Search: epazote

Chickasaw Plums are maintenance-free and ripen to sweet. Photo by Green Deane

The tasty Chickasaw Plum is one species that demands you buy a small hand lens. The magnifying glass doesn’t have to be expensive but it should magnify at least ten times. I like square side-out lenses sold for inspecting coins selling for $7 to $10. They have a large window — mine’s 1.5 inches across — and let in a lot of light. Little round metal lenses look shiny and neat but tend to not work well in the field because of the small lens.

The tips of the teeth will be either red or yellow if a Chickasaw Plum. Photo by Green Deane

The Chickasaw Plum and the Flatwood Plum can look a lot alike though there are some differences. The Chickasaw plum tends to have skinnier leaves and the Flatwood Plum flatter leaves. The Chickasaw ripens to a sweet plum and locally are coming into season now. The Flatwood ripens to soft over the summer but is often sour if not bitter as well. One way to tell them apart before they fruit is to look at the tips of the teeth on the leaves.  The Chicaksaw has glands on the tips of the teeth, the Flatwood does not. With 10x magnification you can easily see the teeth tips. Here they are magnified 30 times. These happen to be red but they can also be yellow.

Further north these plums ripen later in the season. Here they are usually done by July 4th but judging by trees I’ve seen in the area the season may be late and could run longer in July. To read more about the Chickasaw Plum go here.

Blossom of the deadly Water Hemlock. DO NOT EAT! Photo by Green Deane

As Mother Nature would have it edible Elderberries and the deadly Water Hemlock are blossoming at the same time. And while I have covered this before it is worth covering again because I have heard of some people identifying Water Hemlock as Elderberry. Along with a few mushrooms that is about as fatal as possible mistake. Perhaps the easiest thing to remember about the Water Hemlock is that its blossom is an umbrella of blossoms made up of smaller umbrellas of blossoms all coming from one spot. The Elderberry is not. The Water Hemlock also has leaf veins that terminate between the teeth of the leaves. And locally it is often splotched with purple. To read more about how to tell the two species apart go here.

Chanterelles are among Florida’s edible mushrooms. Photo by Green Deane

While on the toxic theme recent rains have stimulated a mushroom monsoon of sorts. In Gainesville this past weekend one of the foraging students was more knowledgeable about mushrooms than I so it was an enjoyable morning of looking at an occasional mushroom. Yes, I do run three mushroom identification pages on Facebook but in the realm of fungus I consider myself an amateur and take advantage of every opportunity to learn more. There are some 86 different edible species of mushrooms in Florida and I have about 80 to go.

Oyster Mushrooms are also on the gourmet’s list to collect. Photo by Green Deane

We saw some Lactarius, which as a genus are fairly easy to identify because they weep what looks like a milky liquid, the only group that does. But of more interest was some bright orange chanterelles. Instead of having knife-edge gills chanterelles have what has been called wrinkles down the stem. Also spied on an oak was a flush of young Oyster Mushroom. They, too, are choice and among the easier ones to identify. No, I did not take any. I left them to grow a bit for the locals. As always never collect a wild mushroom for consumption just by pictures you see. Learn from a live expert. My three facebook pages for exchanging observations are Southeastern US Mushroom Identification, Florida Mushroom Identification Forum, and Edible Mushrooms: Florida.

Answer to What Do You Do #15. The topic was the difficulty of picking out young edibles and identifying them. In this picture there are three common edibles species, one edible after cooking, and one very deadly plant whether you cook it or not. They are lamb’s quarters, curly dock, radish, nightshade, and poison hemlock. That is why you have to pick carefully.

Upcoming Foraging Classes:

Sunday, June 22nd, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405,  9 a.m.

Sunday, June 29th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 23000 Bayshore Rd., Port Charlotte, FL 33980, 9 a.m.

For more information about upcoming classes go here.   I will be also adding six weeks of classes this week.

Man has foraged for food for a long time.

My DVDS cover dozens of edible plants in North America. The set has nine DVD. Each DVD has 15 videos for 135 in all. Some of these videos are of better quality than my free ones on the Internet. They are the same videos that are for free on the internet but many people like to have their own copy. I burn and compile the sets myself so if you have any issues I handle it. There are no middle foragers. And I’m working on adding a tenth DVD.  To learn more about the DVDs or to order them click here.

Collapsing Hand Lens

On the Green Deane Forum we post messages and pictures about foraging all year long. There’s also a UFO page, for Unidentified Flowering Objects so plants can be identified. Recent topics include: Lacto Fermented Soda Without Ginger,  Indian Hemp, Epazote, Breastfeeding and Teeth, Savannah Milkweed, Purple Tufted Camphor Fragrance, Visited The Lost World, You Know What They Say About us Cajuns, Long Pig, and Foraging Tools like the hand lens to the right . The link to join is on the right hand side of this page.

To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Grassleaf Lettuce at an abandoned golf course. Note the very skinny leaves. Photo By Green Deane

Golf Courses Revisited: In last week’s newsletter we reported finding a local golf course abandoned and carpeted with weeds. It was a nine-hole course and driving range that’s been unkept for at least a year though judging by the weeds more like two years. The question was raised immediately if it was safe to harvest weeds in such a place. The argument was golf courses are highly treated with this or that chemical to keep weeds at bay. Indeed, one of the few good and inexpensive books with good information about lawn weeds in Florida was written for golf course operators.  On the Green Deane Forum, where we chat about foraging 366 days a year, the conversations suggested that old golf courses, those that have been around for decades, might be poor places to harvest edible weeds. Much the same warning is given for railroad tracks. Both were using harsh, long-lasting chemicals before most environmental regulation was created. But modern golf courses have to use more environmentally friendly means and chemicals. Thus a recently created and abandoned golf course would most likely be a safe place to harvest, more so as time passes (though it would also be good to know what the course was before it was a course.) This particular lay of links was just a few years old when it failed. And it was also mentioned that the “rough” is probably never treated with anything. My rule of thumb has been if I see weeds growing anything that might had been put there to stop the weeds is no longer working. It’s weedless lawns that are the most fumigated and… herbigated…

Pluteus cervinus, the edbile Deer Mushroom.

Here comes the rain! The front that’s sweeping over the South and aiming to wet the northeast might bring the first flush of mushrooms this spring. Morels are already being harvested in Georgia with the Carolinas waiting in anticipation. Locally we just finished perhaps our last cold snap of the season with a full moon Sunday (in the spring here cold weather tends to show up the same time as a full moon which means one more cool spell in April.) So this week starts off wet and warm. That makes mushrooms happy. I’ll start serious hunting by mid-week. Time for me to file old samples and dust off the microscope. This year I am determined to find more edible Boletes and get a solid familiarity with Pluteus cervinus, the edible “deer” mushrooms. This is a good time to remind you I also have two popular mushroom pages on facebook: Southeastern US Mushroom Identification, and, Florida Mushroom Identification Forum. Visit and seen how the experts (not me!) sort out the fungi.  

This excellent picture of a Smilax tip is from The Dewberry Blog.

Spring is a busy time of year for Mother Nature with almost too many edible species to describe. Classes on the west coast of the state produced dozens of species to talk about. There were some highlights. Our Wild Cucumber  is not only blossoming but fruiting as well. We found several in Sarasoata. Ground Cherries are also blossoming though their fruit won’t be edible for months to come. Ripe for the taking now are the blossoms of the Coral Bean. While the seeds are toxic the tubular flowers cooked are a traditional food from Florida to Mexico and points south. And one can’t mention foraging this time of year without including Smilax vines. They were producing heavily this past weekend and will do so for the next couple of months. Some consider them the best green of spring. There is no excuse to be hungry this time of the year.

Should you have an article about a wild edible plant or related topic you want considered for the newsletter, please send an inquiry via the newsletter’s email address. Incidentally my email program had a stroke so if you sent me an email about private classes or the like please send them again. Thanks.

Green Deane starting a 7 a.m. class at the 2014 Florida Herbal Conference. Photo by Sondra Hamilton.

I am on the road again this weekend with classes in West Palm Beach on Saturday and Port Charlotte on Sunday, a three-day loop around the southern end of the state. Even though I teach each day they are like mini-vacations.

Saturday, March 22nd, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd.,  West Palm Beach, FL.,  33405. 9 a.m.

Sunday March 23rd, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 23000 Bayshore Rd., Port Charlotte, FL 33980, 9 a.m.

Saturday, March 29th, Haulover Canal, Merritt Island National Refuge, 9 a.m. See details on the “classes” page.

Sunday, March 30th,  Mead Garden,  1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.

Saturday, April 5th, Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge, 2045 Mud Lake Road,  DeLeon Springs, FL 9 a.m.

Below is this week’s, What Do You See #07. There’s a lot to be seen, which can happen in the spring. There are six or seven, maybe more edible species in the picture.

What Do You See 07. Photo by Green Deane

Below are the answers to What Do You See 06.

Answers to What Do You See #06. Photo by Green Deane

WDYS#06 skirts edibility. Number one is Poor Man’s Pepper Grass. The leaves and roots have a wasabi-like flavor (mustardy.) It also has comes close relative that are also edible.  Number two relies much on opinion. Some love it, I can barely stand the smell of it. It is Epazote, a spice, a pot herb, and source of a worming oil which in high concentrations can be deadly. It has also had several botanical names so one finds it under various genera. Three is Horseweed, which is used as a spice. Its dry, mature stem also makes a good drill for making fire by hand. And for added education is number 4, a non-edible cudweed which is a Pseudognaphalium and extremely common this time of year. Number 5 is not the beginning leaves of a Dandelion but the basal rosette of our local Evening Primrose, usually an Oenothera laciniata with yellow blossoms or O. speciosa with pink blossoms. To be honest I don’t know their edibility. Dick Deuerling told me decades ago O. laciniata was not edible but knowing Dick that could have meant not edible or edible but didn’t taste good. Dick was fond of saying “I only eat the good stuff.”

https://www.eattheweeds.com/peppergrass-potent-pipsqueak/

https://www.eattheweeds.com/epazote-smelly-food-of-the-gods/

https://www.eattheweeds.com/conyza-canadensis-herb-fire-food-2/

Eat The Weeds DVDs are now available.

Though your foraging may drop off during the winter it’s a great time to study wild edibles with my nine DVD set. Each DVD has 15 videos for 135 in all. They make a great gift. Order today. Some of these videos are of better quality than my free ones on the Internet. They are the same videos but many people like to have their own copy. I burn and compile the sets myself so if you have any issues I handle them personally. There are no middle foragers. And I’m working on adding a tenth DVD.  To learn more about the DVDs or to order them click here.

Birmingham Botanical Garden 2014 Plant Sale

And for you folks near Birmingham, Alabama, who like to shop around for plants, The Birmingham Botanical Gardens’ annual plant sale is a month from now. There will be more than 100,000 plants on sale. Something for everyone. Some of the regular post contributors on the Green Deane Forum will be there. I’ll have to get an update on what one can expect about edibles. Here’s the link. 

Book Review: Foraging & Feasting, A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook,  by Diane Falconi, illustrated by Wendy Hollender, Botanical Arts Press, Accord NY. ISBN 978-0-9893433-0-5

The answer to the question of what makes a good field guide is directly related to how the owner will use it. Usefulness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, or in this case the user. What do you expect from a field guide? How will you use it? What features are important to you? Good pictures? Great recipes? Valuable insight from an expert’s experience? Do you want to carry it in your pocket or leave it on a living room coffee table?

Foraging & Feasting

At nearly 12 by 9 inches Foraging & Feasting will not fit in most pockets. But it will fit in a backpack and is definitely backyard friendly, where I expect it will most probably be used. There is a huge misnomer among people who don’t forage. They think wild food is found in far flung places such as a state park a few hours’ drive away. Foraging reality is typically just the opposite: There’s usually a greater variety of wild edibles to be found in suburbia than in a state park. Weeds have their ways. This means your neighborhood and your yard, even one that is burdened with a lawn, is a great place to find wild food. I see this book being used on the domestic front by the whole family rather than on a remote mountain top by a lone holdout.

Seasonal Foraging Chart

Foraging & Feasting is a book you can leave on the coffee table, or open to a recipe on the kitchen counter, or hold in one hand while on the ground in your yard trying to identify a plant. Unlike some older fields guides, this one is full of recipes including versatile “master” recipes. Often a guide will say something like “use like a potato” leaving you wondering just what to do. Not so here. The recipes in the second half of the book track the plants described in the first half. That’s important relevancy.   Foraging & Feasting also has desserts and many herbal uses, the latter reflecting the several decades experience of the author. There is a great difference between foraging and herbalism but the reader will benefit from the author who has experience with both.

A sample of the watercolor illustrations.

One of the more significant decisions a wild food publication has to make is to use photographs or drawings. Just as the general public tends to misjudge where the best foraging is they also get wrong what a good illustration is. They favor photos which is not always the best choice. Plants can vary greatly season to season and region to region. I have more than one foraging book with a photograph of a plant in it that does not look anything like my local plant though it is the same species. That can be extremely irritating to the professional and very confusing for the student. Photographs can also be cluttered with a lot of imagery and information you don’t need, stuff that just gets in the way making the learning more difficult. I will admit I think botanical drawings serve the student better. They emphasize what the student really needs to focus on for identification. I am often asked if a particular edible plant has any toxic look alikes. I say no two plants look alike if you look closely enough. Foraging & Feasting has opted for the best of both illustrative approaches with well-rendered watercolors that add significantly to the publication’s character. Often the illustrator is given second-shift to the content but Foraging & Feasting has a first-class illustrator in Wendy Hollender. Ms. Hollender is the modern, color version of the exacting work by scientific illustrator Regina Hughes. That is a compliment to both of them. 

Copyrighted recently, Foraging & Feasting has seasonal harvesting charts, habitat preferences, and culinary uses including smoothies. Be sure to check out the Green Goddess Dressing. It’s a foraging book I am pleased to have in my collection. 

Wild mustard and radish roots have a tough outer jacket which when removed shows a bright, white tasty inner core. Photo by Green Deane

In the foraging community it would be difficult to find anyone who does not know you can eat mustard greens. But what about the roots?

Wild Radish roots before having their jackets removed. Photo by Green Deane

Wild mustards and wild radishes (Sinapis and Raphanus) both have edible blossom, seeds, leaves and roots. They are not only a wild food but a cultivated crop as well. And while one should be able to tell the mustards and radishes apart it is a bit moot in that they are used in the same way for our purposes. Both can provide greens early on then roots just before they blossom and later the seeds. You can also collect the roots after they seed but the roots can be a bit tougher then. My favorite way to cook them is to slice them like carrot rounds and boil them until tender. They tastes very much like turnips. However, they do give off a strong odor when cooking so you might want to have your vent already on or cook them outside.

Diced and boiled or steam mustard roots are mild and tasty. Photo by Green Deane

Taking the tough jacket off is fairly easy. First cut the top off like you could a carrot. Then look at the root from the cut end. You can see how the jacket wraps around the root. With a knife carefully start at the top of the root and working parallel with the root make a cut about a quarter of an inch deep — or as deep as the jacket — and a couple of inches long. Then use your thumbs to separate the edges of the cut. Once cut usually the jacket will peel off easily.  Incidentally, the roots of the cultivated mustards are also edible if you find them large enough. And of course the roots of the domesticated radish are well-known comestibles.

The original and edible orange daylily with petals and sepal, together a “tepal.”

Botany Builder #36: There are petals and there sepals.  Sepals can look like petals. A good example is the Daylily. It looks like it has six petals but it really has three petals then outward and downward three sepals that look like petals. Sepals can look different that petals. But when the petals and sepals look alike it is called a “Tepal.” If you think that looks made-up you’re right. The French did it. It’s their alteration of sepale and petale. It can be said TE-pol, or, TEP-ol. Tepal is used when the petals and sepals are undifferentiated, meaning they really look the same (It’s their position and arrangement that let’s us know they are not all petals.) Botanists tell us petals and sepals developed in response to different means of pollenating. Every little advantage helps in the plant world.

Epazote, goosefoot food of the gods. Photo by Green Deane

Epazote is too nasty to freeze. I will readily admit that comment might reflect my bias towards the spice and green that is enjoyed by millions. A member of the Chenopodium clan Epazote is an aromatic spice that is also eaten as a pot herb. Unfortunately for me it smells and tastes like an industrial floor cleaner. Cilantro also assaults my pallet. That said Epazote is used wildly in Hispanic and native central and south American cooking. Admittedly we don’t get much of a winter here, frosts and upper 20s on occasion — except this past week. Through it all Epazote seems to stay green and fresh. It must be the substantial oil content, the same oil that gives it a strong aroma that some find delightful and others disgusting. To read more about Epazote go here.

Green Deane teaching at Earthskills 2013

Sustained cold weather has disrupted the foraging class schedule but hopefully everything will return to seasonal normal. Here are some of my upcoming foraging classes:  Saturday, February 1st, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m. Sunday, February 2nd, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL, 32935, 9 a.m. Saturday, February 8th, Boulware Springs Park,  3420 SE 15th St.  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. Sunday, February 9th, Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave.  Ocala, FL, 34471, 9 a.m. Saturday, February 15th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 23000 Bayshore Rd., Port Charlotte, FL, 33980, 9 a.m. Sunday, February 16th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd. West Palm Beach, FL, 33405, 9 a.m.

Florida EarthSkills 2014

Two weeks from now will be the  Florida Earthskills gathering. This year it will be held at Little Orange Creek Nature Park, which is a little over a mile east of Hawthorne, Florida. I will be giving plant walks there and as this is a new location it should an interesting place to explore. Dates are the 6th through the 9th of February. EarthSkills conferences differ greatly from herbal conferences. While one can find herbalism at an EarthSkills gathering it is what the name implies, earth skills. You can learn a variety of skills and techniques from identifying edible weeds to making a bow to dying your own handmade clothes. It’s a very communal gathering that reminds me of many such free-spirited events back in the 60s. Cool! See you there.

Andy Firk, one of the speakers at the Florida Herbal Conference

This is a reminder the Florida Herbal Conference 2014 will be held in Deland in late February. Also for the third year in a row I will be leading weed walks at the conference, a challenge in winter on dry ground. My walks are usually first thing in the morning when the air is cool and the coffee hot. Although it is the Florida Herbal Conference it draws teachers and students from all over North America. Two other  Florida “locals” will be teaching classes besides the scheduled main speakers. They are Andy Firk, who holds a wide variety of workshops throughout the year at his “Bamboo Cove” in Arcadia, Earthskills host Mycol Stevens of Gainesville. Mycol’s name used to be Michael but he came to like mushrooms and other fungi so well he changed the spelling.

Eat The Weeds DVDs are now available.

Though your foraging may drop off during the winter it’s a great time to study wild edibles with my nine DVD set. Each  DVDs has 15 videos for 135 in all. They make a great gift. Order today. Some of these videos are of better quality than my free ones on the Internet. They are the same videos but many people like to have their own copy. I burn and compile the sets myself so if you have any issues I handle them personally. There are no middle foragers. And I’m working on adding a tenth DVD.  To learn more about the DVDs or to order them click here.  I also uploaded a new video to You Tube this week. This one is about Cereus fruit. It is not on the DVDs but you can see it here.

Green Deane’s old Volvo had a fatal cardio-vascular event this past week. It did not even make it to the emergency room garage dying not intestate but interstate. It was, however, a junk organ donor. A very good friend sold it to me five years ago for $100 — thank you Patrick. This does not leave the Village Green without transportation but looking for a replacement. Difficulties are often opportunities and perhaps it is time to get wheels that more reflect Green Deane. With Volvos one thinks Sweden, skiing, blonds… Perhaps a frumpy jeep will do, or the like…think outdoors, field and stream, plants, weeds… I drove a Willy’s jeep back in the — cough cough — 60s… We might even work out a trade with foraging lessons.  I’m a reasonably good mechanic so no vehicle have to be pristine or pretty. It just needs to get me from Amaranth to Zizania. Should you know of such a vehicle I can be contacted though this newsletter’s email.

Lastly this newsletter is taking guest articles on plants and foraging. Reasonably short is good, but longer articles can be serialized. Topics that are seasonal or lend themselves to illustration are nice. Weed recipes with picture of  the final food are also welcomed. So far we’ve had articles on chickweed and mushrooms. Tell me what you have in mind. Again I can be contacted though this newsletter’s email.

Collection of all of Green Deane’s videos on one USB stick!

Whether you lack a stable internet connection or you just want Green Deane on USB, this will be a valuable resource to add to your foraging collection. Every video that Green Deane has created for Eat The Weeds is included in this set!

Over the years, Deane has created 171 short videos, describing natural plants and other foliage around the area to help you identify those that are edible and what to do with it.

Order Now

Would you like to know what topics are covered in the USB set? Keep reading …

Volume 11                                                                                                        Volume 12

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Insect Cuisine by Shochi Uchiyama

On this site are several articles about edible insects (among other creatures.) Below is an expanding collection of more than 50 edible insects. I plan to localize it. There is, depending on who’s counting,  an estimated 1,462 species of edible insects.  While the numbers fluctuate this includes about 235 species of butterflies and moths, 344 species of beetles, 313 species of ants, bees, and wasps and 239 species of grasshoppers, crickets and cockroaches… yes cockroaches… Insects are commonly eaten in 13 countries by two billion people. They provide not only economical and excellent nutrition but new flavors and textures as well. I personally have eaten several insects below, in one form or another, some times in juvenile form or adult, a few both, usually intentionally.

The list has a world view though the families of edible insects most often found in North American where I am based are: Grasshoppers (Orthoptera acrididae) crickets (Orthoptera gryllidae) metallic wood-borers (Coleoptera buprestidae) long-horn beetles (Coleoptera cerambycidae) weevils (Coleoptera curculionidae) mealworns (Coleoptera tenebrionidae) bees (Hymenoptera apidae) and ants (Hymenoptera formicidae.)

While there are exceptions the following insects are usually avoided: Adult insects that either sting or bite; insects that are covered with hair; brightly colored insects; disease-carrying insects; any insect that gives off a strong odor and spiders, which are not insects… too many legs…  (and when the site was upgraded the photos were displaced. Still working to get them sorted out.)

Acorn Grub

Acorn Grubs:  Inside many acorns in the fall is a small grub, cream colored, tan, a reddish brown head, no legs and fat in the middle. It eats bitter acorn meat but is not bitter itself. The grub can be eaten raw — chewy — or cooked, buttery with no hint of oak or tannins. Laid by one of several beetles, the grub will grow in comparison to the size of the acorn. Eventually it will chew a small hole in the leathery shell and squeeze out. As it is pliable the hole will be much smaller than the grub but the grub will squeeze through. Then a mother moth will come along and put her eggs in through the hole left by the grub. Those grow into a worm with legs. Those are edible, too according to entomologist I know. One more thing: If you cook the grubs do it slowly or break them open. They can explode. To read more about acorn grubs click here. To see my video click here.

Agave Worms

Agave Worm: Actually larvae, they were never associated with booze until 1950 when they were added to mescal as a marketing gimmick. Now they are associated with Tequila which is technically a mescal product. Also known as the maguey worm, they are the larvae of either the Hypopta agavis moth or the Aegiale hesperiaris. When not pickled in alcohol they are coral in color but fade when preserved in methanol. The “worms” are a common food without Tequila in Mexico

Best parched or roasted

Ants, Carpenter: While the name might fit they should have been called syrup ant, or sap ants. Some 99% of their diet is liquid, usually from aphids or vegetation. They’re called carpenter ants because they build nests in wood. In the process of hollowing out a dead log or a damp house support they leave a pile of sawdust. Among the largest ants in North America then can be any color but are usually black, sometimes red, sometimes a combination. They are smooth bodies and release a foul odor when disturbed, hence eating them raw, while possible, is not the best means of consumption. They also nip harmlessly but annoyingly. Native Americans parched them. They would make a large screening basket out of willow then put the entire ant’s nest and hot coals in the basket then winnow out the ants, ashes, parts of the nest and coals.

Escamoles

Ants, Escamoles: Escamoles are the larvae of the large and venomous black Liometopum ant, which makes its home in the dried, woody parts of maguey and agave plants. The eggs resemble cottage cheese with a buttery, nutty taste. As one can imagine the large, toxic ants don’t give up the eggs easily making them expensive plus they are available only seasonally.  Called “Insect Caviar” they are often served in guacamole or sauteed with butter, onion, cilantro and epazote. They can be up to 60% protein.

Leaf Cutter Ants

Ants, Flying: Tequila is not the only thing served with salt and lime. Called Sompopos de Mayo in Guatemala Flying Ant queens are collected and roasted on a clay griddle with salt and lime juice. The flavor is on par with  buttery pork rinds. Available in May, which is the beginning of the rainy season, only the back end is cooked and eaten. One can buy them already separated by vendors.

Honeypot Ant

Ants, Honeypot: Found in areas like South America and Australia they were a delicacy for the Aboriginals. Honeypot ants are an ant’s solution to storage problems. The big-belly ants are fed nectar causing their abdomens to swell. The nectar-like substance is then used to feed other ant. The problem is ants aren’t a collective of dummies. The Honeypot Ant are buried deep in the hard packed earth, some three to five feet down and you have to contend with irritated ants every foot of the way. But in a time when there was no sugar or candy Honeypot Ants were the original treat, a comfort food even if it does have legs that wiggle. They are closely related to carpenter ants.

Leaf Cutter Ant

Ants, Leafcutter: Thirty-eight or forty-seven species of ant are called leafcutters, depending on who’s counting. They are also called Hormigas Culonas in Spanish which means ant with a big butt. I never could figure that out because their heads are much larger than their buts. Leafcutter ants use foliage to grow a fungus for food. The species are divided into two genera, Atta and Acromyrmex. If you’re wondering, the Attas have three pairs of spines and a smooth exoskeleton. The Acromyrmex have four pairs of spines and a rough exoskeleton. They can have nests 100 feet across containing some eight million ants. Bon appetit. Their flavor is like a bacon-ish pistachio. In Colombia they are the local “popcorn” at movie theaters.

Lemon Ants already plated

Ants, Lemon:  For such a little ant it has a large name: Myrmelachista schumanni. Found in the South American jungle their claim to fame, other than tasting like lemons, is they exude a kind of herbicide — formic acid — that kill all plants in a large area except the one tree they nest in, the Duroia hirsuta. Wait, you say, isn’t formic acid the acid makes fire ants fiery? Yep, but the Lemon Ants don’t sting you with it and that is why they taste lemony. They prefer the Duroia hirsuta because its branches are hollow thus they are out of the weather and protected.  One Lemon Ant’s nest is thought to be 807 years old and three million strong. Tiny, you break off or open a branch and have at them, a jungle treat.

Weaver Ants Bite

Ants, Weaver: There’s good news and there’s bad news. They are edible. They also bite. Take a look at the picture. Several ants are tugging on a leaf to make a nest with. See those jaws holding the leaf? They can bite you, too. So, you either collect them carefully and cook away or… you grab the ant from the front, crushing it and eat the back end. These ant eat other insects so they are aggressive. They have been used at least 1,600 years as biological controls in and around gardens and the like. Weaver ants are completely arboreal, read you will find them on plants, in shrubs and on trees, not in the ground. Their eggs are sold in Thailand and the Philippines and taste creamy. The adults are sour and have been mixed into rice for flavoring. One particular species in Australia, Oecophylla smaragdina, is called the Green Ant because is back end is green. They bite but not badly, irritating rather than painful. One opens the nest and reaches in for the eggs. You crush the eggs and ants together and down they go. The lemony flavor and aroma clear congestion and the like. They also are used to make a lemonade like drink. For some unknown reason the ants do not get bacterial infections, which is of interest to scientists. In Asia weaver ants are red.

Wood Ants’ Nest

Ants, Wood: I suppose one could eat adult wood ants but its their eggs that are usually on the menu. Also called Formica Ants, they make large debris nest mostly in forests. A large Wood Ant’s nest can be raided a couple of times a year without harm. On a sunny day put a tarp on the ground. Put branches and the like on the tarp then fold the tarp over the branches leaving a sunny spot in the middle and shade around the edges. Dig into the nest and dump the ants, eggs and debris into the middle of the tarp. The ants will carry the eggs away from the middle to the shade where you can collect them. Eaten raw or cooked their flavor is similar to shrimp.

Bamboo Worms

Bamboo Worms: Find the Grass Moth, find its larvae, and you have a Thailand treat, Bamboo Worms. Like the Agave Worm above, not really a worm, it is usually served fried. These are a gourmet treat. You can buy them from vendors on the street or dried and bagged for international shipments. During their life cycle the larva eat their way up through several sections of the bamboo and when ready to emerge they return to the bottom to eat their way out. Most locals know when this is to happen and the worms become food.

Bee Larva

Bees: Yes, the ones that occasionally sting you because you irritated it. While adult bees are eaten, usually roasted, sometimes ground into flour, more popular is bee larva. They are baked, fried or deep fried. Thus cooked bee lava become flaky, their flavor nutty to caramel. Pallets disagree with opinions on taste ranging from sunflower seeds to shrimp to pork cracklings. Cooked bee larva are also often covered in chocolate and sold as a gourmet item, particularly in Mexico.

Big Fella Bogon Moth

Bogong Moth, Agrotis infusa, is a migrating night-flying moth in Australia. They gather in high elevation caves in the summer months in huge quantities, a fact not missed by the Aboriginals. They would travel from the lowlands to eat the tasty, high protein — 24% — fatty food that is also high in potassium. The moths were either killed or stupefied by the heat and smoke then their bodies collected. After collection the moths were cooked in sand and stirred in hot ashes. This burned off the wings and legs. They were then sifted through a net to remove their heads. Then they were eaten. Sometimes the cooked moths were ground into paste and made into cakes. “Bogong” may mean “Big Fella.” Aussie tucker cafe Ironbark in Canberra serves a brandy-flavoured bogong moth fritter with boab root.

Maggoty Cheese, Casa Marzu

Casa Marzu: Perhaps this should not be included but… It’s a Pecorino cheese that has been allowed to rot and become permeated with fly maggots, specifically Piophila casei. The sheep-milk cheese not only gets infested with maggots but they also digest the cheese and relieve themselves in the cheese, adding the flavor. Actually the acid in their digestive tract breaks down the fat in the cheese. The result is a smooth, very strong cheese. The cheese is eaten, maggots and all. The European Economic Union made it illegal for a while but it is now viewed as a “traditional” food and thus legal. Incidentally, the maggots can jump up to six inches.

Centipedes on a stick

Centipedes: Generally said centipedes are preferred over millipedes. Centipedes, however, have pincers and can bite but once the head is removed they are tiny crustaceans for consumption after cooking. Millipede definitely have to be cooked and are found as a street food in Asia. Some millipedes some have little hydrogen cyanide glands and can exude foul smelling liquid if handled. That’s why the street vendors charge the prices they do. Centipedes are insect eaters, millipedes are vegetarians. Centipedes have one set of legs per segments, millipedes have two sets of legs per segments.

Cicada

Cicada, Katydids: There’s some 2,500 species of Cicadas, which is dead Latin for “tree cricket.” Greeks call them tzitzikas after the sound they make. Periodical cicadas, found only in the Eastern US,  can live underground for up to 17 years before emerging and molting into adults. Other Cicada are annual. Right after molting they are soft and tasty. Female cicadas are plumper and preferred fare. In some species the Cicada can get up to six inches long. They are usually skewered and deep fried, or fried. Incidentally, in Ancient Greece the upper classes preferred Cicadas to locust. Local Cicadas can be green, brown or black.

Deep-Fried Cockroach

Cockroach: Yep, La Cucuracha. They are not only very edible but very clean. Of course, the main idea is to raise them intentionally and feed them a healthy diet such as fresh fruits and vegetables. It takes at least 48 hours to clean out their digestive system. Not the brightest of insects they can live several days without a head, eventually dying from lack of water. They can be eaten toasted, fried, sauteed, or boiled. Don’t eat them raw. Large hissing cockroaches taste like greasy chicken.  I have not tried Florida’s hissing palmetto bugs yet. They smell bad when alive. I’ll let you know.

Fried Crickets

Crickets are probably the most widely consumed insect. Even American Natives were known to roast them up along with grasshoppers. The natives would dig a relatively deep hole in a field and put wood in it. Then they would drive the insects in the field towards the hole. Once the insects were in the hole the fire was lit. When the flames died down they had a bug in. Crickets are about as inoffensive as an insect can get. They are eaten fried, sauteed, boiled, and roasted. Don’t overlook their relatives, the mole crickets.  Also see Kamaro.

Egg batter for dragonflies

Dragonfly and Damselfly: Do you know how to tell the difference? Damselflies fold up their wings, Dragonflies do not. They are eaten in Indonesia and China, larval and adult form. In Bali they are caught with sticks smeared with a sticky sap. Eaten boiled, fried, or grilled on the barbie. Wings are usually removed before cooking unless going over the charcoal. Here they are being dipped in egg before cooking. Boiled in coconut milk with ginger and garlic is also a favored means of preparation. Photo courtesy of Girl Meets Bug.

Choice Dung Beetle

Dung Beetle: The name says it all. They live under fresh cow dung. Before you hurl your supper let’s ponder this for a moment. Commercial dung beetles are cleaned, dehydrated and seasoned. While indeed inhabiting cow patties those cows are living off off organic grass and rice plants and the patty is just predigested fodder. Despite their humble beginnings dung beetles are among the most tasty of insects, crunchy and full of protein. Usually they’re fried. In South America white dung beetles are on the menu and are often cooked with pork and vegetables. “Cleaning” means their abdomens are removed before cooking. Photo courtesy of Girl Meets Bug.

Fly Pupae

Fly, House: You’re not going to want to hear this but the common house fly is like so many edible insects. Its pupae resemble red capsules and have a fatty acid similar to fish oil. Eating them provides a bit of crunch with a rich flavor, some say like blood pudding. They can be parboiled and fried, or just fried. Given the habit of some flies it best to raise your own on wholesome fly food.

Eaten raw or roasted

Golden Orb Spider, Giant Wood Spider:  Among the few spiders that are eaten is Nephila maculata, found in warm areas of the Pacific. Here in the southern U.S.  we have a relative, Nephila clavipes called the Banana Spider. Will have to try one when the opportunity presents itself. The Nephila maculata is eaten raw or roasted (sealed in a green bamboo tube over fire until the tube is blackened. The spiders split open.)  The flavor, with salt, is a cross between a raw potato and lettuce with a peanut butter after taste. A close relative to the Nephila is also eaten, the tent-web spider, Cyrtophora moluccensis. While nutrition and flavor are factors so, too, is size. All of these spiders are on the large size making them worth the calories expended to collect them. Adult female Nephila have about three grams of protein each. Don’t confuse the Nephila with a toxic spider of the same common name from South America, the Phoneutria fera, which looks like a skinny tarantula. They don’t look alike at all but have the same common name. The Nephila is called the Banana Spider because the back end often is yellow. The Phoneutria is called the Banana Spider because it hitches rides north on bunches of bananas and is poisonous.

Grasshoppers Galore

Grasshopper: Not all grasshoppers are edible. Look for solid colored ones, black, green or brown. Multicolored ones can be toxic, as is the huge lubber here in Florida. In Mexico  grasshoppers, called chapulines, are roasted then eaten with chili and lime. Native American did the same thing with grasshoppers as they did crickets, drive them into a deep dug hole in the middle of the field with wood in it then light a quick fire and have roasted hoppers. They are a good source of protein and calcium. In Africa the Nsenene grasshopper is a Ugandan delicacy. Some farmers eat grasshoppers raw after removing the guts.

Tomato and Tobacco Hornworms

Hornworm:  Tomato and Tobacco Hornworms can be fried but there is a word of caution. The plants they are usually found on, tomato and tobacco leaves, are not good for humans to eat. So unless you raise the hornworms on a specific diet wild hornworms have to be either starved for a few days or fed food they like and we can eat. Fortunately, green peppers fits that need perfectly. Their flavor is a combination of tomatoes, shrimp, and crab. If it has a red horn is a tobacco worm, black horn is tomato worm. You would have thought they would have reversed that. Entomologists are apparently no more logical than botanists. To read more, click here.

June Bugs

June Bug: June bugs (Phyllophaga) are a fairly safe bug for anyone to start with because there are no toxic look-alikes and they tend to eat inoffensive stuff, read organic matter. They can also be eaten as a beetle or larva. I’m sure you’ve seen the larval stage. You turned over a spade of soil and a large larva curled into a C. That’s a June bug.  The flavor is on the buttery, walnut side. Native Americans roasted them on coals. We can fry them up, or if you have enough, throw them in the hot air popcorn popper. Remove legs and wings before eating. Those parts just don’t digest well. Green June bugs is a similar species and also edible. One way to catch them is to shine a bright flashlight on a white sheet at night. Happy Collecting!

Kamaro is another name for Mole Cricket, a very ugly and expensive lawn pest… if you keep a lawn. In the Philippines where they are called Kamaro and are a sought-after delicacy, cooking styles range greatly, though there are a couple of themes. Some like to stir-fry them without any oil or flavoring, preferring a taste they give off that way, slightly like liver. Once cooked you can eat them totally but most folks prefer to take off claws, legs and wings. To read more about the Kamaro cum Mole Cricket click here.

Squeeze but not too hard, buning off hairs is optional

Kanni, which is sometimes included with the Mopane Worms below, is a different species and some 58% protein, 11% fat. It also has zinc, calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, iron and trace elements of copper and manganese. Scientifically Cirina forda, it’s a caterpillar collected from the sheabutter tree, or also from the ground around it. The larvae are squeezed of frass but not too hard or they lose an esteemed yellow liquid. They are then boiled and dried in the sun before eaten. Kanni is a widely used regional ingredient in vegetable soup.

Body Lice

Lice: It’s stock caricature to have monkeys pick lice off each other but what about people? In the Life, Letters and Travels of Father Pierre-Jean de Smet, S.J., 1801-1873  the Belgian Jesuit wrote on page 1002: “I have seen the Cheyennes, Snakes, Utes, etc., eat vermin off each other by the fistful. Often great chiefs would pull off their shirts in my presence without ceremony, and while they chatted, would amuse themselves with carrying on this branch of the chase in the seams. As fast as they dislodged the game, they crunched it with as much relish as more civilized mouths crack almonds and hazel-nuts or the claws of crabs and crayfishes.” In fact a louse has been found in human coprolite in Mexico that is 826 to 2512  years old. As they are blood consuming insects we might not want to eat them live theses days…  unless of course they are your own….

Locust Taco

Locust: The Ancient Greeks were of two opinions about eating locust. The upper classes preferred cicadas whereas the lower classes preferred locust. Shepherds ate locust. Politicians did not. Locust were also dried in the sun, ground into powder and mixed with milk.  Interestingly, by 100 AD, some 500 years later, the Greeks had abandoned eating insects. Locust are usually eaten dried without wings and legs. Natives in various place put the insects live in a long bag and shake them from one end to the other, back and forth. The legs and wings are then winnowed away and the bodies are put out in the sun to dry. Some desert people boiled locus in salt water first then dried them.

Longhorn Beetle Grub

Longhorn Beetle: There are some 20,000 species of Longhorn Beetles, and not all easy to sort out. We are interested in then ones that created their name. They are called “longhorn” because often their antennae are longer than their bodies. We have native Longhorn Beetles and a rather destructive import from Asia that destroys trees. Eating them is your civic duty. Look for a large grub with large chewing parts in wood. Willow, Popular and Cottonwoods are preferred as well as Maples in the northeast.

Mealworm and stages

Mealworm: Mealworms are perhaps the first non-leggy “insect” a person intentionally eats. Long used in the pet trade they have been favorite of entomophagists for a long time. Inoffensive, easy to raise, easy to cook, tasty. I started to raised them when I was caring for wildlife, from baby blue jays to infant squirrels. I still have a batch of them. Mealworms are the larva of the Darkling Beetle. They are often prepared boiled, sauteed, roasted, or fried. They have a nutty flavor. Edibility of the adult beetles is debatable. You might find one of my videos interesting.

Midge Fly

Midge fly: Locally they are called Blind Mosquitoes. Sometimes they become so thick that lakeside businesses have to spend a lot of money clean the outside of their buildings and cart millions of their little carcases away. Some places in Africa folks press them into solid blocks then cooked the blocks to make a food called Kunga Cake. The male Midge Flies are easy to identify by their fuzzy antenna. I used to feed then to a pet jumping spider.

Mopane Worm

Mopane Worms eat leaves of the Mopane Tree and are a multi-million dollar industry in Africa. The main problem is unpredictability of harvest which lasts for about three to seven weeks depending on the rainfall. Mopane worms, called “macimbi” and scientifically Imbrasia belina, fetch a higher market price than beef. The main thing to remember if you collect them alive is to squeeze the juice out of them before salting and drying. Once dry rehydrate them then cook in oil and garlic. Another way to process them is after the frass is squeezed out they are roasted on coals to burn off the hairs. Any red coloring indicates the worm has not be cooked enough. Then they are dried.

Get revenge by eating mosquito eggs.

Mosquito Eggs: Here’s your chance for revenge for all those times a mosquito has gotten past your defenses and took a blood donation. Very common in Mexico mosquito eggs are dried then roasted. You’ll often find them wrapped in a tortillas or served with a squeeze of lime or lemon.  The eggs are laid by mom mosquitoes in trees near lakes. Mosquito eggs are about one-sixteenth of an inch long, dark colored, and larger at one end Interested? A small bottle sells for about $50.

Pillbugs

Pillbug: These used to be a fairly common food in England and parts of Europe. Also known as sowbugs, roly polys, and  woodlice, they’re terrestrial crustaceans related to lobsters, crab and shrimp. The better tasting ones are the ones that roll into a little ball when disturbed. Two factoids: They change sex and don’t urinate. To read more about pillbugs click here.

Preying Mantis and tofu

Praying Mantis is the correct spelling though “preying” would have been accurate, too, in that it is an insect eater itself. They can range greatly in size. The same rule that applies to some plants applies to mantises: Young and tender. They are usually fried, as are Walking Sticks, and taste like a cross between shrimp and mushrooms.

Rhino Beetle’s Three Stages

Rhino Beetle: Setting aside the issue of size the Rhino Beetle is one of the strongest creatures on earth. When motivated it can lift 850 times its own weight. The beetle and its larvae are both eaten. The grub is high in protein, calcium, and phosphorous. Good sized, they are fried, grilled, roasted and stewed. Like Dragonflies they can also be cooked in coconut milk. Grub fat is used like butter, once clarified.

Sago Grubs

Sago Grubs: At least one palm weevil makes its edible way into North America, perhaps a couple more. The larvae of the palm weevil are esteemed wherever they are found, Florida to Malaysia to New Guinea. Sago grubs are often cooked coated with Sago flour and wrapped in Sago leaf. NOTE: that is the true Sago Palm, Metroxylon sagu, not the ornamental cycad called a sago palm [Cycas revoluta] which is very toxic to man and beast. The latter is also a cockroach high-rise. Personally I would avoid any bug found on a Cycas revoluta. Its toxin causes liver failure. Just make sure you have the right “Sago.”  Palm weevils that feed on the true Sago Palm have a bacon flavor and are like most palm grubs full of fat.

Young and tender Sapelli caterpillars

Sapelli Caterpillars, Imbrasia oyemensis, is considered a delicacy and one of the few green caterpillars on our list along with the hornworms. They are valued for their flavor and the fact a lot of them can be collected in a short amount of time, calories in calories out. They are small and firm, very suited to drying and preservation. The caterpillars fall from the Sapele Tree, Entandrophragma cylindricum, during the rainy season and at that time of year provide 75% of the protein of the Pygmies consume. Their name is also spelled “Sapele” and the tree they feed on Aboudikro.

Silkworms

Silk worm, in my opinion, are highly overrate as food. True silk worms are no longer found in the wild. They are a byproduct of the silk industry. A huge byproduct. I’m not convinced they are eaten and popular because of taste but rather because they are available and there’s so many of them. We have silk worms because of silk not taste. They are sold by street vendors in most of Asia. If I remember correctly they are also canned and exported.

Scorpions on a stick

Scorpions: Several scorpions are found in North America. To read about the locals click here. Like silkworms above, scorpions are found skewered and fried in Asian markets. They taste like crunchy crabs. Whether to eat the tail or not is a matter of personal taste. Cooking destroys the protein-based toxin.

Dried Stink Bugs

Stink Bugs, Jumiles: Just as some plants straddle the edible non-edible line so, too, do some bugs among them the stink bugs. High in B vitamins, their flavor varies greatly depending upon what they’ve eaten, the species, and how they are processed. Some of them are also nearly indestructible and survive cooking. Often times they are added to stews for flavor (some taste like cinnamon others mint. Others are eaten as the food itself, particularly in Mexico. In parts of Africa stink bugs are collected by hand. The live and dead stink bugs are then separated The lives ones are put in a bucket of warm water and stirred. This causes them to release their stink. The bugs are then dried and are ready for consumption. The separated dead bugs have their heads removed then their bodies squeezed and the juice wiped off. They are then boiled and sun dried.  Once dry they can be eaten as is, fried, or are cooked with a little water and salt.

Usually Deep Fried

Tarantulas: No doubt more than one hungry human has downed a tarantula or two, whether before the invention of cooking or not we cannot say. But tarantulas weren’t really on the menu until the 1970s when many Cambodians were near starvation following political upheaval. Survival skills turned a big hairy spider into a national craze that has not slackened in the decadess since. Usually well-cooked with salt, oil, sugar and garlic one starts with the legs which remind you of crab. The abdomen is soft and squishy, the flavor is nutty with a musty after taste. You’ll either like it or you won’t.

A taste for termites

Termites: I read once that termites are the perfect food for humans. They have all the essential amino acids we need. That’s certainly good news. Too bad flavor was left out of that equasion. Termites don’t taste bad per se. They taste like minty wood, or at least the ones that live in the jungle do. Maybe the ones in desert mounds taste like minty sand.  Could be worse, like tarantula tummies. In some places they are so well liked termites are eaten raw straight out of the mound with a straw. I wonder if they slurp. Another way to collect termites is to put a bowl of water under a light source at night. The termites fall into the bowl. Usually they are roasted, the wings are removed, a little salt is added, and bon appetit.

Walking Stick

Walking stick: Like Praying Mantis Walking Sticks fall betwewen the entomological cracks regarding who they are related to. More diverse than Praying Mantises they can be an inch long or 18 inches. A popular edible in  Asia and New Guinea, they taste, as one might expect, leafy. Some prefer only particular a foliage so feeding them alternative diets for a couple of weeks to moderate flavors might be called for. In one species the leg can be used for fish hooks.

Wasp: Japanese Emperor Hirohito like boiled wasps with rice. Surprisingly I learned that when I lived in Japan decades ago when he was still Emperor. Wasps, like bees, are eaten as larva and adults, cooked which takes a lot of the sting out of the stinger. The larval form is preferred over the adult. Their flavor is butter and earth. In Mexico entire paper wasp nests are collected, cooked, nest and all and made into a sauce. In other areas the nest is collected and put next to the fire to roast the lavae inside. Wasps are generally put into two categories, social and solitary. Solitary wasps tend to build nesting burrows or small mud nests. They’re not on the menu too often. Social wasps tend to build paper nest they use for one season. The sting of the social wasp is usually worse than that of the solitary wasp because it uses its stinger for defense. Solitary wasps use their stinger to paralyze prey. That is why the sting of the social wasp hurts more. Also they usually don’t loose their stinger upon stinging so they can sting multiple times. Wasps are important agriculturally because they consume most agricultural insect pests. And not all wasps have wings. The “velvet ant” Dasymutilla occidentalis, is a wingless female was that is so flexible that while being held by the front end she can sting with the back end.

Giant Water Bug

Water Bugs might be even more off putting than tarantulas. They’re not small and you might have seen one in a movie or a nightmare once. Also called Toebiter because they do the giant water bug is popular in Thai cuisine. It is eaten whole, steamed or fried, and is the unseen special ingredient in several sauces.  Raw they smell like green apples which doesn’t mean much when they have a hold of your toe… or the like. Steamed, they are aromatic like a banana with the flesh of a white fish. I see then now and then in Florida.

Farm-raised Wax Worms

Waxworm: Waxworms have got quite a reputation in the west as one of those innoffensive offensive edibles. They are the larvae of the wax moth. Fed on a diet of bran and honey they are roasted or sauteed tasting like a cross between a pine nut and an enoki mushroom, very fatty. With those flavors, as you might expect, they go good with butter… then again nearly everything goes good with real butter. In the wild waxworms live off bee larvae.

Wichetty Grubs, raw or roasted

Wichetty Grub: Without Ray Mears perhaps most folks outside of Australia would have never heard of the Wichetty Grub. They are so large and nutritious that 10 a day provides all the calories and nutrition an adult male needs. Eaten by Aborigines, they are dug out of roots and eaten raw or cooked, often roasted in coals or over a fire. They have a strong egg yoke flavor, and like many grubs are surprisingly chewy. Ah… c’mon.. if a kid can eat one so can you...

River Insects

Zaza mushi: I ate a lot of strange things when I lived in Japan but never got around to Zaza-mushi. On some of the outer islands where old ways and local customs still hold sway you can eat things that are as myserious as haggis.  Zaza mushi is the larvae of aquatic caddis flies that live at the bottom of rivers. The name comes from “zaazaa” the sound the Japanese use to immitate flowing water, and “mushi” which means insects… River Insects. The Japanese just don’t hear things like we do. To them a cow says bow-wow and a cat niki-niki.

Call it an occupational hazard but I began to wonder one day how many genera were unique, that is, they had just one edible species in them, the so called monotypic genus. Some families are huge such as the sunflower family which has 1550 genera and 24,000 species. The oxalis genus has some 800 members. Worldwide there are more than 16,000 genera and over one million different species, of which perhaps 135,000 are edible, a little more than 10 percent. There are some 438 monotypic genera, each with just one species in it. But, how many edibles are among them? I knew of five edible plants locally that were all the only species in their genus. So I began to collect them, with thanks to KoolAid_Free_Lexi. At the moment I am at 64, the largest collection of them in one place. I’m sure some my readers, like Kool AId,  will send me more monotypic genus edibles, all unique in their own way. In the list below there are a few well-known plants: Gingko, dill, fennel, Saguaro cactus, saw palmettos, hydrilla, brazil nuts. Others are rare if not obscure, endangered and some federally protected.

Abobra tenuifolia. The Cranberry Gourd is a native of South America, specifically Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The egg-shaped fruit is edible. If you are thinking of growing it you need male and female plants.
Achyrachaena mollis, Blow Wives. The roasted seeds were eaten by California Indians.	Blow Wives
Aegle marmelos, Bael, is a native of Southeast Asia, from India to the Philippines. The Bael fruit has a smooth, hard woody shell with a gray, green or yellow peeling. It takes about 11 months to ripn reaching the size of a grapefruit. The yellow pulp is aromatic smelling like marmalade and roses combined. It is eaten fresh or dried, the juice is used to make a drink like lemonade. Leaves and small shoots are used as salad greens. Twigs are used as chew sticks
Allenrolfea occidentalis, Iodine Bush, Pickleweed. Young stems are edible raw in limited amounts because of being salty. Used as a cooked green. The seeds are also edible.	Iodine Bush
Andromeda polifolia, Bog Rosemary. A cold water tea made from the mascerated plant was drank by the Ojibway Indians.  Do NOT make a tea using hot water. That will make the tea toxic.	Bog Rosemary
Anemonella thalictroides, Rue Anemone. The starchy root is edible after cooking.	Rue Anemone
Anethum graveolens, dill. Where would pickles be without dill? I use dill in many supper time concoctions, usually involving cucumbers.	Dill
Athysanus pusillus, Sandweed. Its small seeds have been used as food.	Sandweed
Benincasa hispida, White Gourd, eaten raw or cooked, young or old, used as a vegetable; flowers and leaves steamed as a vegetable, seeds cooked.	White Gourd
Bertholletia excelsa, the Brazil Nut. This common edible needs little introduction. From South American the tree itself grows to nearly 200 feet high and is named after French chemist Claude Louis Berthollet.	Brazil nut
Butomus umbellatus, flowering rush. A native of Eurasia the Flowering rush is become endangered in some areas of its native range but a pest in areas where it has been introduce, such as the Great Lakes. The root can be boiled and eaten.	Flowering Rush
Brasenia schreberi, Water Shield. This plant is common in Florida. It is odd in that its underleaf and stem are covered in a clear gel, making identification easy. To read more about the Water Shield click here.	Water Shield
Calla palustris, Water Arum, a northern tier species. To read more about the Water Arum click here.	Water Arum
Calypso bulbosa, Deer Orchid, Fairy Slipper. The corm-like root was eaten by Indians.	Deer Orchid
Carnegiea gigantea, Saguara, among the most famous of the cactus clan, and with quite edible fruit.	Saguara
Chamaedaphne calyculata, Leatherleaf. Leaves mashed in cold water, drunk as a cold tea by the Ojibway Indians.	Leatherleaf
Crithmum maritimum, Samphire. the salty leaves can be pickled in vinegar, added to salads, used like capers; flowers in salads. Often chopped and mixed with olive oil and lemon juice to be used as a salad dressing.	Samphire
Cycloloma atriplicifolium, Winged Pigweed. The seeds can be ground and used for mush or as cakes.	Winged Pigweed
Cydonia oblonga, quince. My mother has one growing outside her front door. When it takes over the doorstep it gets a trim.	Quince
Enhalus acoroides, Tape Seagrass, is a sea grass, not a seaweed and not algae, but a grass that grows in tidal saltwater. The chestnut tasting seeds are eaten
Eleiodoxa conferta, Kelubi, is a Southeastern Asia palm that dies upon reaching maturty. The heart is edible and the fruit is pickled or used as a substitute for tamarind or made into sweets.
Erigenia bulbosa, Harbinger of Spring. The small root is edible raw.	Harbinger of Spring
Floerkea proserpinacoides, False Mermaid. The spicy plant above ground is eaten raw.	False Mermaid
Foeniculum vulgare, fennel. I can’t cook without fennel.	Fennel
Ginkgo biloba. I first saw them in Japan and later outside Bailey Hall at the (then) University of Maine campus, Gorham, Maine. Now there’s one not a quarter of a mile away from me here in Florida. To read more about the ginkgo click here.	Ginkgo
Glaux maritima, Sea Milkwort. Young shoots edible raw, leaves and stems pickled.	Sea Milkwort
Hablitzia tamnoides, Spinach Vine, Caucasian Vine, related to Chenopodiums, shoots and leaves are edible, raw or cooked.
Hesperocallis undulata, Desert Lily. Large tubers are edible but grow deep in difficult soil.	Desert Lily
Heteromeles arbutifolia, Toyon. Bitter fruit edible, should be cooked, roasting works. Can be dried and ground into a meal, also mashed, mixed with honey and water to ferment into cider. Leaves toxic.	Toyon
Hippuris vulgaris, Marestail. Tips can be boiled.	Marestail
Honckenya peploides, Sandwort, Sea Chickweed. Whole plant edible raw or cooked. Is not a good flavor. Can be fermented like sauerkraut. Berries eaten with fat.	Sandwort
Hydrilla verticillata poses a bit of a mystery. You can buy it in health food stores powdered but there are no ethnobotanical uses to guide us on how to prepare it. Suggestions welcomed.	Hydrilla
Isomeris arborea, Bladderpod. Pods edible after cooking.	Bladderpod
Levisticum officinale, Lovage, an herb garden staple.	Lovage
Limonia acidissima,Wood-Apple, is a native of Southeast Asia particulary in the India area. The pulp is eaten out of hand, made into drinks, or jam.
Maclura pomifera, the Osage-Orange, almost universally reported as not edible. A native to central North America the seed kernels are edible raw or roasted.	Osage-Orange
Medeola virginiana, Indian Cucumber, a well-known edible in the eastern half of North America.	Indian Cucumber
Modiola caroliniana, Carolina Bristlemallow survives locally by growing low in lawns. Resembles flat leaf parsley. To read more click here.	Carolina Bristlemallow
Muntingia calabura, Jamaican Cherry though it is a native of southern Mexico. Fruit is eaten out of hand, sweet juicy, use to make jellies, jam, tarts, pies and added to cold cereal as as other fruit is. Yellow and red forms, very hight in vitamin C, leaves are used to make a tea.
Myrrhis odorata, Sweet Cicely, leaves raw in salads, added to soups and stews, garnish for fish dishes or brewed into tea. Used in candy making. Roots eaten after boiling, served with oil or candied, seeds used as a spice and to favor chartreuse.	Sweet Cicely
Nandina domestica, Nandina. Barely edible, leaves cooked many times and seedless fruit pulp useable. To read more click here.	Nandina
Nemopanthus mucronatus, Mountain Holly, fruit eaten by Indians.	Mountain Holly
Neogomesia agavioides, red fruit edible but very rare.	Neogomesia agavioides
Nypa frutescens is an Asiatic palm tree with edible fruit called Nipa. In the Philippines the sap is to make sugar, alcohol, and vinegar. It’s flowers are boiled to make a sweet syrup. Unripe seeds are eaten raw and used to flavor ice cream. The fronds are used for thatching.
Obregonia denegrii, white fruit edible.	Obregonia denegrii
Onoclea sensibilis, Sensitive Fern, rhizome eaten by Indians, young shoots of a variation called interrupta boiled as a green.	Sensitive Fern
Orontium aquaticum, Golden Club. Roots dried and ground into flour, seeds dried and boiled in several changes of water until paltable, same with flowers.	Golden Club
Osmaronia cerasiformis, Oso Berry. Fruit edible raw, bitter, cooking improves flavor.	. Oso Berry
Oxydendrum arboreum, Sourwood. Young, tender leaves edible raw.	Sourwood
Peltiphyllum peltatum, Indian rhubarb. Peeled leafstalk edible raw or cooked.	Indian rhubarb
Peraphyllum ramosissimum, Squaw Apple. The bitter ripe fruit is edible.	Squaw Apple
Perilla frutescens, Perilla, one  species, three varities, wildly used in Asian cooking.	Perilla
Peumus boldus, Boldo, is native to Chile. Its leaves are used similar to a bay leaf for flavoring although the flavor is different than a bay leaf. Boldo’s small, green fruit is also edible. The flavor is similar to epazote. The leaves also make an herbal tea which is sold commercially.	Boldo
Pholisma arenarium, endangered. The root is edible.	Pholisma arenarium
Piloblephis rigida, Florida Pennyroyal. Very intense, found in scrub land, to read more click here.	Florida Pennyroyal
Platycodon grandifolus, Balloon Flower, roots, leaves and blossom edible raw.	Balloon Flower
Platystemon californicus, Cream Cups, Leaves were cooked by Indians.	Cream Cups
Pteridium aquilinum, Bracken Fern, to read more click here.	Bracken Fern
Ravenala madagascariensis, Traveler’s Palm, bright metalic seeds are quite edible. To read more click here.	Traveler’s Palm
Sclerocactus mesae-verdae, federally endangered and protected, fruit eaten by Indians.	Sclerocactus mesae-verdae
Serenoa repens, Saw Palmetto. The infamous…. the fruit tastes like rotten cheese soaked in tobaccon juice, and $70 million business in Florida. To read more, click here.	Saw Palmetto
Stangeria eriopus. Books a century old or older say the Cycad seeds are edible after cooking. I would be wary. It is a toxic family.	I would have a picture here but my program absolutely will not allow it.
Tamarindus indica, the tamarin, a spice that works is way into your kitchen.	Tamarin
Umbellularia californica, California Laurel, Oregon Myrtle, root bak makes a tea, leaves used like a bay leaf. Nut is edible raw or roasted, its spicy envelope is also edible.	Umbellularia californica

Young Pigweed, note the white dusting on the leaves

Chenopodium album: Getting Goosed!

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

Mr. Gowan was what you’d call a wiry man; not tall, not muscular, but strong and an excellent gardener. He, and his wife Maxine Lambert, had degrees in agriculture and were making a good effort at running a farm next door raising a few thousand chickens and seven kids.

As was the case back then neighbors helped neighbors. He was over to our place working with us on some plumbing when he saw a huge crop of pigweed where the lawn was supposed to be. (Earlier that year my father had spread hay chaff from the barn on the dirt area set aside for lawn and grew a gigantic crop of wild mustard and pigweed but no grass.)

Pigweed seed spikes

As Mr. Gowan was leaving he stopped, chewed his pipe stem, slid back on one hip as was his habit, and remarked that the pigweed was very fine looking and would we mind if he took some home for supper? That caught my ears because I didn’t know they were edible. My father told him to take all he wanted and Mr. Gowan went over and yanked up four or five plants that were much taller than he was. He wrestled them from the hard soil and took them all home, stems and all. I can still remember the happy glee he had hauling them out and taking them away. He was a perpetualy skinny man of prodigious appetite so I’m sure he looked forward to them with his lips a-smacking. He never let them grow in his very neat garden. Pigweed ( Lambsquarters, Fat Hen ) is the fastest growing Chenopodium.  There are many members of the family: Don’t eat it if it has a strong varnish-like smell. That would be one of a few used for spice or medicine. (See Epazote.) Well… I say don’t eat it if it smells like varnish but in some countries they manage to get around Epazote’s odor and use it as a green as well as flavoring and medicine.

Here in suburban Central Florida it is difficult to find enough Chenopodium album (ken-o-POE-dee-um AL-bum) to make a meal out of. Not two miles from me used to be about 20 acres of it every year but now that old frozen orange grove is a coiffured upscale, fenced housing development. I haven’t even seen a single pigweed growing outside the big brick fence. I still see a Chenopodium now and then but usually just one straggling plant at a stop sign or the like.  To bad because it is a choice potherb, mild in flavor and nutritious. If you have the time the best place to find them now is in less-than-well tended orange groves.

That Chenopodium is an edible is not in doubt, leaves to processed seeds. It has been a mainstay of many for centuries. However, whether the extremely common C. album is a native to North America is something of a debate. Probably not. However C.  berlandieri (bur-lan-dee-ER-ee)  is native and is used the same way.  It was cultivated as long as 3,500 years ago.  Chenopodium means goose foot, referring to the shape of the leaves. Album (see photo on top) means white as the leaves often have a dusting of white making them unwettable. Pigweed can have up to 19,000 IU’s of vitamin A per 100g serving.

Among the known edible Chenopodiums are: bonus-henricus, californicum, capitatum, fremontii, leptophyllum, rubrum, urbicum. The next three are used as spices: C. ambrodioides, pueblense and botrys, though I think that is stretching the definition of spice.  They stink. Use sparingly. Also avoid the smelly medicinal C. anthelminticum. It’s in league with the previous three only stronger.

As for the name Lambsquarters… It has nothing to do with Lambs at all. In ninth century England (some say Scotland) the calendar was divided into four quarters. The one starting August first was called Lammas Quarter. It was then folks celebrated the wheat harvest. They ate a green, leafy plant then and called it Lambsquarters. 

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Large plant, to six feet or more, often mealy early in the season, leaves very variable, diamond-shaped widest point usually well below the middle, narrowing to two straight untoothed sides making a V-shaped base, and with straightish toothed sides to the tip.  Flowers ball-like clusters arranged in spikes. The minute flowers have five green sepals, five yellow stamens.

TIME OF YEAR: Young shoots in spring, leaves summer and fall, seeds fall.

ENVIRONMENT: Waste ground to fertile gardens.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Young leaves raw, older leaves sweated or boiled, seeds after soaking overnight and rinsed well to remove saponins on surface. Chenopodium is a nitrogen holding plant  and high in oxalic acid. Best avoided by those with kidney stones, gout or related issues.  Seed is 49% carbohydrate, 16% protein, and 5.88% ash. Water the seeds are soaked in can be used as soap.

The Seminole-Wekiva Trail in 2018 (as seen from a bicycle GPS.)

Seven-Mile Appetizer

Editor’s note: Since the article was written the trail is now twice as long.

The squirrels are in hog heaven, if you’ll pardon the menagerie metaphor.

Beautyberry

It’s Thanksgiving, 2007 in central Florida and I am starting a bike trip along a reclaimed railroad bed. The Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) has gone from a summer wallflower to a fall blooming idiot. Also known as the French Mulberry, it is in full fruit hoping to ensure another generation of Beautyberries.  The shrub, with fruit clustered along the stem, is extremely popular with squirrels, who will ignore people to get to the berries. Read more about the Beauty Berry and the great jelly it makes by clicking here.

Amaranth

I’m traveling from Altamonte Springs to Lake Mary, and back, a little over 15 miles. At a road crossing where I have to stop for a traffic light — an underground passage was to be finished in 2005 —  I see a few scraggly Amaranth (Amaranthus hybridus.) Like its close cousin, the Spiny Amaranth, it’s a very local opportunist, rarely more than a plant or two here and there. In decades of collecting wild edibles in Florida I’ve never seen enough amaranth in one place to make a good meal (except in my garden.)  Even more rare is its distant and tasty cousin, Lamb’s Quarters or Pig Weed (Chenopodium album.) It’s hard to find here in central Florida except for isolated populations usually in poorly attended orange groves.

My first introduction to “Pig Weed” as an edible came in 1960. My parents had built a house the year before and as was common the next spring they threw hay chaff on the ground to start a lawn. That summer only two kinds of plants grew on the lawn: Wild mustard — see a later article on that — and Pig Weed.  A neighbor, Bill Gowen, who was also quite an amazing vegetable gardener, was visiting one day and saw the six-foot high Pig Weed and asked if he could have some. Getting a yes, he pulled out a half a dozen plants taller than himself and carried them home for supper.  He was absolutely full of joy

Pokeweed

over what he was about to eat, and with good reason. Only the Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) comes close to Lamb’s Quarters in flavor. For many years I was fortunate in that a field near me in Maitland, Fl., grew Lamb’s Quarters profusely, though smaller than in temperate climes. But, that field is now a housing development and not one Lamb’s Quarters seed, save for my garden, seems to have survived. That cannot be said of its more malodorous cousin, Mexican Tea (Chenopodium ambrosioides, sometimes referred to as Chenopodium anthelminticum though now is has been changed by some to Teloxys ambrosiodes.  In this case, the word “tea” is used to mean an infusion, not a pleasant drink. Chenopodium ambrodsiodes, by the way, means ‘Goose Foot Food of the Gods.’ That should give you some idea.

Epazote

Unmistakably smelling of varnish, the cultivated version is a common spice in Mexican cooking called Epazote, which in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, means skunk sweat or skunk dirt. It is well-named. One does not need to cultivate Epazote in Florida. It grows quite happily everywhere and all along the trail I am biking, especially near Lake Mary. It is one plant I don’t stop to look at, or rub unless I want to smell like a cleaned paint brush. I might have a different view of Epazote if I had tried it cooked sometime. But, I also don’t have internal worms, another use for the “tea.” And I really don’t want to find out if the line between spice and worm killer is thin.

Turks Cap

On my over-sized road bike I puff past many plants that are not high on the food chain for humans but edible in one fashion or another: Huge Camphor trees, relatives of the cinnamon; Pines, their needles make a Vitamin C rich tea and the inner bark edible; the aforementioned Pokeweed, red and rank this time of year but delicious in the spring when prepared correctly, deadly when not; Reindeer Moss, a true survival food; escaped Honeysuckle and Turks Caps; various cactus with edible pads and flower buds;  Bull Brier, a Smilax with berries that can be chewed like gum when green. The root of its cousin made the original Sarsaparilla. Ubiquitous on the trail  and very weedy, is Bidens alba.

Begger’s Ticks, Spanish Needles

Known as Beggars’ Ticks and  “Spanish Needles” for its two-tooth seeds, Bidens is the third largest source of honey nectar in Florida. All honey from Florida is part Bidens Alba.  The flowers and cooked young leaves and plants are edible. It has all kinds of medicinal applications from gout to urinary infections. Near the Bidens are some sandspurs though the correct term is sandburs, (Cenchrus echinatus.)  I burn off their spines and parch them at the same time. Tasty.

Florida Betony

About half way between Altamonte Springs and Lake Mary I pass a lawn that is too close to the trail and spy a bed of plants that would make Florida gourmets grab a shovel if they knew what was there: Florida Betony (Stachys Floridana). Its cousin, Stachys Affinis, is called Crosnes or Chinese Artichokes and a few other names. They are described as very expensive and called hard-to-find. Betony is the bane of most Florida lawns.

Purslane

Also in nearby lawns as I pedal by I see two other edibles, one very esteemed and the other rarely known on this side of the world. First is purslane (Portulaca oleracea). In fact, its very name, oleracea, means cultivated and it has been for thousands of years. Invading the lawns along with the purslane is Pennywort, sometimes the native Hydocotyle bonariensis and sometimes its imported cousin, Centella asiatica, both quite edible. The Pennywort likes its feet wet and one usually finds it around lawn sprinklers or where water puddles on lawns.

This year Thanksgiving in Florida is a warm, pleasant day and I brake to read the historic markers.  The trail I’m on, The Seminole Wekiva Trail, built on the former Orange Belt Railway, was at one time the longest railroad in the United States. It was started in 1885, about the same time both my grandfathers were born. In 1893 — the decade of my grandmothers —

Bitter Gourd

it became the Sanford – St. Petersburg railroad then became part of the Atlantic Coast Railroad line and finally merged in 1967 into the current Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. It cut across the state higher up than the current east-west interstate then went down Florida’s west coast, with one of the stops in the Greek community of Tarpon Springs, where I got my Purslane. Many important communities along the railroad a century ago and worthy of a station are gone, only noted by the cast iron tombstones: An inn stood over there; winter visitors went to a spring-fed spar across the road; a freeze ended a citrus community here the night of 29 Dec 1894. Occasionally an area is fenced off, and on many of those fences are ripening Balsam Pears (.) They are edible when young and are one of the few wild edibles I see people picking. 

Wild Grapes

As I pedal through Longwood — President Calvin Coolidge stopped here in 1929 to visit the “Senator” the largest Cypress tree in the country, now burned down —   I notice the grapes are way past season save for some stragglers. The grapes were not prolific this year, but in 2006 they were abundant. There are at least three or four  kinds of ‘wild’ grapes in Florida, two native and two or so escaped and semi-naturalized cultivars. It is easy to tell their ancestry: If the vine’s tendril has one tip, it is native; if the tendril is forked  it’s an escape artist (although future botanists might those designations.) Along here most of the grapes are Vitis shuttleworthii and Vitis munsoniana.  However, at one point overhanging the trail there are some abandoned 1930-era red and white hybrids. Larger and sweeter, they make the trip pleasant. I can just reach a last few from my bike as I go by.

Florida  — as of this writing and perhaps for sometime to come   — cannot grow wines like California or France because of Pierce’s Disease. The disease kills non-native grapes within a decade of planting by essentially clogging their veins and making them wither. So far its been lethal to over 300 varieties of grape. Only common varieties that have been crossed with native grapes can survive, which the state did in the early 1900s. Since the native grapes are very fruity, hybrid Florida wine, like New York State wine, is a differentiated product, a fancy way of saying it has its own muscadine flavor. If Pierce’s Disease can be conquered — they’re working on it — the South could become a major grape-growing region of well-known varietals.

3,500 year old tree destroyed by a match.

As I enjoy my grapes and pedal along I think about the “Senator.” A core ring count said it was some 3,000 years old. When it was 600 years old Socrates was arguing against democracy — why he was later executed — and Plato was a bright kid with a large derriere (didn’t you ever wonder what “Plato” means in the original Greek?)  By the time the Senator celebrated its 1,500th birthday, King Arthur was becoming a legend in his own mind. I wonder how many hurricanes has that king of cypresses endured in 3,500 years, and which one blew its top off with the help of lightning now and then. (Editor’s note: An addict climbed over the security fence January 16, 2012, then lit a fire inside the trunk so she could see what drugs she wanted to use. The resulting fire burned down the tree. A clone has replaced it.)

Monarda punctata, Bee balm

Not far from the grapes, before a long grade that challenges my low-carb knees, grows Spotted Horsemint, also known as Spotted Beebalm (Monarda punctata.) Frankly, given its name and appearance I think they missed a linguistic opportunity. They should have called it Pinto Mint.  It can be found near the trail for about two miles. It’s a plant one doesn’t notice until fall when it gets pink and white showy. Last year on private property near the old line, I dug up one small bush of it and successfully transplanted it into my small yard. It’s pretty and makes a nice tea. The bees are happy, too.

Common along the trail are Live Oaks, (Quercus virginiana) which are according heavily, if one can conjure such a verb.  In the white oak family, Live Oaks have the least amount of tannin in their acorns. But, it also varies from tree to tree. One can often find a Live Oak with acorns that are edible without leeching, a convenient and time saving arrangement. Acorn meal  — free of tannins or otherwise leeched of them — has many uses in the kitchen not the least in making bread.

Wild Persimmons

Less common along the bike path are native Persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) which means Fruit of the Gods. They are usually small trees that like to grow on edges of fields and roads, and fortunately, old railroad beds. I counted no less than eight Persimmon trees, several with fruit. There is very little to not like about the Persimmon, which is actually a North American ebony. The fruit is edible and can be used in any way banana is used, one for one. The fruit skin can be used to make a fruit “leather.” The seeds can be roasted, ground, and used to stretch coffee. The leaves make a tea rich in vitamin C, though the taste is bland if not “green.” And the wood can be worked.

On the shy side, the native Persimmon can be small and very astringent. There are many rules of thumb about how and when they can be picked for ripeness and non-astringency. In my experience, the best persimmons are the ones you have to fight the ants for.

Sassafras

On my return leg I stop half way and watch a place that has, of all things for suburbia, a few milking goats (If you must know, Capra hircus.)  Of Greek heritage and a farm boy,  I like goats and have often fed them some grass that’s just out of reach through the fence. In fact, while feeding them one day I saw a Sassafras rootling (Sassafras albidum) looking for a new home. The transplant was successful and I am probably the only homeowner in Florida with an intentional Sassafras tree in my front yard. It makes me feel special. I also have a  Zanthoxylum clava-herculis rescued more than a decade ago from a bull dozer in Daytona Beach. Should I have a tooth ache it will come in handy because its leaves have a natural novacaine.  Between the Sassafras and the Hercules Club my yard has to be a rarity.

As I near where I started I cross a small brook that eventually ends up in the Atlantic at Jacksonville. A plant growing in it reminds me books can be very wrong on edibility. I know that from personal experience. Some 20 years ago I thoroughly research a particular aquatic plant here in central Florida and found several authoritative references to it being edible. While preparing it for cooking my hands began to burn severely. Only washing with Naphtha Soap stopped the burning (every forager should carry Naphtha Soap with him.) 

Since this is my inaugural article* following entries will be shorter, I promise. Oh, and for Thanksgiving, I cooked a duck and had homemade elderberry wine. 

* This first newsletter  was written on Thanksgiving Day 2007. As of this editing — November 2018 — there have been some 1000 articles and 331  newsletters, first monthly then weekly.

Wild Apples are native to North America

Apple season is upon us, depending where you live. When I was a kid back in the Dark Ages I always associated going back to school — first Tuesday after Labor Day — and raiding apple trees. I also raided the concord grapes in the nearby hedge rows as well. The actual word for that is “scrumping.” There were orchard apples trees and there were wild apple trees. Sometimes the wild apples were part culitvated apples that grew up literally from a tossed apple core. Other times they were real wild apples, small and tart if not bitter. Those were usually better off cooked by a camp fire by the river while fishing after school. I walked or biked four miles to school and often didn’t get home until after dark. Where I grew up there were many an abandoned homestead with flourishing apple trees in the unused yards. There is something philosophical in knowning the apple tree outlived family and home. Back then there was a greater variety of species than even just a few decades later. And contrary to common belief, apples will grow in Florida. I recommend the Apple Anna. To read more about apples go here.

The aroma of a wild food is the most flexible of all descriptions. This is for two reasons: Noses differ and plants differ. Taste is also quite flexible but aroma beats it out. When you read in a foraging guide, or even in my articles, that a plant smells like such-and-such know that the description is quite subjective. There are several local species that elicit different descriptions even when noses are whiffing the same sample. One low-growing fruit — the Gopher Apple — has been described as smelling like pink bubble gum, a new plastic shower curtain, or no aroma at all. The smelly spice Epazote ranges in opinions from citrusy to floor varnish to industrial cleaner. Even among non-edibles the olfactory estimations can vary such as with the toxic Laurel Cherry. Some think its cyanide smells like almonds, other think they smell maraschino cherries, some can’t smell the cyanide at all. In guide books a reported aroma is just that, a guide. It is not always for certain by any means. There’s room for aromatic latitude.

“You Can’t Say That In Latin.”

Plant Pronunciations: What’s really important is knowing the plant, and whether you can eat it or not. What you call it is secondary to that. Common names are okay as long as you know many plants can have the same common name. “Indian Potato” comes to mind. There are two problems with common names. You and someone else  could be talking about the “Indian Potato” but actually be talking about two different species. Also every plant — in theory — has one botanical name but can have virtually dozens of common names. Many times it is just easier to remember the one botanical name.

Dead Latin was chosen for the naming plants because … well… it’s dead, non-changing, non-evolving. Perhaps it was also chosen by academics as a way to keep Latin from disappearing completely. But know even when Latin was spoken it had regional accents, and far flung Latin became French, Spanish and Romanian. At home it became Italian.  There is no etched-in-granite correct way to pronounce botanical names. And of course there are different pronunciations botanical names in American English vs British English such as with the pine genus (PINE-us, vs. PEEN-iss.)

Pedanius Dioscorides

Being Greek I choose to pronounce some “Latin” botanical names the Greek way because Dead Latin is half bastardized Greek and half bastardized Etruscan. Take the genus Dioscorea, the true yams. Dead Latin has it dye-oh-SCORE-ree-ah. It is named after a Greek physician Dioscorides, ???????? ???????????? 40-90 AD. So I prefer thee-oh-score-REE-ah, closer to the Greek way of saying it. The only time the botanical name is truly important is, like above, is to make sure the two of you are talking about the same plant. This happened recently when I got an email from Singapore about how to use the Skunk Vine.  There are several Skunk Vines. As we were exchanging information about Paederia foetida without the botanical name that would have been difficult.

One of the most common “weeds” purslane is also among the most nutritious. It’s not native to North America which might explain why Americans are about the only population on earth that don’t eat it regularly. It Greece it is one of several wild green collectively called “horta” though purslane itself is called Glistrida, ?????????., gliss-STREE-dah. It’s served in a wide variety of ways from a little olive oil and salt to more elaborate dressings. Here’s how the Cretans like to serve it, croutons optional:

1 large red ripe tomato, cored and sliced into wedges or diced
1/2 medium or 1 small cucumber, peeled, and sliced, seeding optional
1/2 a small onion, very thinly sliced
Feta cheese (as much as you like to eat in a salad)
5 or 6 stalks of purslane, rinsed then cpped (use all but the thickest stems. They are better picked.)
A couple of sprigs of basil
Kalamata olives
Salt to taste
Mild vinegar
Good olive oil
A sprinkle of oregano

Combine tomato, cucumber, onion, feta, purslane, basil leaves, olives, toss to combine.  Sprinkle with a pinch of salt or to taste. Add a few drops of vinegar, top with olive oil. sprinkle with dried oregano. To read more about purslane click here.

Foraging classes this week will be held in Melbourne and Winter Park. The classes have students signed and well be held. For more information click here.

Susan Weed

A reminder the Florida Herbal Conference 2014 will be held in Deland again this coming February. Susan Weed will be the among featured speakers. And again this year there is an early bird special for those who sign up before Oct. 31 and use the code EATTHEWEEDS. For the third year in a row I will be leading weed walks at the herbal conference, a challenge in winter on dry ground. The walks are usually first thing in the morning when the air is cool and camp fires warm. Although it is the Florida Herbal Conference it draws teachers and students from all over North America. And as mentioned above you get a discount because you read this newsletter.

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Eat The Weeds DVDs are now available.

Even though my foraging videos are for free on the internet some foragers like to have their own copy. My nine DVDs have 15 videos each, from 01 to 135, and come in nine cases each with a picture of yours truly on it. In the process of moving the videos to DVS some of them were enhanced slightly from the version on the Internet. In a few months I hope to have volume 10 available as well. I print and compile the sets myself so if you have any issues I handle it personally. There are no middle men. To learn more about them or to order the DVS click here.