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Hairy Bitter Cress growing along a wall in Savannah Georgia in December. Photo by Green Deane

Hairy Bitter Cress had “tooth pick” seed pods. Photo by Green Deane

Members of the mustard family usually like cooler weather. They are a spring and summer plant in northern places like Canada. They’re a fall and winter plant in southern climates. There are big mustards and little mustards, some three or four feet tall, others that barely break a foot. One good thing about the managerie is that there are no toxic mustards. No matter where you are in the world, if it is in the mustard family it’s edible. This is not to say there are no warnings even if edible. Some mustards are strong flavored thus better cooked than eaten raw. Indeed when I made my life move from Maine to Florida I left behind a mild mustard I could eat raw. What I found here was a strong wild radish that I must cook or the stomach aches. Farm animals also have varying responses to the mustard clan. That can range from irritated digestive systems to mustard-tasting milk. So while mustards are comestibles some caution is reasonable for you and your livestock.

Locally the big mustards, such as Wild Mustard and Wild Radish, don’t sprout for another month or so and can be found around Christmas into the new year.  Some of the Little Mustards can be found now. During a foraging class this past weekend in Orlando we found Hairy Bitter Cress. It’s a mustard member one can find for seven or eight months or all but the hottest time of the year. Botanically Cardamine hirsuta (which means Hairy Cress) it’s a nice addition to salads and the like. The entire plant’s edible. It likes disturbed soil, and in warmer months close to water and drying stream beds. Unlike Swine Cress, it is not a common lawn plant. It’s extremely common in pots and around plant nurseries. You can read about it here.

Horses don’t like plants in the mustard family — it’s toxic to them — so the seeds collected in the chaff in the hay barn. (That’s my mother on Ginger, left, Lois Curit on Bonny, center, and me on Chico.  The dog is Rex. Photo by Robert Hartley Jordan

(If I may continue  the mustards as an aside: Way back in the late 50s and early 60s my father built our house and barn in Pownal, Maine. For modern folks that’s about five miles west of L.L. Bean. Pownal, which has only 400 more citizens today than it did 160 years ago, has some king-decreed untaxable land that has been passed down eldest son to eldest son since the 1600s. It has caused centuries of legal problems. No taxes no services such as fire or electricity… Anyway, our place had no “lawn” for several years as lawns aren’t a priority out in the country. Early one spring my father took wheel barrows full of chaff from the hay barn and spread it out where the lawn was supposed to be. By the time school let out the lawn was a jungle of tall mustard plants that gave away over the summer to tall lambs quarters, all edible. It took many years to convince grass to grow there. Grass has to be coaxed and pampered to survive, weeds take care of themselves I have a video about large mustards here.)

Younger fruit is preferable than older fruit. Photo by Green Deane

Now is also a good time to look for last-of-the-season fruit that sounds like it was the star of a 1950’s sci-fi film: Latex strangler Vine. The fruit — which is used like a vegetable — is easy to describe: It looks like a smaller, greener chayote. That only helps if you know what a chayote looks like. It’s a light green vegetable usually found in the grocery store with the squashes. It has an unmistakeable butt crack, a fold along the entire bottom. Does one have to say the state of Florida and native plant societies loathe the vine? Its main horror was to cover citrus trees with shade until the tree died. That might become a moot point as greening removes citrus from the peninsula’s landscape. Millions was spent trying to eradicate the vine without success. Indeed, the best place to find Latex Strangler Vine is in or around citrus groves. And as there are thousands of acres of untended citrus groves it is a relatively easy vine to spot. You can also locate it readily on fences. The vine does have latex so it is one of the few plants with a milky sap that we do eat. And nearly all of the plant is edible one way or another except the root. There are two warning of sorts. The fruits get tough as they age and in time will dry, break open, and spread milkweed-like seeds. At some point it becomes too dry and tough — mature — for us to eat. That is when we don’t eat the seeds or coma. And the entire plant is toxic to cows. I have a video about it here.   To can read about go the vine here.

Perhaps it is time to revisit Bacopa. This weekend from Sarasota to Orlando the species was happy, abundant and blossoming. We actually have two Bacopas locally. The one we are interested in is very common. The other, which actually tastes better, is harder to find but may not have the proven beneficial affects.

Bacopa monnieri resembles purslane. Photo by Green Deane

Bacopa monnieri, aka Water Hyssop but known universally in health food stores as Bacopa, is bitter. It is not a wild edible most will like. But, as a medicine it is a wonder drug so to speak. What does it do? It coaxes the brain into making new memory cells. A double-blind study — the gold standard — showed 12 weeks of supplementation with Bacopa monnieri improved the memory and executive functions dramatically and permanently in 65-year olds who were having such problems. However as one does not lose function overnight recovery is not overnight. It took at least three months of daily supplementation to improve those functions. Bacopa is also anti-inflammatory. I personally know four people who took Bacopa monnieri for memory issues and had significant improvement. Best of all if it works for you it grows wild here. Its relative, Bacopa caroliniana, is called Lemon Bacopa. That Bacopa makes a nice tea that tastes like lime and is probably not good for you at all. I have video on the Bacopas here. You can read about Bacopa monnieri here.

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

Foraging Classes: This weekend classes are on both sides of the state,  Melbourne and Port Charlotte. Each location has its own particular uniqueness.

Saturday, October 28th, Wickham Park, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335.  9 a.m. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park.

Sunday, October 29th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte.  9 a.m. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street.

Saturday, November 4th,  Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. Meet at the covered picnic table by the tennis courts near the WMCA building.

The read more about the classes go here.

Foraging DVDs

All of Green Deane’s videos available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for this newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each for a total of 135 videos.  Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. The DVDs make a good gift for that forager you know especially on long, cold winter months. Individual DVDs can also be ordered or you can pick and choose. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page. If it is not working — the site is under construction and being updated — you can go here.

Do you know this plant? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum

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

This is issue 275.

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

A native and an ornamental Gammagrass is widespread. Photo by Jim Allison. 

The odd thing about Gammagrass is that while it is a native I rarely see it in the wild. It’s almost always — locally — a planted ornamental grass. Thus Gammagrass is fairly easy to find in landscaping. We saw some blossoming in Port Charlotte during a foraging class last Sunday. It’s odd to think of grasses as blossoming but they do and that is one of the things

Tripsacum dactyloides at Willowbrook Reach

that makes Gammagrass stand out (see photos above.) Gammagrass also has, if not a boatload of names, then a hayload of names, around a dozen. Perhaps the oddest is “Ice Cream Grass” because cattle like the grass so much it’s like ice cream to them. In landscaping Gammagrass is usually a border species with several large clumps in a row. It can get quite tall — nine feet — and flowing but in landscaping Gammagrass is usually trimmed to a couple of feet and bristly. Unlike cattle we humans are usually interested only in either the unusual “blossom” or the hard, yellow grain. Best use is to pop the grain like popcorn or used like wheat berries. You can read about Gammagrass here.

Time Change Misery

Now is the time for my semi-annual rant about time change. I’ve written two article about it. I will freely admit I do not like time change and that I ignore it. For eleven years I have refused to “spring forward” or in autumn “fall backwards.” I stay on standard time. I do not change my clocks, my eating habits, my animals’ eating habits or my bed time. Why? I am out of sorts for weeks if not months. (I have the same long-term problem with travel. When I lived in Japan it took me nearly two months to get used to the 13-hour difference.) For the next several months I just have to remember that when I need to interact with the outside world they think they are an hour ahead of me. That is one reason why my foraging class this week is on a Saturday, to avoid on Sunday first-day problems time changes cause.  One article is Daylight Slaving Time and the other is It’s About Time. 

Classes are held rain or shine.

Foraging Classes: Except for hurricanes foraging classes usually are held as scheduled. We’re hungry when we are cold and wet so foraging classes are held when it is wet, when it is cold, and when it’s hot.

Saturday, March 11th Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817, 9 a.m. We meet at the tennis courts next to the WMCA building.

Sunday, March 19th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m. We meet just north of the science center.

Sunday, March 26th, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, 32246. 9 a.m. We will meet at building “D” next to the administration parking lot.

Sunday, April 2nd, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 9th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park (turn right after entrance, go 1/4 mile, dog run on right, parking at run or on previous left.)

Saturday, April 29th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street.

To read more about the foraging classes go here.

Perhaps Caesar Weed has more uses than we knew.

Foraging is treasure hunting for adults. It’s also constant learning. One is always adding little bits of knowledge here and there. Recently three tid-bits came my way. At the Florida Herbal Conference I was chatting with Andy Firk about the ginger family. He had an impressive presentation on said. I knew the leaves of the Alpinia zerumbet (Shell Ginger) were dried, powdered and used to treat high blood pressure in areas such as India. I learned from Andy that food is cooked in the leaves to add a cardamom-like flavor. That was a factoid I needed to store away.  Later this week I received an email for a lady here in Florida whose house is covered with Creeping Fig. It barely makes it into the edible realm. However she reports the vine reduced her summertime electricity bill by 50%. Interesting though I wonder what the vines tendrils might do to the structure it is hanging on to. Then I heard from Joshua Buchanan who mentioned reports of using Caesar Weed seeds for flour. That was new to me. I checked one of my book references and indeed the seeds have been used to thicken soups and the like. Not sure that stretches to other flour uses. Publications that often mention that something is edible don’t report how that is made so. Caesar Weed seeds — just a few millimeters long — are arranged like a small cocklebur. They catch on your clothes (and fur.) So, I’m not sure how the seeds are extracted. It’s something new to investigate.

The Nine-DVD set includes 135 videos.

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

Mayflowers. Photo by Christie Orr

It’s unusual to smell Mayflowers in March. At least that’s what I thought in 1977. I moved from Maine to Florida in January of that year and it snowed in Florida the day I arrived. What a welcoming present. And then in March I smelled Mayflowers… but they weren’t Mayflowers. It was citrus blossoms. To my nose the aromas are very similar though I doubt I could ever get a Mayflower and a citrus blossom together to compare. Mayflowers blossom in May, at least in New England.

My springtime as a child was measured by three plants: Pussy Willows, Mayflowers and Lilacs. Lilacs always blossomed about two weeks before school let out for the summer. Exactly when that was depended on how many snow days we took off from school that year. A few were always built in. But did get a full 90 days off. As for Lilacs, they are edible. Nearly everyone had at least one Lilac planted in their yard. They won’t grow in warm Florida so Crape Myrtles are the landscaping substitute.

Lilacs meant school was out soon.

First to “blossom” in the spring were Pussy Willows. So called because the blossom can remind someone with an imagination of the pads on cat’s feet. They were always out even when there wasn’t green leaf to be seen or there was some snow here and there. Mildly medicinal and a famine food, when you saw Pussy Willows (Salix discolor) winter might not be over but then was in sight.

Pussy Willows were always the first to brave spring.

Pussy Willows were followed by mud season. That when the frost in the ground melts during the daytime making dirt roads a mire of mud that froze into ruts at night. That’s also when we’d go picking May flowers on local hill and mountains. The normally green slopes would be covered with leafless trees making the rocks easier to see when walking. And the Mayflowers would be in the leaf litter and on mossy rocks.

My mother, Mae Lydia Putney, learned to forage from her mother. Photo by William L. Putney.

My mother picked Mayflowers because her mother did because her mother did and so forth on back no doubt. Yet somewhere along the line the part about them being edible must have been forgotten, not mentioned, or became secondary to their fragrant statement of spring. My mother said she liked to pick them because they were the first spring flower and sign the winter was over. No doubt some hungry people thought the same about them in the past. And perhaps because they were edible Mayflowers were also the only flowers my mother would allow in the house. She had a superstition about flowers inside the house and folks dying. Somehow Mayflowers were excluded from that ban. You can read about them here.

Can you identify these edibles? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum.

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

EatTheWeeds Time Capsule: 2010

Smilax Syntax

From thefe roots while they be new and fresh being chopt into fmall pieces & ftampt, is strained with water a juice that maketh bread, & alfo being boiled, a very good fpoonmeate in manner of a gelly, and is much better in tast if it bee tempered wih oyle.

While that is close to my spelling the report was written by astronomer Thomas Hariot in 1590 about the root of the smilax (bona nox.) Thom was the fellow who introduced the potato to Ireland. He was in Virginia with Sir Water Raleigh’s expedition to have a look around some 420 years ago. Translated he wrote:

From these young, chopped and crushed roots you get a liquid to make bread, and after being boiled, it’s a good jelly-like soup, too, but it tastes better if oil is added.

Smilax tip. Photo by Green Deane

That the tips of many smilax is a tasty green is well-known. And a starch can be settled out of the root, but it requires far more energy to get the starch than calories one gets out of it. Ten pounds of mature roots produce one pound of starch after many hours of work over several days. A better guess by the ethnobotanists is the Amerindians — or who I like to call the First Foragers — used the starch not to make bread but as a thickener, like corn starch. In that case it was the use not the calories that was important.

Few folks, however, know you can also eat the very young roots cooked as is. Simply roast or boil them. As they age they get woody and tough. But when young and tender they make, as Thom said, very good fpoonmeate.

This is issue 247.

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

Sow Thistles can turn purple as they age. Photo by Green Deane

Sonchus: Sow Thistle, In A Pig’s Eye

Starting in  mid-January in Florida, later north of here, two of three local species of sow thistles invade my lawn in great number. They are so good they’re worth all the complaints about my untraditional lawn. I can’t eat them fast enough. In fact, right now I am having a bowl with homemade butter, salt and pepper. I threw a couple of plants that were a little too old into the pot but they weren’t too bitter. That bitterness is caused by their white sap.

You cannot eat most plants with white sap (or white berries.) That is one of the general rules of foraging for wild food, besides that and never eating anything wild without positive identification and verification it is edible. There are three or four common exceptions to the white sap rule: Figs, Ground Nuts, Sow thistles and various Wild Lettuce.

Typical Sonchus blossom

There’s a huge variety in sow thistles, from having few or no prickles to having a lot, from a foot high to six feet high, from green to purple, especially older plants. Young sow thistles can just be tossed in the herb pot, where as some older leaves need to be trimmed of the thistles, which is a point of culinary departure. Really old leaves are bitter and not that much fun to eat even if they are edible. Frankly if you have to trim spines off sow thistles you’re better off leaving them alone. Young and tender leaves is a good rule to follow particularly with the rougher species. When young their flavor resembles lettuce and as they age more like Swiss chard. When old they are just bitter. I try to harvest them between four and 12 inches high.  The young stalks peel and cooked are excellent, too. The young root is also edible when cooked but tends to be woody.

Sonchus asper leaf and stem

The three common ones are Sonchus oleraceus, (SON-kus oh-ler-AY-see-us ) Sonchus Asper (SON-kus ASS-pur) and Sonchus arvensis (SON-kus ar-VEN-sis.) They are respectfully the common sow thistle, the spiny sow thistle and the field sow thistle. The Oleraceus has green leaves with a bit of blue, Delta- arrow-shaped end lobes and distinctly pointed lobes where it clasps the stem. The asper has spiny round lobes where it clasps the stem. It also has a lot of spines. It’s the one that can require trimming. The arvensis has more lance shaped leaves, lobes can be irregular, and soft small spines. It is the softest of the three with a tactile feel closer to a wild lettuce.

Sonchus blossom as the insect sees it, photo by Bjørn Rørslett – NN/Nærfoto

As for the sow thistle’s botanical name: Sonchus is the ancient Greek name for the plant and means “hollow” referring to the plant’s hollow stem, a point of identification.  Although grazing animals (and butterflies) actually prefer the Sonchus to grass farmers rant about the plant because it’s a weed amongst their crop.  It is sad to say but a lot of agri-business is not green, or perhaps not so in the United States. In southern Italy Sonchus invades crops there but they have the good sense to pick it and serve it with spaghetti. Oleraceus means it is edible or cultivated.  Asper means rough, and arvensis of the cultivated field.

Sonchus oleraceus leaf and stem

Sow thistles got their name because they were fed to lactating pigs. (Remember the old heuristic way of thinking? If you want to see like a hawk eat hawk eyes. If you want mama pigs to nurse better feed them plants with white sap.)  Anyway, the white sap of the thistle was assumed to be good for nursing sows. As it turned out, pigs love them, as do rabbits which is why they are sometimes called Hare Thistles (they are not true thistles, however, which is another genus altogether. True thistles always draw blood their spines are so sharp. You can read about them here. )

As you can assume, sow thistle is found literally around the world. In Greece, it is used in winter salads, and has been for thousands of years. Pliny wrote that before Theseus went to meet the Bull of Marathon, he was treated by the old woman Hecale (e-KAH-lee in Greek) to a dish of sow thistles. The ancients Greeks considered sow thistle wholesome and strengthening — maybe the Bull of Marathon should have eaten some. Modern Greeks call it Zohos. In New Zealand, Sonchus is called “puha” and is frequently eaten, particularly by the Māori who also used the sap as a gum.  A very nice blog on the  Māori  and the Sonchus can be read here.

Again, young and tender is usually better when it comes to cooking wild greens. Here are some sow thistle recipes from ‘The Essential Hedgerow and Wayside Cookbook’. Incidentally, young Sonchus asper may seem prickly when raw but its soften when cooked (unless you picked them way to old.)

BUTTERED SOW-THISTLE

1 or 2 handfuls sow-thistle leaves – young

Butter or oil

Beef stock or water

Ground nutmeg – pinch

1 tsp. flour

Salt and pepper

For this recipe the young 2- to 4-inch leaves of common sow-thistle

[Sonchus oleraceus] are best and when the leaves are not bitter.

Other sow-thistle species may need their spines trimming off and

may be bitter to the taste requiring some preparatory boiling.

Heat some butter or oil in a pan and add the leaves. Stir thoroughly to

coat the leaves. Add a good slug of stock or water, reduce the heat to a

simmer and cover. Cook for about 5 to 10 minutes. Add a pinch of nutmeg,

the flour and some seasoning. Stir everything, then add another knob of

butter and melt into the sow-thistle over a low heat.

Serve.

STIR-FRIED SOW-THISTLE & PORK

½-1 cup pork meat – shredded / sliced

Light soy sauce

Corn flour – pinch

Water

White wine or dry sherry

Sugar – pinch

Salt and pepper

Sows thistles

Begin by slicing the meat into pieces about 2 inches long and 1/10th inch thick. Set aside. Next, make up a marinade from the remainder of the first group of ingredients, using a splash of soy sauce, slugs of water and wine, seasoning and pinches of corn flour and sugar. Mix together well in a bowl and then add the sliced meat. Stir thoroughly so that all the pieces are

coated and leave for 30 minutes. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the ginger for a couple of minutes, stirring to prevent burning, then add the spring onion. Stir for a minute, then add the meat. Stir-fry until the meat begins to cook. Add the sow-thistle leaves and continue frying for another 3 or 4 minutes, stirring to prevent burning and distribute the heat.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Plants have milky sap. S. Oleraceus tall with stemless lobed leaves that point past the stem. S. asper prickly-edged stem-less green leaves that wrap around the stem, dandelion-like blossoms more or less arranged in a flat top manner. S. arvenis similar to both but can be very tall.

TIME OF YEAR: In northern climates spring, summer and some times autumn, in the South December through April.

ENVIRONMENT: Lawns, fields, vacant lots, waste areas, parks

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Young leaves in salads, tend to be bitter, older leaves boiled for 10/15 minutes.

The Ivy Gourd, or Tindora, is beginning to blossom and fruit. Photo by Green Deane

Humans have an innate sense to classify thus the Ivy Gourd is many things to different people: To some it is an invasive species, to others a vegetable, to fewer a naturalized wild food, and to some a medicine. I harvested mine from the wilds of Florida. Now I grow it in my garden, too I have not had a reason to use it as a medicine. I bring your attention to the vine because it is beginning to blossom and

Tindora is edible raw green to soft red. Photo by Green Deane

will do so for about nine months. Look for a dark green, ivy-like vine with five petaled-white flowers. These are followed by stubby striped cucumber-like fruit which then turn bright red. They are edible at any stage. The leaves are edible as well. As for the roots, while one might be able to eat them I think they land more in the medicinal realm and are used to treat diabetes. This species is also not just local. It has been reported naturalized in parts of Texas and Hawaii. It is considered an aggressive weed in Africa and Asia, where it is native, and in Australia. What I like about the species is something that probably irritates a lot of people: It seems to be disease free and left alone by insects. Look for them on fences. To read more about the Ivy Gourd, AKA Tindora, go here.

Bidens alba is a versatile wild edible. Photo by Green Deane

Using and saving wild food is part of foraging. I’ve heard of two uses recently for a couple of our wild edibles. Spanish Needles leaves (Bidens alba) can be drizzled in olive oil, sprinkled with salt, and baked in an oven similar to making kale chips. Their resinous tang moderates on cooking. Chipping them is an easy way to use this ubiquitous green. Botany Professor Julia Morton  recommended in 1962 that this plant become a commercial vegetable but it grows locally nearly everywhere nearly all year. When I am harvesting old arugula from my garden for cooked greens I toss in young Biden leaves from the garden as well. Knowing what weeds to leave and which ones to pull out is also part of gardening. It’s free food that takes care if itself.

Preserving food by lacto-fermentation. Photo by Green Deane

I mentioned last week about fermenting Spiderwort (Tradescandia virginana or ohiensis.)  As you can see from the picture off the Green Deane Forum I have been doing a lot of fermenting of garden greens, mostly mustards, collard and nasturtiums so far. Once the Ivy Gourd gets into heavy production I will be putting up  gallons of its pickle-like fruit. People have been asking me how does one ferment food. Lacto-fermenting is very easy. I wash with just water the material I want to ferment, say Spiderworts.  I cram it in a lidded jar, really pack it in, and add filtered water with one tablespoon of sea salt added per cup. The amount and kind of salt can vary on the material and the salt. Just avoid salt with iodine added or anti-caking chemicals. You can also add spices like garlic, horseradish, ginger, peppercorns, dill or celery seed, caraway or cumin seeds, even juniper berries and grape leaves (for crispness in pickles.) I find a little horseradish and sliced ginger with garlic flavors chayote nicely. Caraway seeds are nice in fermenting cabbage. In about 10 days you will have a tart pro-biotic that will store for months.  You can read more about lacto-fermenting on the Green Dean Forum. The button to join is to the right.

Loquats range from light yellow and tart to dee yellow and sweet. Photo by Green Deane

Starting to fruit heavily now are loquats. It’s a fairly easy tree to identify, light to orange-yellow fruit and huge, tough, leather-like leaves (which have a lot of herbal applications.) We actually have two species in Florida and they fruit at different times of the year, spring and fall, but most of them are spring fruiting. A native of Asia it is naturalized in The South and can be easily spotted this time of year by its yellow fruit against dark green leaves. Interestingly in mid-state the fruit is getting very sweet yet in West Palm Beach this past weekend two fruiting trees still had young, tart fruit. The seeds are cautiously usable. To read more about the loquat go here.

Foraging classes held rain or shine except for hurricanes.

Upcoming Foraging classes:

Sunday, April 10th, Wekiva State Park, 1800 Wekiwa Circle, Apopka, Florida 32712. 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 17th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 2200 East Lake Road, Port Charlotte, Florida. 9 a.m.

Sunday, May 1st, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, Florida 9 a.m.

Saturday, May 7th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m.

For more information about classes go here. 

The nine DVD set includes 135 videos.

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

This is newsletter 202.

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

Even into northern areas of The South the Silverthorn fruits in February. Photo by Green Deane

The weather may be chilly but at least one shrub is coming into season soon if not already. I look for the ripe fruit of the Silverthorn around Valentines Day. This past Sunday in Orlando we saw unripe fruit on some trimmed Silverthorns. However, I have received an email from a reader who was collecting ripe fruit already. It might be related to the warmer than usual weather. A Red Mulberry tree we saw this weekend was heavy with ripening fruit, which for that species is out of season by several months. Silverthorns were imported as an ornamental but with birds’ help liberated itself from planned landscapes. The fruit, for its size, is one of the most nutritious a forager can find, high in vitamin C and the anti-oxidant lycopene. To read more about the Silverthorn, go here.

Sorrel is high in vitamin C, magnesium, and a good amount of vitamin A. Photo by Green Deane

Winter is here and so is tart sorrel. Easy to identify and tasty, it’s always a favorite find in foraging classes. Sorrel in a larger group called Rumex. According to Merritt Fenald, who was the main botanical PhD. at Harvard from around 1900 to 1950, all species in the genus Rumex are edible. However most of them are bitter, a few mildly so, and some are tart. Among those are the Heartwinged Sorrel and Sheep’s Sorrel. They look quite similar — the leaves look like fat knives with a hilt — but they’re geographically sort in different areas. Our local sorrel is the Heartwinged. They are a pleasant trailside nibble or addition to salads. The more culinary adventurous make them into soup or create a puree of them for stuffing baked tarts. An interesting aspect about the family is that the large plants are often called “Rumex” and the smaller ones “Sorrels.” To read more about the sorrel, click here.

You can also grow “wild” plants in your garden. Photo by Green Deane

As some of you know I am a gardener. I have “wild” and cultivated plants in my garden. To the left is one of my past gardens. As this is the time of year to grow members of the Brassica family I ordered a few seeds. Somewhere between the ordering and the shipping I ended up with a pound of Osaka Purple Mustard Seeds. I have thousands of red mustard seeds when I wanted about 30. The package says “untreated” but I do not know if that means I could make them into mustard or not because “untreated” to a foreign seed seller might mean something different than “untreated” to a grower. So they will not go to waste, if anyone wants some to grow send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I will send you some seeds. Mail the SASE to Green Deane, POB 941793, Maitland FL. 32794.

Mother Natures knows the netter is nutritious that’s why she covers them with stingers.

This past week I taught two private classes at an event in Ocala (Thank you, Greg.) It’s a park that accommodates horses and there are numerous hitching posts in the camping/parking area. Horses, of course, means hay and weeds seeds  and manure which adds up to a lot of well-fertilized edibles. By far the most prevalent winter green was stinging nettles, Urtica Chamaedryoides aka “Burning Dwarf” aka Heartleaf Nettle. When you put dozens of hammock campers and dozens of patches of stinging nettles together you get pain. You also get great revenge by eating them.

Henbit and Chickweed growing in the same patch. Photo by Green Deane

Also blanketing the park was chickweed and henbit, two other esteemed greens of spring. I say spring because that is when they usually show up in northern climates. Here our summers are too warm for them so they make their appearance in the winter. One can find hundreds of recipes for chickweed. Henbit is not as well-known but was a favorite among natives and early settlers. This is because it is one of the first greens of spring that is mild in flavor rather than peppery. Also in the classes we saw some Poorman’s Peppergrass but more of its relative, Shepherd’s Purse. I find Peppergrass all the time mid- and south state. Shepherd’s Purse seems to be an Ocala and north plant. I rarely find it in the central part of the state and never in the southern part. Though I would not be surprised if it shows up in barnyard in south Florida where the horses are fed with Ocala hay.

Foraging classes held rain or shine except for hurricanes.

The foraging class this Sunday should be interesting. I get to the preserve only twice a year or so and they recently had a burn there. It will also be a windy day so dress warmly. The only drawback to LeStrange Preserve is there are no water fountains or official bathrooms.  But it is an easy location to get to, only three miles from the Florida Turnpike, Ft. Pierce exit.

Sunday, Jan. 24th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Jan. 31st, Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave., Ocala, FL, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Feb. 7th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Feb. 14, Mead Garden,1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL, 9 a.m.

Sunday, March 6th, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, 9 a.m.

Sunday, March 13th, Mead Garden, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL, 9 a.m.

Saturday, March 19, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga, 9 a.m.

Saturday, March 26th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 3rd, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL, 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 10th, Wekiva State Park, 1800 Wekiwa Circle, Apopka, Florida 32712. 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 17th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 2200 East Lake Road, Port Charlotte, FL. 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 24th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 9 a.m.

To learn more about foraging classes go here.

135 Eat The Weeds videos are available on DVDs.

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

Do you know what this fruit is? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum. We also might see it in this Sunday’s foraging class. Photo by Green Deane

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Forest Weed. Small Plant. Amaranth and Glaucoma. Local Weed. Rosette with Prickly-Looking Leaves. Yard Weed? Not Quite Ginger. Blue Berries into January. Sweet Little Betsy. Ornamental Acorn Look Alike. Looks Like Something You Would Find In a Grocery Store. Amaranth? Conyza and Chlorophyll. Can Anyone Tell Me The Name of This Plant? NJ Biennial. Crepis Japonica Nutritional Information? So Much Free Food! Berries! What Kind Of Shrub Is This? Oxalis Corymbosa. Water Hyssop Recipes. Where To Get L.S.U Groundnut Strain? You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is newsletter 192.

To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter or website click here.

This box of “wild” roots might be edible. Photo by Green Deane

Roots Revisited: In my last newsletter I ran a photo of some roots and invited their identification. I also said the roots were not edible. I still don’t know if they are edible but I have heard from a reader — Chris — who says they are edible. What does one do in a situation like that? More research.

I ended up with a large box of non-edible roots. Photo by Green Deane

In my new garden last year— I moved and downed sized — I planted an Ivy Gourd, a Bitter Gourd, and a Creeping Cucumber. The Creeping Cucumber did okay. The Bitter Gourd did well. The Ivy Gourd (Coccinia grandis) exploded. It grew off in all directions and where it touched the ground it rooted. Those are the roots you see above and to the right.

Ivy Gourd leaves and fruit are edible raw or cooked. When unripe the fruit is used like a crunchy cucumber. When ripe it turns bright red and is high in beta carotene. It can be used in sauces and the like or to make candy. The leaves were used recently in an experiment to reduce glucose absorption and worked well. It only took 20 grams of raw leaves to do that. And the root has been used to make an herbal medicine for diabetics (probably those with type II diabetes.) But are the roots edible?

Ivy Gourd fruit are edible unripe, ripe, raw and cooked.

Chris, wrote: “We eat the root after boiling. It has a distinct potato flavour, and if you get a good one – and those look like very good ones – they are quite starchy and not fibrous… I cannot remember where I heard the roots were edible! I’m sure I did as I’m quite careful about these things. I slice them up across the diameter like a carrot and boil them as long as a potato. I sometimes peel them and sometimes don’t. To me they have a distinctive potato-like flavor. The skinnier ones tend to be a bit stringy, the fatter ones not stringy, and firmer than a potato. I like the texture. After boiling I have sometimes mixed them with other vegetables and stir fried them. They’ve never made me sick and I have a very sensitive stomach. Mind you I rarely have enough to make a whole meal of them, preferring to mix one or two of them with other vegetables.”

Ivy Gourd Plants are either female or male. Photo by Green Deane

Interesting. When I first moved to Florida — which is much different foraging environment than Maine — I studied with Dick Deuerling. When someone said something was edible and Dick didn’t know or didn’t think so he would say: “Let me watch you harvest it, let me watch you prepare it, let me watch you eat it. And if you’re still alive a couple of weeks from now I might consider it.” Now that I have a report of edibility of the Coccinia grandis roots I will investigate it more. That will take months because one needs to become comfortable with a potential food or different use and not rush into eating said. The caution is called for because the literature on root edibility seems lacking in English. For example Cornucopia II lists the species and edibility but does not include the roots. And as the roots have had some medicinal uses that, too, demands some caution when the leaves drop glucose and eating several ripe fruit might drop your blood glucose levels as well.

That said I can see several advantages to eating the roots of the Ivy Gourd if edible. It would mean the whole plant is edible. More so it will root significantly if given the right environment and attention. It’s also versatile: Edible leaves and fruit both unripe, ripe, raw and cooked. Adding the roots would be a nice touch. One of the good things about publishing a newsletter and being able to communication over the internet is that you can hear from people who have different experiences with different plants. There is always something to learn. To read more about the Ivy Gourd go here.

Yaupon Holly makes an excellent mild tea. Photo by Green Deane

What is a tea? It can be everything from a comforting drink to medicine. Indeed, some teas made from spices are very good for your health. Turmeric or rosemary tea come to mind. There are certainly dozens of wild plants that can be used for tea. In fact we even have a species and varieties locally that is full of caffeine and antioxidants, the Yaupon Holly. But teas can be more than teas. As I teach in my classes teas can often be marinades and the material that is used to make the tea can also be used for flavoring when cooking vegetables or meats. They will flavor a squash as easily as a fish.

Pine needle tea has Vitamin C and shikimic acid. Photo by Green Deane

Besides caffeinated Yaupon Holly the non-caffeine Southern Wax Myrtle has been used a long time for tea though I think to be on the safe side it should be avoided by those who are pregnant. Local natives also smoked the leaves to keep insects at bay. Magnolia leaves have been used for tea and goldenrod. There’s one species of goldenrod that has a slight anise flavor and is the best of them all. An old stand by, of course, are pine needles for tea. Choose green needles and seep them (not boil, that drives off the Vitamin C.) They also have shikimic acid, which is the main (refined)  ingredient in Tamiflu. Camphor seedlings also have shikimic acid as does Sweet Gum Bark and Sassafras. There’s tea, marinades and medicine around us if we know how and where to look.

Foraging classes held rain or shine except for hurricanes.

Foraging Classes: 

Sunday, January 17th, 2016, Mead Garden, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Jan. 24th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Jan. 31st, Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave., Ocala, FL, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Feb. 7th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Feb. 14, Mead Garden,1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL, 9 a.m.

Sunday, March 6th, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, 9 a.m.

Sunday, March 13th, Mead Garden, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL, 9 a.m.

Saturday, March 19, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga, 9 a.m.

Saturday, March 26th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 3rd, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL, 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 10th, Wekiva State Park, 1800 Wekiwa Circle, Apopka, Florida 32712. 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 17th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 2200 East Lake Road, Port Charlotte, FL. 9 a.m.

Sunday, April 24th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 9 a.m.

To learn more about foraging classes go here.

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

Do you know what this wild edible is? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum. Photo by Green Deane

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Yard Weed? Not Quite Ginger. Blue Berries into January. Sweet Little Betsy. Ornamental Acorn Look Alike. Looks Like Something You Would Find In a Grocery Store. Amaranth? Conyza and Chlorophyll. Can Anyone Tell Me The Name of This Plant? NJ Biennial. Crepis Japonica Nutritional Information? So Much Free Food! Berries! What Kind Of Shrub Is This? Oxalis Corymbosa. Water Hyssop Recipes. Where To Get LUS Groundnut Strain? Is This Lambs Quarters? Small Herb, Solanum americanum, Winter Fruits in Sanibel, and Are These Plants Related to Canavalia maritima?  You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is newsletter 191.

To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter or website click here.

Wild Drinks and Cocktails by Emil Han. Photo by Green Deane

Finding wild food is one activity. What to do with it after you find it is another. It’s the “M” in my system of foraging: I.T.E.M: Method of Preparation. The others are Identification, Time of Year and Environment. Preparing what you’ve foraged is important. It separates foragers from herbalists, a good meal from a bad one, a memorable experience to one you would like to forget. And one special area of “preparation” is making drinks out things you forage.

Emily Han, an apartment dweller in Los Angeles, has released just such a book: Wild Drinks and Cocktails: Handcrafted Squashes, Shrubs, Switchels, Tonics and Infusions to Mix At Home. Shrubs and Switchels? Yes, and Oxymel, too. Let’s review those:

A “lemonade” made from Wood Sorrel, from Emily Han’s book: Wild Drinks

An oxymel is vinegar with a sweetener, such as honey. Switchels are closely related but came out of the Caribbean often employing ginger, perhaps rum or molasses (one of my grandmother’s preferred sources of sweetness.) Shrubs, from an Arabic word for syrup, are not sweet but on the tangy side, tart and sour. Think a whisky sour before the whiskey is added. Squashes are not renegade pumpkins but rather related to shrubs. Often a fruit is literally squashed and then mixed with still or sparkling water. Many were non-alcoholic refreshments though some of them became the original cocktail mixers, and all homemade.

If you are an herbalist making infusions, syrups and the like is common procedure. And home-based beer and wine making has a strong following. Han’s book bridges the gap in between, flavorful homemade drinks that can touch the medicinal on one side and the tippling on the other. These are from scratch homemade drinks to refresh, rejuvenate, and entertain.

Raspberry Shrub, by Emily Han

There are, of course, dozens of recipes from Pine Syrup (I always wanted to know what to do with all my extra Pine stuff) to Elderberry Rob to Hazelnut Orgeat. Douglas Fir Liqueur looked interesting as did Fig and Vanilla Rum and the Cherry Balsamic Shrub. And do know there is an herbal tea section as well as a wine and punch chapter. I’ve had May Wine though the Apple and Sage looked interesting as well. For those who like kefir there are many ways to make that basic beverage tasty.

Han’s book comes with foraging and sustainable advice but is not without some controversy. Included are two recipes using “pink peppercorns.” The fruit of Schinus terebinthifolius (what we call Brazilian Pepper locally) has a mixed history of consumption. I know people who use it regularly and others who got quite ill using the fruit just once. Han does include a warning on that page.

I know which drink I am going to make first. We have a lot of Oxalis locally so the Wood Sorrel Lemonade is on the top of my list and I’m sure there will be more. Published by Quarto Publishing Group, the glossy paperback sells for around $23 US. 192 pages: ISBN 978-1-59233-707-1

Southern Wax Myrtle berries. Photo by Green Deane

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Can you make a bayberry candle? Absolutely. Should you? If you have to, yes. If not you might want to reconsider. Southern Wax Myrtle berries are small. They have a little wax on them and why the species name is cerifera — wax producing. But it takes many gallons and a lot of hot work to get enough bayberry wax to mix with tallow (75/25) to make the famous smokeless candle that keeps away insects. No doubt hundreds of years ago it was worth it. Not so much today. But, you can use the dried berries as a spice and the leaves like bay leaves or to make a tea. To read more about the Southern Wax Myrtle go here.

Wild Radish tends to twist around as it grows. Photo by Green Deane

Tuesday the C.R.A.B.S.* took to the trails and rode 30-plus miles through South Seminole County and eastern Orange County. One of the nice things about riding a recumbent trike is you are down where the plants are and your viewing angle forward (as mentioned on my facebook page The Green Deane Machine.) While pedaling along I spied my first Wild Radish of the season just west of Ovideo on State Road 426. Wild Radish and Wild Mustards look very similar and are used the same way. There are many ways to tell them apart but on a glance one identifier of the radish is that it grows in a serpentine manner whereas mustards tend to grow straight up. I usually start to find tasty Wild Radishes and Wild Mustards in December  so perhaps the season is a little early this year. To read more about Wild Radish, go here. Wild Mustards click here. *Crusty Retired all recumBent Society.

Upcoming Foraging Classes:

Foraging classes held rain or shine except for hurricanes.

Sunday, Nov. 15, Mead Garden,1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Nov. 22nd, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233, 9 a.m

Sunday, Nov. 29th, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, 32246, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Dec. 13, Mead Garden,1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Dec. 20th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405, 9 a.m.

Sunday, January 17th, 2016, Sunday, Nov. 15, Mead Garden,1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.

To learn more about the classes go here.

Do you know what these are? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum.

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

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

This is weekly newsletter 182. 

To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Plantago virginica, or native Plantago.

White man’s Little Foot: Dwarf Plantain

Plantagos To Go   

When I was about 10 a bee stung my hand while I was being a pest in the garden with my father. My hand began to swell and I started to complain, to put it gently. My father picked a large Plantago major leaf, chewed it up, and stuck the green glob on the sting. I can’t recall if it eased the pain but I never forgot the moment.

Plantago major, (plan-TAY-go MAY-jor) a native of Europe (photo lower left) has been used for food and medicine for a long time. While Plantagos are used the same way I am going to write about its little cousin that’s always under foot, the Dwarf Plantain or Plantago virginica, (plan-TAY-go vur-JIN-nick-uh) which is native to North America. It’s found in most US states excluding the northern Rocky Mountain states. We’ll also look at the P. major, as well. Both are edible, in fact, I have not read of an non-edible plantain.

Plantago virginica, toothy leaves and fuzzy

Getting used to a skinny gray green hairy P. virginica  leaf takes time, especially if you’re used to the larger, round, greener, smooth P. major. The P. major is sporadic here in Central Florida, but the P. virginica is quite common but seasonal. I could seed the entire south with the P. virginica in my little lawn alone. And speaking of seeds, the bulking agent psyllium is the husks of a plantago seed. That does need to be qualified slightly. The husk are an insoluble fiber, the seed a soluble fiber. If you order said make sure you know which (or both) you are getting.

As I write it is three quarters of the way through February (there is an full eclipse of the moon tonight, which will date this article.) The local plantains are still in the rosette stage, just starting to send up spikes that will eventually bear seeds. The leaves are mild in flavor now and though it takes a lot of them to make a side dish for one, they are tasty. Later in the season, as with most greens except the Tradescantias, they will grow rank. Plantagos also grow coarse, one of the problems with eating P. major which can be quite fibrous. Fiber is also an element of identification. If you carefully break the lower stem of a Plantago where it meets the rosette, several elastic cords will remain attached. You’ll find three cords to five cords. Other plants — some fleabanes, see photo below right — have cords as well so that is not the sole means of identification.

I think several references on the internet misidentify P. virginica, calling it Plantago lanceolata, or the English Plantain, which one also sees in Florida.  That the P. virginica is hairy and has points on its leaves and the P. lanceolata (lan-see-oh-LAY-tuh) does not seem to be overlooked.

Another point to make: The Plantagos are dicots even though they don’t look it. They are visual exceptions to the rule until ones looks very closely. Monocots (unicots) are plants that come out of a seed with only one leaf — mono is Greek for only or alone. They have a rhizome (a horizontal root) instead of a tap root (a vertical root.)  Dicots (dio is Greek for two) come out of the seed with two leaves, send down a tap root, and have leaves with veins that branch out. The Plantagos look like monocots but they are dicots. The entire family has some promising medical properties. A study reported in the 30 October 2007 edition of the American Journal of Chinese Medicine demonstrated P. major had tumor inhibiting capacity in lab rats. A tea from the leaves is good for lung congestion and hay fever. As for the name…

Plantago major, native to Europe.

The native Indians called the P. major the “white man’s foot” because they notice where ever he went the plant soon showed up. That is quite intuitive, here’s why: Plantain and Plantago both go back to the same Greek word, platus, which means wide, and from which we get “plateau” in English. That is also why some Greek writers think the philosopher Plato had large gluts, he was called Plato because he was wide in the butt. Platus became Planta as in plantar warts. Plantago is a derivative of planta. Plantago became Plantagin in Dead Latin, Plantein in Old French, Plauntein in Middle English and Plantain in modern English. Then P. major came to the new world to have native Americans call it “white man’s foot”…kind of where it started out. It would seem diverse humans think alike. More so, the story doesn’t end there.

Just as P. major invaded North America from Europe, P. virginica is now invading the Orient, having been introduced to eastern China in the 1950s and is spreading to other nations from there, Korea in 1994. One might say that it is spreading by “occident.” The only solution is eat the weeds. See recipes below.

Oakleaf Flea Bane

As mentioned above, many folks confuse Oakleaf Fleabane for the Dwarf Plantain.  It shows up about the same time, has furry leaves with teeth, and worse, fibers in the stem like plantagos. But it is more lumpy that toothy and it does not have leaf veins that look parallel.  Don’t eat it but you can put the leaves in your pet’s bed to reduce fleas.

Lastly, if you find a really huge Plantago major with red at the base of the stem it’s probable the native Plantago rugelii, still useful.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Plantago virginica: Leaves  in a rosette, spatulate to oblanceolate or obovate, lightly hairy above and below, lateral veins start at the base of the leaf down the blade, parallel to midrib, shallow occasional tooth on leaf. Stems tall, erect, solid, multiple from the base, not branched. If you have a plant that looks like Plantago major but the bottom of the stem is purple you have P. rugelii.

TIME OF YEAR: Greens in spring, seeds in summer

ENVIRONMENT: Unused fields, pastures, waste ground, lawns, likes full sun

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Young leaves raw in salads, cooked as greens or in soups and stews. Remove fiber in older leaves. Seeds are edible and keep you regular.

HERB BLURB

Herbalists say Plantagos have been used for inflammation of the skin and applied to soars. Fresh leaves are applied whole or bruised. They contain an astringent and help stop minor bleeding. They can also be rubbed on nettle and bee stings.

The first recipe was created by Wildman Steve Brill.

Roasted Plantain Chips

Unlike the banana-related plantain chips of the supermarket, this wafer-thin chips are made with the leaves of the unrelated common plantain. They’re great, and it took Steve only 26 years of downplaying this plants food value to discover how to prepare it properly, using a method his wife uses for kale.

2 cups young common plantain leaves, or kale

2 tsp. sesame oil

1/2 tsp. fennel seeds, ground

1/2 tsp. caraway seeds, ground

1/4 tsp. powdered ginger

1/2 tsp. salt

A dash of hot sauce

1. Stir all the ingredients together

2. Spread onto 3 cookie sheets covered with non-stick mats (or oiled

cookie sheets) and bake about 6 minutes, or until very lightly browned

and crisp, in a preheated 425 degree oven. Stir occasionally, being

careful not to let the leaves burn

And from Christopher Nyerges we have two recipes:

Plantain Soup

3 cups of diced plantains

4 cups of milk or water (milk from powdered milk works as well)

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour, wheat or potato

1 turnip

1 Jerusalem Artichoke

Salt and pepper to taste

Dice the plantains, remove any fibers. Simmer the diced plantains in the milk or water. Chop up the turnip and Jerusalem Artichoke and add to the liquid. In a separate cup add water or milk to the flour to get a non-lumpy consistency, then add to the soup. Separate the eggs and whites, beat separately, add separately to the soup, stirring constantly. Salt and pepper to taste.

Stuffed Plantain Leaf

1 pound ground beef, or the like

2 cups cooked rice

1 clove of garlic

2 lettuce leaves or the like

1 egg, beaten

Boil or steam the plantain leaves, remove any fibers, set aside the leaves. Cook the meat, add the cooked rice and other ingredients. Cook until tender. Place a tablespoon or so of the mixture on each plantain leaf and fold the leaf around the mixture. Place on a baking dish, bake 15 minutes 325, or just enough to warm them up. Salt and pepper to taste.

Plantago Side Dish by Pascal

Plantago Side Dish

This is a winner! Broadleaf Plantain leaves boiled for 4 minutes in salted water then placed in ice water right away. Seasoning: 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 1 tablespoon soy, 1 garlic clove and, in my case because I didn’t have sesame seeds I used roasted white sage seeds. Mix and let rest for 5 minutes. Super yum! The plantain has a bit the texture and transparency of a seaweed.

Editor’s note: In this recipe Pascal used Plantago major.