Search: purslane

Blackberries along the bike trail. Photo by Green Deane

Train or trail, you can get there either way.

Acres of wild blackberries… well, perhaps not acres but certainly a lot of them. Where? On the bike trail between Lake Monroe Park and Gemini Springs Park in south Volusia County. That part of the bike trail wends its way for a little over a mile between two parking lots. Look for the powerlines… this same area will also have in a couple of months bushels of Passiflora incarnata, Maypops… along the way to this location on the southern side are many cattails and to the west of Gemini Springs Park (in the cow pasture) there are a lot of Pawpaws. The things ones see while riding a bike. And… if you like to travel by train there is a Sunrail stop (Debary) directly west of the patch (and a path to said on the east side of U.S. 17-92.) As they are wild blackberries they are well armed. And a reminder that foraging is illegal in Florida so proceed stealthily. Why is foraging illegal? Unanswerable officials have to have something to do. If we had a Commissioner of Ants there would be all kinds of ant rules, do’s and don’t’s and fines et etcetera. The more government the more rules and the more functionaries to interfere with your life. In theory elected official were supposed to make all the rules and be accountable for all of them. If we didn’t like the rules or decisions we vote them out of office. But then politicians made unanswerable committees, commissions and departments to make and enforce rules. These add-on bureaus do not answer to the people or to the elected officials that created them. If a wildlife commission makes a truly stupid decision and citizens don’t like it, tough. Thus the second rule of foraging is “no witnesses.” The third rule is “eat the evidence.” The first rule of foraging is wash your hands BEFORE you go to the bathroom ’cause you never know what you’ve been touching… 

Seeding Seablite. Photo by Green Deane

Saw large amounts of Seablite this past weekend. Depending where you are in the state it is either starting its seasonal run or close finishing it. An excellent contender for a commercial crop it’s in the Chenopodium family. There was copious amounts of it at Fed Howard Park west of Tarpon Springs. We also saw Sea rocket and Silverhead but the prime edible was Seablite. Curiously on the mainland side of the park some of the Seablite was bitter. It is usually a very mild green edible raw or cooked. You can read about Seablite here or see my video here. 

Foraging classes: On the east coast of Florida this weekend. Should have good weather.

Saturday, May 22th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the parking lot. 

Sunday, May 23th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park, 9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday, May 29th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday, May 30th, Tide Views Preserve, 1 Begonia Street, Atlantic Beach Fl 32233 (near Jacksonville Fl.) 9 to noon. Meet at the parking lot. 

For more information, to prepay or sign up for a class go here. 

Sea Purslane and Purslane are not the same species, they are not related, and they prefer different environments. But, there is a general resemblance between the two; it just depends on how closely you look. Both are edible, look like succulents, grow in a similar pattern, and are close in coloring. But one prefers rich garden soil and the other tolerates salty areas. That said Sea Purslane will grow in your garden it just competes well in briny locations. It is one of those odds oversights that Sea Purslane is not protected like Sea Oats. Like edible Sea Oaks Sea Purslane helps build and maintain beach dunes.

Sea Purslane building its own mound and mini-environment. Photo by Green Deane

On the brackish inland water way you will find Sea Purslane almost anyplace near the water, mixed in with other salt-tolerant vegetation. But on the sea side it is one of the few edibles you will find directly on the beach, year round. Sea Purslane’s niche is that its fleshy leaves causes the sand-carrying wind to slow down. That make the wind drop the sand it was carrying. This makes little dunes and in time  little dunes grow into big dunes. The Sea Purslane also keep growing to cover its own dune which helps to keep in moisture and reduce the sand temperature in the summer. In many areas of Asia Sea Purslane is a commercial vegetable. It’s also very easy to propagate. Just stick a stem in moist soil. To read more about Sea Purslane go here.

Sargassum: Edible but not the best of tastes.

It is said that if a botany professor does not like a particular graduate student an impossible assignment is given: List all of the Hawthorne species. There is no agreement if there are dozens of Hawthorne species or thousands. Blueberries are not quite as bad but it’s another family that can be difficult to sort out: Are there dozens or hundreds? Grapes can be tough, too. My candidate for confusion is seaweed. Even with good descriptions each species can vary a lot making identification difficult. This seaweed was seen on Venice Beach. My first problem is deciding if it is a brown seaweed or a red seaweed. I went with brown but that could be wrong. It seems reasonable to call it a Sargassum and yet there are two forms and many species. Some create a floating mat, the so called free-form. Others attach to something. This was clinging to a bit of seashell. At first I thought  “Attached Sargassium” aka Sargassium hystrix. But that bothers me because “hystrix” means “bristly” or “spiny.” I could not see or feel anything on this seaweed that could be called “bristly” or “spiny” yet it looks otherwise about right. The leaves are not toothy, the bladders do not have long stems or a hook on the end like other Sargassums. And it does have irregular dark spots on the leaves. To complicate the matter most S. hystrix have white veins and others do not such as S. hystrix var. buxifolium.  I’m definitely in over my seaweed head. To read more about Sargassums go here.

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

150-video USB would be a good 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.

Your donations to upgrade the EatTheWeeds website and fund a book were appreciated. A book manuscript has been turned it. It had 424 articles, 1325 plants and a third of a million words. What it will be when the publisher is done with it next year is unknown. It will be published in the spring of 2023. Writing it took a significant chunk of time out of my life from which I have still not recovered. (Many things got put off.) The next phase is to update all the content on the website between now and publication date. Also note as it states above the 135-video DVD set has been phased out for 150-video USB. Times and formats change. Which reminds me I need to revisit many plants and make some new videos. 

This is weekly newsletter #457. 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.

Pineapple guava blossoms are edible, the petals are better than the rest. Photo by Green Deane

Perhaps no ornamental has been championed as much as the Pineapple Guava, aka Feijoa,  Acca sellowiana, Feijoa sellowiana. However the perfect shrub for many places never really caught on. There could be several reasons. It probably didn’t help that the Strawberry Guava is a severe invasive species in some locations.  The shrub also does not get showy. You have to hunt for the extroverted blossoms. While the entire blossom is edible most people only eat the petals. Five or six months from now they will be dark green fruit that stay green as they ripen. They just get softer. The shrub is easy to identify when in blossom. To read more about both guavas, go here.

Seed shells make a perfumey peppery. Photo by Green Deane

A couple of hundred miles can make a botanical difference. In Melbourne, some 20 miles south of the space center, we saw a Toothache tree, Zanthoxylum clava-herculis, setting fruit. In Ocala the same species was getting ready to blossom or had a few here and there. Also called Hercule’s Club, the thorns, bark and leaves have been used at least for centuries to numb aching teeth. It will also make you drool, a small inconvenience to silence an aching tooth. You can read about it here. Many Americans have actually eaten part of a relative of the Toothache Tree, Pepper, Zanthoxylum simulans (and Z. bungeanum.)  That spice is made from the seeds hulls of the species. We can use the seed hulls of our tree as well. The tree is covered with thorns so approach with care (And another thorny tree seen this recently was Aralia spinosa, which is not related but is sometimes also called Hercules Club.) 

Usnea is an antiseptic on a tree. Photo by Green Deane

Almost all lichen are edible once leached of their bitter acids. The flavor ranges from bad to almost palatable. But, they are high in calories, have saved many a stranded hunter or downed pilot, and are found nearly worldwide. Lichens have been used in dyes, deodorants, laxatives, expectorants, tonics, and as one monograph put it, “healing pastes.” They are also an indicator of clean air. We’re more interested in Usnea than Ramalina for its medicinal qualities. Usnea is basically an antiseptic. While Ramalina and Usnea resemble each other there are three main differences: The Ramalina’s stems are flatish, Usnea is round; Ramalina does not appear to be hairy, Usnea looks hairy; and only Usnea — among all the many species of  lichen, has an elastic, white inner core. If you want to read more about lichen go here, for a video here. 

Miner’s Lettuce is not related to pennywort.

Across the country in parts of California Miner’ Lettuce is making its spring run and will be blooming through May. Dry, summer heat ends its season.  This delectable comes from a family of other edibles — Claytonia — and was once lumped in with the purslane group. It doesn’t naturally get anywhere near Florida. The most distinctive feature of the Miner’s Lettuce is the leaf structure. Shaped like a saucer or cup the flower stalk pushes through the middle of the upper leaf. Difficult to mis-identify. It’s a resident of western North America with token populations in Georgia and northern New Hampshire. I have been unable to find any reference to it growing in Georgia in modern times. Miner’s Lettuce — which is high in vitamin C — is particularly common along the Pacific coast in shady spots and canyons. Its name comes from 1849 Gold Rush miners who ate it to stave off scurvy.

Classes are held rain or shine excepting hurricanes and storm fronts.

Foraging classes range from mid-state to the southwest coast this weekend, just north of Orlando to Port Charlotte. 

Saturday, April 24th, Bayshore Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the parking loot at the intersection of Bayshore Dive and Ganyard Street. 

Sunday, April 25th, Seminole Wekiva Trail, Sanlando Park, 401 West Highland St. Altamonte Springs, Florida 32714. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the first parking lot on your right after entry. 

Saturday, May 1st, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion next to the tennis courts.

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

Saturday, May 8th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet by the bathrooms. The entrance to Mead is on Denning not Pennsylvania. Some GPS get it wrong. 

For more class information, to sign up or prepay, go here. 

Paper Mulberries are related to bread fruit. Photo by Green Deane

Also nearing fruit is the Paper Mulberry. For many years it was in the same genus as the other mulberries but was farmed out on it’s own. Oddly it is closely related to the Jackfruit, a resemblance that can be seen in the unripe fruit center that looks a small Jackfruit about the size as a large marble. As the name implies the bark of the species was used for thousands of years to make paper and also clothes. It, too, has young leaves that are edible cooked but, like Kudzu, they have a fuzzy texture issue that cooking does not moderate. The core of the mulberry fruit grows a covering of hair that eventually makes the fruit look like a small orange pompom. That’s the part that is edible. Another sidelight of the Paper Mulberry is that its native habitat is a temperate forest. Apparently if it doesn’t get enough chill hours it doesn’t fruit, particularly here in sub-temperate Florida. Paper Mulberry fruit irregularly in the greater Orlando area. It does fruit in Ocala and further north. I have had reports of it fruiting south of mid-state but I have not seen good evidence of said. You can watch a video about it here or read about the Paper Mulberry here.

You can forage in a city if you pay attention to some details.

Where do you forage? It’s a question I am asked often and I will provide link to a newsletter three years ago where I explore the topic. The question I was asked this week was more in relation to cities. I am not opposed to foraging downtown and actually hold an annual foraging class in  downtown Wointer Park. It only requires a little more attention to detail. The only significant problem with “reclaimed” water is that it is higher in nitrates. The plants grow better. As more plants — other than perhaps the Palmer Amaranth — don’t sequester nitrates plants watered with reclaimed water don’t bother me. Plants in planters don’t bother me if they are maintain. Removing weeds can remove unwanted chemicals. Watered beds above the drainage line of the street or parking lot are usually okay. It is lower areas where run off collects that I do avoid. Here is the link.

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

150-video USB would be a good 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.

Your donations to upgrade the EatTheWeeds website and fund a book were appreciated. A book manuscript has been turned it. It had 423 articles, 1315 plants and a third of a million words. What it will be when the publisher is done with it next year is unknown. Writing it took a significant chunk of time out of my life from which I have still not recovered. (Many things got put off.) The next phase is to update all the content on the website between now and publication date. Also note as it states above the 135-video DVD set has been phased out for 150-video USB. Times and formats change.

Brookweed grows bitter quickly. Photo by Green Deane

There is an edible species I don’t see often, actually at just one location, Sarasota. It is found throughout most of North America except the high plains states. Brookweed, Samolus valerandi, is an ancient edible plant found throughout most of the world that few know a lot about these days. Even Professor Daniel Austin, who managed to write 909 pages about plants, could only scrape together one paragraph on page 596 of his book Florida Ethnobotany. Brookweed has a history as an edible in Europe (as old books say it is found in the Old and the New World and even in Australia.) It grows in watery conditions and can tolerate some salinity. At least one related species tolerates high salinity. Young leaves are soft, spinach-like. When very young the leaves are bland but quickly develop a bitter flavor, which might explain their absence from the dinner menu but found in the home pharmacy. Like many such greens they were tossed into salads with a lot of other greens. In Catalonia, for example, it is a very common salad addition usually with two to three other greens. When cooked they are used the same way, an addition to not the main flavor of. In parts of Africa it is famine food, that is, eaten when preferred food is not available. It is high in vitamin C. 

This is weekly newsletter #454 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.

Jewels of Opar sound right out of a movie.

Learning wild edibles has a sense of discovery to it. One day a friend said she had an edible in her yard with a strange name: The Jewels of Opar. If that sounds like something out of a Indiana Jones movie you’re close. It was novel with the Indiana Jones of his day: Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. It was the fifth book of Edgar Rice Burroughs and appeared in 1916. The plant is supposedly native to warmer areas of the United States. However, Dr. Daniel Austin did not include it in this 909-page book Florida Ethnobotany. 

Related to Purslane Jewles of Opar are used in similar ways. One source, Cornucopia II, calls it the Caruru and Flameflower and says: “The leaves and stems are blanched and used in green salads, cooked in soups, or eaten like purslane.”  Others call it Javense Ginger and say the long orange root cause be used that way, as a flavoring. A Chinese report says the roots can be stewed with meat. Because of that report and another we know some of the leaves nutrients.

Talium paniculatum can be used like purslane.

100 gram have 15 calories, 1.19 grams of protein, 0.31 grams of fat, 2.02 grams of fiber, 0.939 grams of carbohydrates. Potassium is 304 mg, calcium 78 mg, magnesium 61 mg, sodium 5.1 mg, iron 4.71 mg, phosphorus 0.73 mg, zinc 0.27 mg, no vitamin A or C reported but it has 1316 mcg of beta-carotene which is a vitamin A precursor. 

Botanically the Jewels of Opar are Talinum paniculatum. (tah-LINE-uhm puh-nick-you-LAH-tum.)  Talinum is new Dead Latin for a native Sengal name for the plant. Paniculatum means like a panicle. Unfortunately its reporting is sporadic, a few counties here, a few counties there, from South Carolina to Texas. No doubt it is more wide-spread but has not be officially found by an official botanist and approved by an official botanical state committee. It is listed in five areas in Florida. 

The species is somewhat tart because of oxalic acid. Hexane extract proved “outstanding” against Micrococcus luteus and Candida albicans. The species has Campesterol, stigmasterol, and sitosterol. 

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

Jewels of Opar distribution

IDENTIFICATION: Mucilaginous leaves are flat, glossy, to four inches long, half as wide, growing in thick whorls, has whispy pink flowers and dark red fruit. Roots are long and orange. 

TIME OF YEAR: Year round

ENVIRONMENT: Moist areas, well drained soil, warm weather, intolerant of frost, prefers full sun but can grow in partial shade. 

METHOD OF PREPARATION:Shoots and leaves eaten raw or in stews and soups,  Used in folk medicine extensively used ornamental. 

Wild Violet. Photo by Green Deane

A common blossom 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. 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.

False Hawk’s Beard like cooler weather. Photo by Green Deane

Also making itself better know now is a Dandelion relative, the False Hawk’s Beard. While one can find it all year this edible favors the spring. It’s a very common lawn invader and can occasionally get up to a couple of feet tall. Young leaves are eaten raw, older leaves which can be tougher and a bit bitter, can be boiled. I have a Croatian friend who also cooks up the roots, too.  They can be easily distinguished from the Dandelion by the flower stalk which is branched (unlike the Dandelion which has one straight stalk.) Also the False Hawk’s Beard can have blossoms in all  stages of development at the same time, unopened,  open, and going to seed. I have a video on it here . You can read more about the False Hawk’s Beard here.

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

Spanning the state the weekend with foraging classes. The Melbourne class is about full but there’s plenty of room still in the Sunday class in Port Charlotte. 

Sunday January 31st, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon, meet in the parking lot at Ganyard and Bayshore. 

Saturday February 6th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. to noon, meet at the pavilion by the pump house. 

Sunday, February 7th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m. to noon. The entrance is on the west side off Denning  not the east side off Pennsylvania. Some GPS maps are wrong. Meet near the bathrooms.  

Sunday, February 14th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the dog park pavilion.

Sunday, February 21st, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405, 9 .a.m. to noon. Meet just north of the science center. 

Sunday February 28th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. 9 a.m. to noon, meet in the parking lot at Ganyard and Bayshore. 

Saturday, March 6th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon. 

Sunday, March 7th, Mead Gardens, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m. to noon. The entrance is on the west side off Denning  not the east side off Pennsylvania. Some GPS maps are wrong. Meet near the bathrooms. 

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

Stinkhorn Mushroom. Photo by Green Deane

Many cheeses have a strong aroma. My mother likened them to dirty socks. She was not a cheese eater, nor did she eat mushrooms. Just as well. We have a very smelly mushroom which when young smells quite tasty but when past the juvenile stage smells like a dead animal. It’s the stink horn. There are many stink horns. This one is Clathrus columnatus. Opinions vary whether it is edible in the “egg” stage. I don’t conveniently see them that often in the “egg” stage to give them a try. Phallus ravenelii is definitely edible in the egg stage and has a flavor similar to radish. 

The Bay Bean has huge seed pods. Photo by Green Deane.

Weed Seeds: You can plant many weed seeds to get a crop of edible weeds closer to home, if not in your own yard (now you know why my putting-green neighbors loathe me.) Weeds are designed to take care of themselves and do quite well even when ignored. I have planted wild radish, peppergrass, chickeweed, purslane and crowsfoot grass on my “lawn” and they have done quite well. Many weeds can be planted in your garden. Chinopodiums and amaranth are two that need very little encouraging. Make them a row, barely cover the seeds with soil and you will have a mess o’ greens. Mustards are a bit pickier to grow. Their seeds, such as peppergrass, should be stored in a dry area for about four months between 50 and 68 degrees F for optimum germination.  A cellar stairs is just about perfect for that, or outdoors in a Florida winter. Other seeds need special treatment.

Pokeweed seeds before soaking in battery acid

Pokeweed seeds are a good example. Their germination rate is very low, around 6 percent, if not treated. What’s treated? Replicating a bird’s gut. Soaking the seeds in battery acid for five minutes increases the germination rate into the 90s. You can buy the battery acid at auto stores. One container will last you decades. Once treated, plant successive rows of pokeweed seeds and have a lot of pokeweed from your garden. You can harvest the shoots or let them turn into big roots that will send up shoots annually.

If you’re more inclined to grow roots consider the groundnut. Just take tuber home, put it in the garden and wait, two years unfortunately but they will produce and produce well. Twenty years ago agriculturists at the University of Louisiana were trying hard to make the groundnut a commercial crop. Unfortunately when the professor in charge of the program retired so did much of that program. Groundnuts can also be grown from seeds, but the process is more involved. Video here. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

150-video USB or 135 video DVD set would be a good winter present and either is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been selling for seven years and are still available. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy.  A second option is a16-gig USB that has those 135 videos plus 15 more. While the videos can be run from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The150-video USB is $99 and the 135-video DVD set is now $99. The DVDs will be sold until they run out then will be exclusively replaced by the USB. This is a change I’ve been trying to make for several years. So if you have been wanting the 135-video DVD set order it now as the price is reduced and the supply limited. Or you can order the USB. My headache is getting my WordPress Order page changed to reflect these changes. We’ve been working on it for several months. However, if you want to order now either the USB or the DVD set make a $99 “donation” using the link at the bottom of this page or here.  That order form provides me with your address, the amount — $99 — tells me it is not a donation and in the note say if you want the DVD set or the USB. 

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.

This is weekly newsletter #442. 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.

Wild Garlic filling a shallow ditch in Largo Florida. In a few month there will be thousand of garlic cloves. Photo by Green Deane.

Wild Garlic wearing its spring break look. Photo by Green Deane

Every April or so we go looking for Wild Garlic (or Wild Onion if you prefer.) That’s when our local Allium is putting  cloves on top. It’s a neat plant, onion on bottom, cloves on top, edible green in between. I look forward to them every spring. It really didn’t cross my mind that they were growing for several months before the spring and one should be able to find them in the late fall. We did this past Sunday during a foraging class in Largo. This wild Allium is not extroverted until it puts on its cloves in late season. But, if you know where to look it’s easy to find and we did. It was happily growing and just as pungent as ever. We all took some home to eat and plant. It’s a friendly family. If it looks like a garlic or and onion and smells like a garlic or an onion it’s edible. But you have to have both, looks and aroma at the same time. To learn more about our Wild Garlic go here.  

Big Caltrop is not that big. Photo by Green Deane

While the Wild Allium is coming into its season the Big Caltrop, Kallstroemia maxima, is ending. It’s a wild edible you see now and then usually in disturbed soil. In Ocala I see it in athletic fields under construction, in Largo around the round metal plates coving water mains. At first you think you’ve found Purslane, at least from a distance. But the leaves and blossoms are different as is the growing pattern. Prostrate, the new yellow flowers form a small cup.  The edible is either a famine food or an acquired taste. It’s closely related to Puncture Vine, Tribulus terrestris, which is also marginally edible but comes with a lot of hormonal baggage. Usually you won’t find Big Clatrop in pastures because it sickens domestic livestock and is very toxic to sheep. Ranchers get rid of it. Oddly, Largo, where our class was, used to be a working farm. When the cows are away the Caltrop will play. You can read more about it here.  

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

Foraging Classes: One foraging class this weekend in Sarasota. They have done some burning there but I think we can still find some plants. Private class plans for this Saturday fell through so that date is open if anyone is interested. 

Sunday, November 29th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon. There are about 12 parking places and a residential street across the street that can be used.

Saturday, December 5th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion next to the tennis courts next to the YMCA building.

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

Sunday, December 13th, Turtle Mound: Canaveral National Seashore Park, New Smyrna Beach Fl. A foraging class at this location requires some flexibility. There is a fee to get into the park. We start at Turtle Mound but there is limited parking. However, there is a ranger station visitor center just south of the mound with parking there, too. After the mound we will drive to the next beachside parking area to look around beach side.  Then we move a second time to visit what is left of Eldora once a busy town on the inland waterway.   

And don’t forget my free Urban Crawl class December 18th, staring at Panera’s in Winter Park, at 10 a.m.

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

Ghost Pipes were Emily Dickerson’s favorite plant. Photo by Green Deane

This year, after my book manuscript is delivered, I plan to rewrite every article on my website. It’s long overdue. Typos, awkward phrases, different names, outdated terms and late-night wine writing all need to be revised. If my site is to outlive me it needs to be in better shape. But one article I have always liked is my one on Ghost Pipes. It aways seemed to me to be a standard I’d like to follow with every plant though that is perhaps not possible. One of the goals of a writer is to write articles that the reader can read and afterwards have no questions. There are no “holes” in the story. I’ve been reminded of that write-up often this past fortnight as Ghost Pipes have been populating my mushroom pages. Ghost Pipes are not mushrooms. They are chlorophyll-less plants that live like mushrooms. Are they edible? The white ones are, the red-streaked ones might be medicinal. But perhaps they are best left alone and are not that common locally. We saw some this week in Melbourne during a foraging class. Mark the date and location for next year. You can read about them here. 

Balm of Gilead leaves.

For some reasons unknown to me Thanksgiving reminds me of two things. The first is the tree Balm of Gilead. Properly that is Populus balsamifera (remember in Dead Latin “ifera” or some form of that means producing. So that is balm-producing popular.) I am not sure that was the huge Popular near the barn where I grew up but that’s what my mother called. However she said those three words, Balm of Gilead, as one with a thick Maine accent: bah-mah-GILL-ee-id. It took me a couple of decades to realize the name had three words. You can read about it here.  Though my mother was a Mayflower descendant Thanksgiving eluded her culinary skills which were non-existent. Thanksgivings were always memorable but for all the wrong reasons. When I am asked how I got started eating wild plants I say “because my mother was a horrible cook.” 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

A 150-video USB or 135 video DVD set would be a good winter present and either is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been selling for seven years and are still available. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy.  A second option is a16-gig USB that has those 135 videos plus 15 more. While the videos can be run from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The150-video USB is $99 and the 135-video DVD set is now $99. The DVDs will be sold until they run out then will be exclusively replaced by the USB. This is a change I’ve been trying to make for several years. So if you have been wanting the 135-video DVD set order it now as the price is reduced and the supply limited. Or you can order the USB. My headache is getting my WordPress Order page changed to reflect these changes. We’ve been working on it for several weeks. However, if you want to order now either the USB or the DVD set make a $99 “donation” using the link at the bottom of this page or here.  That order form provides me with your address, the amount — $99 — tells me it is not a donation and in the note say if you want the DVD set or the USB. 

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.

This is weekly newsletter #433. 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.

Lion’s Mane is an edible fungi that’s difficult to misidentify. Photo by Green Deane

Lion’s Mane fries up nicely. 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 a foraging class in Jacksonville last Saturday. 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.

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

Foraging Classes: Going coast to coast this weekend with a class in Melbourne and one in Largo. It’s nice time of year to forage, not too hot, not too cold, not to humid. 

Saturday, November 21st, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335.  9 a.m. to noon. 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.)

Sunday, November 22nd, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. Situated in Largo on the Pinellas peninsula it’s a large park with a variety of different environments.

Sunday, November 29th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon. There are about 12 parking places and a residential street across the street that can be used.

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

When Sea Purslane sequesters salt it turns pink. Photo by Green Deane

Sea purslane is not seasonal but it does favor the spring by putting on a lot of new shoots. By the time autumn falls the plant has been isolating salt from the water which turns its stems red. Thus one uses green stems as greens (boiled, roasted or stuffed in a fish or the like you are cooking) and the red stems for salt or seasoning. The older stems also get a woody core so one usually does not eat them. Young greens can be tossed right on the grill and wilted for a wonderful flavor. Sea purslane will also happily grow in your non-salty garden. It competes successfully in salty areas but does not have to be in salty ground. If you grow it at home it is not salty. To read more about sea purslane go here.

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

My annual Urban Crawl is coming up, my tenth on Dec. 18th. 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 fee class Friday Dec. 18th 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. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

A 150-video USB or 135 video DVD set would be a good winter present and either is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been selling for seven years and are still available. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy.  A second option is a16-gig USB that has those 135 videos plus 15 more. While the videos can be run from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The150-video USB is $99 and the 135-video DVD set is now $99. The DVDs will be sold until they run out then will be exclusively replaced by the USB. This is a change I’ve been trying to make for several years. So if you have been wanting the 135-video DVD set order it now as the price is reduced and the supply limited. Or you can order the USB. My headache is getting my WordPress Order page changed to reflect these changes. We’ve been working on it for several weeks. However, if you want to order now either the USB or the DVD set make a $99 “donation” using the link at the bottom of this page or here.  That order form provides me with your address, the amount — $99 — tells me it is not a donation and in the note say if you want the DVD set or the USB. 

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.

Our little native plantain is ramping up its seasonal appearance. Photo by Green Deane

This is weekly newsletter #432. 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.

These prime Ringless Honey Mushrooms are cespitose, all growing out of one spot. Photo by Green Deane.

No one told the Ringless Honey Mushrooms it isn’t November. This controversial mushroom usually shows up in Central Florida during the first two weeks of the eleventh month. And, depending upon the weather, can have a minor flush in April or so. But we saw some Saturday in Blanchard Park east of Orlando and there have been sporadic reports of them on the Florida Mushroom Identification Forum. If you live farther north — Georgia, the Carolinas — now is the season to see them. Why are they controversial? Because some experts consider them “choice” eating and others view them as non-edible. I like them. I cook the young caps about twice as long as other mushrooms. To me they have a hint of maple syrup flavor. Some people can’t eat them unless they have been cooked twice. Without said they cause some digestive upset. And I know one person who can’t eat them even when cooked twice (such as parboiling then frying.) Usually the stems are not eaten but are used to make broth. Last year I dehydrated some 80 pounds of them. You can read about them here and watch my video here. 

“Cloves” are the dried buds of a Syzygium.

A month ago we mentioned here that the Syzygiums were fruiting. That mostly included S. cumini also known as the Java Plum and Jambul. I’m making wine out of that. There are a few Jambuls in Orlando and certainly dozens in West Palm Beach. I know they also grow well in Sarasota and Port Charlotte where I think they are naturalized. Both Syzygium jambos and Syzygium samaragense are called the Rose Apple and Java Apple (and many other names as well.)  There also is a Syzygium in your kitchen is S. aromaticum. You know the dried flower buds as “cloves.”  As the species have been in foraging news lately I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and write a second article on the genus, or at least the latest one. You can read that article here and you can read about the Jambul here. 

Classes are held rain or shine.

Last week the weather gods smiled favorably upon us. We did experience a few showers during our class in east Orlando but because of timing we found shelters to stay dry. Our fears that Sunday’s class in West Palm Beach would a rain out because of Hurricane Sally were unfounded. Not only did we not have any showers but it was lowery (overcast and cool) but had a nice breeze. It made for a very comfortable class. This week my foraging classes are in Gainesville and just south of Daytona Beach at Spruce Creek. There we might see blossoming Goji berries. It depends upon the weather. 

Saturday September 19th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. (There may not be any bathrooms at this location so plan accordingly.) 

Sunday September 20th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the Pavilion. 

Saturday, September 26th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981, 9 a.m. to noon. This location does not have an official bathroom. Plan accordingly. 

Sunday, September 27th, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk.  

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

The leaves of Heartwing sorrel resemble a knife hilt. Photo by Green Deane

In some parts of the country fall is upon the landscape and final harvesting is underway before plants shut down for the winter. When I was a boy in Maine this meant scrumping apples and concord grapes. Locally our winter foraging season is just starting and while it is still warm one edible to start looking for is the Heartwing Sorrel. This tart Rumex is closely related to Sheep’s Sorrel — sometimes is called that — and is used the same way, usually as an addition to salads. This time of year there will be a plant here and a plant there. Look along grassy trails, pastures or fields particularly in northern areas. In a few months locally it can cover an entire field with a ruddy pink blanket of ripening seeds.  To read more about the Heartwing Sorrel go here.

Bacopa blossoms all year but it likes the spring. Photo by Green Deane

There are six Bacopa in Florida but we are interested mainly in one, Water Hyssop, Bacopa monnieri. It’s a very bitter herb that looks like dwarf purslane except it’s all green.  Water Hyssop has four- or five-petaled blossoms. They can be off-white, light blue or even light pink. You find the plant growing in damp or inundated areas. It is the only Bacopa with one crease on the back of its leaf. What’s interesting about Water Hyssop is that two different studies show it can increase memory function. The plant causes a gene to upregulate or “express itself.” This means the DNA in the gene can stretch, literally like a spring losing tension. This in turn causes the gene to make a protein. That protein causes the hippocampus to make new memory cells. It takes three months for the difference to be noticed.  You can read about the Bacopas here and here. 

Ground Nut blossoms look pretty but smell bad.

Blossoming now and making it easy to spot are Ground Nuts, or Apios americana. This is a vine found in wet spots nearly everywhere east of the Rockies. It has clusters of maroon pea blossoms, which means “wings and keels.” The four petals of pea blossoms arrange themselves differently than most blossoms. Two flare out and two form together creating what looks like a boat’s keel and two wings. Grounds Nuts are a foraging staple and were also the second plant product exported from the New World to the Old World. The first was Sassafras wood. While we find Ground Nuts in damp spots they will happily grow in a regular garden producing edible tubers for many years. More to the point, once you know what the underground tubers look like you can easily identify them anywhere you find them. To learn more about Ground Nuts go here.

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

Changing foraging videos:  My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been selling for seven years and are still available. They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy.  A second option is a16-gig USB that has those 135 videos plus 15 more. While the videos can be run from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The150-video USB is $99 and the 135-video DVD set is now $99. The DVDs will be sold until they run out then will be exclusively replaced by the USB. This is a change I’ve been trying to make for several years. So if you have been wanting the 135-video DVD set order it now as the price is reduced and the supply limited. Or you can order the USB. My headache is getting my WordPress Order page changed to reflect these changes. We’ve been working on it for several weeks. However, if you want to order now either the USB or the DVD set make a $99 “donation” using the link at the bottom of this page or here.  That order form provides me with your address, the amount — $99 — tells me it is not a donation and in the note say if you want the DVD set or the USB. 

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.

This is weekly newsletter #423, 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.

Tindora, or Ivy Gourd, is a hated and appreciated escaped vegetable. Photo by Green Deane

Ivy Gourd fruit ripens to red. Photo by Green Deane

If you have an established Ivy Gourd you know what this entry will be about: They are fruiting now and will do so until cold weather some eight or nine months from now.  The Ivy Gourd has a schizophrenic status. It’s an escaped Asian vegetable that grows well locally and is nearly pest free. It seems resistant to most virus and fungus but is attacked about now for three weeks by some lava. I just cut them out and eat the rest. Because the Ivy Gourd is so prolific and resistant it’s popular with home gardeners and permaculturists. On the other side of the issue as it’s not native it is on the radar of the Native Plant Society and the state as an invasive. I personally don’t know how invasive it is because while it’s available but I don’t see it too often in my wanderings.  I find it an excellent vegetable, either when green or ripe red. It will probably grow in popularity as more and more people follow permaculture and front yard gardening. To see a video about the Ivy Gourd go here, to read about Ivy Gourd go here.

Swinecress is an easy to identify mustard.

Found in abundance this past Sunday in Melbourne was Swinecress. I look for this mustard relative in lawn-like settings usually after the New Year and until warm weather. (This week we will be unseasonally in the 90’s.) There are a couple of notable aspects to Swinecress. One is that its flavor grows in intensity as you eat it. It begins mild and then expands. The other is that once it is seeding it’s nearly impossible to misidentify (and one of the few times the botanical name actually helps us identify the species.) From a flavor point of view it would make a good commercial crop but it’s usually a low grower and relatively small compared to other winter greens. I think it would be a fine plant for the home winter garden. You can read about “naughty” Swinecress here. 

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

The foraging class Saturday, March 28th at Haulover Canal, Merritt Island, has been canceled because the federal area is close because of Covid-19. And no one signed up for the Sunday class at Spruce Creek. I will leave the April schedule as it is for now.  I am available for private classes. See my class page. 

Saturday, April 4th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Port Charlotte, FL, 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street.

Sunday, April 5th,  because of closures int Orange County this has been changed to Colby-Alderman Park in Cassadaga. 9 a.m. to noon, meet near the bathrooms. 

For more information about classes go here. 

A cashew apple is edible and used to make a drink called Feni.

One of the more strange trees is the cashew. The species is closely related to poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, edible sumac, mangos, and pistachios. The cashew itself is an exceptionally toxic tree. The cashew “seed” is actually an enclosed nut inside an enclosed shell. It is surrounded by a toxic sap. The sap is dangerous. The process of making the seed edible is dangerous. While the end product is a tasty nut it is among the least nutritious of tree seeds. Oddly the cashew “apple” is quite edible and before Hurricane Irma we saw them in West Palm Beach. The storm took them out. You can read more about the cashew here.

Leggy Henbit closing out our winter season. Photo by Green Deane

I saw some Henbit yesterday though we are approaching April. In northern climates it’s one of the first green plants to pop up after the snow goes (it and chickweed.) Locally Henbit likes the cooler months of the year. It was esteemed by the natives because among all the spring greens it’s not spicy but rather mild if not on the sweet side. Henbit is commonly used in salads but can get lost amid stronger flavors. 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. What can be confusing about it is that the leaf shape and stem length is different from young to old leaves. But they all have a scalloped shape. It also has a similar looking, darker relative that is also edible called Dead Nettle. I have a video about it here and an article here.

Extra large wild purslane. Photo by Green Deane

The Common Purslane is probably native to India or thereabouts (though that is debatable) and is found nearly around the world. Nearly everywhere it grows all above-ground parts are on the menu except in the United States. Why Purslane is not on  main stream grocery store shelves in this country is a mystery. I see it growing everywhere and a lot of it goes home with me for supper or transplanted into the garden. It’s not known for taking up bad chemicals so often all it needs is to be rinsed off. I saw some extremely large pusrlane that dwarfed my sunglasses. As for the commercial varieties of purslane one sees in nurseries and the like they are generally not considered edible. You can see a video here, To read more about Purslane go here. 

Foraging DVDs

Though your foraging may drop off  during Covid-19 travel bans it’s a great time to study wild edibles with my nine DVD set. Each  DVDs has 15 videos for 135 in all (that’s $1 a video.) They make a great gift. Order today by the set or individual videos. Some of these videos are of better quality than my free ones on the Internet. They are the same videos but many people like to have their own copy. I burn and compile the sets myself so if you have any issues I handle them personally. There are no middle foragers. I also made more to cope with the quarantines and replace lost class income. To learn more about the DVDs or to order them click here.

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, forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Several hard-to-find books are there page for page. Recent posts this week include Spring 2020 Plantings, Light Purple Flowers and Fuzzy Leaves, Red Blossoms Hanging Down, Edible Privacy Fence, Tendrilizing, Calculating COVID-19 Mortality Rate, Nettle Spanakopita, Pawpaws Starting Early? What are those White Blossoms, Brazilian Pepper Revisited, Palmer Amaranth, In The Loop, Tomatoes: A Fruit First, a Vegetable Second, and Butterweed: Annual Warning.  You can join the Forum by going to the upper right hand top of this page. 

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com have gone well. Thank you to all who have contributed to either via the Go Fund Me link, the PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  There are many needs left such as expanding the foraging teacher page and the page on monotypic edibles. There’s always something and such things get more complex and expensive every year. 

This is weekly newsletter 398, 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.

Below is a Basswood Tree and in suburbia no less. One usually finds them about hammocks and the like. This time of year they are extremely easy to identify. They have a growth attached the fruiting body that resembles a tongue depressor. I have an article on the species here and a video here. 

Photo by Green Deane

Dark Green Wild Garlic filling a low ditch in Largo Florida. In a few month there will be thousand of garlic cloves here… if they don’t mow it. Photo by Green Deane.

Wild Garlic puts the cloves on top. Photo by Green Deane

Plants give you something to look forward to especially if you know where and when to look. We usually harvest Wild Garlic in April because that is when they are the easiest to spot. The species puts garlic cloves on top of the plant and small onions below ground. It also likes damp ground. On the presumption they should be up now I went looking for Wild Garlic in Eagle Lake park this past Saturday and found two patches. As the entire plant is edible one does not have to wait until April to find and use them. This species is also called Wild Onions and is related to “Ramps” found further north. To read more about this species go here. A video on them is here.  

Stinging Nettles are making their seasonal debut. Photo by Green Deane

We found several other species this weekend that are starting their seasonal run. Among them are Chickweed, Goosegrass, Sow Thistle and Stinging Nettles. Last week we saw Chickweed in Gainesville and this Sunday in Orlando. Video here, article here. Goosegrass is still small and was seen along the Seminole-Wekiva Bike Trail. It’s best consumed when young though easier to locate when older. I need to make a video about them this week I think. You can read about Goossegrass here. Sow Thistles can be found nearly anytime but they thrive in our cooler months and there have been sporadic sitings. You can read about them here and a video here. Besides Chickweed the most anticipated winter species is our local Stinging Nettle in the genus Utrica (and not to be confused with Spruge Nettle with is much different and in the genus Cnedoscolus.) Officially there are three Urtica species in Florida but the other two are rare. U. dioica is found only in Alachus County and probably came with northern hay imported for horses there. U. urens is found in four counties: St. Johns, Lake, Orange and Leon. You can read about Stinging Nettle here and watch a video here. Straggling along and worth mentioning are Dandelions. They like acidic soil and cool weather and Florida is a hot limestone plate. Dandelions are at their best in our cooler months. Look for them in lawn-like grass near oaks. They are about a quarter the size of up north. You read about them here and a see video here. 

Sycamores drop a lot of leaves.

If Longfellow had lived elsewhere — say Europe — he might have penned in his famous poem: “Under the shedding Sycamore tree the village smithy stands.” As it was Longfellow wrote about the mighty American chestnut which sadly because of a blight is nearly no more. And while mentioning Longfellow take a look at his picture below left. Most of the photos of him show an old bearded man. This was taken when he was much younger, in 1855, when photography was young, too. And unlike other pictures from that era it’s not staged or posed. It’s more natural and gives us a glimpse of the man and personality. There’s a bit of destiny in Longfellow’s eyes. And what did he do right after the photo was taken? Go out to dinner because he was already dressed up? Or tell the photographer he’s pay him for the (then) very expensive photo next week when one of his new poems sold? When I see old photos like this I wonder what the next moment was like, when they broke pose and went on with living. Photos are frozen slivers of time.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, age 48

Unlike Longfellow’s chestnut tree the Sycamore gets a bad rap because of what you see in the picture above, leaves…. lots of large leaves in the yard. To me it’s attractive fall colors and mulch for the lawn but it’s a headache for homeowners who want carefree landscaping. More to our interest Sycamores are forager friendly. The sap is drinkable and one could make a syrup out of it if one wanted to spend the time and energy. The sap tastes like slightly sweet water and it is already filtered by the tree so also quite safe to drink. The wood is inert so it can be used in a variety of ways with food or cooking, from skewers over the campfire to primitive forks et cetera.  To read more about the maligned Sycamore go here.

Classes are held rain or shine or cold.

Foraging Classes: Because of the holiday weekend coming up there is one class each weekend. My class this Saturday is mid-state at Ft. Meade then next week Port Charlotte. 

Sunday December 22nd, Ft. Meade Outdoor Recreation Area, 1639 Frostproof Highway, Fort Meade, FL 33841. (Frostproof Highway is also Route 98.) 9 a.m to noon. Meet at the second set of bathrooms (in the middle of the park) which is due south from the highway.

Saturday December 28th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte. Meet at the parking lot at the intersection of Bayshore Road and Ganyard Street. 9 a.m. to noon.

Saturday, January 4th, Mead Garden, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL, Meet by the restrooms. 9 a.m. to noon. (Don’t confuse this with Ft. Meade which is a different location above.) 

Sunday, January 5th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. Meet just north of the science center. 9 a.m. to noon.

For more information, to sign up for a class, or to prepay go here.  

Trianthema portulacastrum, Desert Horse Purslane, a potential edible that on a glance can resembles purslane or the Tar Vine.

I’ve noticed a plant locally that looks like Tar Vine. I have foraged Tar Vine  and this plant is similar but it is not quite.  It is very tempting to make it fit the Tar Vine description, particularly when the plant hasn’t blossomed. You must avoid that. Waiting for the blossom is always good form. None of  us are so hungry we must eat a new wild plant immediately  Take your time. The look of Tar Vine that I have in my head lets me see similar pattens in this new plant but also tells me it is not the Tar Vine. I think it might be Trianthema portulacastrum, a possible edible. My problem plant can also resemble purslane at times. You can read more about the “Desert Horse Purslane”  here.

Yellow Pond Lily seeds resemble corn kernels. 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: Asystasia gangetica aka Chinese Violet or Ganges Primrose, Armillaria mellea Ringed Honeys, Acorn Treatment Question, Acorn Questions Any Poisons? A Cure For The Common Cold, Lactifluus piperatus, Elderberry Capers?  You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

The Nine DVD set includes 135 videos.

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

Donations to upgrade EatTheWeeds.com have gone well. Thank you to all who have contributed to either via the Go Fund Me link, the PayPal donation link or by writing to Green Deane POB 941793 Maitland FL, 32794.  There are many needs left such as expanding the foraging teacher page, the page on monotypic edibles and the Plant Archive page. There’s always something and such things get more complex and expensive every year.

Meet in front of Panera’s in Winter Park.

And this Friday, December 20th, will be my ninth, free Urban Crawl, a foraging class held in downtown Winter Park. We meet at 10 a.m. in front of Panera’s, 329 N. Park Avenue (that’s on the north end of Park Avenue, not the south end.) There is free parking west of Panera’s in the parking garage, levels four and five for at least two hours. If you park further way you can get three hours without police scrutiny. We wander around Winter Park stopping at about half way for coffee and a bathroom break at Starbucks on the south end of Park Avenue. We’re usually done by noon or so. No reservation necessary.

This is weekly newsletter 384, 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.