing roadside, like a light yellow hedge. Mustards like chilly weather, or at least locally they do. You can see Wild Mustards and Wild Radish not only along roadsides now but in various fields from farm land to ignored citrus groves. The two species are used interchangeably and look similar. However Wild Radishes tend to be serpentine rather than straight and tall like Wild Mustard. They also have lumpy seed pods, or, more lumpy than mustard seed pods. Usually you will find a stand of one or the other. I don’t recall finding both in the same patch. Blossom colors can range from yellow to white with streaks of purple. But the leaves always have the biggest lobe on the end farthest from the plant. Look for them in sunny areas with fertile soil. Not native they came from Eurasia in the 1700s. And note the seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 60 years. To read more Wild Radish go here, and for Wild Mustard, here.

Our native plantain, Plantago P. virginiana. Photo by Green Deane

There are Plantains that look like tough bananas and there are Plantains that are low and leafy plants. They are not related. Just two different groups with the same common name. Low-growing Plantains can be native or non-native. The one pictured right is native, the Dwarf Plantain. As a genus the plants are well-known. The leaves are edible raw when young. As they age they become more bitter and stringy. Cooking makes them palatable up to a point. Then they move into the astringent medical realm. As such they are used on bites, stings and to help puncture wounds heal. The seeds are edible once produced and are the source of the commercial dietary fiber, psyllium. When finely ground the seeds are sold under the brand name Metamucil. There are numerous species of Plantagos (Plantains) with at least five common locally, P. virginiana, P. major, P. lanceolata and P. rugelii the latter which strongly resembles P. major. (P. rugelii is pink at the base of the stem, P. major is not.) They are all used the same way.  One problem beginning foragers have is confusing young Oakleaf Fleabane leaves for Dwarf Plantain leaves (they are both rosette-ish, low-growing green leaves, hairy with fibrous threads in the stem.) But the Dwarf Plantain is essentially a long skinny hairy leaf with a few teeth. The Oakleaf Fleabane is much fatter, has lobes, and does resemble oak leaves found on northern oaks. You can read about the Plantains here and I have a video here.  

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

Foraging Classes: Sticking to the east coast this weekend with classes in West Palm Beach and Port Orange which is near Daytona Beach. 

Saturday January 8th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m to noon, meet just north of the science center. 

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

Saturday January 15th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte, meet at the parking lot at Bayshore and Ganyard, 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday January 16th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms, 9 a.m. to noon. The entrance is on South Denning. Some GPS directions get it wrong and put it on S. Pennsylvania. 

Sunday February 6th,  John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot. 9 a.m. to noon. 

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

The weather was pleasant and the turnout large for our visit to Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach last weekend. I arrived at the park about 8 a.m. and wandered around looking at plants for the 10 a.m. walk. How unusual is that behavior, looking at plants in a park? Someone called the police and said I was hiding in the bushes and carrying a rifle (all I had was a phone, not even a walking stick.) Anyway… seven officers showed up, driving across the lawn no less. I didn’t know the Town of Cocoa Beach had that many officers and on a Sunday morning no less. After no rifle was found I got a lecture about staying on the paths. 

Florida native Snowberries/Snowbells. Photo by Green Deane

The second surprise of the day were two fruiting Natal Plums, one with easy access. If the officers had arrived then my defense would have been I was removing seeds of an invasive species from a protected native habitat. As it was we had a good taste of fruit, which is actually a commercial crop. The day also had a third surprise, Snowberries/Snowbells. It was only the second time in decades I had seen them and their name embarrassingly eluded me. Snowberries are Chiococca alba, which in Greek means Snow Berries White. Oddly it’s a Florida native in the coffee family (no it is not edible, and has been used to make folks throw up.) I last saw them on Marco Island (southwest Florida.) Most references say they are found only in south Florida other say they are found around most of the state’s coast then west to Texas then southward. As they are snow white they could make an attractive plant in the right location. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by a 170-video USB. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. Or you can make a $99 donation, which tells me it is for the USB (include a snail-mail address.)  I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. I had to stop making them as few programs now will read the ISO files to copy them. 

Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: California Wild Mushroom Parties, A Good Reason To Eat Wild Garlic, Black Walnuts and Amaranth, Sea Salt and Plastic, Wild Mustard? Heavy Metals. Oriental Persimmons. What is it? Pine Cough Drops and Needles, Skullcap, Malodorous Plant? Another NJ Tree, Maypop? Roadside Plant, Unknown in Sudan, Please Help Identify, and Preserving Prickly Pear Bounty. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

Creeping Indigo is toxic to many foraging animals. Photo by Top Tropicals.com

Veterinarians annually issue a warning this time of year about a plant that is makes horses sick, Creeping Indigo, Indigofera spicata. Cold weather causes this pea relative to blossom pink, making it a little easier to see. Unfortunately it is a plant favored by horses with at least one dying and others sickened.  (This highlights that relying on instinctual means to avoid toxic plants is not too reliable for animals or man.) As with many toxic and invasive species Creeping Indigo was intentionally brought to Florida in 1925. The University of Florida imported it from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) for agricultural experiments. When it killed one of two rabbits the testing stopped but the weed stayed (the second rabbit recovered after the Creeping Indigo was removed from its diet.)  Within eight years Creeping Indigo was raising concerns about poisoning farm animals.

That’s Green Deane as a sprout on “Ginger.” Home included five horses, rabbits, chickens, ducks, a multitude of dogs and cats and an occasional pet squirrel.

Besides horses, it is also toxic to cattle, sheep, goats, guinea pigs, the aforementioned rabbits, and birds. Pigs won’t eat it which calls into question reports that it does not bother pigs. Someone might be assuming that since pigs aren’t being reported sick from eating Creeping Indigo they aren’t bothered by it whereas it could equally be that because pigs avoid it there are no reports porcine poisoning. The prime toxin in Indigofera spicata is indospicine which “inhibits the incorporation of arginine and other amino acids in liver cells result in liver insufficiency.”

This is my weekly newsletter #489. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Spiny Sow Thistle is up and ready for foraging. It’s better when young whereas its relative, the Common Sow Thistle, stays edible longer. Photo by Green Deane

Finding Mistletoe during the 13th annual Urban Crawl in Winter Park. Photo by Rick and Angel Luther.

Today, as I write, is the shortest day of the year but we are still foraging strong. Our 13th annual Christmas Urban Crawl is over and was a success. To the left is a photo of me pointing out some mistletoe but as usual it failed to generate any kisses (I am beginning to think that is a myth.) The prolific appearance of False Hawk’s Beard during that event prompted me to do another video on them yesterday and a new video on sow thistles is in the works as soon as I can find a lot of Sonchus Oleraceus to shoot. 

We have two species of sow thistle locally. Not a true thistle they are among the more milder seasonal greens with only perhaps Amaranth being more mild. Although Sow Thistles are commonly called “thistles” they are not in the genus Cirsium and do not draw blood like true thistles. True thistles are well-armed with needle-sharp spines. While the Sow Thistle above, Sonchus asper, can look intimidating it’s mostly just show in that most spines are soft until it gets older. The other species, Sonchus oleraceus, looks more friendly.  A few minutes of boiling takes away any bitterness completely (unlike wild lettuce which always stays slightly bitter.)  I have an old video on the sow thistles and to read more about them go here. 

Note the long stem on the middle leaf.

Saw Black Medic for the first time this season. It’s generally considered edible and like many weeds is from Europe. That kind of excludes it from being a significant Native American food (though some sources call it that… It’s a long story.) The headache is that from a distance of about five or six feet (where most people’s eyes are from the ground) Black Medic can look like Hop Clover. Here’s quick way to tell them apart: Hop Clover tends to have red stems, Black Medic has green stems covered with fine white hair and has a longer stem on the center leaf. After the two species go to seed they are easy to sort out: Black Medic has black seeds… hence the name. Hop Clover has brown seeds. You can read more about it here.

Orangre Jassamine has edible fruit. Photo by Green Deane

During the Urban Crawl Rose Ann pointed out a tree in Winter Park’s park I had not noticed before — not unusual. It was conveniently labeled: Orange Jassamine (it has dozens of other names including Murraya paniculata.) I’ve written an article about it for the website but it’s not published yet. Surprisingly the tree is used basicially for flavoring though the fruit are edible. That edibility is marginal. We tried a few. They have an intense citrus flavor that does not fade for a long time. Even munching on Society Garlic couldn’t abate the citrus taste. My speculation is it might make a good marmalade candidate though on the red side rather than orange. As the species is also a vector for the “greening disease” it no doubt is on the state’s hit lists of ornamentals to be eliminated. 

Inoculation maple with lion’s mane plugs. Photo by Green Deane

How is growing mushrooms like making wine? In terms of materials and process they are very different. However, what they do have in common is time and having to wait to see if one did it right or not. Like lacto-fermentation that turns cucumbers into pickles, making wine is a basic recipe with variations. So is mushroom cultivation. But even if you do it right it can take years to find out if you were successful. I have some homemade Malbec that is drinkable at a year old. But a Second-Hand Rosé needs another year a least. I think my Brazilian Pepper Mead will need five years. And so with that in mind I started several batches of edible mushrooms on maple logs. A couple of streets away a lawn maple was cut down and the trimmer is tardy removing it. The owner said I could have as much as I wanted. I have hauled home about a ton, small pieces for smoking food, and large pieces for mushroom farming. Anything left over will be sized and cured for campfiring. In a year or two I might have some Lion’s Mane, Velvet Foot Enoki, Black Popular Piopinnos, and Blue Oyster Mushrooms. What I have learned from all of this is if I ever have a tree cut down I will immediately inocuate the stump with spores. A large stump should produce mushrooms for many years. 

Sawdust and wheat bran might grow some Oyster Mushrooms.

For a more immediate mushroom experiment I collected the sawdust from sizing the maple for smoking. Then I steamed it for a couple of hours, added wheat brand (for the nitrogen) and some mycelium that came with the oyster mushroom plugs.  The bigger question was what to put it all in… I had some old clear oven bags. I had them for windshield reflector solar ovens demos about a decade ago: Big, tough, clear, on hand and already paid for…. If this works it should produce mushrooms within in a couple of months… the logs in a year or so.  

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

Foraging Classes are light during the holiday season. I have one locally the day after Christmas and a test one a week later beach side. Sunday’s class might start out a little chilly. The day after New Year’s weather is anyone’s guess. 

Sunday December 26th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the bathrooms. The park entrance is on South Denning. Some GPS directions get it wrong.

Sunday January 2nd, as Monty Python used to say, “and now for something different.” Let’s meet at 10 a.m. (at the bathrooms) and wander around Lori Wilson Park, Cocoa Beach, for a couple of  hours. No fee. I did a short private class there a couple of years ago. Not sure it is extensive enough for a regular class. If the weather’s pleasant it will be a nice way to start the new year. If cold dress warmly as it should be windy. 1500 N. Atlantic Avenue, Cocoa Beach Fl 32931.

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

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by a 150-video USB. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. They’re a nice Christmas gift sent by First Class Mail. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: California Wild Mushroom Parties, A Good Reason To Eat Wild Garlic, Black Walnuts and Amaranth, Sea Salt and Plastic, Wild Mustard? Heavy Metals. Oriental Persimmons. What is it? Pine Cough Drops and Needles, Skullcap, Malodorous Plant? Another NJ Tree, Maypop? Roadside Plant, Unknown in Sudan, Please Help Identify, and Preserving Prickly Pear Bounty. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

All smiles after digging up some D. alata roots. Photo by Green Deane

Foraging class Sunday saw us digging four Dioscorea alata roots. Chef Steven Karter likes to make shepherd’s Pie out of them, and mashed potatoes. Rumor has it they also kind of naturally taste like French Fries. I’m salt, pepper and real butter myself. This time of year the invasive D. bulbifera has usually died back but the altata can still be found rather easily. In the spring the trend is reversed, the bulbifera comes up first and a few weeks later the alata. We do not eat the air potato of either species. The alata root is the largest calorie payoff in Florida. But it can be tough to dig out as this one was growing among camphor roots. I need to remember to carry a shovel and an ax in the vehicle for such occasions. 

Sea Rocket is just starting its seasonal run. Photo by Green Deane

Near a beach? Sea Rocket is starting its season. We should see some in the January second class. We have two species of Cakile or Sea Rocket.  They show themselves in our winter and preferably on the beach above the rack line. You can also find them blossoming in coastal dunes. The leaves are a bit fleshy but as they are in a tough environment that helps them preserve water. While Sea Rocket can be found along most coasts of the United States, Maine to Washington State, Florida has its own variety, C. lancelolate. There is a video on them here and you can read more about them here.

The Glory Bower is not edible but has some relatives that might be.

The Harlequin Glorybower, Clerodendrum Trichotomum, has a very showy calyx. A native of Asia, Clerodendrum means fate tree, referencing questionable medical uses, and trichotomum which means three trunks, which it apparently has often. But it has edible relatives: C. serratum: Young leaves and tops eaten raw as a side dish or roasted briefly and served with a hot pepper sauce. C. paniculatum, the Pagoda Flower, is also listed by some as having edible parts and is a common ornamental locally. I’ve never investigate it.  It’s quite a shower now in Mead Garden (end of the board walk) and Bayshore Park, east end by the Brazilian Pepper. 

This is my weekly newsletter #487. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

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Ghost Pipes on Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina.

Ghost Pipes, Melbourne Florida. Photo by Green Deane

Time does not make a plant taste better.  In 1904 one Walter Prest wrote that the Monotropa uniflora if parboiled, then boiled or roasted was comparable to asparagus. Merritt Fernald, who wrote a foraging book after WWI  and was the big botanical man at Harvard from 1900 to 1950, gave them a try and said “Our own single experiment was not gratifying in its result.”  Maybe Prest knew something we don’t. There is indeed an asparagus-like flavor to them but they are bitter. Maybe boiling twice would help. Pictures of them show up in profusion this time of year on mushroom pages for two reasons: This is their season and they are parasitic on several species of mushroom so mushroom hunters see them and wonder what they are. I wrote about them a decade ago. At the time they weren’t considered controversial. Now many people view them as special and needing protection. As the plants are quite bitter I’m not sure they need much protecting. You can read about them here. 

Swinecress is easy to identify. Photo by Green Deane

Swinecress is up, and Hairy Bitter Cress, too. They are little mustards one finds in the cooler weather. There are two interesting aspects to Swinecress. Once it has seeded it’s fairly easy to identify. Also Swinecress’ flavor intensifies after you eat it. It also has a naughty name. In fact, many plants have risque names ’cause the fellow who originally named them, Carl Linneas, either had a dirty mind or called them as he saw them. The species name, didymus, means a pair of testes and that is how the seed pod appears. Euphamistic writers try all kinds of ways to get around the obvious. It’s a good cooked green.

A 1944 study looked at some of the nutrients in C. didymus which at the time was also called C. pinnatifidus. They analyzed three samples. The protein content was 3.58 to 4.54%. Carbohydrates were low, 0.937 to 0.975%. Calcium was 0.081 to 0.181 grams per 100 gram sample, phosphorus 0.066 to 0.083 grams and sodium 0.014 to 0026 grams. Iron was 11.43 to 15.11 mg per 100 grams, high, copper 0.210 to 0.263 mg and manganese 0.583 to 0.875 mg. Curiously they tested the manganese not the magnesium. You can read about Swinecress here., and Hairy Bitter Cress here.  

Chinquapins pack a lot of nutrition.

One way to think of Chinquapins is they are small Chestnuts that survived. In the same genus as their bigger relative — Castenea — when the blight wiped out the Chestnuts Chinquepins suffered but some managed to survive. One can see the  Allegany Chinquepin (C. pumila) while hiking the Appalachian Trail. Their nut is about half of the size of their deceased relative but still worth collecting. We also know some of the nutrition of another edible Chinquepin, the Ozark Chinkapin (C.  ozarkensis.)

Per 100 grams it has 443 calories, 18 grams of fat, 57 grams of carbohydrates, 13 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber. The fat is 10 grams monounsaturated, 4 grams polyunsaturated and 4 grams saturated. Potassium is 77 mg, no sodium reported. A second report says they are 5% fat, 55 protein, 40% starch and 50% water with 4736 calories per kilo. European chestnuts, not affected by blight, are the only cultivated and consumed nut that has vitamin C, about 40 mg per 3.5 ounce serving.

Dick Deuerling on a Native Plant Society dig when the Orlando Airport was expanding eastward in the mid-1990’s.

In the Beech family the Chinkapin has been called the most ignored and undervalued native North American nut tree. It has a sweet and edible nut and the tree has been used for fuel, charcoal, fence posts, railroad ties and a coffee and chocolate substitute (as are the seeds of the Blue Beech, aka the American Hornbean, Carpinus caroliniana.) Chinkapin’s native range is New Jersey and West Virginia, west to Missouri and Oklahoma, and south to Texas and Florida. It’s been planted in Wisconsin and Michigan. Dick Deuerling, who was Forager Emeritus locally until his death in July 2013, wrote there was a Chinkapin in Wekiva State Park but did not say where it was. One suspects where there is one there is two but I’ve not found them in the park. 

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

Foraging Classes: Sticking to the east side of the state this weekend with classes in West Palm Beach and just south of Daytona Beach in Port Orange where we should see Goj berries blossoming and or fruiting. 

Saturday November 27th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet just north of the science center.

Sunday November 28th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion. 

Saturday December 4th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot of Bayshore and Ganyard St.

Sunday December 5th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the bathrooms. The park entrance is on South Denning. Some GPS directions get it wrong.

Panera’s in Winter Park where we start and finish the Urban Crawl.

My annual Urban Crawl is coming up, my twelfth, on Friday, December 17th. A reasonable question is what about foraging in a city? There is some surprising research. Dan Brabaner is a geoscience professor at Wellesley College, Boston. With some undergraduate students they studied preserved food collected from fruit trees and the like in the urban Boston area. What they found was cherries, apples, peaches and herbs were relatively low in lead and arsenic. That is, a serving had less amounts of these toxins than the allowed daily amount for a child. The team also did not find a significant difference between peeled and unpeeled fruit. The fruit was low in toxic chemical because they are the furthest away from any toxins in the soil. This would apply to tree nuts as well. Leafy greens faired well, too, because they grow fast and 1) don’t have time to accumulate toxins and 2) most air pollution on them can be washed off. Brabander also analyzed foraged food from plants growing in the urban environment not growing on agricultural soil. These foods had higher micronutrients because they were not growing on worn-out agricultural soil. Calcium and iron were higher as were manganese, zinc, magnesium and potassium. Thus we know that not only do “weeds” pack more of a nutritional punch because they are wild but also because they can be growing in better soil. My Urban Crawl is a free class. We meet in front of Panera’s at 10 a.m. in Winter Park. We wander south to the college, stop at Starbucks for a restroom break, go east to the public library area, then back to Panera’s. There is a free parking garage behind (west) of Paneras if you go to the upper floors. If you park on the city streets you chance a ticket as the class is longer than parking hours allow. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by a 150-video USB. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

Want to identify a plant?  Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: California Wild Mushroom Parties, A Good Reason To Eat Wild Garlic, Black Walnuts and Amaranth, Sea Salt and Plastic, Wild Mustard? Heavy Metals. Oriental Persimmons. What is it? Pine Cough Drops and Needles, Skullcap, Malodorous Plant? Another NJ Tree, Maypop? Roadside Plant, Unknown in Sudan, Please Help Identify, and Preserving Prickly Pear Bounty. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

Easy to identify, difficult to remember, the Golden Rain Tree. Photo by Green Deane

The tree is easy to find but is it edible? The answer is yes, maybe, barely. It depends on which part you’re referring to. The problem is the more edible parts are around when you don’t notice the tree — spring time — and the least edible parts are around when you do notice it. Thus I never quite get around to knowing all that the Golden Rain tree has to offer. In the spring it has tender young shoots and leaves. They are edible after cooking. Don’t try them raw, they have a bit of cyanide in them. Months later in the fall the seeds are reported as a famine food, not exactly a glowing endorsement. In between the yellow flowers are used for a dye as is the bark. Those boiled leaves and shoots do have some antioxidant and anti-tumor capacity but the research is slow making it way out of arcane journals to common knolwedge. As for the seeds… they are kind of in the same position as the particular mustard seed which is used to make Canola Oil. They are edible but like unrefined Canola Oil they can be irritating. What I might try to do is collect some seeds, sprout them, boil them, and give them a try… but let me do that first instead of you.  You can read about the Golden Rain Tree here.

his is my weekly newsletter #483. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

In Gainesville Saturday a colorful combination was worth a photograph: Pink American Beautyberries and blue Lantana berries. They were growing next to each other and the rain had stopped so it was a photo opportunity… didn’t cross my mind to eat them together as the blue ones are flavorful and the pink ones are not. Photo by Green Deane

Pellitory is starting to peek out of it’s shady spots for the season. Photo by Green Deane

Weather ahead or behind schedule, or whether ahead or behind schedule, the plant season is changing into our winter mode. Controversial Brazilian Pepper is ripening and Cucumber Weed (Pellitory) has definitely started its seasonal run. We also saw some young False Hawk’s Beard and Poor Man’s Pepper Grass this weekend. Ringless Honey Mushrooms are in and out depending where you live. They were deliquescing (melting) in Gainesville but still flushing in Greater Orlando. What’s waiting in the winter wonderland to come up? Start looking for wild mustards and radishes and a couple of species of sow thistles. 

Edible Sumac has red clusters of berries on the end of branches and grows in dry places. Photo by Green Deane.

Some of you might have noticed I have been posting new videos (on You tube.) They have been Persimmons Revisited, Lantana, Tropical Almond Revisited and Sumac Revisited. I think Sea Grape is next.  It’s been several years since I’ve posted videos regularly and some 13 years since the originals. Some of those species need to have a new video done. So that is on my agenda as I climb into my 70s. I’m aiming for a total of 200 videos… which means at least 45 more.  Writing a foraing book took a chunk out of my life (to be released in 2023) and I’m just getting back onto the swing of things (and remembering how the video editing program works.) And of course while I am able there are foraging classes every weekend. 

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

Foraging Classes: Some traveling this week, Ft. Pierce Saturday and close to home on Sunday in Winter Park. 

Saturday November 13th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon. The preserve is only about three miles from the junction of the Turnpike and I-95. It has no bathrooms or drinking water so take advantage of the various eateries and gas stations at the exit.

Sunday November 14th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. The park entrance is on South Denning. Some GPS directions get it wrong.

Saturday November 20th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m to noon. Meet at the pavilion by the dog park. 

Sunday November 21st, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park

Saturday December 4th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot of Bayshore and Ganyard St.

Our native Plantago is small and hairy. Photo by green Deane

There are Plantains that look like tough bananas and there are Plantains that are low and leafy plants. No relation. Just two different groups with the same common name. Plantains can be native or non-native. The one pictured right is native, the Dwarf Plantain, one of the very few North American plants to become invasive in Asia.  As a genus the plants are well-known. The leaves are edible raw when young. As they age they become more bitter and stringy. Cooking makes them palatable up to a point. Then they move into the astringent medical realm. They are used on bites, stings and to help puncture wounds heal. Seeds are edible once produced and are the source of the commercial dietary fiber psyllium. When finely ground and flavoring added the seeds are sold under the brand name Metamucil. There are numerous species of Plantagos (Plantains) with at least four common locally, P. virginiana, P. major, P. lanceolata and P. rugelii the latter which strongly resembles P. major. except the bottom ends of the stem are pink.They are all used the same way. You can read about the Plantains here.

Skunk Vine lives up to its name. Photo by Green Deane

Perhaps as a last gasp — virtually — some Skunk Vine was blossoming this past week (along with some Black Cherries. Skunk Vine is aptly named though its aroma drifts more towards bathroom than skunk. However the tough vine is something of a nutritional powerhouse with some of the good chemicals one finds in the Brassica family. You can eat it raw but if you cook it outside is recommended. Oddly it was intentionally brought to Florida to make rope. This was done just before 1900 when a lot of ships were still carrying sails and five miles of rope. Ground zero was the USDA Brooksville Field Station in Hernando County Fl. Yes, this invasive vine  — like many other species — was imported by the United States Department of Agriculture.  Thirty-six years later it was all over Florida but it took until 1977 for it to be a recognized invasive (long after it had crawled into other southern states.) While the blossoms are attractive we eat only the leaves and young tips. You can read about Skunk Vine here.

Lion’s Mane is tasty and medicinal. Photo by Green Deane

We are shifting mushrooms seasons from terrestrial to trees or better said ground to wood. Instead of looking down we now look up. Milk caps and chanterelles are giving way to Oysters, Lion’s Mane and Chicken of the Woods. Edible fungi that like wood also often like cooler weather but not exclusively. There are oysters and chickens other times of the year but cool time is prime time. Lion’s Mane is one I see only after the season starts to turn cooler and only down to northern Florida. It’s a choice find. To my pallet raised on the coast of Maine it tastes like crab or lobster and I use it in similar ways. This particular specimen was found in a foraging class in Jacksonville. You can read more about it here. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out and replaced by a 150-video USB. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page or click here. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

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

The edible, cold hardy, Pink Banana. Photo by Green Deane

In a recent video on Tropical Almond I mentioned it is not that tropical being able to live in zones 10 and 11. There is a banana that will survive in zone 7b. It will die back there but come back every year: Musa velutina. 

Unlike most bananas M. veluntina can fruit in one year rather than the usual two years and can take a frost. It also lets you know when it’s ready to be eaten by peeling itself. The species does have a lot of hard seeds which are edible if rendered soft by cooking. Tall and showy with its neon fruit they were a favorite of my great grandmother, one May Eudora Dillingham (she had the bananas as a child and also claimed to have once heard President Lincoln give a speech.) Her family was into shipping and was related to the Dillinghams of commercial ventures Hawaii. In fact one Benjamin Franklin Dillingham from Cape Cod was stranded in Hawaii after trying to ship bananas to California.) Also called the Hairy Banana, Pink Banana and Pink Velvet Banana, the stubby fruit is covered with fine hair. They have a sweet and slightly tangy taste. Where can you find some, you might wonder? 

Pink Banana location

The West Orange Bike Trail west of Orlando wends its way through Winter Garden and Ocoee. The northbound trail crosses East Fuller Cross Road then descends northeast a few hundred feet to traverse a small unnamed brook (further up the hill is Ocoee High School.) For several hundred feet along the trail before and after the brook, if you look carefully, you’ll see dozens of M. veluntina growing and fruiting on both sides of the trail. I imagine some were tossed out with yard trash long ago and have kept reseeding. Enjoy.  

This is my weekly newsletter #481. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Annonas come in four varieties, all edible but of differing flavors. Photo by Green Deane

Taking home a Tamarind seedling. Photo by Green Deane

This past weekend saw me boondocking in my van at Walmarts in the southern end of the state. I had foraging classes in West Palm Beach and Port Charlotte. It was also an opportunity to take a lot of footage for future videos on Annona, Bananas, Canna, Cereus, Chaya, Coralwood, Lantana, Rose Apple, Sea Grapes, Sea Oxeye, Tallow Plum, Tamarind, and Tropical Almond. Hopefully the Lantana video will be ready tomorrow. I also discovered used Duncan Donuts cups full of potting soil are perfect for young seedlings especially when on the road.

Pond Apple, Alligator Apple, Photo by Green Deane

We also found an Anona glabra or Pond Apple aka Alligator Apple. This was seen in Port Charlotte not far from where there used to be another Pond Apple. (When they cleared a drainage ditch the tree was eliminated.) So now I have another Pond Apple to talk about in classes there. The Annona group ranges from barely edible to choice and a cultivated crop.  There are four of them: Sugar, Sour, Custard and Pond (of course I have found the least edible ones.) You can read about the Annonas here. As one goes southwest from Port Charlotte the species becomes more common such as on Marco Island.

Sida blossom. Photo by Green Deane

Is it Sida (SEE-dah) or is it Sida (SIGH-dah)? Either either it would seem… There are several members of the Sida genus locally and they blossom nearly all year. This weekend, however, Sida cordifolia was particularly happy. Taller and softer than some of the other genusmates, it’s a plant with a little bit of legal history. Plants in the genus tend to have ephedrine in them to varying amounts. Sida cordifolia, however, is the only Sida species mentioned in the Florida Statutes. If you make a pill using the plant it cannot be given to anyone under the age of 18. I doubt the problem is bootleg diet pills but rather youthful experimenting with ephedrine. Adults can apparently do what they want with the plant.  S. cordifolia is not native. The species I see the most often is Arrowleaf Sida, S. rhombifolia, which means diamond shape. The lower part of the leaves of that species do not have teeth on them. You can read more about Sida here. 

The Chinese Tallow tree is also called the Pop Corn Tree.

Is it edible? Yes, no, maybe… The Chinese Tallow tree is both banned and championed. It’s edibility is also linked to why it’s even in the United States to begin with. The tree was imported by none other than Ben Franklin (well… he sent some seeds to a friend.)  The purpose was to use the white external seed fat for making candles which beef suet, tallow, was once used for. Hence the tree’s name in English. In theory that small coating of saturated fat on the outside of the seed is edible. It is also very stable. But there are two problems. It can be extremely difficult to remove and inside the seed there is an oil toxic to humans. So the fat and the oil should not mix. Some people have experimented with crushing the entire seed and heating the mash thus melting the saturated fat along with releasing the toxic oil. When they cool the edible fat and the non-edible oil are separated.  In China, where the tree is valued, they steam the white saturated fat off. The tree, while an invasive species in some areas of North America — such as Florida — is being considered as a good candidate for bio-fuel. You can read my article about it here about it here. A later magazine article about the species is here.   

Classes are held rain or shine or cold. (Hurricanes are an exception.) Photo by Kelly Fagan.

Foraging Classes: Heading north this weekend before it gets chilly.  

Saturday November 6th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday November 7th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon, meet by the tennis courts. Remember this is time-change weekend.

Saturday November 13th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. The preserve is only about three miles from the junction of the Turnpike and I-95. It has no bathroom or drinking water so take advantage of the various eateries and gas stations at the exit.

Sunday November 14th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. The park entrance is on South Denning. Some GPS directions get it wrong. 

Silk Floss Tree Bossom. Photo by Green Deane

What people actually do with plants and what people write about what people do with plants can vary greatly. Ceiba’s (SAY-bah) are a good example. There are ten trees in the tropical genus. Various parts of various species are eaten variously which makes sense as the greater Mallow Family is generally user-friendly (unprocessed cotton seed oil and ephedrine in Sida being two exceptions.)  Thus it is difficult to state specifically what is edible on each species Ceiba. The names can also vary in English from Silk Cotton to Silk Floss to Kapok and numerous native and Spanish versions. The seed oil is edible on some species as are buds, blossoms, and young leaves on others. Even the wood ash can be used as a salt substitute. But some caution is called for as the trees have also been used to treat numerous medical conditions internally and externally. There are two species in Dreher Park in West Palm Beach where the winters are mild. I’ve seen three Ceibas planted in Orlando. One is near the West Orange Bike Trail in Winter Garden and is about 30 feet tall. They are twice that in West Palm Beach.  You can read a little more about the Silk Floss tree  here. 

Tropical Almond

Tropical Almonds are now on Mother Nature’s dining table and we had some last week in West Palm Beach. Terminalia catappa, which is really subtropical and not at all an almond, produces edible fruits for a few months. A tree I know was just starting to produce edible fruit the last time I was in Dreher Park. The ripe rind is edible as well as the “almond” inside which is really a little tree. It tastes like coconuts blended with almonds. The only problem is the buoyant dry shells are quite tough and require a hammer or a couple of rocks to crack open. (For those who don’t know Florida does not have rocks. You can’t just rummage around and find a pair of rocks to break seed shells with.) There is some labor involved with eating Tropical Alomonds but they are still calorie positive. I usually have a couple of pieces of concrete hidden near this particular tree to get to the treat. To read more about the Tropical Almond go here.

Bug hunter G.V. Hudson is to blame.

It is nearly 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 1895 he proposed Daylight Savings Time so he could collect insects after work in daylight. The world rightly ignored his idea but it was also championed by a golfer William Willett in 1907. He fought for it tirelessly and the world rightfully ignored him as well.  But, to save energy during WWI, Germany adopted Daylight Saving Time and soon other countries in the conflict followed. The time pox has been on humanity since. In the fall Americans set their clocks back to standard time. In the spring they go back on artificial time.

Golfer William Willett had the same bad idea

As I have mentioned before I stopped changing my clocks fifteen years ago. People who visit my home know I stay on “Deane Time.”  I absolutely refuse to go on “daylight savings time.” The entire idea strikes me a silly particularly when one considers there is a fixed amount of daylight no matter how we set our clocks. It is rightfully called “daylight slaving time.” Only the government would cut the top foot off a blanket, sew it on the bottom, and then argue the blanket is longer.

What really got to me was the seasonal flipping: Springing forward, falling back, feeling miserable. Time change always left me out of sorts for weeks. Now I don’t flip. I don’t change the clocks, when I get up, when I eat, when I go to bed or when I feed the animals. This family stays on standard time.  I just recognize that for half the year the rest of the country thinks it is ahead of me by one hour.

The semi-annual insanity is upon us.

Fortunately nature is not so wrong-headed. Animals and plants ignore the time change. Cows get milked at the same time no matter what hour it is. Plants grow the same while we pretend there is more light in the evenings during summer. (Though as a kid I remember marveling that at 9 p.m. it was still light outside.) There is also a philosophical reasons. So much of our lives is artificial. And artificial “daylight savings time” is but one more thing to knock us out of sync with the world around us. I spend a lot of time with Mother Nature and I prefer her time to man’s. And grumpy me, I like to use my watches (12- and 24-hour) as compasses, and that’s easier if one stays on solar time. Thus I do. And more than one study shows it actually cost more to go on Daylight Savings Time than not and is less healthy.

24-hour watch (which are hard to get repaired)

From a factual point of view, the majority of people on earth do not go on Daylight Savings Time. How sensible. Asia doesn’t nor does Africa. Most equatorial countries don’t. Great Britain and Ireland tried staying on DST permanently from 1968 to 1971 but went back because it was unpopular. Most of Arizona does not go on DST.  Lead the way Arizona. Daylight Savings Time is a bad idea that needs to go away. You can refuse to let it disrupt your life. We all have phones and computers to remind us what the outside world thinks is the right time. Let them but keep your personal life on standard time. You can do it. The weekend after next — November 6-7 — I have nothing to change and no misery to go through. Give it a try. 

(In 2018 Florida passed a measure to stay on Daylight Savings Time permanently, as Great Britain and Ireland tried and rejected 50 years ago. Called the “Sunshine Protection Act” it requires congressional approval because DST is a federal dictate. Florida’s request is not going to happen in a bitter, divided place like Washington D.C. which has other priorities than sunshine in the sunshine state. If Florida had decided to stay on standard time it could do that without federal approval. Unless Florida revisits the legislation you are stuck with flipping. Opportunity missed. You screwed up Tallahassee.)

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