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Stinging Nettles Urtica chamaedryoides, (Surrounded here by cucumber weed) are making their seasonal debut. Photo by Green Deane

Our mighty stinging nettles are up. They’re one of the most popular wild edibles.The most powerful stinging nettle is in New Zealand (Urtica ferox) which kills animals and has claimed at least one human life. Our nettle, Urtica chamaedryoides, has a sting like a giant wasp and can burn for days or more. While its common name is a deceptive, “Heartleaf Nettle” its botanical gets to the point, “Stinging Dwarf.” Quite edible but you must handle it with care (there are no stingers on the roots.) If this particular species stings me it is not only extremely painful but a welt develops and the site is sensitive to temperature changes and any liquid for more than a week. The irritant compounds are histamines and acetocholines.  Apparently I am quite sensitive to them though I can eat the plant raw or cooked (crushing the needles disarms them.) Also don’t confuse this plant with another stinging plant called the Spurge Nettle, Cnidoscolus stimulosus (video here ).  That has an edible root but the leaves are usually not eaten. To learn more about the Heartleaf Nettle go here. For a video, here.

Common Sow Thistle. Photo by Green Deane

Another not unexpected seasonal green this week was the sighting of Sow Thistles in central and west Florida. Like its relative the Dandelion it, too, prefers the cooler months locally. Not a true thistle it’s one of the more milder seasonal greens. Although Sow Thistles are commonly called “thistles” they are not in the genus and do not draw blood like true thistles. True thistles are well-armed with needle-sharp spines. While the Sow Thistle can look intimidating it’s mostly just show in that the spines are soft. There are two species locally, the Common Sow Thistle and the Spiny Sow Thistle. The latter is a bit rougher than the former but no where near as abusive as true thistles. Both are slightly bitter raw. A few minutes of boiling or steaming takes away the bitterness completely (unlike wild lettuce which always stays slightly bitter.)  I have a video on the sow thistles and to read more about them go here.

Foraging classes:Only one class this weekend, a long drive to south Florida, rain might be an accompaniment. 

Saturday, February 3rd, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet just north of the science center.

To read more about the classes, to pre-pay or sign up, go here. 

Silverthorn berries ripen in February.

Another seasonal species to be looking for is Silverthorn one of the few fruits that sets in our winter and is usually ripe about Valentine’s Day. That’s handy because the jelly-bean sized fruit is red with a gold netting or spray on it. But, if you remember the red fruit is ready around Valentine’s Day you’ll be looking for it. The boxy blossoms help you identify which shrubs — also called Ugly Agnes —  will be producing fruit this year. It’s a common landscape plant and also an escapee. New fruit likes to grow on new growth and with waxy leave the species is fairly easy to identify. Even though the fruit is small it has the distinction of having the highest amount of the antioxidant lycopene per weight of any fruit. You can read about Silverthorn here and watch a video here.

Tender Red Maple Seeds

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

Patches of “white snow” on lawn. Photo by Green Deane

Drymaria cordata… Drymary… West Indian Chickweed… White Snow. Hopefully you can see in the accompanying picture why this species is called White Snow. When it is seeding and the sun hits the seed heads just right it can resemble a patch of white snow on your lawn. Unlike true chickweed, which is Stellaria media, Drymary is here most of the year but has similar uses to true chickweed (which you can also find now.) Young leaves and shoots are edible, older leaves have some medicinal uses including use as a diuretic. There is some research that suggests it can reduce coughing and can easy anxiety. You can read more about Drymary here.

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  Most of the 172 USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. 

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. 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.

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in print is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 275 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. It’s available in many locations including Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile.  It can also be ordered through AdventureKeen Publishing.

This is weekly newsletter #585. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

This is weekly newsletter #586. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

White mexican poppy, Argemone albiflora. Photo by Green Deane

Yellow Mexican Poppy, Argemone mexicana, photo by Green Deane

No, it’s not edible. Depending on the weather I receive numerous emails wanting me to identify a white- or yellow-blossomed extremely prickly plant.  It’s almost always a Mexican Poppy. Some years they bloom as early as Christmas or can still be blossoming in May. They are found in dry areas in much of eastern North America avoiding some north mid-west states and northern New England. Highly toxic, the Mexican Poppy tastes bad and is so well-armed that accidental poisonings amongst man or beast are few. The plants also  that do not want to be eaten. However people have tried to use their seeds for cooking oil resulting in severe edema (water retention.) Herbalists, however, use the plants extensively (which brings up the importance of knowing what you’re doing.)  Toxicity reportedly occurs only when large quantities are ingested and the plants might have had primitive uses in treating malaria. In one study the White Mexian Poppy helped three quarters of the patients but did not completely get rid of the parasitic load. The most common places to see the very prickly plants are beside roads and railroad tracks. The yellow seed oil, called katkar oil, can cause epidemic dropsy, particularly with severe leg swelling. It has also has been used in oil lamp for lighting.  

Violet Photo by Green Deane

A common blossom now that’s easy to identify is the wild violet. It’s cultivated brethren is the pansy. There are a huge variety of violets in North America ranging from field pansies to those that like to grow down hill from the septic tank. Whether wild or cultivated violets are attractive, personable blossoms, usually on the sweet, viscous side. There are a couple of precautions, however. The first is to make sure the soil they are in — either a pot or bed — is wholesome and that the water they are getting is good. Where I grew up “Johnny Jump Ups” (viola tricolor) were routinely picked from the septic tank’s drain field. If they come from a garden center they might have pesticides on them. The other precaution is a bit more esoteric: Yellow blossoms tend to have a laxative effect. You can read about violets here. I have a video about them here.

Fruit ripening on a Ficus benghalensis, aka Ficus Audrey and strangler fig. Photo by Green Deane

Strangler figs get a bad rap, perhaps deservedly so. They slowly take over a tree or palm and kill their host while living on them. But they are also edible figs, and there are three of them locally (eleven different species in the state.)  One is from India, a native one and an export from business offices. As a food these figs can range from dry tasteless sponges to sweet or fermented.  The species are Ficus benghalensis (red fruit)  Ficus aurea (Florida strangler fig, yellow fruit) and Ficus Benjamina (the Weeping Fig and a common office plant and a major source of indoor allergens. The fruit can be dark purple.) If any of these starts life growing on some other plant it is called a Strangler Fig, if it starts on the ground and has multiple trunks it is called a Banyan. They can live to 500 years and cover several acres. The fruit of the F. benghalensis is hard when orange, and softens as it turns red or purple. They were eaten by native and settlers alike. Ariel roots were used for bow strings, rope and fishing lines. The extra roots allow the tree to grow faster than its host thus engulfing it.

Blossoming chickweed east of Tampa. Photo by Green Deane

Chickweed is a common winter species in Florida, usually from the central part of the state north. Surprisingly we saw some about 30 miles east of Tampa this week. The first time in decades of foraging finding chickweed south of greater Orlando. A short-season winter vegetable, it is related to West Indian Chickweed which can be found all year here. Real Chickweed, Stellaria media, tastes like corn silk or raw corn, West Indian Chickweed, drymaria cordata, which likes damp soil, has no particular flavor.  Inoffensive West Indian Chickweed is often used as a garnish. Also seen fruiting heavily now is American nightshade, Solanum americanum. Sow thistle (Sonchus genus) are also blossoming profusely. 

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

Foraging Classes: As the weather is becoming more consistent hopefully it won’t cause anymore class cancellations: 

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

Sunday, January 28th, Eagle Lake Park, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday, February 3rd, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet just north of the science center.

To read more about the classes, to pre-pay or sign up, go here. 

Wild Geraniums are a common seasonal lawn weed. Photo by Green Deane

Also found in lawns this time of year are wild geraniums, usually Cranesbill or Stork’s Bill. (Why one is one word and the other two-words possessive I do not know.)  Botanically they are Geranium carolinianum and Erodium circutarium.  Neither is great foraging. In fact both are more medicinal than edible but they seem to get mention in a variety of foraging books. The problem is they are extremely bitter. You might be able to toss a little bit of both in a salad but that’s about the extent of it. If you have what you think is a Cranesbill or a Stork’s Bill but it has more of a bottle brush blossom than five petals you might have the non-edible Fumaria. It comes up this time of year and from a distance the leaves can remind one of the wild geraniums. To read more about them go here. 

Silverthorn berries ripen in Feburary.

Another seasonal species to be looking for is Silverthorn one of the few fruits that sets in our winter and is usually ripe about Valentine’s Day. That’s handy because the jelly-bean sized fruit is red with a gold netting or spray on it. But, if you remember the red fruit is ready around Valentine’s Day you’ll be looking for it. The boxy blossoms help you identify which shrubs will be producing fruit this year. It’s a common landscape plant and also an escapee. New fruit likes to grow on new growth and with waxy leaves the species is fairly easy to identify. Even though the fruit is small it has the distinction of having the highest amount of the antioxidant lycopene per weight of any fruit. You can read about Silverthorn here and watch a video here. 

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

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. 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.

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in print is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 275 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. It’s available in many locations including Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile.  

This is weekly newsletter #585. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

This newsletter is late because mail chimp is increasingly difficult to work with. Any one have a suggestion for a mailing service?

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

Tea Berry (Checkerberry) Can be found under the snow.

One can forage in the Wintertime even in snowy northern climes. I first realize this as a kid ice skating and seeing frozen cranberries and turtles swimming around under the ice.  And of course, ice fishing is a way of life for a few months but also available are cattail rhizomes and shoots along with fresh water clams. Groundnuts can also be found near frozen waterways. Ad there are a few trees that hold onto fruit into cold weather, the sugarberry comes to mind, some times persimmons and apples though the persimmon will be better than most apples. Some plants germinate under the snow or keep their fruit until spring, teaberry and chickweed are two examples. South facing hills that lose their snow can often have wintertime edibles.

If Hamlet doesn’t behave I’ll change his name to SPAM. Photo by Green Deane.

My challenge this past fortnight has not been plants. A sow where I live had four piglets. Two were taken by a bobcat and a third fatally injured. The same bobcat that took all my ducks and chickens.  I have been raising the fourth piglet as mom decided to have nothing to do with him. Called Hamlet, he’s still kicking and getting more active and noisy.  I’ve finally got him to eat on his own, he likes warm towels and snuggling with a teddybear. Sleepy happiness is a heat lamp. Like baby squirrels, piglets have to be carefully fed or they will aspirate the milk, get pneumonia, and die. We’ve gone for a couple of walks, expanding his horizons.

Redflowered Ragweed. Photo by Green Deane

Redlfower Ragweed isn’t a ragweed but I’ve been seeing it for a couple of years now. It reminds me of Fireweed/Burnweed except with large red blossoms. Botanically it’s Crassocephalum crepidioides (kras-oh-SEF-uh-lum krep-pid-dee-OY-deez.) Crassocephalum is from the Dead Latin “Crassus” meaning “thick” and “kephale” which is Greek for head. Crepidioides is more mangle Greek. “-oides” in Dead Latin is mispronounced borrowed Greek and means “resembles.” Crepidioides means “resembles Crepis.” Crepis is from an old Greek word for a frilly funeral veil. It works its way into English via French as “crepe” paper.  So “thick head resembles crepe paper” is one way to interpret the plant’s name.” And… even though it is called the Redflower Ragweed its leaves resemble Fireweed/Burnweed, Erechtites hieraciifolius (which is an even more complicated, naughty story.  Redflower Rageweed’s blossoms, however, resemble the toxic Florida Tassel Flower. Florida tassel flower has smoother less toothy eaves and is a smaller plant and can have pink blossoms.) Cornucopia II says of Crassocephalum crepidioides on page 37: “Ebolo, Okinawan Spinach, Young leaves and shoots are used as a potherb, fried, or mixed in Khao yam. The leaves are fleshy, tinged with purple and have a somewhat mucilaginous quality and nutty flavor. Has become quite popular on the island of Okinawa and in Hawaii In Thailand, the roots are eaten with chili sauce or cooked in fish curry. Tropical Africa. Cultivated.”

Henbit. is in the mint family but does not smell or taste minty. It does, however, have a square stem and the blossoms resembles mints. In northern climates it is one of the first green plants to pop up after the snow goes (it and chickweed.) Locally it likes our cooler months of the year. It was esteemed by the natives because among all the annual greens it is not spicy but rather mild if not on the sweet side. What can be confusing about it is that the leave shape and stem length is different from young to old leaves. But they all have a scalloped shape. It also has a similar looking relative that is also edible called Dead Nettle. You can read about Henbit here.

Cranesbill is barely edible

Also found in lawns this time of year are wild geraniums, usually Cranesbill or Stork’s Bill. (Why one is one word and the other two-words possessive I do not know.)  Botanically they are Geranium carolinianum and Erodium circutarium.  Neither is great foraging. In fact both are more medicinal than edible but they seem to get mention in a variety of foraging books. The problem is they are extremely bitter. You might be able to toss a little bit of both in a salad but that’s about the extent of it. If you have what you think is a Cranesbill or a Stork’s Bill but it has more of a bottle brush blossom than five petals you might have the non-edible Fumaria. It comes up this time of year and from a distance the leaves can remind one of the wild geraniums. To read more about them go here. 

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

Foraging classes, we might be dodging passing storms this week. 

Jan. 6th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park, 9 a.m. to noon.

Jan. 7th Mead Garden,1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the bathrooms. 

Jan. 13th Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335, meet at the dog park, 9 a.m. to noon. 

Jan. 14th Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte, meet at the parking lot at Bayshore and Ganyard. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Ripe fruit of the Spanish Cherry tree.

It is called the Spanish cherry or the Bullet Tree, thus I slipped up in class and called it the Spanish bullet tree, botanically it’s Mimusops elingi, and related to the Mimusops coriacea, neither of which are anything to write home about. While the fruit of the Spanish cherry tree is edible it needs the attention of a dessert chef to make it tasty. Off the tree the astringent fruit has a granular texture and a flavor reminiscent of persimmons. They look better than they taste. That said, I have only had one tree to go by and that is in Dreher Park in West Palm Beach. I’ve never seen the tree elsewhere. Fruiting heavily now, in Dreher it is adjacent to a pedestrian entrance at the west end of McIntosh Street.

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

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. 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.

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in print and available is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. It’s available at  Amazon.  and other locations.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile and if no profile reported then noteworthy constituents, such as anti-oxidants. I have no doubt that the book will outlive me, my little contribution to posterity.

This is weekly newsletter #583. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

Pindo Palm can fruit almost anytime. Photo by Green Deane

Pindo Palms grow from south Texas to Washington DC and often fruit in the spring. This past week two of them dropped fruit near Tampa. Which means don’t argue with Mother Nature, just harvest, take note for next year and be thankful. Most consider yellow Pindo Palm fruit to be delicious. The seed inside is also edible and tastes like coconut. It is easy to extract (whereas the queen palm kernel is tough to get out of its shell. and the fruit is more fibrous.) Pindo palm is also called the jelly palm because some years it has enough natural pectin and sugar to make jelly without any additional pectin or sugar. While both the Pindo and queen palm have edible fruit and are feather palms they have quite different growth structures. Queen palms are usually skinny and tall, with green fruit turning orange, pindo are shortish, stout, with green fruit that turns yellow to golden. Look for both in yards and cemeteries.

Green Deane in Deland Florida with wild mustard in February 2014.

Admittedly is uncommon to see yellow mustard and yellow Pinto palm fruit available at the same time. A common roadside plant, mustard is often a strip of yellow you see in a glance as you drive by. It is found from southern Florida to Maine but in different seasons. In the no-snow south it’s a winter plant because it is too hot in the summer for the cool-weather species. It’s a spring and summer crop “up north.” Canola oil is made from a mustard that like summer in Canada. While wild mustard and radish look similar and are used the same way, mustards tend to have most of their blossom on the top end where as radishes fall over and have blossoms along the stalk.

Malvaviscus pendiflorus. one of two species locally. Photo by Green Deane

We saw several species blooming this past weekend in my foraging class. The Hibiscus were happy including the “Sleepy Hibiscus.” It’s a fairly easy shrub to identify because the bright red blossoms never unfurl. The delicate blossoms dissolve quickly upon consumption. Some would call them slimy. Also blossoming is the Bauhinia. It’s a tree that is both easy and challenging at the same time. The blossoms are edible, look nice in salads. Some of the species have edible seeds and some do not. (They are in the pea family and most pea trees — most not all — do not have edible seeds.) Sorting out which Bauhinia you have can be a challenge, nearly as bad as sorting out which Cereus you have. Like the Cereus cactus there are several man-made Bauhinia hybrids and perhaps even some fake botanical names. It can make species identification a real headache though as far as I know all the blossoms are edible. Only “discovered” a century or so ago the blossom of the Bauhinia blakeana is the emblem of Hong Kong. You can read about the Bauhinia here.

Surinam Cherries have eight ribs.

Almost every year one can find a species blooming out-of-season. If the climate changes we might see an increase in that.  As in previous classes we saw some grapes blossoming in early December when they should be setting in the spring. But perhaps the most out-of-season display this week was Surinam Cherries in fruit. I had Suriname Cherries in my yard for many years. They are best when a deep red with a bit of blue hue like the color old time firetrucks. If Ferrrari orange they are not ripe. Even when ripe many people do not like the taste of them. To read about the Suriname Cherry go here. 

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

Foraging Classes: A summer problem has cropped up. Severe weather.

Because of severe weather predicted for Dec.16th and 17th classes those days have been canceled

Dec 30th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405, 9 a.m. meet just north of the science center.

To read more about the classes, to pre-pay or sign up, go here. 

Finding Mistletoe during the 13th annual Urban Crawl in Winter Park.

My 14th annual Urban Crawl  is coming up, on Friday Dec. 22nd, 2023, in downtown Winter Park. It is a free class. A reasonable question is what about foraging in a city? There is some surprising research. Dan Brabaner is a geoscience professor at Wellesley College, Boston. With some undergraduate students they studied preserved food collected from fruit trees and the like in the urban Boston area. What they found was cherries, apples, peaches and herbs were relatively low in lead and arsenic. That is, a serving had less amounts of these toxins than the allowed daily amount for a child. The team also did not find a significant difference between peeled and unpeeled fruit. The fruit was low in toxic chemical because they are the furthest away from any toxins in the soil. This would apply to tree nuts as well. Leafy greens faired well, too, because they grow fast and 1) don’t have time to accumulate toxins and 2) most air pollution on them can be washed off. Brabander also analyzed foraged food from plants growing in the urban environment not growing on agricultural soil. These foods had higher micronutrients because they were not growing on worn-out agricultural soil. Calcium and iron were higher as were manganese, zinc, magnesium and potassium. Thus we know that not only do “weeds” pack more of a nutritional punch because they are wild but also because they can be growing in better soil. We meet in front of Panera’s at 10 a.m. We wander south to the Rollin college, stop at Starbucks, to drink and drain, go east to the public library area, then back to Panera’s, that takes a couple of hours. Park in the parking garage behind (west of ) Paneras. If you park more than three hours on the streets of Winter Park you can get a ticket (this has happened in previous years.) Please invite anyone interested in plants who is having a hard time making ends meet.

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

A dangerous plant is making its seasonal debut: Butterweed, Packera glabella (formerly Senecio glabellus.)  I call it dangerous because it is toxic and resembles an edible species. Butterweed likes to grow in damp places and until it blossomed resembles the mustard family. However, unlike all mustard which have four petal blossoms, Butterweed’s blossom resembles a yellow daisey. And mustards have a distinct flavor, Butterweed has a mild taste. Overs the season it becomes attractive and prolific. There has been at least one poisoning in Florida in recent years. The victim survived with medical attention. The toxin affects the liver. it is also highly toxic to horses and cattle.

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good holiday present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually.  

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. 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.

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in print and delivered last week is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. Several hundred have been pre-ordered on Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile and if no profile reported then noteworthy constituents. I have no doubt that the book will outlive me, my little contribution to posterity.

This is weekly newsletter #582. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

Technology can be a killer. A malfunctioning mail program and a dying desk top computer has prevented the production and mailing of these newsletters and posting a foraging class schedule. I also confused two class dates — my apologies — and lost 30 years of photos and writings, so November was pretty much a bust. And a bobcat ate my duck and chickens.

This is the common place to find mustard or radish plants this time of year, a streak of yellow blossoms beside the road. Photo By Green Deane

Chilly nights have accentuated our wild mustards. Where I live they are blooming along the road ways. Up north that happens in late spring or early summer. Wild mustards and wild radishes often resemble each other and can be used in similar manner. The entire plant is edible, blossoms to roots. The roots have a tough jacket on the outside which is better peeled off. You can read about mustards here. And Radishes here.

Ghost Pipes, Melbourne Florida. Photo by Green Deane

Several plants were called “Indian Pipes” where and when I was growing up. One of them is the Monotropa uniflora, recently seen in Wickham Park, Melbourne. Living more like a mushroom than a plant it sprouts up in various edibility conversations. Focusing the issue on exactly what “edibility” means, helps. Other than allergies, edibility does imply it will not kill you or harm you in any significant way. But “edibility” does not have to imply tasty. As forager emeratus Dick Deuerling (d. 2015) used to say “there are a lot of edible plants. I only eat the good stuff.” There are also things that are just too woody or bitter to eat more than a sample of but are included in “edible.” Sea Oxeye (Borrichia frutescens) comes to mind. And some plants have to be prepared correctly to be “edible.” Is the Monotropa uniflora edible? Yes. Does it taste good? Only if you’re really hungry. But that is understandable. The list of edible plants has to include everything from incredibly delicious food to only-if-I-were-starving food. Indian Pipes are closer to the famine food end of that list. The need a good sauce such as for asparagus. You can read more about the Monotropa here.

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

Foraging Classes: Note below my annual urban crawl is coming up the last Friday before Christmas, warm or cold the class will go on. It has been held every year since 2008 (excepting one year I had surgery.)

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

Dec. 16th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon Meet at the pavilion near the dog park.

Dec. 17th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. Meet at the parking lot at Ganyard and Bayshore, 9 a.m.

To read more about the classes, to pre-pay or sign up, go here. 

Finding Mistletoe during the 13th annual Urban Crawl in Winter Park.

My annual Urban Crawl #14 is coming up, on Dec. 22nd, 2023, in down town Winter Park. A reasonable question is what about foraging in a city? There is some surprising research. Dan Brabaner is a geoscience professor at Wellesley College, Boston. With some undergraduate students they studied preserved food collected from fruit trees and the like in the urban Boston area. What they found was cherries, apples, peaches and herbs were relatively low in lead and arsenic. That is, a serving had less amounts of these toxins than the allowed daily amount for a child. The team also did not find a significant difference between peeled and unpeeled fruit. The fruit was low in toxic chemical because they are the furthest away from any toxins in the soil. This would apply to tree nuts as well. Leafy greens faired well, too, because they grow fast and 1) don’t have time to accumulate toxins and 2) most air pollution on them can be washed off. Brabander also analyzed foraged food from plants growing in the urban environment not growing on agricultural soil. These foods had higher micronutrients because they were not growing on worn-out agricultural soil. Calcium and iron were higher as were manganese, zinc, magnesium and potassium. Thus we know that not only do “weeds” pack more of a nutritional punch because they are wild but also because they can be growing in better soil. My Urban Crawl is a free class Friday Dec. 22nd in Downtown Winter Park. We meet in front of Panera’s at 10 a.m. We wander south to the Rollin college, stop at Starbucks, go east to the public library area, then back to Panera’s, that takes a couple of hours. Park in the parking garage behind Paneras. If you park more than three hours on the streets of Winter Park you can get a ticket (this has happened in previous years.) 

Real chickweed will soon arrive. If you want to sample it in a variety of ways you have a couple of months at best. I usually find chickweed locally between Christmas and Valentine’s Day. It can be found earlier and occasionally after Valentine’s Day. But those two holidays mark the practical beginning and end of the local chickweed season. It also doesn’t grow much farther south than central Florida. In northern climates Chickweed is a green of spring. It actually germinates under the snow so it can get a head start on other spring plants. Snow spits here every half century or so and the ground never freezes which is why we can forage 365 days a year. Chickweed is fairly easy to identify. Besides tasting like corn silk it has a stretchy inner core and one line of hair that runs along the stem switching sides at each pair of leaves. Don’t confuse Chickweed for a local cousin the edible, Drymaria cordata. To read more about chickweed click here.  Also coming on strong is Pellitory. To read about Pellitory again click here.

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

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. 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.

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in print and delivered this week is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. Several hundred have been pre-ordered on Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile and if no profile reported  then noteworthy constituents. I have no doubt that the book will outlive me, my little contribution to posterity.

This is weekly newsletter #581. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

Chicken of the Woods. Photo by Green Deane

When is a cow not a cow? When it is Chicken Of the Woods, which we found during a foraging class this week. We have three speces of C.O.W.s locally. Laetiporus sulphureus, Laetiporus cincinnatus and Laetiporus gilbertsonii, all shelf fungus.  A fourth fungus that is put into that group, Laetiporus persicinus, might not really be a Laetiporus. It also does not look like or taste like the other chickens.  We took some Laetiporus sulphureus home and fried said. While the texture might remind one of chicken the flavor is derived from how it is cooked and what it is cooked with. It is a fugus of substance, it will not disappear in a dish. I sliced mine and fried in butter. Orange and sulphur colored  Laetiporus sulphureus usually grows on the trunk or upperpart of the tree because it causes heart rot, locally often on oaks. Laetiporus cincinnatus is often at the base of a tree trunk where it causes butt rot.   Laetiporus gilbertsonii — common in the gulf south —  is found on the trunk and is beige in color. Laetiporus persicinus, is found on the base of oaks or growing on roots. It is usually round and stains brown where you handle it. No particular flavor. It is good for stews and the like and when cut and dried makes a good jerky.

There are many way to process acorns after leaching.

Also masting now are our oaks. The amount of acorns in the fall is related to spring rains. More rain in spring, more acorns in the fall. Acorns as a food are a lot of work but also a lot of energy, it’s been the staple food for many ancient populations. Their preparation involved kids as each acorn must be cracked and the nut inside removed for processing (a great job for kids and a couple of rocks to smash with.) I have the suspicion that the family is the most foraging-efficient group, and a village a group of foraging groups. Men think in vectors roam far from home to hunt meat then bring it back. Women go to landmarks to forage and bring it home. Kids help in the processing. Thus acorns. There are two general group, red and black acorns. The former have pointy leaves, the latter do not, the former have an extra layer of material in the shell which gives the nut and water a pink tinge. Acorns have tannins which should be leached out before consuming. How that can be done is subject of books. Acorns high in tannins store well, so the native put them in special containers, acorns low in tannin were processed for immediate or near-term use. Some Live Oaks have acorn with no tannin. The largest local acorn is the chestnut oak. You can read more about acorns here.

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

Foraging classes On the east coast of Florida this weekend, let’s hope the weather holds. One worry about Saturday’s class is whether the preserve will be flooded from recent rains. That affects only the western section but removes wandering by the river.

Nov 18th Lori Wilson Park, 1500 N Atlantic Ave, Cocoa Beach, FL 32931, meet at the north bathrooms, 9 a.m. to noon.

Nov 19th , George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon.

Nov 25th , Wickham Park, Melbourne Florida, 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the dog park.

Nov 26th  Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  9 a.m. to noon Meet at the bathrooms.

To read more about the classes, to pre-pay or sign up, go here. 

Henbit, one of the few “sweet” springtime greens. Photo by Green Deane

The first is Henbit. It’s in the mint family but does not smell or taste minty. It does, however, have a square stem and the blossoms resembles mints. In northern climates it is one of the first green plants to pop up after the snow goes (it and chickweed.) Locally it likes our cooler months of the year. It was esteemed by the natives because among all the annual greens it is not spicy but rather mild if not on the sweet side. What can be confusing about it is that the leave shape and stem length is different from young to old leaves. But they all have a scalloped shape. It also has a similar looking relative that is also edible called Dead Nettle. You can read about Henbit here.

Cranesbill is barely edible, photo by Green Deane

Also found in lawns this time of year are wild geraniums, usually Cranesbill or Stork’s Bill. (Why one is one word and the other two-words possessive I do not know.)  Botanically they are Geranium carolinianum and Erodium circutarium.  Neither is great foraging. In fact both are more medicinal than edible but they seem to get mention in a variety of foraging books. The problem is they are extremely bitter. You might be able to toss a little bit of both in a salad but that’s about the extent of it. If you have what you think is a Cranesbill or a Stork’s Bill but it has more of a bottle brush blossom than five petals you might have the non-edible Fumaria. It comes up this time of year and from a distance the leaves can remind one of the wild geraniums. To read more about them go here. 

Dandelions are a common green, photo by Green Deane.

While looking for yellow-blossomed Dandelions also start looking for the more extroverted yellow-blossomed Wild Radish and Wild Mustard. These two peppery species look very similar and are used the same way. There are several ways to tell them apart but on a glance one identifier of the radish is that it grows in a windrow way whereas mustards tend to grow straight up. Radish blossoms are always yellow, mustard blossoms can be yellow or white.  I usually start to find tasty Wild Radishes and Wild Mustards when the nights start getting cooler.  To read more about Wild Radish, go here. Wild Mustards click here.  

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

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

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

My annual Urban Crawl #12 is coming up, on Dec. 22nd, 2023. A reasonable question is what about foraging in a city? There is some surprising research. Dan Brabaner is a geoscience professor at Wellesley College, Boston. With some undergraduate students they studied preserved food collected from fruit trees and the like in the urban Boston area. What they found was cherries, apples, peaches and herbs were relatively low in lead and arsenic. That is, a serving had less amounts of these toxins than the allowed daily amount for a child. The team also did not find a significant difference between peeled and unpeeled fruit. The fruit was low in toxic chemical because they are the furthest away from any toxins in the soil. This would apply to tree nuts as well. Leafy greens faired well, too, because they grow fast and 1) don’t have time to accumulate toxins and 2) most air pollution on them can be washed off. Brabander also analyzed foraged food from plants growing in the urban environment not growing on agricultural soil. These foods had higher micronutrients because they were not growing on worn-out agricultural soil. Calcium and iron were higher as were manganese, zinc, magnesium and potassium. Thus we know that not only do “weeds” pack more of a nutritional punch because they are wild but also because they can be growing in better soil. My Urban Crawl is a free class Friday Dec. 22nd in Downtown Winter Park. We meet in front of Panera’s at 10 a.m. We wander south to the college, stop at Starbucks, go east to the public library area, then back to Panera’s. Park in the parking garage behind Paneras. If you park more than three hours on the streets of Winter Park you can get a ticket (this has happened in previous years.) 

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

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. 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.

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in print is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. Several hundred have been pre-ordered on Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile. Officially it will be published December 13th (to suit the publisher publicity demands) and apparently to appeal to the winter market. Orders via Amazon are scheduled to arrive Dec. 5th. 

This is weekly newsletter #580. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

This newsletter is late because mail chimp is increasingly difficult to wok with. Any one have a suggestion for a mailing service?

Moko figs, are in the banana family.

red moko called mataburro, or kill the donkey.

When Fernand Megellan, first credited with sailing around the world, met a new fruit he always called it some kind of fig, according to historians, This past week I had some moko figs, which are sweet non-starchy plantains. They were found cultivated on some nearby property. Whether a plantain or a banana, they are squarish like a plantain but sweet like a banana and despite warnings can be eaten raw (I ate five raw green ones over a few days and fried one.) Some call them cooking bananas and dessert bananas. Local names include buck-buck, and mafobay. They’re a good source of fiber, vitamins A, C, and B-6, and magnesium and potassium. A cup has less than one gram of fat, 2 grams of protein, 58 grams of carbs, three grams of fiber, 663 mg of potassium 23 mg of vitamin C, 0.29 mg of B-6, and 57 mg of magnesium. By chance I had a great grandmother (Eurora May Dillingham) who liked short red moko figs. Her sailing family were part of the Dillingham businessmen involved with starting commercial pineapples on Hawaii in the 1800’s. Moko figs were also cultivated there and are still listed as found on the islands.

pellitory grows in the shade, Photo by Green Deane.

During our foraging classes this week we saw sprouts of the winter edible Pellitory. This shade-loving perennial shows up when fall weather starts and stays around until at least mid-spring. Some years in very shady places you can find old straggling specimens as late as July. It smells and tastes like cucumber thus is also called Cucumber Weed. It’s not a plant you find in the middle of a sunny field. Look for it in shady places such as under bridges, big trees and by hedges and walls. To read more about this winter comestible go here. 

Seeding Poor Man Peppergrass. Photo by Green Deane

We also saw a plant that is here all year but strongy favors the wintertime: Poor Man’s Peppergrass. This Wasabi taste-alike definitely favors the cooler months and can be found everywhere locally. The most difficult thing about Peppergrass is that it always looks different in warmer climates. In northern areas it’s a two-year plant and is either a basal rosette of leaves or a seeding flower spike. Because seasons are amorphous locally it can be in any stage any time. So you might find it low with big, wide leaves, or tall with skinny leaves. You just have to learn to recognize it in all of its growth stages. One constant theme is that is always tastes the same though younger plants tend to have a stronger flavor than older plants. To read more about Peppergrass click here.

Florida’s beaches this time of year start to collect seaweed. It is nearly all one species, Sargassum; edible but not the tastiest of sea vegetables. It is true that nearly all seaweeds are edible if harvested from clean water. When I lived in Japan an annual environmental demonstration was to develop photographic film from unaltered water taken from Tokyo Bay. Instead of taking a few minutes, the developing took several hours but the point was made: The bay water was polluted. Generally said there are only two non-edible seaweeds in North America.

Sargassum: Edible but not the best of tastes.

The first is Desmarestia ligulata. It is laced with sulfuric acid but is used to make pickles. You can find it along the northwest coast of the United States. You’ll know it when you find it because it will burn your mouth. The other in North America (and Central America) is Cyanobacteria which is found in the Caribbean and linked to ciguarera poisoning. It’s not really a seaweed but is a blue-green algae found in the warmer waters. It is why one should never eat older barracuda. I should add never eat blue-green algae from fresh water either nor fish from a fresh water pond with a lot of blue-green algae. They are not on the menu. As for other parts of the world, there might be some toxic red seaweeds in the South Seas. Since most seaweed is edible, and nutritious, why isn’t it consumed more often? Taste and texture. I’ve collected Sargassum here in Florida and prepared it many ways. Semi-drying and frying isn’t too bad but Bladderwrack is better, Sea Lettuce better still. The latter makes very nice salads. Not surprisingly most land animals including birds don’t like seaweed. However, it does make good mulch and fertilizer. So while one may not use it directly in the diet it can still help sustain you with uses in the garden. During Victorian times it was highly used in English agriculture mostly as mulch and fertilizer. Here are some of my articles on seaweed: Bladderwrack,  Caulpera,  Codium,   Gracilaria,   Sargassum,  Sea Lettuce, and Tape Seagrass.

Stomolophus meleagris, one of our edible jellyfish.

While on the topic of the beach — I’m usually at Daytona Beach this week for a Greek festival, my birthday, and Veterans Day — many jellyfish are edible, including some that are found in local waters. I had a friend from Taiwan who never ordered from the menu at Chinese restaurants. It was always off-the-menu and then after much discussion with the waiter and sometimes the chef.  One of those chats produced a dish of jellyfish. I was hooked. It was very tasty and jellyfish can be caught while casting for other fish. (I like castnetting and am a castnet junkie.) While a substantial food I’m not sure jellyfish would qualify as a staple because catching them by hand is by chance (which does increase however when in season.) They are also mostly water and need to be dessicated immediately, not a small process. It all depends on how hungry you are and how many of them you have. You should get them live out of the water, not dead on the beach. To read about jellyfish go here

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 when folks had tallow from their own cattle, a lot of Bayberries and mosquitoes. 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.

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

Foraging Classes: Should have good weather this weekend. 

Nov 11th Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms, 9 a.m.

Nov 12th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. Meet at the parking lot at Ganyard and Bayshore, 9 a.m.

Nov 18th Lori Wilson Park, 1500 N Atlantic Ave, Cocoa Beach, FL 32931, meet at the north bathrooms, 9 a.m. to noon.

Nov 19th , George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon.

To read more about the classes, to pre-pay or sign up, go here. 

Leonotis nepetifolia and leonotis leonurus  blossoms look the same.

There’s an innocent-looking ornamental plant in local parks which in some European countries the possession of which can get you 30 years in prison: Wild Dagga, or, Leonotis leonurus. As a student of Greek I always have an issue with the name because “Leonotis”  means “Lion’s Ear” while “leonurus” is mangled Greek and “new” Latin for “Lion’s Tail.” So it’s name is Lion’s Ear Lion’s Tail…. more drunk botanical overkill.  They took it all from the historical King of Sparta, λέωνῐ́δᾱς,  or Leonida, which means “son of a lion.” A second species found locally — and more often — is Leonotis nepetifolia (catnip leaf.) The plants look similar except “lion tail” has skinny leaves like marijuana, and the “catnip leaf’ has somewhat large diamond-shaped leaves like catnip. The blossoms and over all growth pattern is similar for both. From tropical South Africa and India Lion’s Tail is used … recreationally…  where as Catnip Leaf is used medicinally. Both have leonurine, Lion’s Tail apparently more than Catnip Leaf. Water extraction — blossom tea — is the common method. A 2015 study says Leonotis leonurus seems to be mildly pschoactive. “Research has proven the psychoactive effects of the crude extract of L. leonurus, but confirmation of the presence of psychoactive compounds, as well as isolation and characterization, is still required.” Sounds like a pitch for more research money. Others report both species contain marrubiin which is an analgesic and probably why they have been used in traditional medicine. Bees and humming birds also like the species. A relevant pubmed article can be read at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29016795/

You get the USB, not the key.

172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

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. 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.

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in print is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. Several hundred have been pre-ordered on Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile. Officially it will be published December 13th (to suit the publisher publicity demands) and apparently to appeal to the winter market. Orders via Amazon are scheduled to arrive Dec. 5th. 

This is weekly newsletter #579. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

This newsletter is late because mail chimp is increasingly difficult to wok with. Any one have a suggestion for a mailing service?

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

Golden Rain trees are now fruiting and have seeds of debatable quality. Earlier in the year the trees had yellow blossoms that showered down. Now the pink pods are developing seeds containing eruic acid. (Currently most of the seeds are pale green or white and soft but they will turn black and hard.) If their flavor is acceptable I suspect they are a famine food — eaten sparingly — because of the eruic acid, which has a long history.

Eruic acid is the prime oil in Rape seed (a member of the mustard family.) Used as a cooking oil it was known for causing lung cancer in cooks in India. In rat studies the oil interfered with heart muscle metabolism. It was brought out of the gastronomical wilderness after cocoanut oil was demonized along with saturated fats by the infamous Ancel Keyes in the 1950s. The cooking oil industry turned to corn and soybean oil. When research showewed those started to generate disease, rape seed oil was chosen as the anointed one (meaning cheap to produce.) Plants were bred to reduce the Eruic acid (a polyunsaturated oil) creating Canola (Canada Oil Low acid.) Even the low-acid Canola oil has to go through much industrial processing before being bottled for use. 

In short the oil that was reduced and removed to create Canola is found in Golden Rain tree seeds. Those who watch movies might recall it is also one of the ingredients in Lorenzo’s oil used to treat adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). Where the seeds are reported eaten, they are roasted. 

Brazilian Pepper Berries. Photo by Green Deane

Also beginning to fruit is the controversial Brazilian Pepper.  At one time it was heavily promoted as the “Florida Holly” ignoring that the state has many native hollies. Its berries are often confused with a relative called Pink Peppercorns. In fact “Pink Peppercorns” were banned from the United States for several years because authorities thought they were the same species as Brazilian Pepper. As for using the Brazilian Pepper berries as spice, clearly some people can do so without any problems. Other people get extremely sick trying them just once. Some people can use them for a few days or weeks without a problem and then get ill. As I tell my students in foraging classes, you’re on your own with this one. So what am I going to to with them? Making one test gallon of wine, and,  to flavor a two gallons of mead (as they make a nice honey.) 

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

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

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

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

Gooseberries and currants come in several colors and flavors.

You won’t find wild Gooseberries or currants anywhere near The South. They like cool, humid weather: Think New England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New Brunswick and west of there (and also possibly the tops of the Appalachian Mountain Chain.) There were several “blights” in the last century. One took out the American Elm and another the great Chestnut. A third took its toll on Gooseberries. They did not get the disease themselves, the White Pine Blister, but they were the intermediate host of the disease. As one might imagine a pine blister in the the Pine Tree State was serious business thus Gooseberries and currants had to go. Legions of Boy Scouts and WPA workers destroyed it where they found it.  But, I do remember seeing them in the wild. We often rode horseback over abandoned woods roads where there were also abandoned farm houses. There I saw Gooseberries and currants self-seeding. A ban on the plants was federally imposted in 1911 then shifted to the states in 1966. You can harvest Gooseberries now here and there at picking farms and no doubt there are some wild one still. You can read about Gooseberries here.

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

Foraging Classes: We may have to dodge November hurricanes but it is a good time of year to forage. 

Nov 4th Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. Meet at the pavilion near the Dog Park

Nov. 5th Red Bug Slough , Sarasota. 9 a.m. Because of renovations, we have to meet at a different location at Red Bug Slough in Sarasoata. Normally it is at 5200 S. Beneva Road. Instead we will have to park at Gypsy Street and South Lockwood Ridge Road. Gypsy can be reached by Camphor Ave which runs south of Proctor west of Beneva.

Nov 11th Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms, 9 a.m.

Nov 12th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. Meet at the parking lot at Ganyard and Bayshore, 9 a.m.

To read more about the classes, to pre-pay or sign up, go here. 

You get the USB, not the key.

150-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

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. 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.

Finally, a physical copy of the book.

Now in print is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. Several hundred have been pre-ordered on Amazon.  Most of the entries include a nutritional profile. Officially it will be published December 13th (to suit the publisher publicity demands) and apparently to appeal to the winter market.

This is weekly newsletter #578. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.

This is a common place to find mustard or radish plants, a streak of yellow blossoms beside the road. Photo By Green Deane

Some years the seasonal changes happen with regularity. This year has been irregular. Though cooler weather has yet to arrive locally Wild Mustard and Ringless Honey mushrooms are ahead of schedule. Indeed, the mustard is blossoming, and the mushrooms are weeks ahead of their usual time. Conversely, edible persimmons are late this year. That all makes one wonder how the winter weather might vary from the usual this year.

Blossoms can range from yellow to white. Photo by Green Deane

Mustards in the warm south likelate fall they do and I usually start writing about them in late November. In season you can see Wild Mustards and Wild Radish not only along roadsides but in various fields from farm land to ignored citrus groves. The two species are used interchangeably and look similar. However Wild Radishes tend to be serpentine rather than straight and tall like Wild Mustard. They also have lumpy seed pods, or, more lumpy than mustard seed pods. Usually you will find a stand of one or the other. I don’t recall ever finding both in the same patch. Blossom colors can range from yellow to white with streaks of purple. But the leaves always have the biggest lobe on the end farthest from the plant. Look for them in sunny areas with fertile soil. Not native they came from Eurasia in the 1700s. And note the seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 60 years. To read more Wild Radish go here, and for Wild Mustard, here.  

These hibiscus blossoms never open. Photo by Green Deane

We saw several species blooming this past weekend in my foraging classes. The Hibiscus were happy including the “Sleepy Hibiscus.” It’s a fairly easy shrub to identify because the bright red blossoms never unfurl. Also blossoming was the Bauhinia. It’s a tree that is both easy and challenging at the same time. The blossoms are edible, look nice in salads. Some of the species have edible seeds and some do not. (They are in the pea family and most pea trees — most not all — do not have edible seeds.) Sorting out which Bauhinia you have can be a challenge, nearly as bad as sorting out which Cereus you have. Like the Cereus cactus there are several man-made Bauhinia hybrids and perhaps even some fake botanical names. It can make species identification a real headache though as far as I know all the blossoms are edible. Only “discovered” 111 years ago the blossom of the Bauhinia blakeana is the emblem of Hong Kong. You can read about the Bauhinia here.

Tropical Almond’s “kernel” photo by Green Deane.

Tropical Almonds are now on Mother Nature’s dining table and we ate some during our recent foraging class in West Palm Beach. Terminalia catappa, which is really subtropical and not at all an almond, produces edible fruits for a few months. The ripe rind is edible as well as the “almond” inside which is really a little embryonic tree. It tastes like coconut9 blended with almonds. The only problem is the buoyant dry shells are quite tough and require a hammer or a couple of rocks to crack open. (For those who don’t know Florida does not have rocks. You can’t just rummage around and find a pair of rocks to break seed shells with.) There is some labor involved with eating Tropical Alomonds but they are still calorie positive. I usually have a couple of pieces of concrete hidden near this particular tree to get to the treat. To read more about the Tropical Almond go here.

Can two people independently come up with the same bad idea? The answer is yes when the idea is Daylight Savings Time, which we leave Nov 5th. A bug collector and a golfer in different parts of the world came up with the idea of Daylight Savings Time, and were correctly ignored until World War I. We flip forth and back every spring and fall though it now costs us more than it saves… Daylight Wasting Time or Daylight Slaving Time, take your pick… Only the government would cut a foot off one end of a blanket, sew it on to the other end and call the blanket longer. Personally I loathe the flipping and stopped doing so some 25 years ago. I stay on solar (standard) time and ignore Daylight Savings Time. So in a few days we will agree again. Not flipping is easy. I don’t change when I eat, go to bed, or feed the animals. I just ignore it. To read more about  time change click here or here.  Florida wrongly voted to stay on daylight savings time to avoid the flipping. But, as DST is a federal program the state needs congressional approval to opt out. Whereas no congressional permission is needed to stay on standard time. Hence, DST will haunt us again next spring. 

We’ve also been digging up a lot of wing Yam roots (Dioscorea alata.) While there are six species of “yams” locally the Winged Yam is the biggest caloric payoff. And it is a true yam not a variety of sweet potato (Ipomoea) which are improperly called “yams” and sold in cans and whole in grocery stores. Also called “Yam A” on my website   we are interested in eating its root not its distinctive dark brown “air potatoes.” The plant’s root can grow to many pounds — 30 unattended, 150 cultivated —  and is right below the surface usually. Boil it like a potato first then use like a potato. Its dark brown, misshapen “air potatoes” are quite visible this time of year hanging on the vine making it easy to find. As it’s seasonal demise is triggere by daylight hours you should be able to find it for a couple of more monhts. You can read more about the Winged Yam and others  here.

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

Foraging Classes:  The Wekiva Trail class also visits the Little Wekiva Rive Saturday.

Oct 28th, Seminole Wekiva Trail, Sanlando Park, 401 West Highland St. Altamonte Springs, Florida 32714.  9 a.m., meet at first parking lot on right.

Oct 29th  Blanchard Park,  2451 Dean Rd, Union Park, FL 32817 9.a.m. met at the pavilion by the tennis courts.

To read more about the classes, to pre-pay or sign up, go here. 

You get the USB, not the key.

150-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy.  The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually. 

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. 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.

Now being printed is EatTheWeeds, the book. It should have 275 plants, 350-plus pages, index and color photos. Several hundred have been preordered on Amazon. And it is being printed now. Most of the entries include a nutritional profile. Officially it will be published December 5th (to suit the publisher publicity demands) and apparently to appeal to the winter market.

This is weekly newsletter #577. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.