Search: water chestnut

A perfectly ripe tallow plum. Photo by Green Deane

It was mostly a yellow weekend… Tallow Plums, bright yellow when ripe, were in abundance, many waterways are bright with Yellow American lotus, Mahoes are starting to blossom, which are first yellow and later red, Goldenrods are blossoming, and Maypops are fruiting, which turn yellow when ripe. 

American lotus seeds ready for cooking. Photo by Green Deane

Tallow Plums when ripening turn from green to a bright yellow, then darken some as they add sugar and sweeten.  American Lotus seeds are perhaps the best long term storage food in North America. They can remain viable for 400 years. A fully ripe seed has a small plant inside it that is bitter. I boil the seeds like peanuts in the shell, open, split the seed, remove the green part then eat, with some salt. They are not like boiled peanuts but that is the closest comparison. The seeds are far more easy to collect than the edible roots, which are always buried deep in lake or river mud and a long ways from the plant. The one advantage of cultivating this plant is controlling where the root will be.

Edible Mahoe blossoms. Photo by Green Deane

The mahoe is in the hibiscus group and has many edible parts, blossoms, leaves, cambium, and young roots. Blossoms are yellow when they open and if they don’t get pollenated they turn deep red. It’s relative, the seaside mahoe, also has edible blossoms and leaves. Unfortunately both species like to be within about 15 miles of the coast in warmer area, so I see them often in south Florida, the mahoe inland, the seaside on the beach. Blossoms are edible raw or cooked.  

Goldenrod is ruderal. What does that mean? Read the article. Photo by Green Deane

In blossom now and seen last week at Gainesville is Goldenrod. It is a bit of a treasure hunt and disappointment. The treasure hunt is that one species is better than all the rest for tea, Solidago odora. It does grow here, has an anise flavor, but is hard to find. It’s reported in most counties but is not common. Goldenrod grows in about half of the United States, southwest to northeast. Other Goldenrod species can also be made into tea, perhaps all of them particularly for herbal applications, but they don’t taste anywhere near as good as the Anise one.  In fact, after the “Boston Tea Party” of 1773 halted tea imports colonialists drank Goldenrod tea and even exported some to China. It did not catch on. However, every time I see a Goldenrod I pull off a leaf and crush it hoping to detect the tell-tale anise smell. It’s a golden treasure hunt.

A almost ripe Maypop. Photo by Green Deane

One last palatable yellow edible is the Maypop, Passiflora incarnata. One rarely find the ripe yellow fruit because many woodland creatures like them. We saw several green ones in Gaineville this past weekend. The green fruit has two stages. Green with plain-tasting seeds inside, then later with sweet and sour seeds inside, lastly then yellow with sweet and sour seeds. If the yellow ones are not eaten they either dihydrate or rot on the ground. One can eat a little of the green fruit raw, or cook them like a green tomato. The yellow ones can be eaten raw in moderation.  The cooked leaves — which smell like a rubber gym shoe — can also be eaten and have a calming effect caused by their GABA content, Gamma aminobutyric acid.

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

Foraging Classes. On the west side of Florida this weekend:

Saturday, August 13th, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot. 9 a.m.

Sunday, August 14th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte, meet at the parking lot at Bayshore and Ganyard Street. 9 a.m.

Saturday, August 20th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789.  Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m.

Sunday, August 21st, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd.,  Jacksonville, 32246. We meet at Building A next to the administration parking lot.  9 a.m.

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

Eating Saw Palmetto fruit is a challenge.

Also turning yellow this month but far less palatable are Saw Palmetto berries. This month they usually change from green to golden and by September from gold to black. That’s when they are at their best and taste like vomit. Dehydrating them or soaking in vodka does not improve them much, but they have all the essential amino acids we need so they are good for you, you just have to learn to tolerate the flavor… like an intense blue cheese with at lot of hot pepper. Find them soon or the poaching industry will take them. One thing I have never tried and our readers who are chefs might, is using them for flavoring. Their initial flavor is intense and sweet. I will dry some this year for powdering, maybe mix with salt. 

You get the USB, not the key.

Changing foraging videos: As my WordPress pages are being updated the video set will go away.  They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy. The DVD format, however, is becoming outdated. Those 135 videos plus 36 more are now available on a USB drive. While the videos were played from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The 171-video USB is $99. If you 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 is for 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.

Boerhavia erecta. Photo by Green Deane

As mentioned above foraging is like treasure hunting. While pedaling once in Apopka I had to stop at an intersection and noticed some Boerhavia diffusa. It’s a common barely edible probably from India or near there. One usually finds it in somewhat trashy ground such as sidewalk cracks, parking lots, and dumps. So when I stopped at the intersection it was no surprise to see Boerhavia growing there. But growing next to it was a white Boerhavia. That I had never seen. And the leaves were more pointed than the common species. A little bit of research suggests I found B. erecta, which surprisingly is a Florida native. It has spread to other parts of the world, however, and is reportedly edible and medicinal like B. difussa. After a bit more research I might have to update my article on the species. Until then you can read about the ruby-blossomed B. diffusa here.

Sumacs are in blossom. Photo by Green Deane

What is that? It’s a common question locally now that sumacs are in bloom. Their creamy terminal blossoms stand out looking somewhat exotic among the dark green foliage. The most common species here is Winged Sumac which is also one of the most widely-distributed sumac in North America. It’s found nearly everywhere though in different locales other species may dominate.  Where I grew up in Maine Staghorn Sumac was the common species and grew quite tall. I see them often when I visit North Carolina. The key to making sure you have an edible sumac and not toxic Poison Sumac or Brazilian Pepper is location of the blossom and subsequent fruit. Edible sumacs have terminal clusters of medium to dark red berries covered with fine hair. In this case “terminal” means they are on the very end of  the branch, like the blossom on the left. Brazilian Pepper has pink berries that are further down the branch. Poison Sumac, which only grows only in wet places, has dull cream to green-cream berries also further down on the stem. To read more about sumacs go here. 

Poison ivy is itchy and lasts or days.

Me and Poison Ivy. My mother was highly resistant to it. I am not. In fact it is quite predictable. Get exposed Sunday Morning, I will have skin eruptions Tuesday morning, some 48 hours later. In our foraging class in Gaineville Sunday I dug up some winged yams among poison Ivy. As there was no detergent and water around I used hand sanitizer on exposed parts. I feel lucky to only have it on my right hand and wrist. Think of poison ivy oil as an invisible bike chain grease. It requires more than washing but rubbing off as well. Current thinking is everyone is born with a certain amount of resistance to it and each exposure reduces that resistance. Folks who think they are immune are the ones who usually end up in the hospital with it because they don’t avoid poison ivy. What the oil does is make proteins in live skin cells sticky, and then the body can’t communicate with the stuck cells thus chooses to get rid of them. I once got poison ivy from the feathers of a duck. (You can also get it from pet fur.) Only humans, some primates and guinea pigs get poison ivy. 

This is weekly newsletter #519, 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 Chanterelles and wild rice. Photo by Green Deane

It was a mushroom Saturday. After our foraging class we went mushroom hunting and took home pounds of chanterelles, Old Man of the Woods, and milk caps. There were more Old Men than I had even seen. I had some chanterelles with scramble eggs and ghee for breakfast this morning. There are some 81 edible species of mushrooms in Florida and our best season is after late spring or early summer rains.

Sugarberries/Hackberries are starting to ripen.

There is a tree you should be scouting for now so when the fruit ripens next month you’ll have some already located. As in real estate so in foraging: Location, location, location. Hackberries (also widely know as Sugarberries) like to be near but not in fresh water. You can often find them about 10 feet above the local water table but I’ve seen them as low as three feet. Usually you can find them up the bank from the water. Older Hackberry bark will often be warty, sometimes heavily so. Leaves have uneven shoulders, and on the back side of the leaf notice three prominent veins at the base, unusual for tree leaves. The small-pea sized fruit is green now but will ripen this month or early September into a burnt orange. The entire fruit is edible though the seed is hard. To read more about them go here.

Murdannia nudiflora,

Doveweed, Murdannia nudiflora, might be the smallest non-floating edible plant in the United States. Barely known, easily overlooked, yet very invasive. It pays to be small. For some young Doveweed is prime for soups, others view it as famine food. I can understand that. It’s closely related to a genus that gives me an upset stomach, the Commelinas (Dayflowers.)  I use only Doveweed blossoms in my salad. To anyone used to finding Dayflowers the Doveweed will look familiar but only a few inches tall. It also has a lot of common names around the world including “Micky Mouse.” To read more about the Doveweed, go here.

Isabelline Whetear

To my knowledge I’ve never met anyone named Isabell. So when the word “isabelline” cross my optical path about plants I had to look into it. “Isabell” means “God’s promise” presumably a positive one. It was very popular girl’s name in the 1880s, all but disappear until 2003 whereupon it had a resurgence in popularity until 2007. Now it is on the wane again. But what is isabelline?  There are three application of which I have also apparently never heard of.  One is what we could call Spanish Gothic Architecture. King and queen Ferdinand and Isabella got Columbus launched then turned to building cathedrals and the like. That style is called Isabelline, properly capitalized. I’m surprised they didn’t called it Ferdinine. The second use is a color: Isabelline. A color? Yes, and the word has been in use for at least 400 years so it is not a paint-store invention like “Baby Fawn.”

A Himalayan Brown Bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus.)

Isabelline “means a light yellow-gray and used mostly to describe mushrooms, animals and birds. There is the Isabelline Wheateater, see above right, the Isabelline Shrike, and the Isabelline Bear, left. Horses that are a cross between a Golden Palomino and a Champagne Palomino are also called Isabelline. Now, what of the third use? Well… ahem….Isabelline is also a reference to faded underwear. The story comes from when Philip II of Spain laid siege to the berg of Ostend in 1601. His daughter, Isabella, Archduchess of Austria, made a rather presumptuous vow not to change her underwear until the city was taken, thinking dad would be home by supper, lunch by Sunday for sure… Unfortunately for Isabell — and those around her — the siege took three years. Thus the color of dingy underwear is “isabelline.”

Foraging classes:  My Saturday’s class — Sarasota — is a couple of hours closer for me. My Sunday class –Gainesville — will be nearly a five hour drive for me, such is the results of moving. 

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

Saturday, August 6th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233, 9 a.m. Meet at the playground. 

Sunday, August 7th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL 32641. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. 9 a.m.

Saturday, August 13th, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot. 9 a.m.

Sunday, August 14th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte, meet at the parking lot at Bayshore and Ganyard Street. 9 a.m.

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

I find Russian Thistles in front of hotels on Daytona Beach. Photo by Green Deane

We shouldn’t forage along railroad tracks and you can blame it all on the Russian Thistle. This species, best known as the tumble weed that rolls across the wild west in movies, came with immigrants to southern South Dakota in the early 1870’s. Best guess is it contaminated their flax seed. By 1895  it reached New Jersey and California. The question was how? A professor who worked for the Department of Agriculture figured out the trains were spreading the seeds coast to coast. It was a remarkable idea at the time and brought him much fame. His solution to the unintentional distribution? Kill plants long railroad tracks. Thus began the practice of putting down some mighty and long-lasting chemicals to kill weeds sprouting amongst the iron rails. Railroad tracks are a good place to find seeds to take home and plant but not to find food. There have even been a few reported deaths from foraging along rail road tracks.

Saw palmetto berries half way to ripe.

As we are inching into  August and Saw Palmetto Berries are turning from green to gold. In another month they will be black and edible (so to speak.) Many folks find the flavor of Saw Palmetto berries revolting. I am not sure they are an “acquired” taste or a tolerated one. You will either be able to eat them or not. Basically they tastes like vomit. To be a little more gracious they taste like intense blue cheese with some burning hot pepper tossed in. Once you get used to them they are… endurable. But if you were hungry you would crave them in that they have all the amino acids humans need to be healthy. They are good for you even if you don’t like them. As with some fruit — Durian for example — the smell is enough to dissuade many people from eating them. Saw Palmetto berries will be ripening for the next month or so thus you have plenty of time to try one.

You get the USB, not the key.

Changing foraging videos: As my WordPress pages are being updated the video set will go away.  They are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have a separate copy. The DVD format, however, is becoming outdated. Those 135 videos plus 36 more are now available on a USB drive. While the videos were played from the DVDs the videos on the USB have to be copied to your computer to play. They are MP4 files. The 171-video USB is $99. If you 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 is for 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 #518, 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.

Nostoc… for when you are really hungry.

BC’s philosopher Wiley.

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

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

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

Is Nostoc a no-no? Photo by Green Deane

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

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

Engarde! From my Sword Fern video.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Possible Book Cover Photo

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

Smoking Salmon

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

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

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

Sycamores is a hardwood not used for smoking.

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

Sourwood is chewed but not eaten.

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

A loquats ripen the get sweeter.  Photo by Green Deane

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Green Deane Forum

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

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

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

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

Loquats are coming into season. Photo by Green Deane

Dehydrating loquats. They preserve well. Photo by Green Deane

I’ve been scrounging loquats this past week though the proper verb is “scrumping” (liberating fruit from others by picking it.)  They are just beginning to ripen, so there is an occasional sour one. Evidence we are not a hungry country… yet.)  Over the next few weeks they will sweeten and litter the ground. Loquats are among the fruits that are still quite tasty after dehydration (mulberries are not.)  Just as a plum becomes a prune, Loquat turn into something different but still quite edible. We should hold a contest for the most suitable name for a dried loquat… a Lune? Anyway, I cut them around the equator, take the seeds, then set them in the dehydrator. They take a day or two to dry. I store them in paper bags, some time in the refrigerator, sometimes not. A bounty of fruit is about to ripen, get your share and prepare for the future. Speaking of said…

$124 rib roast.

The summer before COVID a local supermarket had a Buy-One-Get-One-Free sale every week on large roasts of beef or pork. I stuffed my freezer with them. When COVID broke the BOGOs disappeared and have not returned. Indeed, if anything they have raised the price on roasts. See photo left, which is a 7.5 pound ribeye roast for only $123.84 (unless you join their shopping program, then it is $45.) My parents fed three humans, half a dozen cats, a multitude of dogs, five horses, chickens, ducks, rabbits and an occasional pet squirrel for less than $123 a month.  Needless to say there are no roasts still in my freezer.  It seems there was plenty of beef two years ago but not enough workers to process or transport it from point A to Z. Just like COVID the virus of war in eastern Europe could disrupt food supplies. Energy prices will surely go up and that effects the delivery and cost of everything. My grandparents went through the first flu epidemic, two world wars and the great depression in between. My mother was a teenager during the depression thus… The house I grew up in and where my mother lived for more than 60 years always had a stash of food and water. We didn’t have wars or hurricanes in Maine but often we were snowed in for several days following a nor’easter. Everybody laid in extra wood and food and expected to be housebound.  If you had a heart attack when the roads were closed — like our neighbor did — or gave birth you were on your own. Nothing moved, which was the same way in Florida was after Hurricane Frances. I’ve been through five hurricanes that made destructive landfall. What I learned from Franny was you can never have enough drinking water on hand (back home there was plenty of snow to melt.) Of course the question is what if the regional war on the other side of the world goes global? Closet supplies don’t last forever. 

The root of the winged yam. Photo by Green Deane

By far the biggest caloric payoff regarding plants locally is the Winged Yam, Dioscorea alata (the little-known relative of the invasive Air Potato.) It is our largest provider of calories in for calories out (which means finding it and digging it up.) After boiling like a potato it is used like a potato. It’s flavorful and nutritious with a silkier texture than a potato which can be granular. Think of it as a free bag of potatoes. They are easy to find from May to December. The vine dies back as the days grow short. It comes back up sometime in April. It’s relative, the one we don’t eat, tends to comes up first in March depending on the weather. Then the edible one in April. You can find the edible yams this time of year if you know where they grow.  You locate their dried, broken off vines hanging from low tree branches. That can give you a hint as to there they are below the vine. The top of the root is near the surface and is kind of like a tent stake at ground level fully driven in. If you clear the ground with your hands (wear gloves) you can find them even when out of season.  I have an article on finding caloric staples and one on wild flours. If you’re interested in eating bugs…  

You can eat roadkill deer even out of season. Photo by Green Deane

As you might presume I don’t have a hard time finding food. That said what I also cart home regularly is road kill, mostly possoms, squirrels, raccoons, armadillo and an occasional duck. Consider it recycling. I’ve passed up a couple of alligators ’cause they would not easily fit in my small Miata and because you need to have a permit to have alligator in your possession, even road kill. That is not the case with deer. (See state reply at bottom.)  If the deer is road kill — meaning it definitely died by accident not intentional hunting — you can take it home but the expectation is that you will first contact authorities. That way you have verified the road kill and won’t get in further trouble if a nosey good samaritan reports you.  What I can tell you about road kill is your nose with tell you if it is good or not. (As I am usually traveling in the early morning most of the run overs are quite fresh.) Squirrels clean better if soaked in water first, possums smell bad when cleaning but taste good cooked (I wear a swimmer’s nose plug while cleaning them.) Wear gloves and a mask while cleaning an armadillo — any one got a mask? — then parboil it before cooking with the meat. Be scrupulously clean when working with armadillos. Called Hoover Hogs they were a mainstay during the Depression. There has been one report of one person getting one case of leprosy from a live armadillo in Florida. Be clean. And you can get poison ivy from duck feathers or other wild animals. Only humans, some monkeys and guinea pigs get poison ivy. As I got poison ivy from a duck I do wear disposable gloves now when cleaning road kill.  And when inspecting road kill watch out for traffic. A woman died last November 6th at 2:30 a.m. in east Orlando when she stopped her car in the road to check on a deer that had been hit. Neither lived.    

And what of prescriptions?  I am not a doctor nor an herbalist but willow tips can stand in for aspirin, Biden alba leaves make an anti-inflammatory tea, Sida is good for congestion, wilted sweet clover can reduce clotting. Two generic books that address plants and their application to common illnesses are Medicinal Plants by Foster and Duke, and the Green Pharmacy by James Duke. Not local but handy to have in your library or backpack. A local herbalist would have the most relevant information for your plants and problems. James Duke was a botanist for the Department of Agriculture and an advocate of “natural” medicine. He died in December 2017, age 88.

Ringless Honey Mushrooms in late February.

Ringless Honey Mushrooms are well-known for flushing in the fall. Locally that is usually the first or second week in November, in the Carolinas that’s the end of August and early September. Then in some years, depending upon the weather, they will have a minor flush in April. It looks like they are early this year with this photo taken at the end of February. They are growing on the roots of trees blown down by Hurricane Frances in 2004. I also saw some two weeks ago in central Florida and West Palm Beach. It’s a controversial mushroom with some experts considering it choice, others not edible. Ringless Honey can cause some folks digestive upset. I have an article here and a video. 

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

Foraging Classes: Doing a make up class at John Chestnut this Saturday and then back to Mead Gardens this Sunday.

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

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

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

Sunday March 13th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL., 9 a.m. to noon. Meet next to the tennis courts. 

Saturday March 19th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St.,  Gainesville, FL, 9 a.m. to noon.  Meet at the pavilion. 

Sunday March 20th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the bathrooms.

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

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

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

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

You get the USB, not the key.

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

Green Deane Forum

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

This is my weekly newsletter #497. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

 02/27/2007
Thank you for contacting the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). When it comes to a road kill deer, there is no specific statue or administrative code to address it. FWC has historically allowed the driver of the vehicle that strikes the deer to keep the carcass regardless of season or possession of a hunting license. Usually such incidents are documented by either the FWC, a county sheriff, or the Florida Highway Patrol who provide an accident report for the vehicle’s insurance company.

Your question sounds like you are referring to a deer that has been struck and killed, but not by the vehicle YOU are driving. If you happen along a road kill carcass and would like to take the deer for the meat, that would also be legal. Provided that there is absolutely no question that the deer was indeed the victim of an automobile strike. The best course of action would be to contact the FWC wildlife hotline and explain the situation so that an incident could be created to document the case. This would ensure that if you were stopped by a law enforcement officer or reported by a member of the public for “possession of deer out of season” that you would be able to prove that you indeed had a road kill carcass.

The number you would need to call would be 1-800-404-FWCC (3922).

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

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

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

Osmanthus americanus fruit after brining. Photo by Green Deane

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

Rorippa palustris, Bog Yellow Cress

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

Aspargus densiflorus, are the fruit edible?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

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

Green Deane Forum

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

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

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

A sweet Goji berry and Ramalina, a lichen — also edible  — at Spruce Creek. Photo by Green Deane

Dandelions are edible but uncommon here. Photo by Green Deane

As you can see above there was one Goji berry still hanging on late Saturday. While called the Christmasberry it can be in fruit until April. We also saw drying fruit on a Foresteria and blueberries in blossom. They’ll ripen into berries about April. (April is the big month locally. Most the plants that fruit do so about April… the aforementioned and blackberries, cherries, wild onions, loquats et cetera.) Also worth mentioning were some plump Smilax berries we saw. They taste best when they look like raisins. I take black plump ones home then dehydrate them. At Eagle Lake Park in Largo the stinging nettles were more than a foot high, which is maximum height for our local variety, Urtica chamaedryoides. It has a horrible sting. The hollies are fruiting non-edibe berries and we saw a dandelion, rare for Florida. They like acidic soil and cool weather. Florida is a hot limestone plate. So we see them here and there mostly during the cooler months. 

Fumaria is not edible but is often found at the same time and place as Stork’s Bill and Cranesbill.

Also found this time of year are wild geraniums, usually Cranesbill or Stork’s Bill. (Why one is one word and the other two-words possessive is unknown.)  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 can be extremely bitter. You might be able to toss a little bit of both in a salad or make a tea from the leaves 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 petal you might have the non-edible Fumaria, see photo left. It comes up this time of year and from a distance the leaves can remind one of the wild geraniums. They like to grow in the same location and have pink or white blossoms. I’ve never found a reference to this but some people have told me they also eat roots of the geraniums. To read more about the “bills”  go here. 

Brookweed in Spruce Creek Park.

You probably heard the old saying:  “A man with a hammer sees nails everywhere.” That is relevant to foraging. Once you learn what a particular plant looks like you will see it more often. That’s what’s happened with me and Samolus valerandi. Brookweed.  I first noticed in Jacksonville a couple of years ago. Then perhaps half a year later in Sarasota. A year after that I noticed it in Palm Harbor and Sunday in Port Orange. It likes to be near fresh water, can tolerate some brackish water and is a small plant with a naked flower/seed spike. Fortunately its flowering arrangement makes it easy to identify. Not much is written about the species, few published books cover it. Mild young leaves are edible raw and are high in vitamin C. That was important when scurvy was a common problem (which is making a comeback in some cities.) Persimmon leaves also have high amounts of vitamin C as dose Firebush berries.  Brookweed has a bit more history of use in Europe. Usually young and tender leaves are what’s eaten, older leaves turn bitter. You can read about Brookweed here. 

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

Foraging Classes: My out-of-town class this weekend is West Palm Beach, always an interesting sub-tropical walk. Looks like the weather will be good that class and for the Sunday’s class in east Orlando, 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Blewit’s violet color quickly fades. Photo by Green Deane

It was with great joy that I found this “choice” wild mushroom eight years ago at Boulware Springs. It’s a Blewit, or Lepista nuda. At first glance it looked like the plastic top of some discarded can under a vine but upon investigation it was a large, beautiful mushroom. At the time I took it to the EarthSkills gathering which then was in Hawthorn Florida, some 20 miles south of Gainesville. I taught on site the day before and there were several mushroom experts in attendance. That was my first mistake. I thought I was safe there. Was I wrong. Have you ever been mugged for a mushroom? There were many offers to take it off my hands but it went home with me and into me. After years of finding non- or barely-edible mushrooms it was my turn to discover a choice one. I revisit that location every year in mid-February, Blewit’s best season locally, and the coldest. Boulware Springs is also where I find Black Trumpet mushrooms beside trails under hickories when chanterelles are also out. 

Wild Garlic will be cloving soon.

In Largo Sunday we visited my favorite place for Wild Garlic. A native that is about nine inches high now but will be blossoming in a few weeks. What makes this Allium curious is that it puts a bulb on at the bottom end — like a pearl onion — and garlic cloves at the top end. This particular species is very pungent. It’s great for cooking or as a trailside nibble as long as you don’t mind strong garlic breath. Before it blossoms the entire plant can be used to make a very nice soup. Oddly there’s no extant record of southeastern natives using the plant and only three peoples had names for it, the Alabama, Chickasaw, and Muskogee. I call it good. I also spread the cloves around in damp spots. They start growing in late December or early January.

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

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

Green Deane Forum

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

Spurge nettle root, photo by Green Deane

A young mother wrote to me asking how to get rid of the spurge nettle, Cnidoscolus stimulosus. She said she had a couple of acres and the plants were all over the place, bothering her children and her dog.  I wrote back saying “lucky you. The roots are quite delicious, eat them.” She wrote back saying that I did not understand her. She wasn’t interested in eating them: She wants to get rid of them. I replied that I had two good students living very near her who would love to visit her property on a regular basis and dig them up. I added that she could mow the area constantly and in a few years the roots will become exhausted and the plants will die off.

The exchange led me to wonder what was missing? Or better still, what is, as they used to say, the operant factor? That factor is for most people food comes from a quick stop shop or a grocery store. most people don’t cook any more let alone forage or raise food.  In that way of thinking food does not come out of the ground in your suburban back yard. Even gardeners are viewed as a throwback and a tad eccentric. Here is someone who has a replenishing pantry of a staple crop that must be gotten rid of. Those spurge nettle roots easily could represent hundreds of pounds of wholesome, tasty,  food most of the year that does not have to be purchased or stored. Perhaps it’s time to consider a different approach: Train the dog and kids to stay away from the plants,the stinging plant is doing its best but it’s not enough.  To read about the spurge nettle go here.

On a personal note: I am still trying to find a place to rent or buy in southwest Florida. I have a line on something in central Florida but I’d like to have an alternative. Can be a fixer-upper 50 miles from the coast as long as it is zoned agricultural. If you know of place or anyone please contact me: GreenDeane@gmail.com

This is my weekly newsletter #495. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

BROOKSVILLE FL: How do you find plum tress? This time of year it is easy. They are heavy with blossoms and no or few leaves. Photo by Green Deane

Beginning the brining.

There are can be many reasons why an edible wild plant is not eaten. Often they were replaced by a better cultivated crop, or they were eaten in other parts of the world but not locally. Sometimes one group ate it but their rivals did not, or one group only the seeds and another group only the roots. And sometimes the information was not shared leaving the plant in modern foraging limbo. Foresteria are in the olive family. As far as I know locals only used the fruit of one, F legustrina,  and then to make ink. The fruit is bitter, but so, too, is the common olive without brining. Two Foresteria, F. neo-mexicana and F. pubescens var. pubescens, were eaten raw. Thus I did an experimental brining F. legustrina fruit (the southern privit. A close relative I’d also like to try is F. segregata, often used in landscaping. It has a lot of small fruit in clusters along the stems.) 

After brining a month.

Brining means soaking the fruit covered in salted water (in this case submerged in a 10% solution) for a month and changing it every week essentially the same processed as fermenting. Salt is often used to reduce tannins and is part of the process of turning Java Plums into wine. One critical element when fermenting or brining is the material you are treating has to be submerged. If any part is out of the liquid it will grow mold. I used a glass plug to keep this fruit the solution. After a month of brining the Foresteria fruit had lost its bitterness and had an acceptable taste. The seed is most of the fruit leaving little pulp to eat. It was a lot of attention and time for a small amount of payoff. Then again we don’t eat a lot of plants for their caloric punch. As the forager Ray Mears has often said every little bit fills the soup pot or tummy. These did taste like cured olives. There are at least 10 species of Foresteria in the United States, mostly the southern half from the Carolinas west to California.

Bunya Bunya tree east Tarpon Springs, Fl.

One of the more sought after trees for the forager is the Bunya Bunya. Like it’s relatives it is an easy tree to spot: Tall, oddly shaped, and dropping edible 20 pound pine cones. There is no one place to find them though parks are a good place to start. Someone had to plant them half a century ago or more. They do fruit here in Florida, about every three years around August. A friend of mine planted one in his back yard in the 60’s and there are some scattered here and there in greater Orlando (they also like the gulf coast and Pacific shore along western United States.) This particular tree is just west of 3280 Keystone Rd, Tarpon Springs, FL 34688, which is East Lake Fire Rescue Station 58. That might tell us two things: One is if you are harvesting cones someone from the fire station might ask what you are doing (answer: keeping a non-native species from becoming invasive) and, they also might have noticed when the tree last dropped cones. They start fruiting around 15 years old. You can read my article about them here, and a video here. 

They look flimsy but they are tender and tasty: Drake Elm Leaves. Photo by Green Deane

Young and tender describes them best: Elm leaves we nibbled during our foraging class in Sunday. As far as I know all elm leaves are edible except one that grows in Manchuria, Ulmus propinqua. As the Dutch Elm Disease wiped out most elms in North American the most common elms now are the planted Lacebark Elm and it’s cousin the Siberian Elm. Florida’s elms escaped the disease and can be found often in river plains and other damp locations. The leaves have calcium, manganese, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, zinc, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and some B vitamins. They also have harder things to say such as D-galactose acid, D-galacturonic acid, L-rhamnose acid, Oleic acid, Palmitic acid, Polyphenols, Tannin, and oligomeric procyanidins (the latter have antiseptic and anti-allergic action.) For more information on elms go here or for a video here. 

Blossoms of the Eastern Red Bud. Photo by Green Deane

Most trees in the Pea Family are toxic but not all of them. One of the edible ones is blossoming now: The Eastern Redbud. The lanky tree is very easy to spot this time of year because it has small pink blossoms and few leaves. Those small flowers — about the size of your fingernail — are important because there’s an ornamental tree with pink flowers also blossoming now that is not edible, the Pink Tabebuia. The Pink Tabebuia, however, has large blossoms about the same size as an Azalea blossom. The Eastern Redbud provides quite a few edibles: Tiny blossoms, young leaves, and pea pods. The Pink Tabebuia, T. heterophylla, does not have edible parts nor does two of its relatives, the Yellow Tabebuia, T. chrysotricha, and the Silver Trumpet Tree, T. caraiba. However, a fourth one in Florida, T. impetiginosa, or Purple Trumpet Tree, has seen its inner bark used as an herbal tea. Among those who have sipped and liked the tea are Ghandi and Czar Nicholas II of Russia. You can read more about the Eastern Red Bud here, video here. 

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

Foraging classes: Crossing the state this weekend for foraging classes, Spruce Creek in Port Orange south of Daytona Beach and Eagle Lake Park in Largo, north of St. Pete. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coquina are tasty but quite small.

Sometime instead finding answers they find you. As you know there are several articles on the EatTheWeeds website that are about edibles covered by the subtitle: And other things, too. That subtitle was intentionally added when the site went up some 20 years ago. There are a lot of things in the world to eat. Before Andrew Zimmern was traipsing around the globe for the Travel Channel eating untraditional food EatTheWeeds was writing about them. As one might expect that has caused a good amount of disagreeing mail. Many people keep as pets creatures that other people eat. Thus far, however, no one has complained about Coquina, a coastal clam that’s about the size of your fingernail. The tiny clams make an absolutely delicious green broth that I like to add — I know it’s sacrilege —  instant potatoes and butter to. One of the down sides is that the clams are so small getting the meat out of the shell is microscopic work. That is so frustrating as most of it is tossed away. However in Australia they figured out a commercial way of separating meat and shell. How that was done was something of a mystery until a post on the Green Deane Forum provided an answer. The cooked shells are vigorously stired. After that it is a matter of straining the shells from the meat. I’ve got to try that. You can read about Coquina here, and the crunchy Mole Crabs, here. A video on both of them is here. 

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

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

Green Deane Forum

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

Florida lettuce blossom.

I got distracted and did not give a thorough answer: Did I know where to find wild garlic? Yes and if you know what it looks like and where it likes to grow you can find it now. However it is more showy in April and easier to find. Then a refinement of the inquiry changed the plant to “wild opium lettuce.” That species — Lactuca virosa — is an internet darling that is common in Europe and rare in the Americas. In the U.S. I think it is reported in only six counties: Two in Alabama, two near Washington D.C. and two about San Francisco. The bad news is research as far back as the 1930’s showed it is not an opium substitute having only minor effects. It is so good as an opium substitute that it is not illegal anywhere. Ponder that. Unfortunately the book that was being referenced misnamed the plant as well mentioning one that does grow here. There are four lettuces locally, all edible, none recreational. You can read about them here. 

This is my weekly newsletter #494. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. Every typo and misspelling is totally mine.

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Ice Plant is native to South Africa.

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

Enteromorpha some times called Ulva. Photo by Green Deane

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

Sea Lettuce is perhaps the best of our local seaweeds.

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

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

Silverthorn berries are ripening now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

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

Green Deane Forum

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

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

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

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

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

 To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Dwarf Plantain, one of several Plantagos found locally. Photo by Green Deane

Plantago rugulii is a large local plantago. Photo by Green Deane

There are Plantains that look like tough bananas and there are Plantains that are low and leafy plants. They are not related. Just two different groups with the same common name. Low-growing Plantains can be native or non-native. The one pictured above is native, the Dwarf Plantain. As a genus the plants are well-known. The leaves are edible raw when young. As they age they become more bitter and stringy. Cooking makes them palatable up to a point. Then they move into the astringent medical realm. As such they are used on bites, stings and to help puncture wounds heal. The seeds are edible once produced and are the source of the commercial dietary fiber, psyllium. When finely ground and flavored 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. (P. rugelii is pink at the base of the stem.)

Oakleaf Flea Bane, not edible but good for pets’ beds.

One problem beginning foragers have is confusing young Oakleaf Fleabane leaves for Dwarf Plantain leaves (they are both rosette-ish, low-growing green leaves, hairy with fibrous threads in the stem.) But the Dwarf Plantain is essentially a long skinny hairy leaf with a few teeth. The Oakleaf Fleabane is much fatter, has lobes, and does resemble oak leaves found on more northern species. Of course when they blossom their difference is quite obsvious. Generally considered not edible I know a few people who have tried in once mistaking it for a Plantago. Fleabane leaves were put in pets beds to drive away fleas. You can read about the Plantains here and I have a video here.

Juniper Berries change from green to blue with a powdery blush. Photo by Green Deane.

One wouldn’t think that living in a small rental house or apartment interferes with foraging but it can. The size of the kitchen can restrain the size of the oven which can limit the size of pots and pans one can use. Thus my loaf is round. The yeast and bacteria for this sourdough came from Juniper Berries which are really cones. Some were collected in West Palm Beach, others near Daytona Beach. Sourdough bread depends on wild yeast and lacto-bacteria. They are in all flour but different species. In theory one feeds the “starter” and the favorable yeast and bacteria outcompete unfavorable yeasts and bacteria becoming dominant.

Sourdough bread started with Juniper Berries for the necessary yeast and bacteria.

Sourdough takes longer to make than regular bread because the yeast has not been bred to make a lot of rising gas quickly. The same issue comes up when the question is can one use bread yeast to make wine. Yes but… Bread yeast is bred to make a lot of gas and very little alcohol whereas wine yeast is bred to make alcohol and not a lot of gas. Wild yeast, like wild vinegar bacteria, can also throw a variety of flavors. Soudough is sour in the same way pickles, yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and kombucha are tart from lactic acid. It takes longer to develop the flavor of sourdough and it works well in cooler temperatures whereas bread yeast likes to be kept warm. The wild yeast can also tolerate the higher acid environment created by the bacteria. Why make sourdough? The bacteria reduces the carb load, alters the gluten, increases B vitamin use, and reduces phytates by some 70%. Phytates are the largest group of anti-nutrients in regular bread. Thus compare to regular bread sourdough allows more mineral absorption from the bread. It also increases prebiotic and probiotic-like properties. I took a couple of tablespoons of old blue Juniper “berries” and put them in non-chlorinated sugar water for a day then used that water when making my starter. (If you let tap water sit for a day it loses its chlorine.)

Soaking Foresteria fruit. Photo by Green Deane

The Foresteria experiment continues. We are halfway through the brining period (basically to reduce the bitter tannins in the fruit.) I know consuming a couple of berries off the tree does not cause acute toxicity (meaning immediate) but I have no idea about possible long term effects. I have eyed Foresteria berries for years knowing they are in the Olive family. One species, F. neomexicana, New Mexico Privit, Desert Olive, was eaten as were the fruit of F. pubescens. They are all bitter which is why curing them like olives occurred to me. They are soaking in a 10% brine solution with the solution being changed every week for a month. As with any brining the fruit are kept covered by the solution by a glass plug which conveniently fits into a used Dunkin Donut ice coffee cup.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, age 48 in 1855.

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 on the 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 the time he’s not posing like a stature. It’s more natural and gives us a glimpse of the man and personality. There’s a bit of destiny in Longfellow’s eyes. Maybe he sensed photographs would replace paintings and he wanted to look across time at us, or, us him. 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) 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.

Unlike Longfellow’s chestnut tree the Sycamore gets a bad rap because of what you see in the picture right, leaves…. lots of large leaves in (my) yard. To me it’s attractive fall colors and in time more stuff for the compost pile. But, it’s the bane of many homeowners who want carefree landscaping. Sycamores, however, 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. If you boil it down like maple sap it tastes like butterscotch.  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, shine or cold (but not during hurricanes.)

Foraging Classes: Last Saturday in Gainesville we dug up five winged yam roots. Sunday in Melbourne we found some groundnuts and enjoyed some sumac berries This weekend both classes are near the west coast, Port Charlotte Saturday, Sarasota Sunday.  Maybe the bitter cold won’t get that far south. 

Saturday January 29th,  Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Port Charlotte, meet at the parking lot at Bayshore and Ganyard, 9 a.m. to noon.

Sunday January 30th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the playground. 

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

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

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

Green Deane videos are now available on a USB.

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

Green Deane Forum

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

The Black Nightshade has edible ripe berries. Photo by Green Deane.

I had a friend who thought of himself as an outdoorsman thus beyond needing to study edible plants. Many years ago he called me one day asking “how do I get the seeds out of the pigweed berries.”  I knew there was a problem immediately. Our local “pigweed” does not have berries but our local nightshade does. Our “pigweed” is an Amaranth and has seed spikes. About the size of fingers or more they are covered with tiny flowers that produce a multitude eye-of-the needle seeds, tan to black.  No berries involved at all. Conversely the nightshade produces a cluster of black shiny berries on one small stalk (photo to right.) It does have a lot of seeds inside the berries. So I thought I had better ask him why he wanted the seeds before I told him him the Amaranth didn’t have berries but the nightshade did. He wanted to grow some in his yard. They had been steaming the leaves and eating them like spinach! When I got done explaining he said “then that’s why we’ve all been getting headaches after eating the leaves.” Indeed. The leaves of this particular nightshade are edible but they must be boiled in one or two changes of water, not steamed.

Golden Dewdrop is not edible but might have herbal applications. Photo by Green Deane

The plant to left is toxic and has several botanical names though a common on describes it well, Golden Dewdrop. Botanically it is Duranta repens, D. plumieri and D. erecta. We saw the species during our foraging class in Gainesville Saturday. It’s been called a vine-like shrub, some varieties are spiny. The non-edible fruit is bitter. Julia Morton, the grand botany professor of the University of Miami, wrote the fruit has killed children in Queensland, Australia, and sickened a Hialeah Florida girl in May 1966. She was hospitalized in a state of confusion and drowsiness but fully recovered the next day.  An Australian government website about children’s health says “If eaten, the fruit can cause gastro-intestinal irritation, vomiting and diarrhea.” One research paper reports extracts of dried D. erecta leaves was effective at killing roundworms. The same research found Lantana leaf extract was also effective. A second study says Duranta leaf extract might be “a promising source of herbal medicine for the management of benign prostatic hyperplasia.”

And I have added a new article to the website, Soapberry. 

This is my weekly newsletter #492. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page. My website, EatTheWeeds.com, which is data secure, has over 1500 plants on it in some 428 articles. I wrote every one myself, no cut and paste. 

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