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The Common Reed has a common look

Some 20 years ago I pondered upon the identity of what appeared to be a very tall grass in a former marlpit in Port Orange, a few miles south of Daytona beach. One would think there can’t be that many tall grasses locally but you would be surprised in a state with virtually thousands of non-native species. Further grasses can be maddening to identify, more so than mushrooms. They have a descriptive language all their own, the experts are few, and their books sometimes cost thousands of dollars. It took me three seasonal tries to get it right. First I thought an Arundaria, then an Arundo. I settled on Phragmites australis, the Common Reed, Wild Broomcorn… almost…

The nonnative is blue gree, the native yellow green

There’s one species — they think — and many varities, perhaps as many as 12 genetically different ones in the North America, eleven maybe native and one Eurasian. For me the question was Gulf Coast variety or Eurasian? Talk about a pain in the grass. Identifying it should have been easy. The Gulf Coast Common Reed has red stems where exposed to the sun —think sunburn — smooth stems, and a non-fuzzy blossom head that hangs to one side. The Eurasian Common Reed has green stems where exposed to the sun, lightly ribbed stems, and a fuzzy blossom head that goes out in all directions. Also the native tends to be yellow green and the non-native bluish green. I had three out of four. What an irritation but a change season produced the right fuzzy blossom. If it hadn’t I’d still be ignoring it. Even though the Gulf Coast Common Reed is native here my local one appears to be the non-native Eurasian Common Reed.

Typical wetland stand of common reeds

While the identification was difficult it turned out to be a good find because the Common Reed, which ever variety, has many edible uses. It’s also been around a long time, say the experts. They found evidence of it in 40,000 year old sloth dung…  (Now there’s an occupation for cocktail party chitchat…) Besides sloths humans have eaten it for a long time as well. Just about every where it grows the plant has been used and consumed. Indeed, it is perhaps more versatile than cattails. The Common Reed has been harvested for building housing, thatching rooves, making boats, fire drills, flutes, splints, pen tips, weapons, hunting spears, arrows, rope, snares, mats, baskets, prayer sticks, jewelry, smoking implements, clothing, medicine, and food as well as sugar and salt. Boys of all ages used mesquite (Prosopis spp.) spines attached to common reed stems to catch small fish and crabs. It can also be used to clean heavy metals and sewage out of contaminated water.

Nonnative stems also have more prounounced vertical ridges

As mentioned the Common Reed is Phragmites australis (frag-MY-tees oss-STRAY-less) which means “screen” and “south” or southern screen. It’s one of the most common flowering plants on the planet and is found throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia. In fact it is found on all continents except Antarctica. Hasn’t made its way to Alaska yet nor I think the Yukon and Nunavut. Usually a stand of Common Reeds are all clones. Each separate clone reed can live from five to eight years. The clone itself may reach a 1,000 years old. A stand provides shelter for various creatures but is not a major food source for any.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Common Reed

IDENTIFICATION: Phragmites australis: FloridaGrasses.org says it better than I:  Enormous cane often seen rising with a plumose inflorescence from wet ditches.  Ligule small (1 mm vs. > 2 mm in Saccharum).  Leaf blades not auriculate (as opposed to Arundo and Hymenachne) and without the light basal coloration characteristic of Arundo.  Spikelets unawned (vs. Saccharum giganteum).  Internodes pubescent (vs. glabrous in Neyraudia) and lemmas glabrous (vs. pubescent in Neyraudia). Plants of Phragmites are similar in overall appearance to Arundo, but the latter has subequal glumes, a glabrous rachilla, and hairy lemmas. Vegetatively, plants of Arundo, but not those of Phragmites, have a wedge-shaped, light to dark brown area at the base of the blades. They also tend to have thicker rhizomes, thicker and taller culms, and wider leaves than Phragmites, but there is some overlap. Phragmites is much more widely distributed than Arundo in North America.

Not so easy to read. Here’s one from the US Forest Service: Common reed produces stout, erect, hollow aerial stems. Stems are usually leafy, persistent, and without branches. At the base, stem thickness measures 5 to 15 mm. Leaves are aligned on one side of the stem, flat at maturity, and measure 4 to 20 inches (10-60 cm) long and 0.4 to 2 inches (1-6 cm) wide. Leaf margins are somewhat rough, and leaves are generally deciduous. Common reed flowers occur in a large, feathery, 6- to 20-inch (15-50 cm) long panicle. The panicle has many branches and is densely flowered. Panicles are up to 8 inches (20 cm) wide after anthesis. Spikelets contain 1 to 10 florets. Floret size decreases from the base of the panicle upward. Lower florets are staminate or sterile and without awns. Upper florets are pistillate or perfect with awns. Occasionally all spikelets are abortive. Sometimes spikelets are reduced to a single glume and floret, causing panicles to lose their feathery appearance. Seeds are small, measuring up to 1.5 mm long.

“Rhizomes are thick, “deep seated”, and scaly and can grow to 70 feet (20 m) long. Rhizomes may grow 16 inches (40 cm)/year and live 2 to 3 years. Rhizomes in soil are commonly long, thick, and unbranched. In water, rhizomes are more slender, produce multiple branches, and are often shorter.” The roots can be eight inches to 30 feet deep.

Locally the one reed we would confuse it with is Arundo donax. Arundos have auricles and a light to dark brown wedge shape at the base of the leaf. Phragmites do not. Said another way. When the Phragmites leaf leans out from the stem the transition is smooth, well tailored. When the Arundo leave leans out there’s a wrinkle or extra growth beside or around the main stem.

TIME OF YEAR: Varies greatly. Year round in warm climates, season in northern climes, flowers from early to mid-summer into early or late fall. Seeds, shed in the winter, can float in water up to 124 days.

ENVIRONMENT: Wet areas, ditches, roadsides, median strips, railroad tracks, marshes, river banks, lake shores, tidal wetlands. The reed can grow 1.6 inches a day.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: From Cornucopia II, page 178: Young shoots are eaten like bamboo sprouts [read cooked] or pickled. Dried stems were made into a marshmallow-like confections by North American Indians. In Japan, the young leaves are dried, ground, and mixed with cereal flour to make dumplings. The partly unfolded leaves can be eaten as a potherb. A sugary gum that exudes from the stem is rilled into balls and eaten as a swewet. The rhizomes are sometimes cooked like potatoes. Although difficult to remove from its hull, the grain is said to be very nutritious [ and high in fiber.]

The Paiute used common reed’s sugary sap to treat lung ailments. The Apache used its rhizomes to treat diarrhea, stomach troubles, earaches, and toothaches.

A very extensive report on said can be read here.

Japanese Knotweed in Fall Flower

Japanese Knotweed gets no respect. Nearly everywhere it grows it’s listed as a prolific, noxious, invasive, dangerous bad-for-the-world, the-sky-is-falling weed. Oh by the way, it’s edible. Might be even really healthy for you…. pesky weeds have that habit.

Young Shoots in Spring

Japanese Knotweed is listed by the World Conservation Union as one of the world’s worst invasive species. Perhaps it should be planted in countries where starvation is annual. Introduced into Great Britain by 1825 Japanese Knotweed has been on the decimation list for more than 30 years and has to be disposed at landfills licensed to handle the dreaded edible. In fact they spend some two billion pounds to combat it annually, which as of this writing is about three billion dollars a year. It increased the construction cost of the 2012 Olympic stadium by some 70 million pounds. Japanese Knotweed is also “invading” New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania. It arrived in North America in the late 180os and is officially found in 39 of the 50 United States, probably more, and six provinces of Canada. It’s an invasive weed in Ohio, Vermont, West Virginia, New York, Alaska, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Washington. About the only place where they are not upset with the plant is where it’s native, southeast Asia. What do they know the rest of the world doesn’t? It is said that Japanese Knotweed out lives the gardener and the garden.

Knotweed Creats a Knot

Knotweed, in the Buckwheat family, is not liked in western nations because it grows around three feet a month, sends roots down some 10 feet, grows through concrete, damaging roads, dams, buildings and just about anything made by man. It’s a pain in the asphalt. Forages take advantage of it eating — raw or cooked — young shoots, growing tips of larger plants and unfurled leaves on the stalk and branches. Many folks say it tastes like rhubarb but I think a lemony green is more accurate, crunchy and tender. For the health conscious it is a major source of resveratrol and Vitamin C … a noxious weed AND very healthy. Tsk…Tsk… The California Department of Food and Agriculture and the book Cornucopia II both say the rhizomes are edible. No references are given as to how to cook them nor have I tried. Usually the roots are used medicinally. Giant Knotweed, Polygonum sachalinense (Fallopia sachalinensis) is similarly consume except its fruit is eaten as well, or stored in oil. Incidentally, the Giant Knotweed was “discovered” on Sakhalin Island, north of Japan, by Dr. H Weyrich, surgeon on the Russian expedition ship Vostok commanded by Captain Lieutenant Rimsky-Korsakov, older brother of the composer N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov… it’s a small world afterall…

Note branch bends at nodes like an Eastern Redbud

Botanically take your pick: Japanese Knotweed is known as Fallopia japonica, Polygonum cuspidatum, and Reynoutria japonica. In Europe they prefer Fallopia japonica (named for Gabriello Fallopia, 16th century Italian anatomist who “discovered” fallopian tubes. Japonica means Japan.  In North America it is known as Polygonum cuspidatum, which makes a lot more sense to me. I see nothing fallopian tubish about the plant whereas Polygonum (pol-LIG-on-um) means many joints and the plant does have that. Cuspidatum (kuss-pid-DAY-tum) means sharply or stiffly pointed, and that it is.

Other names names include fleeceflower, Himalayan fleece vine, monkeyweed, Huzhang, Tiger Stick, Hancock’s curse, elephant ears, pea shooters, donkey rhubarb, sally rhubarb, Japanese bamboo, American bamboo, and Mexican bamboo. The Japanese call it itadori (????) which is from Chinese and mean “tiger walking stick” or “tiger stick.” Best guess, and my thanks to Ala Bobb for the insight, is that the stick has stripes like a tiger. Sometimes it is called itodori which means “thread stick” a reference to the the thready flower. Two other names, in Chinese, are, ?? “pain take” and ?? “board take”  In Engish we would reverse them, “take pain” and “take board.”

Lastly there is an ethnobotanical lesson in Japanese Knotweed: The Cherokee ate the cooked leaves. Shall we thus call it a Native American food? There are several examples of imported plants being adapted by the native population, no fools they. Those get reported as Native American food without the “when” being reported. Folks just assume they were eating or using said before the Europeans arrived.  Black Medic is another example. If I remember correctly it first came to North America around 1912, just a century ago. But it is listed as a Native American food because some western tribes did eat it once they knew what it was. It’s the same with a ground cover imported in the 1930s. The lesson is just because the natives ate a particular food it does not mean it was around before outsiders arrived. It’s kind of like saying chocolate pudding was an Aborigines’ food.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Japanese Knotweed

Rhizome runners can extend 60 feet

IDENTIFICATION: Polygonum cuspidatum: A semi-woody perennial, fast growing, hollow, bamboo-like stems forming dense, leafy thickets, woody with age. Young shoots are red. Leaves simple, toothless, hairless, alternating, broadly ovate with a pointed tip, 3 to 6 inches long, 2 to 4½ inches wide, on a long leaf stem. Flowers branching in spike-like clusters, individual flowers are 1/8 inch across, white to greenish or pinkish, with 5 petals, 8 stamens. Male and female flowers separate (dioecious.) Female flowers can produce small 3-angled black-brown fruit. Seed production is uncommon.

TIME OF YEAR: Purple shoots appear in spring, flowers late summer, early autumn.

ENVIRONMENT: Riverbanks, roadsides, moist, disturbed areas.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Young shoots, growing tips, young leaves boiled or steamed and eaten like asparagus, or chilled and served with a dressing. Can be used in pies. soups, aspics, sauces, jams, chutneys even wines. The roots, actually rhizomes, are sometimes eaten. It is good fodder for grazing animals, including cattle, sheep, goats, horses and donkeys. Old stems have been used to make matches. It is high in oxalic acid so if you avoid spinach or rhubarb you should avoid knotweed.

Recipes from Herbalpedia

Japanese Knotweed Purée
Gather stalks, choosing those with thick stems. Wash well and remove all leaves and tips. Slice stems into 1-inch pieces, put into a pot and add ¾ cup sugar for every 5 cups of stems. Let stand 20 minutes to extract juices. Add only enough water to keep from scorching, about half a cup. Cook until pieces are soft, adding more water if necessary. They will cook quickly. When done, the Japanese Knotweed needs only to be mixed with a spoon. Add lemon juice to taste and more sugar if desired. Serve chilled for dessert just as it is, or pass a bowl of whipped cream. This purée is excellent spooned over vanilla ice cream or baked in a pie shell. Keeps well in the refrigerator and may be frozen for later use. (City Herbal)

Japanese Knotweed Bread
2 cups unbleached flour
½ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg
2 Tbsp salad oil
¾ cup orange juice
¾ cup chopped hazelnuts
1 cup sweetened Japanese Knotweed Purée
Preheat oven to 350F. Sift dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Beat the egg white with the oil and orange juice. Add along with hazelnuts and purée to dry ingredients. Do not mix until all ingredients are added, and blend only enough to moisten. Do not over mix. Spoon gently into buttered 91/2-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan. Bake about 1 hour or until a straw or cake tester inserted in the center comes out dry. Cool by removing from pan and placing it on a rack. For muffins, spoon into buttered muffin tins and bake about 25 minutes. (A City Herbal)

Insect Cuisine by Shochi Uchiyama

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

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

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

Acorn Grub

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

Agave Worms

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

Best parched or roasted

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

Escamoles

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

Leaf Cutter Ants

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

Honeypot Ant

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

Leaf Cutter Ant

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

Lemon Ants already plated

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

Weaver Ants Bite

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

Wood Ants’ Nest

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

Bamboo Worms

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

Bee Larva

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

Big Fella Bogon Moth

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

Maggoty Cheese, Casa Marzu

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

Centipedes on a stick

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

Cicada

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

Deep-Fried Cockroach

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

Fried Crickets

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

Egg batter for dragonflies

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

Choice Dung Beetle

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

Fly Pupae

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

Eaten raw or roasted

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

Grasshoppers Galore

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

Tomato and Tobacco Hornworms

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

June Bugs

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

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

Squeeze but not too hard, buning off hairs is optional

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

Body Lice

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

Locust Taco

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

Longhorn Beetle Grub

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

Mealworm and stages

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

Midge Fly

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

Mopane Worm

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

Get revenge by eating mosquito eggs.

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

Pillbugs

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

Preying Mantis and tofu

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

Rhino Beetle’s Three Stages

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

Sago Grubs

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

Young and tender Sapelli caterpillars

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

Silkworms

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

Scorpions on a stick

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

Dried Stink Bugs

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

Usually Deep Fried

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

A taste for termites

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

Walking Stick

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

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

Giant Water Bug

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

Farm-raised Wax Worms

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

Wichetty Grubs, raw or roasted

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

River Insects

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

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

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

Smilex looks like the “walking stick” insect

For The Edible Love of Krokus and Smilax

No, that is not a “Walking stick” insect. It is the growing end of a Smilax, a choice wild food.

The Walking Stick insect

There used to be a field in Sanford, Florida, near Lake Monroe, that was nearly overrun with growing Smilax every spring. I could get a couple of quarts of tender tips daily over a few weeks, enough for many meals. Cooked like asparagus or green beans, they are excellent, and also edible raw in small quantities.

The tip grows from the end of the vine and gets tougher as one goes back along the vine. Technically that is called

Bull Briar leaves, edible when young

the meristem stage, that is, the growing part is almost always the most tender because the cells haven’t decided what it is they’re supposed to do, such as get tough and hold up the plant or create an odor or the like. The way to harvest smilax is to go back a foot or so from the end of the vine (more if it is a very large vine, less if small) and see if the vine snaps, breaks clean between your fingers. If not, move closer towards the growing end of the vine and try it again. Where the vine snaps and breaks is the part you can take and eat. Well-watered bull briers (Smilax bona-nox, SMEYE-laks BON-uh-knocks, that’s SM plus EYE) in a field or on a sunny tree can produce edible shoots a foot long and third of an inch through. Smilax is from the Greek smilakos, meaning twining but there is more to that story.  Bona-nox means “good night” and usually refers to plants that bloom at night.) The Spanish called them Zarza parilla, (brier small grape vine) which in English became sarsaparilla, and indeed sarsaparilla used to come from a Smilax.

Large roots are fiberous

Often called cat briar because of its thorns, or prickles, Smilax climbs by means of tendrils coming out of the leaf axils. Again, technically, it is not a vine but a “climbing shrub.” No, I have no idea why someone thinks that’s important or how they can tell the difference. My guess is a vine has one stem and a shrub has several.) I am filing it under “vine.” Smilax are usually found in a clump on the ground or in a tree. They provide protection and food for over forty different species of birds

Young roots can be boiled or roasted

and are an important part of the diet for deer, and black bears. Rabbits eat the evergreen leaves and vines, leaving a telltale (tell tail?) 45 degree cut. Beavers eat the roots. Smilax also has a long history with man, most famous perhaps for providing sarsaparilla. The roots (actually rhizomes) of several native species can also be processed (requiring more energy than obtained) to produce a dry red powder that can be used as a thickener or to make a juice. Young roots — finger size or smaller — can also be cooked and eaten. While the tips and shoots can be eaten raw a lot of raw ones give me a stomach ache.

Fruits are edible when old

Medically, the root powder has been used to treat gout. A Jamaican species contains at least four progesterone class phytosterols. Some herbalists recommend that species for premenstrual issues. In 2001, a U.S. patent application said Smilax steroids had the ability to treat senile dementia, cognitive dysfunction and Alzheimer’s. A U.S. patent awarded in 2003 described Smilax flavonoids as effective in treating autoimmune diseases and inflammatory reactions. Note: These are patents claims in anticipation of clinical trials some distant day proving said claims by further research. So don’t start digging up Smilax roots for self-medication.  A 29 Feb 2008 study suggest Smilax root has antiviral action and a 2006 study suggest it is good for liver cancer.

It should be mentioned that early American settlers made a real root beer from the smilax. They would mix root pulp with molasses and parched corn then allowed it to ferment. One variation is to add sassafras root chips, which gives it more of the soft drink root beer flavor. Francis Peyre Porcher wrote during the Civil War in the 1860’s  “The root is mixed with molasses and water in an open tub, a few seeds of parched corn or rice are added, and after a slight fermentation it is seasoned with sassafras.”

Francis Peyer Porcher, professor of medicine

Can I take an aside here? Francis Peyer Porcher, 1824-1895, was a doctor, professor of medicine, and a botanist. Through his mother’s side, he was a descendant of the botanist Thomas Walter, author of Flora Caroliniana, the first catalog of the flowering plants of South Carolina, published in 1788. Peyer, as he liked to be called, was, as they used to say, well-to-do. He was professionally active in both fields — medicine and botany — when the American Civil War began. Because of the blockade of medical supplies he was ordered to write a field manual for doctors to help them find and make the drugs they needed in the

Dr. Porcher circa U.S. Civil War

absence of supplies. His work, Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, is still a reference and I have an ebook copy of it. It was so popular in his day that newspapers carried excepts of it. His effort was credited with helping the South prolong the war. We are fortunate to have two photographs of him, one presumably around war time and the other when he was again a professor and active in medical circles.

There are about 300 or more species in the genus Smilax and are found in the Eastern half of the United States and Canada, basically east of the Rockies.  Fourteen species are found in the southern United States. Smilax gets its name from the Greek myth of Krokus and the nymph Smilax. The story is varied. Here’s one version: Their love affair was tragic and unfulfilled because mortals and nymph weren’t allowed to love each other. For that indiscretion, the man, Krokus, was turned into the saffron crocus by the goddess Artemis (because she, too, was having an affair with Krokus but as a goddess that was okay.) Smilax, actually woodland nymph, was so heartbroken over Krokus’ reduction down to a flower that Artemis took godly pity on her and turned Smilax into a brambly vine so she and Krokus could forever entwine themselves. There are far less poetic and less sanitized versions. Seems it was a popular story thousands of years ago with many variation and interpretations.

Oh, about that field in Sanford: A century ago it was a truck farm producing celery and other vegetables. Then it fell fallow growing Smilax. Now it’s an apartment complex. One last thing: Dried Smilax root can make a good pipe bowl, which is why the pipe bowl is called a “brier,”

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

Smilax tips ready for butter and seasoning

IDENTIFICATION: A climbing shrub with tuberous roots, knobby white roots tinged with pink, bamboo like stems, more or less thorny, leaves varying with species and on the bush, tiny flowers, five slim petals, fruit round, green turning to black, one small brown seed.  Some species have red fruit, edibility of red fruit unreported.

TIME OF YEAR: Starts putting on shoots in February in Florida, later in the season as one moves north. Seeds germinate best after a freeze.

ENVIRONMENT:  It grows best in moist woodlands, but can tolerate a lot of dry and is often seen climbing trees. Left on its own with nothing to climb it sometimes creates and brambly shrub. Thicket provides protection for birds.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Beside making sarsaparilla, the roots can be used in soups or stews, young shoots eaten cooked or in small quantities raw,  berries can be eaten both raw and cooked, usually are chewed like gum (avoid the large seed.) Pounds of roots to pounds of flour is a 10 to one ratio.

Popcorn Tree, Florida Aspen, Tallow Tree

Chinese Tallow Tree in Fruit

There is a lot of debate whether the white waxy aril of the Chinese Tallow Tree is edible or not, and understandably so. The tree is in a family that has a lot of very poisonous plants. And the seed kernel oil (as opposed to the waxy outer coating around the seed) is toxic. Thus there are many reasons to be cautious.

The most definitive reference I have found is this.  Cheryl M. McCormick, PhD., plant ecologist, authored a report in 2005 from “The Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council’s Chinese Tallow Task Force.” On page 19 she writes:

“The opaque, waxy outer layer of the seeds is used in the production of soaps, cosmetics, candles, wax paper, and as a source of glycerine (Uphof, 1959; Scheld, 1983; Heywood, 1993), and is separated from the seed by emersion in hot water and skimming off the wax as it floats to the surface. The wax is solid at temperatures below 40° C, and has the consistency of lard. Subsequently, it is employed as a lard substitute in cooking and is used in cocoa butter production (Scheld, 1983; Facciola, 1999).”

I have not found McCormick’s Scheld source, which she lists as Scheld, H.W., 1983. Report on a Trip to the Zhejiang Province Science Study Institute, October, 24-31, 1983. Personal notes in holdings at the Rice University Library, Houston, Texas, 21 p.

Her second source is Facciola, S. 1999. Cornucopia II: A Sourcebook of Edible Plants. Second Edition. Kampong Publications, Vista, California, 674 p. I happen to have the 1998 edition of that book and it says on page 101:

“Outer covering of the seed produces a waxy fat sometimes used as a substitute for lard or cacao butter. In Hangzhou, China, it is used in the unique frying processes employed for Longjing or Dragon Well tea, a small amount being rubbed on the inside of the wok firing pan. The wax is absorbed by the leaves and small droplets can be seen on the surface of brewed tea. The flowers yield a light amber, well-flavored honey that is high in enzymes and low in sucrose.”

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa says:

The fruit of the Triadica sebifera

contains two types of fat: the white, fleshy outer seed coat (sarcotesta) yields a fat known as ‘Chinese vegetable tallow’ or ‘pi-yu’ in trade, while the seed kernel yields a drying oil called ‘stillingia oil’ or ‘ting-yu’ in trade. Chinese vegetable tallow is widely used in China for edible purposes, as a substitute for animal tallow and for lighting. Candles made by mixing 10 parts Chinese vegetable tallow with 3 parts white insect wax are reputed to remain pure white for any length of time and to burn with a clear bright flame without smell or smoke. Elsewhere, Chinese vegetable tallow is used to make soap, as a substitute for cocoa butter and to increase the consistence of soft edible fats. Stillingia oil is used in paints and varnishes, for illumination and to waterproof umbrellas. Both Chinese vegetable tallow and stillingia oil are used as fuel extenders on a small scale. The presscake remaining after tallow and oil extraction is unsuitable as feed for livestock because it contains saponins, but can be used as fuel or as manure. However, the presscake can be detoxified. The leaves contain a dye, used in Indo-China and China to dye silk black. Triadica sebifera is also an agroforestry species and an ornamental. It is a good soil binder and contributes to nutrient recycling. In tea plantations, it is planted as a shade tree. Its wood has been used to make various implements, toys, furniture and Chinese printing blocks. Because Triadica sebifera tolerates many unfavourable soil conditions and some frost, interest in it has grown again since the 1980s as a potential fuel and biomass producer on marginal soils, particularly in the south-eastern United States, but there it is now considered a noxious invasive weed. In traditional medicine in China, the root bark is utilized for its diuretic properties and is said to be effective in the treatment of schistosomiasis. The leaves are applied to cure shingles.

Despite all that I’d still like to find a first-hand account. Why? Because so I have not been able to melt the saturated fat around the seed. I put them in a frying pan. No melting, just burning. I boiled them in water. I had clean seeds but no melting. Steam is next, or perhaps it is late season fruit.  There is no shortage of professional journal articles on Triadica sebifera aka Sapium sebiferum aka Stillingia sebiferum. It is perhaps the solution to the United States oil problem being able to produce 10,000 pounds of oil per acre or more.

The white seed coat — the aril — is essentially a triglyceride wax, very saturated, whereas the kernel seed oil is already a commercial drying oil, stillingia, which is not edible. It, like the bark, contains a poisonous alkaloid. Either oil can also be used for lubrication and fuel.

Used for 15 centuries, the Chinese Tallow Tree is native to southern China along the Yantgtze River Valley. It was introduced into the U.S. by Benjamin Franklin in 1772. He forwarded some seeds he got from (now) southern Vietnam and sent them to Mr. Noble Wimberly Jones, a horticultural enthusiast and gentleman farmer in Darien Georgia. In a letter dated 7 October 1772 Franklin wrote: “I send also a few seeds of the Chinese Tallow Tree, which will I believe grow and thrive with you. Tis a most useful plant.”

The famous botanist Andre Michaux in 1803 said the tree had been “cultivated in Charleston and Savannah, but was then spreading spontaneously into the coastal forests.”  In 1826 legislator and botanist Stephen Elliot (1771-1830) wrote the tree “bears fruit in great abundance, but though they contain much oil, no use is yet made of them.”

By 1906 the (very misguided) Foreign Plant Introduction Division of the United States Department of Agriculture advocated extensive cultivation of the tree in coastal Louisiana and Texas again to use the triglyceride aril wax in the soap making industry. The tree is now naturalized from North Carolina west to Arkansas south to Florida and Texas. It has also escaped ornamental cultivation in California and various locations around the world. Older references say nothing about using the aril as a source of cooking or edible oil.

In 1983 Dr. James Duke, a friend of foragers, wrote about this tree extensively in the Handbook of Energy Crops. He does not mention, however, the arils as a source of edible oil though they are composed mainly of palmitic and oleic acids, what we find in palm oil, olive oil, many animals fats and in our own body fat.  It would be out of character for Duke to skip over such a fact.

Then we get to what the US database says: (http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/triseb/all.html) The waxy seed coating is used in candles, soaps, and cosmetics in China and Japan. It is also edible and may replace animal tallow when processed properly. 51, 174, 191

Darn, I wish they hadn’t said that. What is processed properly? More so, reference 51 is the Duke study I mentioned earlier just above. He does not mention aril processing. How can the government reference Duke on aril processing when he doesn’t mention aril processing? I think there a bit of government cut and paste going on.

I have not been able to locate the other two references (174: Sharma, Subrat; Rikhari, Hem C.; Palni, Lok Man S. 1996. Adoption of a potential plantation tree crop as an agroforestry species but for the wrong reasons: a case study of the Chinese tallow tree from central Himalaya. International Tree Crops Journal. 9(1): 37-45)  and reference 191:  Singh, Kuldeep; Kapur, S. K.; Sarin, Y. K. 1993. Domestication of Sapium sebiferum under Jammu conditions. Indian Forester. 119(1): 36-42.

Thus we do have some degreed botanists saying the white fat coating is edible and yet we have other experts who make the picture fuzzy by exclusion or the mentioning of processing.

Modern research has shown the Chinese Tallow Tree has strong anti-viral and anti-carcinogen properties and also eases high blood pressure. Conversely the toxic oil of the seed kernel is deadly in modest amounts and in small amounts can promote tumor formation and inflammation. Fortunately the hard seed coating keeps the two oils apart. Oddly, once processed and rid of the oil the protein rich seed meal (76%) can be used as livestock feed or even to enrich baking flour for human consumption.

Sapium (SAY-pee-um) is an ancient Latin name for pine sap that lathers like soap. Sebiferum (seb-EE-fer-um) means wax bearing. Triadica (try-uh-DEE-kuh) is Greek meaning three-locular capsules with three seeds. Sebifera (seb-EE-fer-uh) wax bearing. Stillingia (stil-LING-ee-uh) was named after Dr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, botanist and raconteur, 1702-1771.  Lastly the leaves and seeds crushed and tossed into water will kill fish.  The leaves can externally be used to draw infection from wounds.

Francis Porcher, MD, U.S. Civil War, wrote:

Chinese Tallow catkins

In my report on the Medical Botany of South Carolina to the American Medical Association, in 1849, I had, as above, reported the fact of this tree being already naturalized. I have recommended it particularly to the soap manufacturers of Charleston and the Confederate States, as a rich material for oil. The seeds, when burned, give out a great deal of light. It could be planted with profit. In the Patent Office Report, 1851, p. 54, there is also a paper on the uses of the S. sebifera, with a notice of the Pe-la, or Insect Wax of China. By D. J. Macgowan, M. D., dated Ningpo, August, 1850. In this article, it is stated that the Encyclopædia Americana refers to its being grown along our coast. “Analytical chemistry shows animal tallow to consist of two proximate principles–stearine and elaine. Now, what renders the fruit of this tree peculiarly interesting, is the fact that both these principles exist in it separately, in nearly a pure state.” “Nor is the tree prized merely for the stearine and elaine it yields, though these products constitute its chief value: its leaves are employed as a black dye; its wood, being hard and durable, may be easily used for printing-blocks, and various other articles; and, finally, the refuse of the nut is employed as fuel and manure.” Dr. Roxburgh, in his Flora Indica, had condemned the plant as of little value, because, in simply crushing and boiling the seeds, the two principles referred to as existing together are not properly separated. I had myself, long since, in my report, published in 1849, and also in my paper in DeBow’s Review, August, 1861, recommended this plant to the candle and soap manufacturers for the large amount of oil it contained, and because of its abundance around Charleston. I also gave some of the seeds to a manufacturer of castor oil, to experiment with, in 1851. I will now quote from the paper mentioned, and also refer the reader to a paper on the subject in the Charleston Medical Journal, by H. W. Ravenel.

“The Stillingia sebifera is chiefly cultivated in the provinces of Brangsi, Kongnain, and Chekkiang. In some districts near Hangchan, the inhabitants defray all their taxes with its produce. It grows alike on low, alluvial plains, and on granite hills, on the rich mould, at the margin of canals, and on the sandy sea-beach. The sandy estuary of Hangchan yields little else. Some of the trees are known to be several hundred years old, and, though prostrated, still send forth branches and bear fruit. Some are made to fall over rivulets, forming convenient bridges. They are seldom planted where anything else can be conveniently cultivated–in detached places, in corners about houses, roads, canals, and fields. Grafting is performed at the close of March, or early in April, when the trees are about three inches in diameter, and also when they attain their growth. The Fragrant Herbal recommends for trial the practice of an old gardener, who, instead of grafting, preferred breaking the small branches and twigs, taking care not to tear or wound the bark. In midwinter, when the nuts are ripe, they are cut off, with their twigs, by a sharp, crescentic knife, attached to the extremity of a long pole, which is held in the hand, and pushed upward against the twigs, removing at the same time such as are fruitless. The capsules are gently pounded in a mortar, to loosen the seeds from their shells, from which they are separated by sifting. To facilitate the separation of the white, sebaceous matter enveloping the seeds, they are steamed in tubs having convex open wicker bottoms, placed over caldrons of boiling water. When thoroughly heated, they are reduced to a mash in the mortar, and thence transferred to bamboo sieves, kept at a uniform temperature over hot ashes. A single operation does not suffice to deprive them of all their tallow; the steaming and sifting are therefore repeated. The article thus procured becomes a solid mass on falling through the sieve, and, to purify it, is melted and formed into cakes for the press. These receive their form in bamboo hoops, a foot in diameter, and three inches deep, which are laid on the ground over a little straw. On being filled with the hot liquid, the buds of the straw are drawn up and spread over the top, and when of sufficient consistence, are placed with their rings in the press. This apparatus, which is of the rudest description, is constructed of two large beams, placed horizontally, so as to form a through capable of containing about fifty of the rings, with their sebaceous cakes. At one end it is closed, and at the other it is used for receiving wedges, which are successively driven into it by ponderous sledge-hammers, wielded by athletic men. The tallow oozes in a melted state into a receptacle below, where it cools. It is again melted, and poured into tubs smeared with mud, to prevent its adhering. It is now marketable, in masses of about eighty pounds each, hard, brittle, white, opaque, tasteless, and without the odor of animal tallow. Under high pressure it scarcely stains bibulous paper; melts at 104° Fahrenheit. It may be regarded as nearly pure stearine; the slight difference is doubtless owing to the admixture of oil expressed from the seeds in the process just described. The seeds yield about eight per cent. of tallow, which sells for about five cents per pound. The process for pressing the oil, which is carried on at the same time, remains to be noticed. It is contained in the kernel of the nut–the sebaceous matter which lies between the shell and the husk having been removed in the manner described. The kernel, and the husk covering it, are ground between two stones, which are heated to prevent clogging from the sebaceous matter still adhering. The mass is then placed in a winnowing machine, precisely like those in use in western countries. The chaff being separated, exposes the white, oleaginous kernels, which, after being strained, are placed in a mill to be mashed. This machine is formed of a circular stone groove, twelve feet in diameter, three inches deep, and about as many wide, into which a thick, solid stone wheel, eight feet in diameter, tapering at the edge, is made to revolve perpendicularly by an ox harnessed to the outer end of its axle, the inner turning on a pivot in the centre of the machine. Under this perpendicular weight the seeds are reduced to a mealy state, steamed in the tubs, formed into cakes, and pressed by wedges in the manner above described; the process of mashing, steaming, and dressing being repeated with the kernels likewise. The kernels yield about thirty per cent. of oil. It is called ising-yu, sells for about three cents a pound, answers well for lamps, though inferior for this purpose to some other vegetable oils in use. It is also employed for various purposes in the arts, and has a place in the Chinese pharmacopoeia because of its quality of changing gray hair black, and other imaginary virtues. The husk which envelops the kernel, and the shell which encloses them and their sebaceous covering, are used to feed the furnaces–scarcely any other fuel being needed for this purpose. The residuary tallow cakes are also employed for fuel, as a small quantity of it remains ignited a whole day. It is in great demand for chafing-dishes during the cold season, and, finally, the cakes which remain after the oil has been pressed out are much valued as a manure, particularly for tobacco fields, the soil of which is rapidly impoverished by the Virginia weed. Artificial illumination in China is generally procured by vegetable oils; but candles are also employed by those who can afford it, and for lanterns. In religious ceremonies no other material is used. As no one ventures out after dark without a lantern, and as the gods cannot be acceptably worshipped without candles, the quantity consumed is very great. With an unimportant exception, the candles are made of what I beg to designate as vegetable stearine. When the candles, which are made by dipping, are of the required diameter, they receive a final dip into a mixture of the same material and insect wax, by which their consistency is preserved in the hottest weather. They are generally colored red, which is done by throwing a minute quantity of alkanet root (Anchusa tinctoria), brought from Shangtung, into the mixture. Verdigris is sometimes employed to dye them green. The wicks are made of rush coiled round a stem of coarse grass, the lower part of which is slit to receive the pin of the candlestick, which is more economical than if put into a socket. Tested in the mode recommended by Count Rumford, these candles compare favorably with those made from spermaceti, but not when the clumsy wick of the Chinese is employed. Stearine candles cost about eight cents per pound.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION:

Chinese tallow is a quick-growing, deciduous tree typically growing from 24 to 35 feet but  up to 65 feet all and over 3 feet in diameter. Leaves alternate, simple, typically oval to round, may also be rhombic, 1.4 to 3.3 inches long,  1.4 to 3.5 inches wide, resembles an aspen. Trunks can be gnarled with fissured bark which thickens as the tree grows. Tiny flowers in terminal spikes 2.4 to 7.9 inches. Fruits are capsules contain 3 wax-coated seeds.

TIME OF YEAR:

Fruit ripens August to November

ENVIRONMENT:

Nearly any environment but road sides, low lands, trashy sites, borders are common.

METHOD OF PREPARATION:

Waxy outer coating of seed can be melted off, used for edible oil, according to experts. I have not tired it and do not yet recommend it. Do not open the seed because the inner seed oil is toxic.

Cultivated Sugar Cane

 Saccharum officinarum: Sweet Wild Weed

Among the edible wild plants on this site are a few escaped fruit trees and ornamentals that have become naturalized. Let’s add another: Sugarcane.

I’ve grown sugar cane for several years in my yard, neglecting it actually. It grows happily just the same despite the fact I am more than 200 miles north of south Florida and on a dry hill. So that is the first surprise about sugarcane or Saccharum officinarum. It’s a tropical and subtropical plant, found from Florida to Texas as well as Puerto Rico and Hawaii. One does encounter it growing in the wild. It looks like very tall corn that has mated with bamboo.

Sugarcane is actually a grass, a big grass — note the man in the picture above — and a perennial. There are a half dozen to three dozen species — botanists can’t agree –but that is kind of forgivable. Grasses are notoriously difficult to sort out, even when you know what it is. If you think it’s tough identifying mushrooms, try grasses for a real challenge.

Bottom of Sugar Cane stalks

Let me give you two estimates which as first would seem wrong. There are about 195 countries in the world, and about 195 countries grow sugar cane. That’s can’t be because places like Canada and Sweden don’t grow sugarcane. There is a two part explanation. The official number of countries is usually based on the membership in the United Nations. But several countries are not in the United Nations. Also sugar producers call some places countries that are not really countries, such as Puerto Rico and Bermuda. So two different measuring standards come up with the same answer — 195 — but their list of “countries” would be slightly different.

And while sugar cane is really mostly sugar — it is one of the most efficient plants there are — that’s not always a bad thing. In fact, sugarcane was included in military survival manuals because it is nearly impossible to misidentify and it does provide portable energy. You can use a stalk of it (a cane) as a walking stick and for food. You chew the end but spit out the fiber called bagasse (bah-GAS.) Once dry, bagasse burns well.

The clear sugar sap after processing is brown sugar, hence brown sugar is less processed sugar. Then it is bleached white. Also one can never get all of the sugar out of the sap and that becomes molasses, one of my grandmother’s preferred sweetener. She never used white sugar in her life. Any time anything called for sugar in went the molasses.

Sugarcane is probably from the area of India originally. Granular sugar was mentioned in writing some 5,000 years ago. It got to the Mediterranean Basin around 800 AD. Within 200 years there was hardly a village there that was not growing sugar cane. A sweet tooth is the one craving humans are born with. Sugarcane came to the New World some five hundred years later where it played a significant and controversial role, and still does.

Historical fact: Sugar was one of the first pharmaceutical ingredients, a sweetener to mask bitter medicine, hence the lyric… “a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down.” There are generally three kinds of sugar cane grown, “chewing cane” “crystal cane” and “syrup cane.”

Saccharum officinarum (SAK-har-um of-fee-shee-NAR-um) means “sugar of the shops.” Officinarum comes from Latin and the Romans. Government-approved food and medicine in the Roman Empire were sold in designated shops. It was a standard of quality.  Thus something sold in a shop was what we would call the authorized version, or the official version, the real McCoy.  (See my article on Palmetto Weevils.)

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Giant grass, eight to 20 feet, resembles corn, solid, jointed, juicy stalks, one to two inches thick, tough. Leaves three feet or more long, two to 2.5 inches wide, thick midrib, fine sharp teeth on the edges. Spikelet are white, hairy, plume like, two to three feet long. Can grow straight up or fall over.

TIME OF YEAR: This year’s sugar cane is usually harvested in November, but in a wild stand, nearly year round.

ENVIRONMENT: Moist, low areas as well as abandoned cultivations particularly in the Everglades.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Stems are peeled and chewed for the juice. Or, they can be peeled, crushed and boiled for the syrup. Once a sweet syrup is obtained, or sugar, it can be used for many things, from making wine to fuel.

How did primitive man cook without pots or pans?

Mesolithic Cooking: It’s the Pits

How do you cook without pots or pans?

It’s a question our distant ancestors never asked because pots and pans didn’t exist. They just cooked food as best they could, and it wasn’t always easy. When Europeans first came to North America the first request and the one thing the American Indians wanted most was metal pots. I can’t help but think squaws knew a good thing when they saw one and told the braves “no metal pot, no come into the wigwam tonight.”

Several books and numerous professional monographs have been published on cooking before metalware, particularly in the Mesolithic Age, or the middle stone age.  And of course there are hundreds of camping books with various tips about primitive cooking. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel this will just be a random collection of some techniques and food in rough alphabetical order.

Historically, the experts tell us man has been cooking food for close to a million years. For most of man’s history he cooked without pots, pans, or ovens. The first containers would have been wooden, dug out bowls (and canoes.) Baskets can also be made to be water tight or to cook grain in. One would like to think clay pots were instrumental in cooking, and there is some evidence they were, but they seemed to be more a vessel of storage. Clay is fragile and porous. This is how the ancient Greek invented their wine called retsina. They had to line clay pots with pine pitch to keep them from seeping away the wine. The pitch-flavored wine has been drank ever since.

The first metal pots appeared about 4,000 years old in the Old world, which means they are found in digs from about 2,000 BCE on. It is difficult to think of a metal pot as being revolutionary but it was, nearly as revolutionary as the invention of another metal marvel, the stirrup, which dramatically changed warfare. Today we boil an egg within a few minutes over instant fire. We rarely consider that same act took at least a half a day in the past to do, which is why eggs were roasted. It only took minutes. I suspect boiling was used mostly for medicines or occasionally for variety.

More to the point, many of the techniques can still be used. Some are very convenient. Some are still labor intensive. But if you are going to go into the woods and you also plan to eat knowing how cook without pots and pans is a skill every forager should know. In hunter-gatherer societies today they often cook without pots and pans and are very particular how they use their fire. They are using well-proven techniques as old as man.

Acorn mush: Drop hot acorn mush into cold water. It will form a rubbery ball that keeps well. (I am presuming you leached the acorns first.)

Ash cooking: Fish and simple breads wrapped in leaves can be easily and quickly cooked on near-dead coals. There are still coals but they are covered with gray ash. Turn the fish in seven to 10 minutes. Or, put some coals on top. Thin dough wrapped in leaves cook quickly.

Bamboo: Bamboo is hollow between nodes. You can stuff the hollow section with food, plug the top with grass or the like, then lean the tube over a fire. You can boil water the same way or make soup. Another method is to get a three section piece. Punch a small hole through the top and middle nodes (inside.) Put in water and let drain to bottom section, put food in top section. Place the bottom section near the fire, steam will rise and cook food in the top section.

Boiling water: Any boiling in the distant past, which was rare, was done in dug out canoes, wooden bowls, animal skin buckets, or clay pots. Hot rocks were put in the wooden, kin, or clay containers to heat the water. Know that a skin bucket of water suspended over a low fire will not burn. In England at ancient hut sites yard-wide and half as deep holes were carved into the solid rock. With hot coals in the bottom a skin could be stretched partially across the top for making soup or the like. No doubt the hide also added flavor… welcomed or not… Another technique was to put water in a natural shallow rock pit then add hot rocks. Whenever you use hot rocks to boil water the food should be wrapped in grass or leaves. This keeps ash and bits of debris from the rocks from dropping onto the food.

Bread: Bread can be rolled into a long skinny roll then wrapped around a branch like a climbing vine around a trunk and then positioned over the fire. Make sure you pick a safe wood to use such as sycamore, maple, dogwood, willow et cetera.  Bread can also be cooked on a flat hot rock or wrapped in leaves (see Large Leaf entry.)  If you have a primitive (or modern oven) one way to bake bread is to pour several pounds of honey in a bowl, drop the bread dough into the honey, and put the whole thing in the oven. The result is a sweet bread from a very ancient recipe and cooking method. Bread can also be cooked directly on hot coals. The outside will burn but the inside will be edible.

If you have boiling water and a square of cloth you can mix some spices, greens, bits of meat and flour together with a small amount of water to make a dough. Wrap it in the cloth and drop it in the boiling water. It will cook quite quickly.

Cattails: Take a clean cattail rhizome (root) and put it next to a fire or on coals. Literally burn black the outer layers of the root. This cooks the starch in the root fibers. After the outside is burned, open the root peeling the black part back or off. Pull the white fiber between your teeth to get the starch off. This is very easy and take a minimal amount of energy to get a high calorie meal (see my video on said.)

Clay:  Fine clay mixed with a little fine sand was a common means of cooking food where it was abundant. Stuff the food to be cooked, such as a fish or a duck, wrap it in grass, secure, then give it a good coating of clay. Put the clay-covered meat on a flat surface a bit of a distance from the fire and gently dry the clay, turning the meat as needed to ensure all of the clay is dry including the bottom. You do not want any wet spots or holes for the moisture to escape.  Once dry the clay-encrusted meat can be put on the coals or closer to the fire.  The grasses keep the clay and the flesh apart. Your average duck takes two hours to cook this way, turning once.

Small birds can be cooked without plucking. Smeared the clay onto their feathers, dry, then cook. When done this way the bird’s skin cannot be eaten. Porcupines can also be cooked by covering them with clay. When the clay is removed the spines come with it.

Conch: Lay the whole conch, or similar large mollusk, foot side up directly on coals. The entire shell acts as a pot. It is done when it froths.

Crab apples: Some bitter crab apples can be made edible by roasting them next to a fire.

Crayfish: Dispatch them by putting the tip of you knife into their backs just behind the head. Put them on short skewers, tail to head, then arrange vertically near the fire. Their legs et cetera will wiggle as they cook even though dead. When they are hot and red, enjoy.

Drying meat: Suspend thin strips of meat on a tree branch and put over a small fire. It is the updraft that dries the meat, not the heat. You don’t want to cook the meat. A smokey fire reduces the number of interested flies. Do not use conifer wood for the fire or to make smoke or you meat will taste like a pine tree. You can also put strips of meat to dry in the sun on rocks. If you need salt, you can evaporate sea water.

Eggs: All bird and reptile eggs can be cooked in the coals of a fire, or next to a fire. But you must do it correctly or you will have an egg explosion, not a deadly one but it could take out an eye. Practice with a chicken egg. All eggs have a fat end and a skinny end. Find the fat end. Make a small hole in the tip of the fat end then enlarge the hole to the size of a nickel, a quarter if a goose egg, half a penny if a quail egg. With a small pocket knife or a stick pierce the air membrane and the yoke. Nestle the egg, hole up, in coals near the fire. If using a chicken egg, turn it after five minutes, and cook for another 5 minutes. By then the white should be solid and the yoke semisolid like dough. Quail eggs take about two minutes per side, a goose egg 10 minutes per side.

Want a fried egg?  If you have a banana leaf you can arrange the leaf carefully near the coals and fry an egg on the leaf. It has just enough oil and toughness to do the job. (I should add there are two birds in the South Seas that are not eaten because they eat toxic bugs.)

Fish: While nearly every boy scout knows several ways to cook a fish over a fire little thought is given to flavor. The cleaned fish has a natural cavity to put items for seasoning. Among the items one can flavor a cooking fish with in the body cavity are plums, elderberries, bay leaves, blackberries, grapes, nuts, wild garlic, pepper grass, smartweed, sorrel, oxalic, sea purslane, seablite, sea mustard, gorse flowers, dandelion, hibiscus, violets, ramps, pepper grass roots, shepherd’s purse roots and others. (See “Clay” entry.)  Small fish can be wrapped in leaves and cooked on a low coals.

Gar and mullet can be cooked as is uncleaned directly on ashes, about 10 minutes a side for a foot long fish. When dons just pull off the skin. Do not eat Gar eggs. They are toxic to mammals.

Flat Rocks: While hot rocks are commonly used for pit cooking they can be used directly. Start a fire one several flat rocks. Let it burn down. Brush away the coals and cook your food directly on the flat rocks. This is good for small game and fish. You can also put a flat rock into the coals or prop a flat rock between two rocks with coals underneath. Grease the rock or your food will stick.

The ultimate flat rock is a polished slab of granite over a fire (or charcoal.)  You can hold it up with four bricks or the like. Remember to oil it before cooking.

Hot Rocks: Can be used to open difficult fruit or nuts. Take the rock to the nut, or the nut to the rock.

Insects: Some North American Indians would dig a pit in the middle of a field and build a fire in it. When it had reduce to coals they would fan out around the field and drive grasshoppers and crickets towards the pit. The insects would fall in the pit and get cooked. Once the fire had cooled the insects were eaten. In your backpack you can carry a piece of iron wire to skewer grasshoppers for roasting. Insects must be cooked thoroughly because they have parasites. See “Parching” entry. As for grasshoppers, eat those that are solid colors, such as all brown, all black, all green. Avoid multi-colored grasshoppers especially orange and black ones.

Large leaves: Several large leaves can be used to wrap food for cooking. Sometimes the leaves have to be wilted (burdock, water dock) other times the spine needs to be bent (bananas and Alligator Flag, read Thalia geniculata.) Other leaves, such as Paper Mulberry, can wrap small items. Indians in the southern United States cooked corn bread wrapped in the leaves of the Alligator Flag. Eggs can be fried on a banana leaf and many Asian cultures wrap food for steaming or roasting in banana leaves. The most common packaging via a banana leaf is pyramidal.

Meat: Any piece of meat weighing a few pounds can be easily roasted if you have a leather thong (or boot lace.) Using the thong (or strong string) suspend the meat beside the fire and twist the meat so when you let it go it spins. Depending upon the weight and materials used the chunk can spin back and fourth for 10 to 20 minutes. This assures even cooking.  The down side is that it needs nearly constant attending and rewinding. Also if you use string, you should wet the string occasionally to keep it from burning. Cooking time depends upon how close to the fire you suspend the meat and its size. A four-pound chicken a foot from the fire takes about four hours to cook thoroughly, or an hour a pound.  Smaller portions of meat can be put on a spit.

Another technique if using a hot stone pit is to wrap a hunk of meat in a simple flour and water dough. The dough cooks to a rock-hard consistency but holds in the meat juices and stays soft next to the meat. If you wrap the meat carefully and take it out with the dough seam on top the dough makes a perfect bowl.

Meat can also be placed directly on hot coals. The outside will get covered with ash and burn but the inside will be edible.

Nettles: Most members of the Urtica genus sting. Usually you collect them with gloves and then boil them. A different technique is to hold or suspend the entire plant near your fire or hot coals until it is very wilted. Remember to turn the plant in the process. The heat renders the chemical in the sting harmless and you can eat the plant raw.

Nuts: Make a bed of sand, bury the nuts in their shells in the sand, one to two inches depending upon the size of the nut. Build a small fire over the nuts. When the fire has died, dig up the nuts. This is particularly good with hazelnuts (filberts.)  Do not do this with acorns as they have tannic acid that must first be leached out.

Parching grain:  Put seeds in a basket or wooden bowl. Add a series of fire-hot rocks and stir around the bowl, cooking the seeds. When the rock cools remove and add another. Your nose will tell you when the grain is cooked. You might find it interesting that ancient man in Britain had a novel way of storing grain. He would dig a bell-shaped hole in the ground and fill it with grain. Then he plugged the top with a clay clump. The grain on the outside of the hole against the damp earth would germinate. The germinating grain would use up the oxygen in the hole leaving carbon dioxide. Without air the germinating grain died and formed a crust around the rest of the grain protecting it. Research shows the method works better than modern grain storage.

Some Insects, nuts and small tubers can also can be parched.

Pit baking: This technique works for a variety of food, just change the size of the pit, the materials and cooking time. When I was a boy we would often go out to an island at low tide, spend the day, usually over night, and then return on the next low tide. First we would dig a hole, line it with dry rocks, and start a fire in the pit. Then we would dig up clams, knock muscles of the rocks, and rummage around the seaweed for small crabs. When the fire had burned down we put seaweed in the pit, tossed in the shellfish, covered it with seaweed. After about an hour, or when we remembered, we would open the pit and have our feast. A matt or the like over the seaweed made things cook faster.

With large game you dig a larger hole, use more rocks, and build a larger fire. With large hunks of meat you must remove some of the rocks, put the meat in,  and put on rocks on top of the meat and then cover it all well. A grass mat helps hold the heat in. Give a leg of lamb three hours. Never use rocks from a stream. They can explode when heated.

Variation: After the rocks are hot, lay in the food and the rest around a stick placed vertically in the middle. Before closing pull the stick out, pour a couple of cups of water down the hole then cover the hole. Good for steaming vegetables.

A second pit method is to dig the pit, line it with stones if you have them, cover the food with leaves, cover that with three inches of dirt and then build a fire over the pit.

If you don’t have rocks you can use clay. Aboriginals dug pits about 4 feet long and 3 feet deep. They put firewood in the pit along with large lumps of clay.  After the fire burn down the lumps of hot clay were removed, the pit swept clean, lined with green leaves or grasses, then small game were put in, covered with green grass, weighted down with the hot clay, then everything buried again. Small game took and hour or so, larger game like small pigs or possums two hours or more.

Pumpkin cook pot: Think about. A pumpkin is hollow, has edible pulp and is a natural pot. Take off the top in a manner that allows you to put it back on like a lid. Scoop out the seeds for roasting. Put what you want to cook in the water proof hollow, replace the lid, put near the fire or in the coals. Watch closely. You can also put a spicy custard in the pumpkin for a seasonal treat. Actually nearly every edible squash member with a hard outer peel can be used this way.

Alternative method. Put a series of clean hot rocks in the pumpkin to cook the content, especially if it is a soup or stew.

Salt: Small amounts of salt water can be held on large leaves in the sun to evaporate leaving salt. Or along the shore several plants exude salt on their leaves or contain salt and can be used for salt flavoring, such as glasswort and seablight.

Sandspurs: These highly nutritious and calorie-dense grains are protected by painful spines. Harvest the plant by cutting it off near the ground. Use the stalk as a handle. Hold the seed heads over the fire or near the coals and burn off the spines. This also parches the seed. Once the spines are burned away consume the seeds right off the stem. The only caution is the seed has a lot of oil and burns easily so several passes into the fire is better than putting it in the fire and leaving it there. That usually ends up with it just catching on fire. (See my video.)

Seal blubber: Can be eaten raw or cooked.

Shellfish: Line saltwater shellfish up on a flat rock then rake coals over them. You can do the same with fresh water shellfish but they don’t taste as good and must be cooked very thoroughly because of dangerous parasites.  You can also “cook” small saltwater shellfish with citric acid using juice from wild oranges and the like.

Australian Aboriginals cooked saltwater shellfish quickly by putting them on coals next to the fire, foot up. When the frothed they were done. This also helps to avoid overcooking the shellfish and making them tough. They also consumed cockles (mollusks) by the tens of millions. They heaped them into a pile and built a small fire on the heap. That caused the shells to pop open eliminating the need to break them open.

Spit cooking: A spit is a usually green stick skewering small amounts of meats, vegetables. It is held over hot coals. You can hold the spit or prop it with two rocks, one over the end and one under it to regulate height. You can cut a forked branch to hold meat so you can rotate the meat easily. You can also split the spit and run small sticks through the split in the spit and the meat to hold it firm.

Reflector: Any material that can be used to reflect heat can make cooking go faster. A rock wall, piled stones, logs, all can reflect heat. Put the meat you are cooking between your fire and the reflector

Sugar: Young Bulrush (Scirpus) shoots can be harvested green. Dried then pounded and sieved the resulting white powder is sweet. Young peas can be used as a sugar substitute or as a fruit.

Turtles: Their shells make good cooking pots but boil water in them first to clean and disinfect. Skulls can be used likewise. Roast ungutted turtle on coals. When the shell splits they are done. Almost the entire turtle is edible except the lungs, gall bladder, skeleton, skull and nails. You really want to avoid the gall bladder and take steps not to rupture it.

Vegetables: Most roots vegetables can be baked next to a fire or in the coals of a fire. More so, with many root vegetables their peel protects them and dry heat intensifies the flavor. Depending upon the root it can be next to the fire, on the coals, or buried in the coals.

Yeast: Sources of wild yeast are grapes and elderberries. Each have a lot of yeast on their skins. This yeast can be used to make wine, beer, and raise bread.

Chickweed is a seasonal food and medicinal plant

Which came first? Chickweed or corn silk? The answer is probably Chickweed because corn silk is found on cultivated corn whereas Chickweed has always been on the wild side. And which came first is not an idle question in that Chickweed and corn silk taste very similar (at least to most humans.) That flavor is one of the identifying characteristics of Chickweed. It made its seasonal debut this weekend in the northeast corner of the state. So far I have not seen it in my mid-state semi-front lawn but I expect it soon.

Blossoms have five deeply incised petals.

Like several other winter annuals it sprouted early this year, by perhaps a month. (I also saw a way out-of-season Pindo Palm putting on fruit. Very strange.) This chickweed was three to four inches long and under the shade of a large Live Oak. A search of the lawn nearby show a lot more chickweed on the way. It’s one of those versatile little greens that foragers like to write about and share recipes of. A Google search of the word “Chickweed” produces more than a million hits. While I know it primarily as a food it also has application in herbal medicine. To read more about chickweed, click here.

An aroma vultures would love.

There was also a strange edible at the Jacksonville class that nearly no one eats, the Column Stinkhorn, a mushroom that smells like a dead animal. In fact many of them were wafting out their carrion aroma to the point we had to move on a couple of times while talking about other plants. The edibility of the Column Stinkhorn is also debatable. Most list it as not edible and there are reports of sickness in humans eating mature specimens. But at least one noted expert says when in the button stage they are mild and edible. This may be true but I don’t plan on finding out any time soon. They are, however, rather interesting to look at. Their fetid aroma attracts flies which then spread its spores around.

The Tough Train Wrecker

I had two other mushroom surprises this past week. I found a “The Train Wrecker” growing on a pine stump. It a tough edible mushroom that can rot rail road ties. Not exactly encouraging. But the big surprise came with finding a toxic mushroom that glows in the dark! A least one expert says “Jack O’ Lanterns”  don’t glow in the dark but I took some home and they most certainly do. That is one of those irritation with plants. A recognized expert says one thing but your personal experience says something totally different. It’s 6 a.m. as I write and it is dark outside and they are definitely glowing. Experts aren’t always right.  “Jacks” as they are called, won’t kill you but they will make you very ill. I know someone who found that out personally… No, it was not me. I prefer to be non-sick. I have also started several facebook group pages about mushrooms because there is a lack of them: Southeastern US Mushroom Identification, Florida Mushroom Identification Forum, Edible Mushroom: Florida,  and Orlando Mushroom Group. As one might expect they go down in size. My Orlando Mushroom Group page doesn’t do much but I couldn’t pass up OMG.

Diuretic Dandelions

Dandelion blossoms, ten pounds of sugar, and two cakes of bread yeast became my first batch of wine. I was in grammar school at the time but an old hand by then having already made two five-gallon batches of beer out of cooking malt. The wine came out far better than the beer which was made in a five-gallon crock in the basement with an oil lamp under it to keep in yeast warm in the winter. Back then all soda bottles took a cap and we had a capper for making homemade root beer. Thus most of the beer and later the wine went into 16-ounce used Coca-Cola bottles. I can remember one of our neighbors — Mr. Gowen — getting quite drunk on that Dandelion wine one night. To an 8th grader that was success.

Professionally-made Dandelion Wine.

The Dandelions I used were huge with blossoms nearly two inches across. They grew in large colonies so it took very little time to collected several pounds of them (and one had the greens for supper.) Unfortunately that is not possible here in warm Florida. Dandelions hate hot weather which is why this abundant northern blossom is seen sporadically during our winter, and then an anemic version of the real thing.  I see them so rarely locally that I can remember each location I have found them. They do, however, become more common as one moves north. I saw a small patch beside the interstate in Jacksonville. Dandelions are, of course, not only prime food but medicine as well. If you want to know more about them and a wine recipe you can go here.

Public Park Enemy #1

140,000 pounds of walnuts have been stolen in California. Police suspect organized squirrels. 12,000 pounds were taken last month in Sacramento and 140,000 pounds taken Sunday in the central valley town of Escalon just north of Modesto. The walnuts are worth nearly half a million dollars. Each theft was from trailers. Police have only crumbs to go on. If you remember, last December — and reported here — there was an $18 million dollar heist of maple syrup in Canada. These combined events have fans of maple walnut ice cream concerned, according to Ima Nutt, president of the Maple Walnut Ice CreamAficionado Association of North America. I can understand her worry. When I was a kid back in the Dark Ages the ice cream of regional choice was Maple Walnut. One can still buy it seasonally according to one maker, Schwan. I don’t know if it is on the shelves all year in New England or not. Maple Walnut was #6 in popularity out of Howard Johnson’s famous 28 flavors but that was decades ago. If we read about 1,000 pounds of chocolate topping being stolen we know the world’s largest sundae is being concocted.

Andy Firk

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

That’s me sitting amongst poppies near the Acropolis in Athens.

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

Goat Foraging in Crete

Six new foraging instructors were added to my master list of such teachers in North America and Europe. This brings the total to well over 100. You can access the duplicated information two ways. Is is under “resources” via the search window. Or, there is a drop down menu under the word “foraging” on the menu line that will show “foraging instructors.” Click on that then scroll down to the state, providence, or country you are interested in. If there is no teacher in your area you can always contact the closest teacher and ask them if they know of an instructor in your area.

My classes this week will be in Gainesville Saturday and Ocala Sunday.

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