Tree trivia: Beechnut chewing gum had nothing to do with the Beech tree or the seeds it produces. It was, however, the name and logo of a company that made candy, and was my favorite chewing gum as a kid.
The American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) is found from Nova Scotia, southwest to northern Florida (down to Alachua County) and over to the Mississippi River and into eastern Texas, eastern oklahoma, and northwest Arkansas. Paleobiologists tell us that at one time the beech was found through most of North America and could grow there now. But, because of the ice ages they disappeared from the western two-thirds of the continent save for some in the mountains of Northeastern Mexico. Environmentally beech is found with maples, birches, the basswood, black cherry, southern magnolia, eastern white pine, red spruce, several hickories and oaks.
American Beech
Beech trees begin producing seeds around 40-years old, and by 60 can be producing huge amounts. They don’t produce every year and can cycle anywhere from two to eight years. In northern and central states the beech flowers in late April or early may when the new leaves are about one-third grown. They are quite vulnerable to spring frosts. The seeds ripen between September and November. Two to four nuts are usually found in one bur. Heavy frost can cause the bur to open and drop its seeds. There are about 1,600 seeds to a pound.
Beech seeds, also called mast, are sought after by a large variety of birds and mammals, including mice, squirrels, chipmunks, black bear, deer, foxes, ruffed grouse, ducks, and bluejays. Beech wood is used for flooring, furniture, turned products, veneer, plywood, railroad ties, baskets, pulp, charcoal, rough lumber, shoe lasts, buttons, bowls and barrels for aging beer. It is also preferred by those with wood burning stoves because of its high density and good burning qualities. Creosote made from beech wood is used internally and externally as a medicine for people and animals.
Cultivated Beech tree and bee hives in Banner Elk North Carolina
From the human point of view, the American Beech provides quite a few edibles. The inner bark is edible, young leaves are quite tasty while they are soft. The sweet seeds are very edible and can be crushed into a butter. The nuts have a low amount of fagin which is slightly toxic and is found in the skin of the kernel (roasting allows that skin to be easily rubbed off.) The European beech, F. sylvatica, has more fagin and has to be used more carefully. Beechnut oil does not have any fagin and was used in Europe for centuries for cooking (and as a hair tonic.) Seeds have been crushed, boiled, and the nourishing liquid drank. They were also ground up and added to cornmeal and berries to make a bread. Beech sawdust has also been mixed with flour to extend it when making bread in times of scarcity. Raw nuts should not be eaten to excess.
Fagus grandifolia means “edible large leaves. “Fagus” comes from the Greek verb Fagito, which means to eat and was the name of the European beech, F. sylvatica (edible of the woods.) The species name is Latin. To go back a little further “fagito” came from Akkadian “paglu” meaning strong.
Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile
IDENTIFICATION:
Leaves alternate, simple, elliptical to oblong-ovate, 2 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches long, pinnately-veined, 11-14 pairs of veins, with each vein ending in a sharp distinct tooth, shiny green above, very waxy and smooth, slightly paler below. Male flowers borne on globose heads hanging from a slender 1 inch stalk, female flowers borne on shorter spikes, appearing just after leaves in the spring. Nuts are irregularly triangular, shiny brown, found in pairs within a woody husk covered with recurved spines,
TIME OF YEAR:
Nuts ripen in fall, young leaves in spring while tender.
ENVIRONMENT:
Old forests, neither dry nor wet, found with maples, birches and oaks.
METHOD OF PREPARATION:
Inner bark is edible, young leaves edible, mature seeds (best to remove their brown covering.) Can be roasted and or made into a nut butter. The oil is good for cooking.
The very first Hawthorn I ever saw — and the only one I knew for quite a while — grew on the other side of the dirt road that ran by our house in Pownal, Maine.
This Hawthorn was very old. They can live to at least 400 years. It’s gone now — road widening — and I never knew which Hawthorn it was but that’s not unusual with this species. Experts today can’t agree if there are 200 species of Hawthorns or 1,000. The genus has a lot of variability. What I remember most clearly was its huge thorns, most about two inches long. It also had several families of birds in it each year. Few predators were going to brave those thorns.
Twenty-feet tall with a crown equally wide, it grew on high ground right at the intersection of two pastures, a very fitting place. Haw means hedge and indeed Hawthorns were used as hedges. In fact, in 1845 England pass the General Enclosures Act allowing Hawthorns to be used as hedges to mark off land. That caused a lot of irritation because until then folks could go wandering from hill to dale at will without obstructions. It took another 150 years or so for England to pass a “right to roam act” allowing people more access to such land. Let it not be said that England does not correct bad laws, it may just take a century or two.
The other thing that intrigued me as a kid growing up by the tree was that the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne had the same name as the tree. I’ve never met a Mr. Catalpa, Mrs. Hackmatack, or Ms. Oak. Truth be known that author’s family name was Hathorne. But, one of his ancestors was a judge in the Salem Witch Trials. The speculation is Nathaniel change the spelling of his last name to distance himself from that infamous incident. Indeed, just as he had an ancestor who judged “witches” at the trial I had an ancestor convicted at the trials for witchcraft and hanged (Susannah North Martin.) Over the years I have met a few Pynes, Apples and one Dr. Maples (the forensic anthropologist who identified Pizarro’s remains and those of the Russian royal family. We met under unusual circumstances. If you want to know, email me. He wrote “Dead Men Do Tell Tales.”)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, 4 July, 1804 – 19 May, 1864
The first thing you need to know about the Hawthorn berries is you should not eat the seeds. They contain cyanide bonded with sugar, called amygdalin. In your gut — actually small intestine — that changes to hydrogen cyanide and can be deadly. You can cook the berries then discard the seeds, but don’t eat the seeds. I recently saw a recipe on the internet that called for using hawthorne berries whole. Clearly that cook never made that pie, or if she did, only once. Don’t eat Hawthorne seeds. If you eat the raw berries spit the seeds out. If an adult mistakenly eats one or two seeds they aren’t deadly but they could be to a child. The seeds are best avoided. Very young spring leaves — called Bread and Cheese — can be a trail side nibble as well as the flower buds or young flowers. Mature flowers should be avoided or any part that smells like almonds when crushed.
The claim to fame for Hawthorn berries is they are high in pectin, so they have been added to other fruits to make jelly as the Hawthorn itself often has little apparent taste. However some Hawthorns are tasty enough in their own right to be made into jelly. Should civil society end and you want to make jelly, the Hawthorn berry is your friend. Just ripe berries have the most pectin and over ripe berries the least.
No-cook Hawthorn Jelly, photo courtesy of Ray Mears.
At least one Hawthorn’s berries (those of the Crataegus monogyna, the one-seed Hawthorn) can be made into a no-cook jelly. If you have the-one seeded Hawthorn here’s the formula with thanks to Ray Mears and Professor Gordon Hillman. If it doesn’t work you can always cook it, add pectin and make jelly. I would suspect this was how jelly was discovered.
Hawthorn Jelly Dried, photo courtesy Ray Mears
Put the berries in a bowl and quickly crush them thoroughly with your hands. The resulting liquid should be about the consistency of pudding just before it sets. It should be that consistency naturally. If you’ve had a dry year add some water to get to that consistency. Work quickly. Squeeze the seeds out of the berries then quickly filter the thick slurry into a bowl. In about five minutes the liquid will jell. Flip it over onto a plate. It can be eaten as is or sliced or sun dried. It will be sweet and will last for many years. Remember just ripe berries have more pectin that over-ripe berries. To see a video on this go here.
Hawthorne blossoms
Crataegus monogyna is native to Britain and Europe but is naturalized in the United States and Canada. It can be found north and east of Tennessee, up the west coast from California to Alaska, as well as in Utah, Montana and Arkansas. Local and regionally known Hawthorns are C. aestivalis (commonly known as the May Haw. The only tree I’ve tried to raise that died) C. anomala, C. arnoldiana, C. calpodendron, C. canadensis, C. chysocarpa, C. coccinoides, C. columbiana, C. crus-galli, C. dispessa, C. douglasii, C. flava, C. intricata, C. marshallii, C. mollis, C. oxycantha, C. phaenopyrum, C. pulcherrima, C. pringlei, C. pruinosa, C. pubescens, C. rivularis, C. spathulata, C. submollis, C. succulenta, C. uniflora, and C. viridis. All but the C. phaenopyrum, C. pulcherrima and C. viridis are know to have been used as food. There are no “poisonous” Hawthorns except for the seeds. Many Hawthorns, while not poisonous, are not palatable. Some improve with cooking. The genus has many medicinal uses and is known for its heart support and is actually a beta blocker. Herbalist recommend one teaspoon of leaves or berries (minus seeds) or blossoms seeped in a cup of water twice a day.
Crataegus (krah-TEE-gus) comes from the Greek word Krataigos, which was the ancient name used by Theophrastus (372-287 BC) for a flowering thorn. Kratus means strong — the wood is tough — and akakia or akis, thorn. Monogyna ( mon-NO-gy-nuh) means one seed. I don’t know if there is any connection but most Greeks with a surname that end in -akis comes from or had ancestors who came from Crete.
Hawthorn Schnapps
Stalkless berries from Crataegus monogyna or Crataegus laevigata are usually recommended. Direction: Rinse the Hawthorn berries and leave them to dry off. Fill 2/3 of a clean glass jar with berries. Cover with clear, unflavored vodka. Close the jar with a tight-fitting lid. Let the berries steep for 5-6 weeks in a dark place at room temperature, 64-68°F. Shake lightly from time to time. Strain and filter into a clean glass bottle or jar with tight-fitting lid. Age for a couple of months in a dark place at room temperature before serving.
Haw sauce
* 1½ Lb stalkless Hawthorn berries
* ¾ pint vinegar of your choice
* 4 oz sugar
* Salt to taste, optional, some use up to one ounce of salt
* 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Wash berries. Put in pan with vinegar and cook gently for 30 minutes. Press the pulp through sieve, return to the pan with sugar and seasonings. Boil for 10 minutes. Bottle and seal.
Hawthorn Berry Soup
One pound of stalkless Hawthorn berries
1/2 cup water
Half a pound of sugar (more or less if you like)
2 cinnamon sticks
Pinch of chili flakes or powder (optional)
Add the Hawthorn berries to a pot with the water. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover the pot tightly, cook for 30 minutes. Allow to cool, pass through a sieve (throw away the seeds). Transfer the sauce to a pan, add the sugar, cinnamon sticks and chili flakes or powder (if using). Cook until the sauce thickens sufficiently and serve.
Here is Euell Gibbon’s Recipe for Hawthorn Jelly:
To make Haw Jelly, crush three pounds of the fruit, add four cups of water, bring it to a boil, cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes, then strain the juice through a jelly bag and discard the spent pulp, seeds, and skins. If red haws are not too ripe, they will furnish ample pectin for jelly making, but if they are very ripe, add one package powdered pectin to the strained juice. We felt our juice could stand more acid, so we added the juice of two lemons. We put just four cups of this juice in a very large saucepan and brought it to a boil, then added seven cups of sugar and very soon after it came to a boil again, it showed a perfect jelly test.
Hawthorn Berry Catsup, from GatherVictoria.com
Ingredients
-2 cups hawthorn berries
-1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
-1/4 cup of water
– however much sugar or honey you want
-1/3 cup black cherry juice (optional but recommended)
-1/2 tsp sea salt (or as you like)
-Freshly ground black pepper or pinch of cayenne
Instructions
1. Remove the berries from their stalks then rinse in cold water.
2. Place in large saucepan, adding the vinegar and water. Gently bring to boil and simmer for about 25 minutes until the skins start to split.
3. After cooling, push the mixture through a sieve or pass through a food mill to remove the pits (seeds.).
4. Return the mixture to the pan, adding your sweeteners, and slowly heat, stirring frequently. Add spices or flavorings.
5. Bring to a low boil, then simmer for a further 5 -10 minutes, until the sauce thickens and becomes slightly syrupy.
6. Remove from heat, then add, little bit at a time, the black cherry juice, stirring until you find just the right consistency and thickness you prefer in your ketchup. (Remember the sauce will thicken once cooled.
7. When happy with your result, pour the ketchup into sterilized bottles. Refrigerate and use within 3 months.
Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile
IDENTIFICATION: A medium-sized deciduous tree, 15 to 30 feet tall, branches slightly pendulous if not erratic. Leaves greatly varied, with C. monogyna they are simple, lobed, serrated at lobe tips, alternating to three inches long. Flowers small and white, bloom in late spring, five petals. Fruit a red pome with one seed, other species have multiple seeds. Long thorns on stems. Bark resembles an apple tree.
TIME OF YEAR: Autumn
ENVIRONMENT: Prefers moist fertile soil and full sun. Make a good landscape tree.
METHOD OF PREPARATION: Out of hand (do not eat seeds.) Can be used to make jelly or as pectin for other fruits. Can be made into a sauce for cooking, or used to flavor alcohols.
Herb Blurb
Herbalists say two teaspoons of leaves or seedless berries (or both) made into a tea twice a day is an effective beta blocker and lower blood pressure.
As a seasoned life-long bachelor I had my pickup line all crafted and rehearsed, so I could say it naturally at the right moment when my Dream Lady came near. It was: “Have you seen any Usnea?”
Now I am sure you will all agree with me that is a great pick up line guaranteed to set many a heart afluttering. The problem is I never found anyone to use it on today… or yesterday… or the day before. And perhaps thats the problem: Great pickup lines are pickupless unless there is someone around to sound.
Let’s face it, as pick up lines go there are few better. Its understandable but unknowable so there is no short answer or dismissing. She has to stop and ponder what I said… and in that moment I explain.
“It’s a hairy lichen that grows around here. It tastes good, highly nutritious, and is a great antibiotic for battle wounds….or cat scratches” …. well… I suppose I could leave out the battle wound part if I ever get a chance.
Perhaps Im missing something but women exercise to feel better and look better and from what I hear, meet people. Yet on the exercise/bike/nature trail only twice in the last decade have I ever had a conversation with a woman. One asked me what the name was of the tree I was looking at (Black Cherry: Prunus serotina) and another was carrying a bromeliad. I recognized it. I knew exactly where she got it off the trail. It was a great conversation starter.
She was the right age, nice personality, and I found her quite attractive… and we talked plants for a couple of miles. I gave her my card and she told me her name… I recognized it as an old cartoon character… Brenda Starr….definitely lost that one. I went and collected some Usnea for the wound.
Here’s an essay I wrote in 2001 about bachelorhood:
A bachelor, I have been told, is a man with no social commitments and unmatched socks. When Im asked why Im a bachelor, I tell the truth: I was born that way. And as a bachelor, Im in good company. Most of the popes have been bachelors. Divorced men are also called bachelors, but what really is a bachelor?
Any male whos never been married is a bachelor, but we dont call 10-year old boys bachelors, though some women may call some bachelors 10-year-old boys. Young men in their twenties are technically bachelors, but its better to call them unmarried, which doesnt convey the same nuance as bachelor. Its as if men in their 20s and early 30s will get married, they just havent settled down or found the right person yet.
Somewhere in the mid- to late-thirties, the word bachelor becomes quite appropriate. By ones forties, one actually exceeds the word bachelor. By age 50, “confirmed bachelor” says it all though some people might use the more descriptive phrase “entrenched bachelor.”
Im now past 50. I always intended to get married and have kids, but it didnt happen. I did ask a woman to marry me way back in the psychedelic Dark Ages of the 1970s. The diamond ring back then cost me a semesters worth of tuition. We soon disagreed over attending graduate school, finances and whoever won the 72 presidential election . At least some one did clearly win. So now, when most men my age are grandfathers, I am, for better or worse, childless and certainly for the worse — still dating. Being my age and dating creates challenging situations.
Its difficult, for example, to avoid having a family if I marry because most women my age have children or grandchildren. Nothing so far in life has made me feel older than the day I realized I was dating grandmothers. Another problem is younger, fertile women. If I were to become a father today, I would be retired before the child started high school, if I didnt die from exhaustion first. Id have to join OTHPTA, the Over The Hill Parent Teachers Association. Fortunately, younger women tend to take my age seriously and stay away, which is just as well. Ive reached the stage in life in which when I think of going to bed, its really because Im tired.
One advantage of being a 50-plus bachelor is that 65-year-old moms have finally stopped trying to set me up with their 35-year-old, three-times-divorced daughters. The disadvantage of being a 50-plus bachelor is the 65-year old moms are now making passes at me. Im really not ready to date great-grandmothers.
Fortunately, my well-intended friends have stopped trying to set me up. They have accepted my bachelorhood, kind of. Instead of working to match me up with women, theyre always trying to give me a pregnant dog or cat. There is something ironic about avoiding a shotgun wedding all ones life to end up with a litter of hungry, bathroom-missing furry infants to care for. My pet-pushing friends say I need companionship, as if becoming the owner of fleas and a hair ball collection gives one comfort. My friends also seem to think Im a good place to dump unwanted furniture because as a bachelor I dont have a woman around telling me disintegrating lava lamps are ugly.
While many women may be wary of a bachelor my age, men are not. That I have never tripped down the aisle has caused many a married man to call me his hero. The first thing a married man usually says is that he envies me, that theres no reason to get married. He says he wished he never married and could still play the field. I dont think my married friends realize the playing field was never level and that it tips strongly in her favor today. I also think my admirers are letting their imagination run wild. A balding, pudgy, grandfather-aged man with a flea-ridden house and fire-hazard furniture is not exactly a babe magnet.
I also remind my lamenting wedded friends that research definitely shows that as married men they will, on average, live far longer than I. Or, even if they dont, it will at least seem that way. And to be frank, if I had to do it all over again, I would have married my first and perhaps only love. The 72 election really wasnt that important.
Maypops aren’t ripe yet locally but they soon will be. Photo by Green Deane
Maypops are a greatly under-rated plant. Their fruit is tasty, the vine long-producing, and a couple of medicines can be made out of it as well. Any down side? One of the identifying characteristics is the leaves smell like a degrading rubber sneaker.
The species starts producing in the spring and will continue until cold weather knocks them out. They sprouted locally about two months ago and are now putting on fruit. The above photo was taken along the Seminole-Wekiva Bike Trail in Lake Mary, FL. Production of green egg shaped fruit is continuous with ripening fruit on the older vine and new fruit near the growing tip. Green fruit can be eaten cooked, ripe yellow fruit raw. While the entire raw ripe fruit is edible the highly esteemed part is the sweet-sour pulp inside. To read more about the Maypop click here.
Yucca blossoms are edible once debugged and cooked. Photo by Green Deane
Also blossoming now are our local yucca, Yucca filamentosa. Just as the Maypop is perhaps an under-rated plant the Yucca is perhaps over-rated. You will read in many foraging books that the blossoms are edible raw. I have never found that so with our local yucca. Raw they have a wonderful texture and initial flavor but then a natural soap kicks in and leaves a bitter aftertaste. Cooked flowers, however, are quite tasty though you always have too knock out a lot of insect first. The flower spike is also edible when young. Other parts are famine food. To read more about the yucca go here.
Pawpaw blossoms can be ruby to cream colored. Photo by Green Deane
Pawpaws are ratty in Florida, ranging from runty dwarfs to gangly, small understory trees. Their blossoms often appear a bit exotic. The fruit is hard to find primarily because woodland creatures like them. You won’t read this in foraging books but the most common location I find papaws is at the base of pine trees in scrubs. They are quite common. Another place to find pawpaws is in pastures and along the pasture fences. Often along the fence will be the dwarf pawpaw and in the pasture a larger species. Further north pawpaws become good size trees. If you want to read more about pawpaws click here.
Black Cherry ripen unevenly. Photo by Green Deane
Black Cherries are in full fruit now, ranging from still unripe ones to dark semi-sweet racemes. I say semi-sweet because no matter how ripe they always have a bit of a bitter kick back. Making wine or syrup out of the cherries usually gets rid of the bitter aftertaste. While several kinds of cherries are reported to grow in Florida I have only ever seen the Black Cherry, Prunus serotina. It’s fairly to identify because of the hair along the mid-rib of older leaves. Whether your cherry tree will have fruit is up to the woodland creatures. In some areas ripe fruit is stripped as soon as it is edible, in others you can collect most of the fruit yourself. You have to be careful, however, not to now confuse the Black Cherry with the Laurel Cherry, Prunus carolinana which is deadly. To read more about the cherries, go here
While ripe American Nightshade berries are edible ripe check for bitterness. Photo by Green Deane
Also fruiting now is the most controversial American Black Nightshade, Solanum americanum. Several genus have one foot in edible and the other in toxic. The Nightshade is one such family, as is the Honeysuckle and the Peas. I eat S. americanum berries as a trail side nibble often to the aghast of students or even other foragers. It’s a family with a lot of misunderstanding but also justified warnings about toxicity. If I have a problem with the S. americanum it is that the fruit is not consistent. Sometimes you find some very ripe but bitter fruit. Don’t eat those. Sometimes that are also larger than usual fruit and bitter. Perhaps there is some cross pollinating going on. Always taste a ripe berry first and wait a minute or two to see if any bitterness shows up. The green berries are definitely toxic. To read more about the American Nightshade go here.
Upcoming classes this week include a familiar site, Mead Garden on Sunday, and a new location Saturday, Seminiole-Wekiva Bike Trail, and upland area with a lot of interesting edibles.
Saturday, June 8th, Seminole Wekiva Bike Trail, Longwood, FL., 32779. Meet at the Jones Trail head parking lot which is at the southeast corner of the intersection of Markham Woods Road and Long Pond Road. 9 a.m.
Sunday, June 9th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.
Seminole-Wekiva Bike Trail. Photo by Green Deane
Seminole-Wekiva is an active bike trail. There are no lakes or ponds along the trail so there are no aquatic plants where we will be. But what edibles we do see we will see often. Among them are maypops, yucca, black cherry, horsemint, spurge nettle, gopher apples, reindeer moss, pawpaws, sassafras, persimmons, winged yams and elderberries.
This was “Prunus” foraging week. While rummaging around our usual class location in Jacksonville we sampled Black Cherries and Chickasaw Plums. Both are just beginning to ripen but there were enough for every one to have a taste. There’s a lot of competition for the Black Cherries from the birds. The Chickasaw Plums were more available but not quiet as ripe. Although they are cherries and plums both fruits are in the same genus, Prunus so it was not surprising they are ripening at the same time. The cherries don’t stay around long but the plums should be ripening for another six weeks or so. To read about the Black Cherry go here, the Chickasaw Plum, here.
Winged Yam Roots can easily weight 30 pounds.
Also in Jacksonville we dug up two Winged Yams. Well… I dug up one and a student dug up another. If you know where they grow this is a good time to wrench those tasty yam from the ground (and they are true yams, not at all related to sweet potatoes what are not yams but are marketed in the South as “yams.” Spring roots are full of starch from last season and are just putting on shoots. They’ll used that stored energy to climb to the top of the trees, reproduce, and put on an even bigger root for next year. Right now the shoots around a few inches to a yard long. The two we dug up weighed around one pound and two pounds, shaped like a two-liter soda bottle. They are boiled like potatoes. No wild edible in Florida produces so many calories for such little work. They are our prime caloric staple. To read about the Winged Yam click here.
Seablite is a spring time green locally and is just beginning to reach the harvest state.
Foraging south of Daytona Beach uncovered some very tasty salt-tolerant plants on the inner coastal waterway. Spring is always a good time for finding the greens that come pre-seasoned. The most outstanding, and also the only seasonal one, is Sea Blite. Related to Lambs Quarters, it’s a mild tasting and mildly salty green that’s just coming into season. It’s my candidate for a commercial crop it is so good. Edible raw or cooked I like to catch a fish on the inner coastal water way, stuff it with Sea Blite, then cook it there and there. The salt leaves the Sea Blite and helps to flavor the fish. You end up with a scrumptious fish and delectable steamed greens. Truly a gourmet meal on a foraging budget. Sea Blite is found on inner coastal waters rather than on the beach side. Inland it is found in salty areas such as salt lick even along heavily salted roads in northern areas. To read about Sea Blite go here.
Black Medic is a European import.
You’re probably seeing a lot of this here and there right now and you’re wondering what it is. The little plant with the little yellow blossom is probably Black Medic. It is generally considered edible and like many weeds is from Europe. That kind of excludes it from being a significant Native American food (though some sources call it an “Indian” food.) The headache is that from a distance of about five or six feet (where most people’s eyes are from the ground) it can look like Hop Clover. Here’s quick way to tell them apart: Hop Clover tends to have red stems, Black Medic has green stems covered with fine white hair. I personally don’t view Black Medic as much of an edible but you can read more about it here.
Smilax auriculata blossom
During your woodland travels are you seeing a vine with greenish-blossoms (not white) that look like a pompom? That might be smilax which is blooming now. (Poison Ivy has white blossoms but with yellow to brown centers.) There are about 12 species of smilax locally and around 24 east of the Rockies. Some of them can be hard to tell apart. Here’s two that resemble each other: Smilax auriculata and Smilax bona-nox.S. auriculata usually grows in dry sandy areas along the coast. S. bona-nox has a wide range of habitats. S. auriculata has an umbel stalk that is only half as long as a leaf petiole. The stem and prickles are hairless. The berries have two or three seeds. S. bona-nox’s umbel stalk is the same length as a leaf petiole. Its lower stems and prickles are hairy. The berries have one seed. S. bona-nox also has prickles on the leaf margins. It can take up to 18 months for the berries to ripen and turn black. They usually don’t taste acceptable until the berries shrivel some and resemble raisins. You can read more about Smilax here.
There wasn’t a Green Deane Newsletter last week’s because the time allotted for it was spent making a new video, my 140th this time about Wild Garlic/Onions. To view it click here.
You can read past newsletters by going to the main website (EatTheWeeds.Com) and typing NEWSLETTER in the search window then pressing the enter key. Then click on the title you want to read.
Wild Allium puts the tasty parts on top instead of underground
Going north to forage is pleasant this time of the year because it’s like going back in time a few weeks to find some favored plants still producing. Goosegrass, which I have not seen for a month in the central part of the state, was very alive and happy in Gainesville this past Saturday. Chickweed was still abundant there as was pellitory. Sheep’s Sorrel is also seeding making it’s pinkish plums easy to identify. A nice find near Palm Point parking area was wild Allium, some say onion some say garlic but I think it is garlic. (Onions have bulbs, garlic has cloves.) It was almost at the state to put on cloves and was wonderfully pungent. I saw it there the last time I had a class there. We also found wild Allium in Ocala for the first time. In Ocala it was the right place, the right time, and the right conditions. I have visited that spot where the garlic was growing — a swale — more than two dozen times teaching classes. It is usually well-mowed except this time it was not. There the garlic was, right time of year, right place, and not decapitated. To read about wild garlic go here.
A mature Black Cherry leaf has hair along the main stem.
Black Cherry vs Laurel Cherry: Also this weekend there was an opportunity to highlight the differences between wild Black Cherry and wild Cherry Laurel, both native. The fruit of the Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) is edible when ripe. The fruit of the Cherry Laurel (Prunus caroliniana) is always toxic. A quick look at the leaves can tell them apart. The Black Cherry has consistently small teeth around the entire edge of the leaf. And if you look at the backside of the leaf the main stem near the base will have hair on both sides for about an inch. This time of year the hair can be white but it will change to light tan and then dark brown as the season progresses. The soft Black Cherry fruit is dark red to purple with a dimple in the end.
The toxic Cherry Laurel has two glands on the back of every leaf near the stem.
The Cherry Laurel leaf is quite different. It’s teeth are sporadic, especially on older trees or older leaves can have no teeth at all. Younger leaves can have many teeth but they are not consistent or well-organized. Also the back of the Cherry Laurel leaf does not have any hair along the stem. Instead it will have two gray-green dots near the base. They can be faint but each leaf will have those dots, which are really glands. They also are not in the exact same spot all the time. Cherry Laurel leaves also smell of almonds or maraschino cherries when crushed which is cyanide (assuming you are among those who can smell cyanide. Many people cannot.) The hard fruit of the Cherry Laurel is dark blue to black and pointed. NOT EDIBLE.
Although it may sound odd the Black Cherry tree also looks like more like a typical cherry being more checkered than the Cherry Laurel. I have read there are Pin or Red Cherries growing in Florida but the only edible one I’ve ever see here is the Black Cherry. I grew up in Maine where we harvested choke cherries to make jelly and wine. The read more about the Black Cherry go here.
This week’s arguable question is “can you eat elderberries raw?” I call it “arguable” because no matter whether I say yes or no someone will email me and tell me I’m wrong. My answer is yes, and no which means I will irritate both sides. There are a few variables but it’s fairly easy to sort out.
Ripe elderberries are far less toxic than unripe ones.
First, elderberries contain two kinds of toxins, an alkaloid, and, cyanide-producing glucosides. The alkaloid is present in unripe berries. It is not a problem in ripe berries but ripe berries still have cyanide-producing glucosides. This discussion is only about ripe elderberries. If we are referring to dark purple elderberries, such as Sambucus canadensis or Sambucus Mexicana, the answer is yes, you can eat a few if you are an adult, very few if you are a child. If we are talking about red elderberries (Sambucus pubens and Sambucus racemosa for example) the answer is definitely no regardless of your size. You can only eat the cooked pulp of red elderberries and then no seeds. Red elderberries were a staple of some Indians but only after much processing.
Red Elderberry seeds are toxic, but the cooked pulp is not.
In shirt-sleeve language the cyanide-producing glucosides is usually sugar and cyanide bonded together which break apart on digestion producing a small amount of hydrocyanic acid aka prussic acid… cyanide. Your body can tolerate some cyanide. Thus eating raw ripe berries becomes a function of how many of these molecules there are, how much you ate of them, how large are you and how much water there is in your digestive system which probably relates to how quickly you digest them which means how quickly is that cyanide release. A few raw ripe berries usually does not bother an adult any more than eating half-a-dozen apple seed. More than a few ripe purple elderberries can make a child ill usually with digestive upset and vomiting. Same with an adult. Raw elderberries are well known to cause nausea. Cooking (or drying) ripe purple elderberries eliminates the problem completely. I’ve eaten a tablespoon of raw ripe purple elderberries at a time and not been bothered. But I know of many adults who have eaten a handful and gotten sick, not death-door ill but sick nonetheless. The amount of toxicity is considered mild which means little when you’re feeling lousy.
Elderberry blossoms can be dried to make tea or can be added fresh to fritters.
Ripe Red Elderberries are different than purple ones. They have much more potential cyanide material in their seeds and cooking does not get rid of that problem completely. That is why Native Americans ate only cooked red elderberries with the seeds removed, a labor-intensive process. Said another way red elderberry seeds cannot be eaten raw or cooked but red elderberry pulp can be eaten after cooking, and even that is debatable.
So the answer is yes you can eat some ripe, raw purple elderberries but no you should not eat a lot, if only to be safe. Personally I think ripe dark purple elderberries taste far better dried or cooked than raw. Drying or cooking drives off a musty flavor they tend to have and improves the flavor.
Let me also give you an example using elderberries why on my Green Deane Forum Wikipedia is not allowed to be referenced (because it is so inaccurate about wild edibles.) Supposedly referencing an article by the Center for Disease Control Wikipedia reports. “In 1984, a group of twenty-five people were sickened, apparently by elderberry juice pressed from fresh, uncooked Sambucus mexicana berries. All recovered quickly, however, including one individual who was hospitalized after drinking five glasses. Such reported incidents are rare.”
What does the report really say? The incident was in 1983 not 1984. Twenty-five people were at the event, not 25 taken ill. Eleven people were sickened, eight were flown to the hospital. One stayed overnight. The “juice” was not made from just elderberries but elderberries, elderberry stems, and elderberry leaves (as well as apple juice, sugar and water.) The juice also sat for two days before being consumed. The report does not say the elderberries were “unripe.” This is exactly why you cannot trust Wikipedia for foraging information.
Burton Knight’s front yard, Dallas, Texas.
Let’s start this out with a fact: Seven billion gallons of water are used every day to water lawns and outdoor plants in the United States. Every day, seven billion galllons. Now read about Burton Knight, who has a degree in horticulture and lives in the Junius Heights Historic District of Dallas, Texas. As you probably know that area of the country has been experiencing a long-term drought. Water is in short supply and will be more so in the future. With that in mind Knight took out the sod in front of his house and installed xeriscaping including rocks, low-water plants and cacti: Native and very Texas. A local commission that watches over historic districts has told him to tear it all out. Why? The cactus, the commission said, are not “historically appropriate.” The commission is demanding Knight put back the non-native grass, in other words, a lawn.
The native cactus are not “historic” according to a regulatory commission.
According to the Dallas Morning News: For Knight rising water needs and a hotter, drier Texas as a result of global warming make up the state’s most urgent environmental crisis. He said his case suggests that the cultural norms that earned Dallas a reputation as a water hog are still deeply entrenched. “How can you say the cactus is not historic”? asked Knight, whose degree is from Texas A&M university. “Guess what crop has the greatest consumption of time, energy, water and chemicals? Turf grass.”
Columnist Jacquilynn Floyd pointed out how selective the preservationists are: “Living in a historic district shouldn’t be- can’t be- like living in a museum. Wood stoves and ice wagons are historically accurate, too, but they don’t really meet modern requirements…. a neighborhood can aged with grace and still evolve to adapt to a changing environment.”
It is interesting that the water-saving native plants in Knight’s front yard are unacceptable in the historic district but the car in the yard is acceptable. Why isn’t the commission also calling for the elimination of cars and demanding folks use the more historically correct horse for transportation?
Glendale, Arizona, where lawn grass is not prized.
While most municipalities still operate under the mentality that “Grass is God” mentality some are changing. In Glendale, Arizona, just northwest of Phoenix, residents can earn $150 to $750 depending upon how much grass they remove from there lawn. And here’s a fact you can use: You can cut the water needs of your yard up to 50 percent by decreasing the grass to 40% of the total space and increasing trees to 60% of the total space. If you have the typical-size lawn that still leaves 2500 square feet to mow, or for the kids to play on… or teather a milk-producing goat… If you want to hear an ediorial I wrote and recorded for National Public Radio Holland about lawns and trees click on this link: Lawns are not green.
Acorn: More than a survival food
The first time you eat an acorn it makes you wonder what the squirrels are going nuts about. As the bitterness twists…
If you like tequila, thank a bat. If that’s not possible, thank a humming bird or a moth. Those three pollinate the…
Alligator a la Carte(5)
I caught a small alligator once. I was fishing for bass in a golf course water trap behind an apartment complex in Titusville, Florida (that’s west across…
The Annonas Four: Sugar, Sour, Custard, Pond
Many species and a few family of plants sit on the cusp of edible, non-edible, among them the Annonas, tropicals…
Antikythera Mechanism
The Antikythera Mechanism is unique, kind of like a monotypic genus plant. In fact, this short article was originally written as the introduction for the…
A Pitch For Spruce Gum: Real spruce gum is not easy to chew. It is not soft or sweet. Hard and crumbly is more accurate along with pieces of bark and bits of insects.
Malus sieversii, Hard-Core Apples
Wild Apples are one of the most common over-looked foraging foods. People take one taste, spit it out, and go on their…
The quick answer by most would be yes, the presumption being man ate raw vegetables for a long time and is better suited to them, and them to him. But, whether…
Armadillo Cuisine: Cooking a Hoover Hog
Armadillos are an overlooked food animal, not protected by law, available throughout the year, and good tasting. And…
Casuarina equisetifolia: Dreaded Edible
It is truly fitting that the Australian Pine ends up on a site dedicated to edible plants because where it has been…
What do you do when the description of a plant doesn’t fit? The answer depends on how far off the description is: You might have the wrong plant.
Bananas Trees: Survival Food
Yes, everyone knows bananas are edible, as are their starchy cousins, the plantains. One doesn’t think of banana or plantain…
Barnyard Grass(8)
The first time I saw Barnyard Grass was decades ago in a real barnyard near a drain spout. I was with forager Dick Deuerling who identified it for me.…
The last time I visited relatives in Greece, September 2006, I had “tea” with one of two then-living first cousins of my grandmother, both in their 90s,…
Baked beans is about as traditional a New England meal as one can get… That and boiled dinners. Every Sunday for decades we had boiled dinner. Potatoes,…
Waxing about Edible Begonias
It was on Rock Springs Run, some 20 years ago here in Florida, when I first saw them, just above the variable water line. I…
Stachys Floridana, Culinary Pretender
I have read from a good source that all Stachys are edible. I politely doubt that for three reasons. First there are 300…
Big Caltrop: If you’re an adult with aging eyesight Kallstroemia maxima when first spied can look like purslane. A closer examination shows it is not.
Most of us go by two names. So do plants. That’s Binomial Nomenclature. That is both good and bad. It’s good in that two people on different sides of the…
Birches: One could easily write a book about Birches because they are so valuable to foragers.
Bitter Melon, Bitter Gourd, Balsam Pear: Momordica Charantia
If the Balsam Pear did not exist a pharmaceutical company would invent it. In fact, there…
Think of the Black Cherry as a chokecherry with some of the choke removed.
Not a 100 feet from the…
Black Ironwood, Leadwood
Krugiodendron ferreum: Ironwood M&MsGreen twigs of Black Ironwood will sink in salt water. It’s that dense.The Black Ironwood was…
Medicago Lupulina: Grain and Potherb
I debated a long time whether to include Black Medic as an edible. There are several plants in that category and over…
Blackberries: Robust Rubus, Food & Weed
Anyone who forages will eventually collect a few blackberries, and thorns. Blackberries are among the best known…
Guapira discolor: A Blolly by Golly
The Blolly confounded me when I first saw the tree for it was growing by itself in a park. The fruit is quite distinct, a…
Stachytarpheta jamaicensis: Near Beer
Should the civilized world come to an end and you have a hankering for a stout beer you’re in luck: You can make one…
As a seasoned life-long bachelor I had my pickup line all crafted and rehearsed, so I could say it naturally at the right moment when my Dream Lady came near.…
Bougainvilleas: Bougainvilleas are often referred to as a toxic plant.
I’m often asked during my classes why I mention many plants that can be used to make tea. There are two answers:
Brookweed: Brookweed is an edible plant few know a lot about these days. Even Professor Daniel Austin, who managed to write 909 pages about ethnobotany, could only scrape up one paragraph.
Two effects of the economic times are influencing foraging. First is an increase in the number of people who are putting food on the table by foraging. The…
Bug-a-Boo’s or Grubs Up(5)
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…
Cattail’s Maligned Companion: The bulrush has a public relations problem. It found in the same environment as the cattail, can be used the same way, and tastes…
Munching Cornus canadensis/unalaschkensis
Discussing things little ears shouldn’t hear, they barely interrupt their conversations to pick a low Bunchberry from…
Bunya Pine: The Australian Aboriginals knew a good thing when they tasted it. So did the immigrants. It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t like the taste of Bunya Pine nuts. But you will find people who don’t like to clean up after it because the ancient species sheds sharp leaves and heavy cones.
Arctium minus: Burdock’s Plus Side
I have a confession to make: When I was a kid I had a miniature corn cob pipe. And in it I smoked dried burdock leaf… I…
Buttercups: Buttercups are usually considered not edible.
One would never guess Camphor trees are not native to Florida, or the South. One also probably wouldn’t guess they…
Candlestick Tree: If you are meandering through a botanical garden in a warm climate and you see a tree growing four-foot-long candles it might be Parmentiera cereifera.
Candyroot
I will be the first to admit my experience with Candyroot is very limited. In a flower book I carried with me on field trips some 20 years ago with Florida…
Canna Confusion(1)
How many species of Canna are there? Used to be perhaps 100 but now there are 20 or so, plus one Scottish island with a …ah.. population problem. And…
Cannibalism
There is no way to approach the topic of cannibalism without offending someone. Apologies offered. Cannibalism, the last great social taboo, is committed…
Canoeing Rock Spring’s Run & The Wekiva
Canoes are the best way for you to sneak up on deer, unless of course you’re the kind of canoeist who uses the paddle and canoe like a drum set.On a…
Can We Eat Grass? That simple question has a complex answer: Yes, no, and maybe. It’s a topic I explored in a recent Green Deane Newsletter and the basis for this article.
Modiola caroliniana: A Bristly Drink
No one knows how many species of edible plants there are in the world, or in North America. In the former the guess is…
Carpetweed(3)
When it comes to Carpetweed you need to know only two things: It grows nearly everywhere, or will. And the plant above ground is edible. To quote Cornucopia…
Cast Iron Pans: Yesterday is tomorrow
Many books have been written about cast iron cookware. I will try to say a few things here perhaps not said elsewhere.
Caulerpa: Warm-Water Salad and Pest
Caulerpa ssp.would seem to be a paradox. Eaten around the world by thousands for thousands of years but called a killer…
Monstera deliciosa: Hmm Hmm Good!
Large Delight. That’s what Monstera deliciosa means…. It was an edible I did not know about until pointed out to me by my…
In police work there is the chain of possession. When evidence is collected, who has it, and where it’s kept is recorded constantly. With food we might call it…
The Teaberry Shuffle
I saw Gary Vickerson eat an earthworm I found near a checkerberry plant. Personally I preferred the Checkerberry.
Before I go any…
Chestnuts: Chestnuts have done more than just disappear from the landscape: They have dropped out of our lives save for a token appearance at Christmas.
Chickweed Connoisseurs
My being green really paid off this spring: For the first time (2009) I have chickweed in my lawn. I don’t know how it got there but it…
Cichorium intybus: Burned to a Crisp
Chicory was not a common plant where I grew up or where I live. But I remember the first time I saw it, in 1990, in a…
Atalantia buxifolia: Wine-Cake Thorn
The Chinese Box-Orange is one of my botanical mysteries. I know it is edible but I don’t know how… But I may still…
There is a lot of debate whether the white waxy aril of the Chinese Tallow Tree is edible or not…
Chocolate Vine, Abeki: Any plant with “chocolate” in the name is sure to get attention. And when it’s also called an invasive species then even more so.
Christmas, Wolf, Goji, They’re All Berries
It’s called the Christmasberry even though it fruits in April, and while it is one of several “Christmas Berries”…
Cyperus esculentus, C. rotundus: Serious Sedges
There are two edible Cyperus locally: One that tastes like hazelnuts and one that smells and tastes to me…
Cider Barrel Rules(2)
My mother was a horrible cook.I used to joke she thought I was a Greek god: Every meal was either a burnt offering or a sacrifice.I learned to cook…
How To Make Hard Cider
You can make hard apple cider the difficult way, or the quick and easy way. I prefer the easy quick way. I’ve made a lot of beer and…
While making my purslane video I was thinking back to a family friend who refused to eat purslane because it was a “weed.”
It had taken over about one third…
Climbing Fig, Creeping Fig(3)
If there is one thing about the Internet that irritates the sap out of me it is how mistakes proliferate rather than get corrected. I have ranted about…
Coconut, An Equatorial Palm
Popular media and commercial production have made the coconut a common cultural item, even if you live thousands of miles away…
Codiums: Edible around the world
Oceanographers like to call Codium a minor seaweed because it is not commercially exploitable. Yet where it is found around…
Common Reed(1)
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…
The Mesolithic Era is not a sexy topic that will win friends and influence people at parties. But, it is something foragers should think about. If you are a…
Zamia Floridana: Making Toxins Edible
This plant is included here in case 1) society falls apart; 2) You live in Georgia or Florida and need starch…
Coquina: Tasty Tiny Clam
Coquina: Donax: Good Eats
Ounce for ounce there is probably no more delicious seafood than Coquina. The problem is getting an ounce of it, so we usually…
Coral Bean: Humming Bird Fast Food
Erythrina herbacea: Part Edible, Part NotThe (eastern) Coral Bean is one of those damned if you do, and damned if you don’t kind of things. Parts of…
Antigonon leptopus: Creeping Cuisine
The Antigonon leptopus ( an-TIG-oh-non LEP-toh-puss) inspires local names everywhere it grows: Tallahassee Vine, Honolulu…
Corn Poppy
Several plants have relatives whose reputations are difficult to live down. The Natal Plum is one. Related to the oleander the delicious plum suffers from…
Corn Smut: Mexican Truffles. Corn Smut. Raven Scat. Ustilago maydis gets more unappetizing the further one goes down its list of names. The Aztecs called it huitlacoche. The Mexicans call it a delicacy.
Forage, Grain, Flour, Manna, Pest
Americans did two interesting things when they moved from the farm to suburbia: They surrounded their homes with toxic…
Dactyloctenium aegyptium: Staple Grain
Grasses can be a pain in the …ah… grass…
First, books about grasses are few and incredibly expensive. Next,…
Dad’s Applewood Pipes(3)
Time edits your memories. It sands off the rough edges that were once painfully sharp. It makes some moments clearer by evaporating the fog of being…
Dahlia Pinnata
Here’s the good news: At least one species of Dalhia has edible roots. Here’s the bad news, there are some 20,000 cultivars, maybe even thousands more. A…
Dandelions: Hear Them Roar(3)
Dandelion Wine and Coffee and SaladDandelions and I go back a long ways, more than half a century.When I was very young in Maine my mother…
Commelina diffusa: What a day for a dayflower
Common names can be a headache when one is trying to index a plant. The plant to the lower right is commonly…
Daylily: Just Cloning Around
The daylily, a standard plant in foraging for a century or more, has become too much of a good thing and now presents a significan…
Dead Man’s Fingers
Decaisnea fargesii: True Ghoul Blue
There are three Dead Man’s Fingers: A seaweed, a mushroom, and a shrub, all so-called because of the way they…
Does Anyone Know What Time It Is?(2)
It is time for my semi-annual rant and wish that G.V. Hudson had a different hobby. Hudson, a New Zealander, collected insects and was a shift worker. In…
During nearly every class I have students smell three or four plants — depending upon the season — and I ask them what common…
Dog and Cat(1)
Most Westerners would starve than eat their pet, and understandably so. There is a tacit agreement between pets and their owners. In exchange for putting…
Murdannia nudiflora: Tiny Dayflower Kin
In India the Doveweed is a famine food. That should give you some idea of how it lines up in the culinary kingdom. The…
Drymaria cordata: Kissing cousin chickweed
Drymaria cordata is one of those plants that confounds the mind. You know what it resembles: Chickweed. It has one…
Cooking with Earthworms
The cartoon strip BC once had its peg-leg poet write: “The bravest man I ever saw was the first one to eat an oyster raw.”
Eastern Gamma Grass: Someone who supposedly knew their grasses wrote there are no toxic native North American grasses.
Eastern Red Bud: Pea Pods Tree(5)
Cercis canadensis: In The Bud of TimeIt’s one of those trees that if you don’t see it at the right time you’re not looking for it the rest of the year.…
Eating In Season(1)
There is little doubt that eating certain fiddlehead greens can significantly increase ones chances of cancer. In fact, science says they cause cancer. On…
Edible Flowers: Part One (1)Nasturtium, Calendula, Spanish Needles, Arugula, Squash, Cilanto, Bee Balm, Carnation, Dandelion, Lilac
Which blossom will be your favorite edible…
Edible Flowers: Part Two (9)Tulips, Yucca, Begonias, Blue Porterweed, Queen Ann’s Lace, Dill, Gladiolas, Wapato, Impatiens, CitrusTulips are one of those wonderful flowers you…
Edible Flowers: Part Three (2)Mayflower, Chrysanthemum, Cornflower, Rose, Daylily, Elderberry, Chicory, Johnny-Jump-Ups, Linden, BananaA rite of spring in the frozen north, or at…
Society Garlic, Anise Hyssop, Black Locust, Gardenia, Fragrant Water Lily, Strawberry, Marsh Mallow, Maypops, Milkweed, Hollyhocks
It’s clearly not…
Edible Flowers: Part Nine (1)Mahoe, Moringa, Pineapple Sage, Plum, Hawthorn, Cattail, Papaya, Purslane, Tuberose, Wisteria
Mahoe’s Blossoms Change Color
One of the more fascinating…
Edible Flowers: Part Fourteen (2)
Manzanita, Rose of Sharon, Tea, Campanula, Artichoke, Saffron, Samphire, Sage, Parsley, Common MallowWestern states often seem to get short-changed in…
Eels
Eels: Lunch, Slip Sliding Away…
I can remember the first time I caught an eel. It was in the Royal River in Pownal Maine, using an earthworm on the…
Edible Elaeagnus
First it was “poisonous.” Then it was “not edible.” Later it was edible but “not worth eating.” Actually, it’s not toxic but tasty, and easy…
Sambuca’s Fine For Elderberry Wine
Start your New Year off right with a glass of elderberry wine or elderberry blossom champagne. Don’t have any?…
Epazote: Smelly Food of the Gods
Mexican Tea, Dewormer: EpazoteHere is my dedication to being comprehensive: I am going to write about a plant I do not like.Why don’t I like…
Pyrrhopappus, Hypochoeris: Dandelion Impostors
Most people don’t notice False Dandelions because they have the real thing. But here in the South where…
Crepis Japonica: Seasonal Potherb
If the Crepis fits….wear….ah…eat it
Crepis japonica gets no respect. You won’t find it in field guides on edible…
False Roselle(1)I can’t do a stir-fry without visiting a tree. Actually, the False Roselle is a shrub not a tree but the point is made. Its leaves have just the…
Citharexylum fruticosum: Edible Guitar
The Fiddlewood tree is not high on the list of edibles. As some authors state, only kids eat the fruit, lots of seed,…
Wild Ficus: Who Gives An Edible Fig?
It’s only 90 miles to the east, and 117 to the west, but the Strangler Fig and Banyan trees will grow farther south and…
Finding Caloric Staples(8)
An Australian study tells us that modern day hunter gatherers get two thirds of their food from animals, one third form plants.
Firebush:
The Firebush is probably one of the most commonly planted unknown edibles. They are usually arranged in the landscape…
When I go to Greece I always stay a few days in Athens to get used to the time change and visit in-town…
Fish Sauce and Rotten MeatFish Sauce, Rotten Meat, and Other Garbage
There was a great scene from an episode of Barney Miller, a popular sitcom in the 70’s based in a…
Can you live off the land? Can anyone these days? I suppose the answer depends on what land, what you know, and whose else is also trying to live off it.
Whe…
Flamboyant FuchsiaMention “fuchsia” and most folks who recognize the word will think of a bright color. Personally I think of Fuchsia’s edible fruit and flowers.…
In one area of its native range — Israel — it’s endangered becauses of dwindling habitat. In another part of the world it is an invasive weed, and you can…
Foraging before there was botany had to be a lot easier than after botany. Someone showed you what was edible and that was that. Of course somewhere back along…
I was asked to write a short piece for a survivalist blog on getting started in foraging:
How are a Musician and a Botanist Alike?
As a professional musician I…
Of all the “survival” skills foraging is probably the most difficult to learn, or certainly the one that takes the most time and personal fortitude. It is one…
As many of you already know I am highly critical of the Internet as a source of information on foraging. This is not to say there isn’t quality information…
Forsythia Foraging For Forsythia
If you study the eating habits of North American Indians you learn one thing quite quickly. They weren’t mono-green eaters.…
Garlic Mustard: Gather Garlic Mustard now for pesto or it may disappear presto… well… maybe not immediately but if one university succeeds Garlic Mustard will become hard to find or extinct in North America.
Galinsoga’s Gallant Soldiers
Galinsoga ciliata: Quickweed is fast foodQuickweed does not look edible or gallant. In fact, it looks like a daisy that lost a fight. But it, and a…
Eating Gar, a Taste of the Primitive
There are two things you need to know about the Gar. The first is that it is very edible, really. The second is that…
Geiger Tree, Scarlet Cordia
Cordia sebestena: Foraging Geiger Counter
Foragers eat the mild fruit of the Geiger Tree and care not about the particulars. Botanists care about particular…
Why sudy with someone? Because student foragers see what they want to see rather than what’s in front of them. Let me give you consistent example.
There are…
Giant Taro
One can ignore large leaves for only so long, and the Alocasia macrorrhiza has big leaves, up to four feet long. As one might suspect, it also has a large…
Salicornia bigelovii, Brackish Nibble
Glasswort does not sound like breaking glass at all, though it does crunch a bit.
Salicornia bigelovii (sa-li-KOR-nee-a…
Golden Dead Nettle(1)
Lamiastrum is in the eye of the beholder.If you want a ground cover that will grow in dry, shady places, Lamiastrum is exactly what you’re looking for.…
Covered with a multitude of small hooks, Goosegrass, Galium…
Gopher Apples: Not Just For Tortoises Anymore
If you like the taste of pink bubble gum, you’ll like gopher apples, if you can find themWhy can’t you find them? Because nearly every woodland…
Ulex europaeus: Edible Gorse or Furze Pas
Gorse has edible flowers. It also has thorns… Really bad thorns.
In August 2005 an Englishman, Dean Bowen,…
Gout Weed(6)
Gout Weed does not sound too appetizing. Nor do some of its other names: Ground Ash, Ashweed, Pot Ash, White Ash, Ground Elder, Dog Elder, Dwarf Elder,…
Gracilaria: The pot thickens
People eat a lot of seaweed. They just don’t know it. In the industry it is called covert consumption vs overt consumption. What…
Vitis: Wild Grapes
Who ever first wrote the phrase “grapes of wrath” certainly must have been trying to identify a particular grape vine.
Grapes are at the…
Grass and Tree War(1)
Point of view, thinking differently… Consider:What if plants are more goal-orientated than we think them to be? After all, we put ourselves on the…
One of the reasons why Eat The Weeds exists is to advocate eating the wild foods around you but also to be another voice in the growing chorus that is…
If you have any comments or suggestions please send them to GreenDeane@gmail.com. The B&W picture is from a Christmas long ago. That’s Tinkerbell on my…
Green Deane’s Videos On You Tube
While these videos are still on You Tube and will soon be on DVDs, these links below do not work. In creating the page one character was dropped from every…
Physalis: Tomato’s Wild Cousin
I discovered ground cherries quite by accident.
It was back in the last century. I raided a particular field…
Ground Ivy(2)
Most of the time when someone mentions Ground Ivy the comment usually is something like “How do I get rid of the damned stuff?” Here at ETW we have have…
For the second time recently I was reminded of development. My favorite field of lamb’s quarters is now an upscale gated community. And where I used to forage…
Groundnuts: Dig ’em
I will never forget the first time I dug up Apios americana, groundnuts. I got poison ivy. Oddly it showed up in the crook of one elbow,…
Grub-A-Dub-Dub
It had to happen. If you forage for wild foods at some point you run in to grubs and related insects and you wonder… edible? And once you’re past…
Panicum maximum and then some
I eat grass. Actually we all do — rice, wheat — but my local trail nibble is Guinea grass, a relative to millet. I’d like to…
Guinea Pigs, Cavy, Cuy
Peruvians eat more than 65 million guinea pigs every year. That should answer any question about edibility.Sixty-five million guinea pigs (a 2005…
Hairy Cowpea(4)
It’s called a Cowpea but it’s not THAT cowpea, and it has a famous relative that no one calls by its botanical name.So which Cowpea is it? Vigna…
Halloween today is the most debatable of non-holiday holidays. With a past that perhaps goes back to Roman times it became in the Christian era All Hallows…
Hardy Orange: Is the Hardy Orange edible? That depends on how hungry you are, or which century you live in.
Cayra coffee, or Hickory Java
Hickories are not a migraine, but when you’re learning trees hickories can be a headache.
Just as plums and cherries are bothin…
High Bush Cranberry(1)
I miss High Bush Cranberries. They don’t grow within a thousand miles of here, and they aren’t really cranberries. But they are hearty and familiar fare in…
There’s an old joke. A man had a mule sit down under a load. Mules can be very stubborn. And despite all his efforts the man couldn’t get the mule to get up. I…
Lonicera japonica: Sweet Treat
The honeysuckle family is iffy for foragers. It has edible members and toxic members, edible parts, toxic parts, and they mix…
Carpinus caroliniana: Musclewood
British author Ray Mears must have been thinking of the Hornbeam when he said a forager mustn’t pass up food no matter how…
Horse Meat
“I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”We’ve all heard the phrase, and it comes from when horse was on the menu. It was rather significant phrase to me as…
Conyza canadensis: Herb, Fire, Food
Conyza will light your fire!
If you’ve ever made fire with a bow and drill — you know, the Boy Scout way — you also know…
How Do Things Pan Out?
When Europeans began to migrate into tracts of North America what was the one thing they had the native Americans wanted more than anything else? Rifles?…
How Ungreen Of Us(29)
I’m reaching retirement age. I’m also reaching the point of being tired of being told how green we are today and how ungreen we were in the past. Oh? When…
Huckleberry, Blueberries Kissing Cousin
Gaylussacia: Huckleberry History
What’s the difference between a blueberry and a huckleberry?There’s almost an easy answer. The huckleberry…
The cookbook’s title says it all. South Florida, parts of Texas and Hawaii have iguana issues. While teaching a class in West Palm Beach last fall I could not…
Indian Pipes, Gold, and Emily Dickinson(8)
Monotropa is almost a monotypic genus. Instead of having one species in the genus there are two: Monotropa uniflora and Monotropa hypopithys.Most…
Potentilla indica: Mistaken Identity
One of the first things my uncle’s second wife said to me when I moved from Maine to Florida was “they have strawberri…
Glorifying Morning Glories
Three of the pictures below are are not of the same Ipomoea. It’s three different species, but that should tell you something.…
Is This Plant Edible?
For a surprisingly simple question there is often a complicated answer. If it’s sea kale, then the answer is yes, top to bottom. It is edible. It is…
I spend a lot of times in the woods, and also afloat. Three things you should always know in such environments are the cardinal directions, time of day, and…
Coccinia grandis: Cucumber’s Versatile Kin
I was riding my motorcycle one day when I rumbled over a raised railroad track in an industrial area and to my…
Jabuticaba: In it’s native Brazil the Jabuticaba is by far the most popular fruit.
Arisaema triphyllum: Jack and Jill and No Hill
For a little plant there’s a lot to write about with the Jack-In-The-Pulpit. Where does one start? What does…
Jambul(1)Syzygium: A Jumble of Jambul
The Jambul tree makes you wonder what people were thinking.For a half a century or so the United States Department of…
Japanese Knotweed: Dreadable Edible(9)Japanese Knotweed gets no respect. Nearly everywhere it grows it’s listed as a prolific, noxious, invasive, dangerous bad-for-the-world,…
Stomolophus meleagris: Edible Jellyfish
“Music to the teeth” is what the Malaysians call them.Americans may not eat jellyfish, but the…
Jerusalem Artichoke: Root Them Out(5)
There used to be a huge patch of Jerusalem Artichokes here in Central Florida beside the Interstate. Now they’re under a new exit ramp, and that was the…
Parkensonia aculeata’s Thorny Past
As foragers we are indebted to past writers and at the same time constrained by them.
People who chronicled how Native…
Jujube TreeZiziphus zizyphys: The Misspelled Jujube
If you don’t find the Jujube tree, it will find you. The Jujube is covered with long, sharp thorns. They…
Katuk grows reluctantly in my yard. It likes truly tropical climes and I am on the subtropical/temperate line. But it’s…
Kochia
Immigration brought weeds from around the old world to the new world. Quite a few of them came from southern Russia — the grassy steppes — to the…
Kousa Dogwood(2)
Cornus kousa: A Dog-gone-good Dogwood
The Kousa Dogwood is one of those plants that makes you ask: What is it?Its large, bumpy, red fruit looks like a…
Kudzu Quickie(4)Kudzu: Pueraria montana var. lobataThe government tells me that what grows up the street isn’t there.It’s kudzu, you know, the plant that…
Landmarks — accomplishments — are like a melody. Regardless of your taste in music, music is more than organized sound. Music firmly places you in time. When…
Language of Flowers: A flower is a flower is a flower. But in Victorian England, one of the most self-repressed societies in modern times, the practice of using flowers to communicate was developed.
I don’t see why not.
Is That A Garden?
Indeed, some might argue that is what my front lawn currently is. I really…
Lemon Bacopa: Let’s Call It Lime Instead
Lemon Bacopa, a misnamed edible nativeCall me cranky, but I think Lemon Bacopa has the wrong name.And, since it is wrongly named and no one comments on…
Cymbopogon citratus: A Real Lemon
Technically Lemon Grass is naturalized in only one county in Florida, but you can find it in many yards and landscaping, and…
Less Was Far More(4)
West of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, I stopped today and collected some thistle and took a few pictures. More than 50 years ago I marveled at the same plant…
Foraging is a treasure hunt because with perhaps 6,000 edible species in North America there is always a surprise now and then such as the Litchi Tomato.
The Locusberry rises to the occasion. When the soil is poor it is a foot-high tree. When the soil is good, it can be…
Looking for Lettuce
I like my 14,000 subscribers, and the email I get. Many of the questions I can answer or I can refer the writer to where the answer can be found. But….…
Loquat: Getting A Grip on Grappa(2)
Lovin’ Loquats: Eriobotryae Japonicae
Long before there were couch potatoes there were couch Loquats.Loquats are homebodies. Most people who live beyond…
Anredera cordifolia: Pest or Food Crop?
The Madeira Vine is a love/hate relationship. You will either hate it — as many land owners and governments do — or…
Hibiscus tiliaceus: Edible Chameleon
It’s difficult to find a hibiscus you don’t like, including the Mahoe.
In fact, to this writer’s knowledge all…
Mahonia Malange: When I first heard of the Mahonias it was a bit irritating. They’re widespread shrubs in the western United States and here I was in Florida. But as time revealed, we have a Mahonia here, just not a native.
Make My Day
It was one of those moments. I was biking along a rails to trails, stopping and taking pictures of this and that plant for past and future blogs. Better…
Mallow Madness(2)
Lunch Landscaping: HibiscusMy mother’s favorite flower is the Rose of Sharon, which of course didn’t even go in one of my ears and out the…
Maples: How Sweet It Is
Maple Walnut Ice Cream. It’s amazing what you can do with two trees and a cow. It was the prime ice cream of choice when I was young.…
Marijuana Machinations: You can’t rummage around the woods as a forager without running into someone’s marijuana patch.
Epigaea repens: Spring Sentinel and Nibble
It was an annual family ritual. Every spring when the snow had finally melted we’d go through the low Maine…
This is Green Deane being interview for the local PBS station for Thanksgiving, 2009. This show was voted their best episode of the year. http://www.wmfe.org/au…
Mesquite’s More Than Flavoring: It’s Food
If Euell Gibbons was still around he might ask, “have you ever eaten a Mesquite tree?” rather than his famous…
Morrenia odorata: Menace or Manna?
One spring I was looking for poke weed when I spied a liana I had not seen before. It had a large fruit that looked…
Thespesia populnea: Coastal Cuisine
One of my uncles had the type of personality that where ever he hung his hat, that was home. The Milo is much the same…
The name of my website is “Eat The Weeds (and other things too.)” If you wander around the long index — or click on the category “critter cuisine” — you…
My good friend Saul is a luthier. He repairs premium wooden instruments. It is not unusual for him to be working on a Stradivarius or a…
Monkeys and Weeds
Put five monkeys in a large cage. Then put a step ladder in the cage with a banana on top. Soon the monkeys learn to go up the step ladder and get the…
Moringa oleifera ….Monster…. Almost
If you have a warm back yard, think twice before you plant a Moringa tree.
Morels are perhaps the most foraged and prized fungi in North America.
Motorcyclists and Mushroomists. I used to have a friend named Randy Armentrout. He died about 20 years ago of a brain tumor. We knew each other well and attended many a social function…
Mountain Ash, Rowan: Long before Henry Potter Rowanwood wands were popular ancients carried talismans of the tree to ward off evil and ate the fruit.
Mugwort(3)
Like some other plants with famous relatives Mugwort gets lost in the negative publicity.Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, is completely over shadowed…
Cutting the Wild Mustard: Brassica & Sinapis
Lorenzo’s Oil and Canola, Too
If you can’t find a wild mustard growing near you, you must be living in…
Mustards, The Little
Coronopus, Descurainia, Cardamine, Erucastrum & Sibara
There are numerous “little mustards” that show up seasonally, to populate lawns and local…
Not So Heavenly Bamboo: Nandina
It’s not heavenly nor is it a bamboo, but Heavenly Bamboo is an edible, barely.
Naturalized in many part of the world…
Nasturtiums: Nature’s Nose Nabber
Peppery Nasturtiums Natives of Peru. Do the peppery nasturtiums make your nose twitch? Then you know how they got their common name. “Nasturtium” means…
Ceanothus americanus: Revolutionary Tea
New Jersey Tea wasn’t always called that. It was Red Root Tea until the Boston Tea Party. With no tea from China…
Non-Green Environmentalism(1)
Early on I developed two interests. One was foraging for wild plants. It assured me food where ever I went. The other was watching clouds, one of the few…
Nostoc: Nasal Nostalgia and Edible, Too
My website is “Eat The Weeds and other things, too.” Well this one of those other things. While I have put seaweed…
The 20th century was a hundred years of significant changes in what we eat. In 1900 food was … well… food, and real. No food pretended to be something it…
Lippia alba: Oaxaca lemon verbena
It all started with a little tour of his back yard.
He’s an aging Greek professor and doesn’t like lawn, so his back yard…
Only Plant In Its Genus(16)
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…
Maclura pomifera: The Edible Inedible
Sometimes everybody is almost wrong.
If you google “Osage Orange” or “Maclura pomifera” (mak-LOOR-uh pom-EE-fer-uh…
Oxalis: How To Drown Your Sorrels(2)
Sorrels are like McDonald’s restaurants: No matter where you are on earth there’s one nearby.That’s because the sorrels, properly…
Palmer Amaranth(1)
A farmer’s headache is not necessarily a forager’s delight.Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus Palmeri) has been a foraged food for a long time. It was used…
Broussonetia papyrifera: Paper Chase
If you are a forager, you will be told two things constantly: One is that the plant of your admiration is “poisonous.”…
Partridgeberry: Split personality(1)
Mitchella repens: Madder BerryThe Partridgeberry will not save you from starving but it can make your salad prettier and might keep you alive or ease…
Pellitory: Parietaria is a Whiz
Finding greens locally in the cooler months isn’t much of a challenge unless you’re looking for Pellitory . It likes to hid…
There are two ways of thinking about peppergrass, either as a real neat wild treat, or an obnoxious, noxious…
Perilla, Shiso (2)
The first Perilla I ever had came from a can, just like the kind sardines snuggle in. The leaves were very spicy and were used that way, as a spice. Later…
Persimmons: Pure Pucker Power
About the only bad thing you can say about a persimmon tree is that it has pucker power, if you pick it at the wrong time.
Pontederia cordata: In a PR Pickerel
Pickerel Weed Primer
If the Pickerelweed could commiserate, it would find a friend with the Natal Plum. The Natal…
Chenopodium album: Getting Goosed!
My first recollection of Chenopodium album, pigweed, came around 1960 via a neighbor named Bill Gowan.
Mr. Gowan was…
Pillbugs, Woodlice, Roly Pollies(4)
Armadillidium vulgare: Land Shrimp
What shall we call them? Roly Pollies? Pill Bugs? Woodlice? Sowbugs, or a half a dozen other names?They are…
Matricaria matricarioides for Your Tea & Salad
A hard-packed gravel driveway is the last place you would expect to find a delicate plant that makes an…
Plants can’t run. That’s why the vast majority of them are unpalatable or lethal. Guesstimates range from 5 to 10 percent of plants are edible. Let’s split the…
Podocarpus macrophyllus(4)Podocarpus: Your Own Hedge Fund
One can’t learn everything at once, and so I came to know the Podocarpus macrophyllus late in my foraging…
Poison Ivy Ponderings(28)
I did something this past week I have not done in some twenty years. I got poison ivy.Given what I do for a living, running around the wild all the…
Below is a circular published by the state of Florida in 1978. I think it is no longer in print though I have a hard copy. It is reproduced below. Visual…
There are less Christmas parties this year than in the past, with economic conditions reducing the usual yuletide cheer. Still, there are some traditions.…
Lycoperdon perlatum: Edible Puffballs
I avoided mushrooms for a long time, and with good reasons. Some of them are on par with cyanide and arsenic and…
Firethorn: Pyracantha Coccinea
I don’t think it is a coincidence that “ho ho ho bellies and Pyracantha jelly jiggle into the season just before…
Pyrrolizidine on my Mind(4)
How much pyrrolizidine is too much? Or perhaps the better question is how little is too much?First, what is pyrrolizindine? Pyrrolizidine (pie-row-L…
Quack Grass(4)
Plants of little use often have only one common name, or not even that. Plants that are valued or are a pest usually have too many names such Quack…
QueenPalm: The Queen Palm and I got off on the wrong frond. Before I met one I had read it was toxic. There are a few toxic palms but the Queen Palm is not one of them.
Radish, Mustard’s Wild Rough Cousin(7) Raphanus Raphanistrum: Radical Radis. The Wild Radish has an identity problem. It looks similar to it’s equally peppery cousin, the wild mustard. In…
Ragweed: Some 18 generations ago — 600 years ago give or take a few centuries — some Natives Americans stopped cultivating a particular crop and may have moved on to maize. About 150 years ago — five generations — American farmers were raising crabgrass for grain when they, too, moved on to corn, the descendant of maize. So what crop did the Indians stop growing? Ragweed, the most hay-fever causing plant in the world.
Having a famous relative can make one grow in the shadows, as three Perseas know too well.There…
Redflower Ragweed: The first time I saw Redflower Ragweed I thought I was seeing two species at once some weird combination of Tassel Flower and Fireweed. It’s way too big and has the wrong leaves to be a Tassel Flower but the blossoms remind one of a Tassel Flower but the rests of the plant looks life Fireweed/Burnweed.
Edible Cladonia: What’s not to Lichen?
Lichen can be harder to tell apart than twins in the dark. My guess my picture above is of Cladonia Evanii…
Resources
The quickest and safest way to learn foraging is with a local expert. You not only learn what there is to know but do not spend time learning things you…
Ringless Honey Mushrooms: The first time I thought I saw the Ringless Honey Mushroom was on my neighbor’s lawn.
It’s not smart or nice to lie about plants. It can get someone hurt. But the truth can sometimes be elusive, even with plants.
Rose Apple: The apple is in the Rose family but the Rose Apple is not though it can sometime taste like rose water… and watermelon… but not apples.
Roses
I’m not sure I found wild roses or they found me.I grew up in Maine. The local soil was usually either ground-up glacial sand, clay, which is decomposed…
Rumex Ruminations(1)
Mainer Merritt Fernald, who was the Harvard wunderkind of botany from around 1900 to 1950, said all of the 17 native Rumex species in North America…
Salsola kali: Noxious Weed, Nibble & Green
When you first encounter a Russian Thistle it is the very last plant you would consider edible. Wiry, tough,…
Sideroxylon: Chewy Ironwood
The Saffron Plum is not yellow or a plum, that is, it is not a Prunus. And it is called a Buckthorn but it isn’t one of those…
Batis Maritima: Salt of the Earth
It has a dozen or more names, but no one is quite sure about its scientific name, Batis maritima, (BAT-is mar-IT-i-ma.)
Serenoa Repens: Weed to Wonder Drug
Rotten cheese steeped in tobacco juice
That’s how starving shipwrecked Quakers described the flavor of the saw palmetto…
Two beans are grown for beauty, the Hyacinth Bean, edible with precautions, and the Scarlet Runner Bean, also edible.
Humming Bird at “Emperor” Blossom
It’s…
While most people find Sea Blite next to the sea, I find Sea Blite on the other side of the barrier…
Sea Buckthorn, SallowberrySea Buckthorn: Sour Source of Vitamin C
If you are collecting Sea Buckthorn you’re probably cold.Just as some edibles are found only in tropical…
Scirpus maritimus: a Tough Root to Crack
If you mention Sea Club Rush among foragers they give you a very blank stare. Understandably so. It was a fall-back…
Sea Kale
Sea kale is nearly the perfect primitive food. It’s difficult to imagine it not being on primitive man’s menu.We know from middens that seafood was…
Sea Lettuce, UlvaUlva: Sea Soup & Salad
Ulva is the greenest seaweed you will ever see from shore, or in the sea for that matter.Ten species, all edible, are…
Uniola paniculata: Feeling your sea oats
Opinions vary on Sea Oats. Not on flavor. They taste good. The questions are, are they endangered or not, and which…
Sea Oxeye: There are edible plants, and there are inedible plants. Then there are those that sit on the cusp of edibility: Edible but not tasty, edible in small quantities, edible but with a horrible texture, edible but strong-flavored.
Seven-Mile Appetizer
The squirrels are in hog heaven, if you’ll pardon the menagerie metaphor.
It’s Thanksgiving, 2007, in central Florida and I…
Sesbania Grandiflora(1)
Any plant called the Vegetable Hummingbird has to be written about.Sesbania grandiflora, has managed to work its way into warmer areas of the world…
Like a Suriname Cherry, you’ll either find the Seven Year Apple edible or disgusting. In fact, a lot of folks can’t…
Sida, Wireweed(5)
Sida is barely edible. A member of the Mallow mob it’s an object de interest because it is also a significant herbal medication, of which I am totally…
Blutaparon vermiculare: Beach Potherb
My first thought on seeing Silverweed “was what is clover doing growing on the beach.” Well, Silverweed isn’t a clover…
Paederia foetida: Much Maligned Skunk Vine
Sometimes botanists go a little too far, or at least Carl Linnaeus did when he named a particular vine Paederia…
Are Slugs edible? What about Snails?
There is only one rule you have to remember: When it comes to land snails, land slugs, and fresh water mollusks you must…
Smartweed
Polygonum punctatum: Smartweed. I can remember my first taste of a smartweed leaf… kind of like trying a piece of burning paper. Indeed,…
Colubrina elliptica: Mauby has Moxie
First there was Moxie, then Mauby… actually it was historically the other way around though few until now would know…
Society Garlic(3)
Because I am asked about it all the time I decided to do an article on it: Yes, you can eat Society Garlic… well… most of it, maybe all of it.The…
Solar cooking. Something new under the sun
Once you cook your first solar meal, you’re hooked.
Does it cost less than conventional methods? It can, but…
Sorrel: Not A Sheepish Rumex
Of all the Rumex that grow in the South, Rumex hastatulus is probably the most pleasing. The tart-tasting intensely green leaves are hard…
Sourwood: Sourwood honey is considered by some to be the best-flavored honey in North America, perhaps the world.
Sonchus: Sow Thistle, In A Pig’s Eye
As I write it is in mid-January in Florida two of three local species of sow thistles are invading my lawn in great…
Spanish Moss(3)
Spanish Moss is not edible. Well, barely an edible. The bottom of the growing tips (pictured above) provide about one eight of an inch of almost tasteless…
Spanish Needles, Pitchfork Weed(13)
Bidens Alba: Medical Beggar Ticks
Some plants just don’t get any respect. If there were a contest for under appreciated plants, Bidens alba , above…
Spiderwisp, Cat’s Whiskers, Spider Flower(6)
The spiderwisp looks like a mustard that lost its way or got some psychedelic-laced fertilizer. It has four-petaled flowers as the mustards do, seed pods…
Spiderwort: Pocahontas and Gamma Rays(4)
There are 404 years, as of Dec 20th, 2012, between the sailing of John Smith to the New World and spiderwort gamma rays, but they are…
Spinach Vine(1)
I like to think of myself as biclimatic, living part of my life (thus far) in a cold climate and part in a warm climate.
Spring Beauty(2)The Spring Beauty is aptly named.Actually there are several “Spring Beauties” and most of them are edible in similar ways. We’ll focus on…
Spurge Nettle: The Nettle With The Mettle(15)
Cnidolscolus Stimulosus: It’s The Real Sting
This is how to not dig up a spurge nettle root: Take a shovel, find a plant, and start digging.When…
Fragaria virginiana: Be A Strawberry Sleuth
Fragaria don’t like Florida. Only one northern county in the state reports having wild strawberries. But that’s…
Strawberry GuavaPsidium littorale var. cattleianum: Strawberry Guava
One man’s fruit tree is another man’s weed. My one Strawberry Guava tree is a fruiting…
Strawberry Tree, Koumaria, Koumara, Pacific Madrone, Madrona
Any plant called “strawberry” other than a strawberry is doomed. Strawberries pack a lot of…
Strongback Not strong bark Bourreria succulenta: Soapy Fruit and Viagra
Botanists are feisty in their own way. The Strongback is a good example. Is it B. succulenta or B. ovata? One…
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.…
Sugarberries are Hackberries with a Southern Accent
Sugarberries like to be near water and that’s why it caught my eye as I coasted by: It was growing on top…
Sumac, Rhus Juice, Quallah: Good Drink
Sumacs look edible and toxic at the same time, and with good reason: They’re in a family that has plants we eat and…
I had the pleasure this past week of having the well-know forager Sunny Savage visit two of my classes here in Florida (If you think she is attractive on TV…
Melitotus: Condiment to Tea to Blood Thinner
When I was growing up we owned horses. Lots of horses. And they eat a lot of hay in the winter. Lots of hay.…
Sweet Gum Tree(4)
The Sweet Gum tree is the sand spur of the forest. You painfully find them with your feet. The vicious seed pods have impaled many a forager and has done…
Sweetbay MagnoliaMagnolia viginiana: How Sweet It Is
Let’s say you want or need to trap a beaver. First you need a trap, but then you need to bait the trap. And…
Swinecress, Wart Cress: Micro MustardsCoronopus didymus/squamatus: Smelly Pot Herbs?
Opinions are mixed on Swinecress. I think it’s a nice walkabout nibble and pot herb. Others…
Nephrolepis cordifolia: Edible Watery Tubers
Edibles are often right under your feet, or my feet as it were.
I had a yard of non-edible ferns. If you like…
Sycamores Get No RespectSycamores: Not Just Another Plane Tree
Sycamore trees are not high on the edible list, unless you’re in need.Actually, sycamores, Platanus occidental…
Take Things Lying Down
Early in life I settled on a hobby I can do on a summer’s day, in a hammock, on my back….. No, it’s not napping. I watch clouds. Call it reclining…
Ximenia americana: Known by Many Names
If I listed this edible under its botanical name few would find it. On the other hand it has some three dozen commons…
Tamarind: I drove past a dozen Tamarind trees for a decade or so until I looked up one day. The lumpy brown pods on pretty trees had finally caught my attention.
Descurainia pinnata: Abandoned Seed
What shall we call this little member of the Brassica family? Western Tansy Mustard or Tansy Mustard? We could always…
Tape Seagrass(3)
It is said that all seaweed is edible but that’s not true. There’s at least one species that is not, Desmarestia ligulata. Why? Because it is laced…
Tar Vine, Red SpiderlingBoerhavia diffusa: Catchy Edible
Some times you just can’t identify a plant. Some times you’re frustrated for a few days, other times for a few…
Tassel, Musk and Grape Hyacinths(2)
There are dozens of edible species that are wild in Europe and cultivated or escaped in North America. Three related species with a multitude of names are…
Cordyline fruticosa: Food, Foliage, Booze
Simply called Ti (tee) Cordyline fruticosa spent most of its history with humans as a food, a source of alcohol, or…
Tick Clover(2)
Tick Clover barely makes it into our foraging realm.I have found only one reference to its edibility. In the 47th volume of the Journal…
Tiger Lily
The word “lily” causes more confusion than four letters ought to be able to make. There are true lilies, usually not edible, some of them quite toxic, a…
Manduca Cuisine: Eating Green Gluttons
You’re picking tomatoes and suddenly there it is: Big, ugly and green, a tomato hornworm. To which I say, get or the…
Over the years I have added a few items to my back pack that can make foraging more easier. You might want to add one or two of these items.
The handiest…
Topi Tambo, Leren, Guinea Arrowroot(2)
A lifetime ago off the Maine coast at low tide there were many mussel shoals. The vertical tidal change near the rock-bound coast can be measured in…
Torchwood
One reason to write about the Torchwood is very few people know about it these days yet it was once an esteemed wood and produces an edible, citrusy…
Toxic tomatoes: I rarely write about toxic plants because this site is about edibles. However there are enough prickly nightshades around to justify an article about them and how to identify them even if they aren’t edible.
Ravenala madagascariensis: Palm, NOT!
The Traveler’s Palm is reportedly known for providing wayfarers water, but it also has some food to offer as well.
Trilliam Trifecta: Every May Day — the first of May — we kids would hang a May Basket on our teacher Arlene Tryon and disappear off the school grounds.
Tropical Almond: I went to Ft. Myers one Friday to look at plants on an 11-acre monastery. On the property there was a large tree they didn’t know nor did I. The following Sunday while teaching a class across the state in West Palm Beach two students knew a tree there that I didn’t know. It was the same tree at the Monastery. Small botanical world. The tree was a Tropical Almond.
Tropical Chestnuts: Pachira aquatica(1)
My foraging existence is slightly schizophrenic. I grew up in a northern climate, and I write about many northern plants, or it is accurate to say that…
Tuberous Pea: Anyone who has mowed fields for hay hates vetch… wild pea. It binds up the machinery and a lot of livestock won’t eat it. That’s a lose lose all around unless the vetch is Lathyrus tuberosus.
Tuckahoe, Arrow Arum(2)Peltandra virginica: Starch Storer
You wouldn’t think there would be a connection between the United States’ Capital and a toxic bog plant, but…
Tulip Tree(9)
Not every edible plant has to be a nutritional powerhouse. Some are “edible” by the barest of means. A good example is the Tulip Tree, Liriodendron…
Tulips: Famine Food, Appetizer Assistant
Many years ago a social acquaintance upon learning I ate weeds said she and her mother had eaten tulip bulbs. If I…
Tupelos: Black, Swamp, Bear, Water, OgeecheeNyssus: Tart Botanical Tangles
The Black Tupelo is an old friend from around ponds where I grew up in Maine to around ponds (called lakes) here in…
TurtlesThe Shell Game: Eating Turtles
The evidence is clear: Man has been eating turtle for a long time. But which turtles and how?While land turtles…
Unresolved Botanical Ponderings(2)Cnidoscolus stimulosis: Can the leaves be boiled and eaten like other species in the genus? I personally know of two account of…
Usnea: Likable LichenUSNEA is not an international committee. It’s a likable lichen. In fact all but two of the 20,000 lichen are forager…
Valuable Viburnums: The only significant problem with Viburnums is choosing which one to use, and which ones to write about.
Velvet Leaf: Velvet Leaf is a commercial failure but a successful foreign invader.
Vinegar: Your own unique strain(5)
The vinegar mother above —three inches across and a half in thick — was collected from the wild in Lake Mary, Florida, in 1996 and has been making…
Calla palustris: Missen…Famine Bread. Like so many in the same family the starchy rhizome of the Calla palustris is laced with calcium oxalate crystals…
Water Chestnut: The Water Chestnut is a plant of contradictions.
Water Hyacinth Woes
Water Hyacinth Stir Fry: The state of Florida minces no words about the water hyacinth: “Eichhornia crassipes is one of the worst weeds in the…
Water Lettuce(5)
No one knows if Water Lettuce is native to North America or not. Botanists disagree with some saying it’s from Africa, a few South America. Explorer and…
Brasenia schreberi: Palatable Pond Weed
The Water Shield is edible. The problem is getting it sometimes. It likes water … up to six feet deep. On the good…
I am often invited to see someone’s vegetable garden, and it’s usually growing well. Then I’m asked if I see any edible weeds, and usually there are some. I…
Weeds of Southern Turfgrasses
The link to the university’s site to buy the book — I do not get a cut — is here.The list of known edibles in the book is below. Many of…
An arctic express of frigid air recently sped down and across the United States. Here in Florida it snowed for the second time in 33 years, delivering a week…
It’s a simple question with a complex answer. When I was younger the 1000 acres behind the house and the 2000 across the road answered that question. Today it…
There is little doubt that man has been foraging for food for a long time. As one might guess, in different places he foraged for different plants. He also…
Randia aculeata
The White Indigo Berry is not high on the food list. Dr. Daniel Austin, author of Florida Ethnobotany, has this to say on page 562:
White man’s Little Foot: Dwarf PlantainWhite man’s Little Foot: Dwarf Plantain
Plantain, Plantagos To Go
When I was about 10 a bee stung my hand while I was being a pest in the…
Who’s Manipulating Whom?
I don’t care for Salvia coccinea. It’s not edible and it likes to crowd out my herbs. I’m forever removing it from flower pots. The other day I was about…
Often I am asked “why forage for wild food?” Why that question is asked is probably worthy of an article unto itself. But here let’s focus on one answer (out…
Wild Carrots and Queen Ann’s LaceDaucus Carota & Pusillus: Edible Wild Carrots
I’ve never understood the confusion over identifying the Wild Carrot also called Queen Ann’s…
Feral Citrus: Snack, Seasoning and Soap
Citrus, like apples when left unattended by man, tend to revert to their natural state of being sour and acidic. A lot…
Psychotria nervosa Florida Style
Because I am constantly asked about it: Yes, you can eat the pulp off the seeds of the wild coffee, and yes, you can make a…
Wild Dilly: Almost Chique
If the Natal Plum and the Wild Dilly could sit down and have a conversation they would probably agree that having a famous…
Wild Fennel: One of the outstanding sensory experiences of hiking in Greece is smelling in the wild herbs one usually buys in little plastic containers.
Wild Flours(8)
A wild flour is different than a starchy root. The Spurge Nettle has a starchy root that tastes like pasta but it does not lend itself to being processed…
Wild Ginger: Wild Ginger is cantharophilic, sometimes myophilic or sapromyophilic.
Allium canadense: The Stinking Rose
Garlic and onions don’t like to set underground bulbs here in hot Florida. I got around it by growing wild onions,…
Bromelia pinguin: Wild Pineapple
I took the picture directly above while out bicycling on a Christmas Day, 2008. But, didn’t identified the object de green…
Wild Rice(4)
Love and marriage, horse and carriage, Zizania and canoe… not exactly lyrical but you get the idea. If you want Wild Rice you have to go where the Wild…
I have long criticized what I call chemists in the kitchen. They brought us such things as cancer-causing additives, artery-damaging trans-fats, insulin-skewing…
Salix caroliniana: Nothing Would Be Finer
The willow is not prime eats. It’s not even secondary eats. In fact, it is famine food, but, willow can also cure…
Winter Foraging: The thermometer was near zero one day when I was on ice skates collecting frozen cranberries.
On the shortest day of the year one should take a long look around. It’s the inventory time of year, a bit of soul searching. That requires a little looking…
Wisteria Criteria(3)Wisteria, Wistaria
There is a duality to Wisteria, starting with those who think it is an invasive weed and those who like to eat its sweet, fragrant…
Chasmanthium latifolium: Edible Wood Oats
Most people discover Wood Oats by mistake. They’re traipsing through the forest, come across a plant, and wonder…
Yacon(1)
Is it a Polymnia or a Smallanthus? Botanists took some 70 years to make up their minds. Let’s call it Yacon like the natives.In publications before…
The “Cheeky Yam, or Yam on the Lamb
Yam B, Dioscorea bulbifera, is definitely second best to Yam A, Dioscorea alata. Why is Yam B, the D. bulbifera second…
Dioscorea Polystachya: Yam C
Just like Rambo movies, there is Yam A, Yam B and, yes, a Yam C, the Chinese Wild Yam or the Cinnamon Vine yam, either way we…
Yaupon Holly, Ilex vomitoria(10)
History has many layers and shades. It’s not a straight timeline of great clarity but more like a meandering muddy river with much confluence, influence…
If you could choose one wild plant to become a commercial product, what would it be?
Many people have tried to make poke weed (Phytolacca americana) a green…
Yucca’s Not Yucky(5)Yucca, Yuca: Which is Edible?
When isn’t a yucca a yucca? When it is spelt with one “C” as in yuca.What’s the difference? A belly ache, maybe…
Below is my upcoming class schedule which is updated weekly. Please make reservations. For payment methods, see below. Walk-in’s are accepted if the class is not full. To make your reservation send me an email. Please include date(s) desired, number of people, and contact information. Class size is limited to assure personal attention. Cost is $30 per adult.
The class is usually around three hours long or so and covers edible plants, mushroom, and some medicinals that we find that day. Classes are held hot or cold, rain or shine except for hurricanes. Descriptions of each location and where to meet are below under additional information. Times and day of week can differ with each location and time of year. Double check. Hiking and clothes requirements change with each class as do facilities. Again, double check. More details about each individual venue — such as where to meet — are listed below the Pay Now button.
Payment method: Cash on the day of class, $30 per person** 18 and over. Or you can pay by credit card by clicking on the Pay Now button below. Or, if you have a Pal Pay account email me and ask for the appropriate email address. No checks please. If you pay by Paypal or credit card there is and additional $5 charge. ** If the is a hardship email me: GreenDeane@Gmail.com
Saturday, May 11th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. Meet at the bathrooms. 9 a.m. to noon.
Sunday, May 12th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, Bayshore Drive. Meet at Ganyard Rd and Bayshore. 9 a.m. to noon.
Red Bug Slough 5200 S. Beneva Road, Sarasota. There are about 12 parking places and a residential street across the street that can be used. Among the edible there are pokeweed, pepper grass, pines, sida, tar vine, Spanish needles, fireweed, amaranth, puslane, bitter gourd, horseweed, sow thistles, plantagos, native and non-native grapes, smilax, sumac, cabbage palms, oaks, magnolias, gallberry, caesar weed, beautyberry, willow, sword ferns, hairy cowpea, wax myrtle, elderberry, pellitory, saw grass, true thistles, blackberries, sweet bay, sweet clover, panic grass, water shield, wapato, black medic, day flowers, dollar weed, dock, bottle brush, epazote, silverthorm, saw palmetto, maypops, ground cherries, porter weed, black nightshade, False Hawk’s Beard, Oxalis, creeping cucumber, and a few toxic ones such as poison ivy, coral bean and rosary pea.
Seminole Wekiva Trail, Sanlando Park, 401 West Highland St. Altamonte Springs, Florida 32714 (at the intersection with Laura Avenue.) We meet in the first parking lot on your right immediately after the entrance. This class involves about two miles of walking over several hours , some of it on an active bike trail. There is parking, drinking water and several bathrooms. We visit the immediate park area near tennis courts then north through park woods to a softball park. After that we walk the bike trail south back to the park seeing about 60 edible species depending on the time of year.
Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. GPS: N 20°05’35.4″ W080°58′.26.2″ Entrance is on the west side of southbound Ridgewood Ave (which is also US 1) Northbound traffic will have to make a U-turn. For southbound traffic, after passing Nova Road and the twin bridges the park entrance is 1/2 mile south on your right. The park, not far from Daytona Beach, has 1,637 acres and three miles of “nature” trails. It combines in a small area three different plant environments; a small patch of weeds common to urban areas, coastal hammock growth, and plants tolerant of the salty environment. Most are noticeable four species of hollies including the infamous Ilex vomitoria, the North American equivalent of Yerba Mate. Two common brackish water edibles, Saltwort and Sea Purslane, are also abundant. We will meet at the restrooms (it’s actually it’s a pavilion but the direction sign says restrooms.)
Tide Views Preserve, 1 Begonia Street, Atlantic Beach Fl 32233 (near Jacksonville Fl.) This is a new location still being explored.
Treaty Park, 1595 Wildwood Drive, St. Augustine, Florida 32086. Go past the dog park, the skate park and the racket ball courts. We’ll meet at the pavilion near the pond.
Turtle Mound: Canaveral National Seashore Park. While there are plenty of plants to look at we will probably have to change locations in the park at least once during the class. Because of parking this may require car pooling. There is also a fee per car to get into the park. For a preview see my video on You Tube entitled Turtle Mound. We will meet at Turtle Mound parking area. Among the edible species growing there are: Ground cherries, saw palmettos, eastern coral bean, wild grapes, seablight, sea purslane, salicornia, searocket, Persea, cabbage palm, smilax, black mangrove, Ilex, feral citrus, spurge nettle, papaya, wild peppers (in season) sea oats (protected) crowfoot grass seaside bean, opuntia, nopalea, toothache tree, seagrapes, purslane, hackberry, sedges, Spanish needles, sweet bay, and oaks,
Urban Crawl, meet in front of Panera’s, north end, 329 N. Park Avenue, Winter Park. Free parking in the parking garage, levels four and five behind Panera’s. The Urban Crawl is designed to help you identify edibles found in a city environment. We will see edible natives, imports, ornamentals, and neglected landscaping. We’ll also discuss issues with foraging in an urban area. Afterwards we can talk plants over coffee at Panera’s. We will walk approximately 2.5 miles most of it, but not all, on sidewalks. The following edibles can be seen: Dandelions, Podocarpus macrophyllus, false Hawk’s Beard, cabbage palms, white clover, the bottle brush tree, Bidens pilosa, various Oxalis, pellitory, dollarweed, night blooming cereus, oaks, camphor trees, sword ferns, pepper grass, hairy bittercress, roses, cherries/plums. saw palmetto, dwarf and full grown Ilex vomitoria, pines, skunk vine, Turks cap, two species of sow thistle, Nandina, beautyberry, smilax, cattails, koontie, pickerel weed, dock, Micromeria brownii, bulrush, yellow pond lilly, water shield, shell ginger, Chinese elm, natal plum, Stachyis floridana, pansies, canna, lantana, purslane, wax begonia, sedges, pindo palm, American holly, spiderwort, goose grass, mulberry, chickweed, and tansy mustard. Non-edibles worthy of mention: Rosary pea, the most toxic seed on earth, dog fennel and mexican poppies.
Venetian Gardens,201 E. Dixie Ave, Leesburg, FL 34748. What do you do with low islands that flood regularly? Add some bridges and call the park Venetian Gardens, which is about a half mile west of Leesburg Regional Medical Center. It’s a 100-acre park on Lake Harris and is also adjacent to a ball park. The flat landscape lends itself to easy walking but we’ll cover about three miles during the class walking about the park. As it is lake side the list of foragables leans towards the aquatic and we might get our feet wet. There are also many freeloading birds and squirrels in attendance… will beg for photo opt.
Wekiva State Park, 1800 Wekiwa Circle, Apopka, Florida 32712. There is a park admission Fee: $6 per vehicle. Limit 8 people per vehicle, $4 for a single occupant vehicle, $2 pedestrians or bicyclists. Meet at the Sand Lake parking lot. Unlike city parks or the urban area, Wekiva Park is “wild” Florida. There are very few weeds of urbanization. The edibles are mostly native plants and far between. This class is recommended for anyone interested in what the natives used. We will walk about four miles roundtrip. The plants are sporadically located. We will visit upland scrub and river bottom ecological zones, and then we will retrace our path and ”test” everyone. The walking is on trails and depending on the weather, at times it can be taxing. Bring water, appropriate clothes, and hiking equipment.
Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park (turn right after entrance, go 1/4 mile, dog run on right, parking at run or on previous left.) This park is a recreational area more than a wildlife habitat, Wickham Park still offers several dozen edible species in two distinct habitats. We will walk about 1.5 miles. Among the edible species are Oaks, Cabbage palm, Crowfoot grass, Pines, Centella erecta (Asian Dollar Weed) Pennywort, Dollarweed, Plantains, Bidens pilosa (Spanish needles) Saw palmetto, Caesar weed, Grapes, ( native and hybrids) Smilax, Yucca filamentosa, Gopher apples, Wax myrtles, American Beauty Berry, Poke weed, Sumac, Saw grass, Elderberry, False hawks beard, Pellitory, Creeping cucumber, Oxalis, Bitter gourd, Cattails, smooth-leaf bacopa, Gallberry, Wapato, or wapati, Bull thistle, Ground cherry, and Purslane.
Blanchard Park, 2451 Dean Rd, Union Park, FL 32817 This is a large park with a YMCA facility built in as well as play grounds, tennis courts and soccer fields. It also runs along a the Little Econlockhatchee River so there is an opportunity to see some water plants as well. One down side is the only bathroom open a 9 a.m. is about a quarter mile west from where we meet. By the end of the class the YMCA is open. Jay Blanchard Trail runs east-west south of University Boulevard. The park can be entered on the west side by Dean Road (thus you dive by the bathrooms) or from the east side off Rouse Road.
Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St., Gainesville, FL 32641. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. We start at the park and on a small portion of the Gainesville-Hawthorne State Trail, total distance 1.8 miles. Because of the distance this class has to have confirmed students ahead of time. DIRECTIONS: Take 4th Street off State road 331 (SE Williston Road.) At SE 15th Street (a T-intersection) turn right. In less than a mile you will see the entrance on your right to the Hawthorn Trail, pass that. Take the immediate next right into the Boulware Springs parking lot, adjacent to SE 15th St. Besides studying the area around the spring we also walk along the Hawthorne Trail and side trails.
Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 32706. Situated on Lake Coby and sometimes called Lake Colby/Royal Park, the 124-acre historic site was recently renovated with a quarter million dollar grant. It has a pavilion, bathrooms, boat ramp, plenty of shade, parking and a nature walk. It is the most handicap accessible site for studying wild edibles. A July survey showed at least three dozen edible species growing, from fruiting persimmons to spurge nettle to blossoming kudzu. Directions: Take Interstate-4 to Exit #114 (formerly Exit #54.) Turn west onto Highway 472 (toward Orange City/Deland. That is a left if coming from from the south, a right if coming from the north.) Once on 472 and leaving the interstate behind go to the first traffic light and turn right onto Dr. Martin Luther King Parkway. After you are on the parkway, turn right at the first street, which is Cassadaga Road (Country Road 4139.) Continue 1.5 miles to Cassadaga. You will pass the Cassadaga Hotel on your right. While the main road immediately turns left you will go straight (which is where the GPS puts you.) Go down a short hill where the road bears right and ends in the park. Meet near the restrooms. We will walk 1.8 miles with most of it on a paved walkway or a sand path.
Dreher, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405. Take exit 68 (Southern Boulevard) off Interstate 95 and go east. Entrance to the park is an immediate right at the bottom of the interstate bridge. Follow the convoluted signs to the science center (which is not where the GPS puts you.) Park anywhere. We meet 300 feet northwest of the science museum near the banyan tees. It’s a noisy area but early in the morning isn’t too bad. The amount of plants we can see depends upon the season and how much mowing they do. Among them are: American beautyberry, malaleuca, pigeon plum, pines, caesar weed, elderberry, wild grapes, citrus, oxalis, conyza, smilax, passion flowers, sandspurs, koontie, ipomoea, oaks, commelinas, Emilias, purslane, amaranth, figs, Bauhinia, crowfoot grass, surinam cherry, bitter gourd, red spiderling, sea grapes, sida, cattails, yellow pond lillies, Spanish needles, mangos, sedges, wapato, firebush, pickerel weed, sabal palms, royal palms, queen palms, bamboo, traveler palms, coconuts, date palms, dollar weed, water hyssop, mahoe, varigated mahoe, seaside mahoe, fishtail palm, podocarpus, lichen, pellitory, porter weed, pepper grass, smartweed, false hawk’s beard, sow thistles, epazote, sword fern, juniper, Ilex, cocoplums, bittercress, and two of the most toxic seeds on earth and an iguana or two.
Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. Situated in Largo on the Pinellas peninsula it’s a large park with a variety of different environments. On my first trip there I found: Amaranth, American Beautyberry, Bacopa Monnieri, Bitter Gourd, Brazilian Pepper, Bull Thistle, Burn Weed\Fire Weed, Caesarweed, Camphor Tree, Creeping Cucumber, Crowfoot Grass, Dollar weed, Duckweed, Eastern Cedar/Juniper, Eastern Gamma Grass, Eastern Redbud, Elderberry, False Hawk’s Beard, Ganoderma, Gotu Kola, Lantana, Latex Strangler Vine, Magnolia, Sweet and Southern, Nopales, Oaks, Palm, Panic Grass, Pellitory, Pines, Pokeweed, Pony Foot, Poor Man’s Pepper Grass, Purslane, Red Bay, Saw Palmetto, Simpson Stopper, Smartweed, Sow Thistle, Spiny/Common, Stinging Nettle, Sweet Bay, Sword Fern, Tansy Mustard, Wax Myrtle, Yellow Passionflower, Yellow Pond Lilly, Yaupon Holly.
Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, 32246. We meet at Building A next to the administration parking lot. This is a pleasant wander around the campus with environments ranging from pond to woods and in between. There are also a good complement of edible ornamentals. We walk about two miles over three hours.
Ft. Desoto Park, 3500 Pinellas Bayway S. St. Petersburg Fl 33715. There is an entrance fee to the park. Meet at the fishing pier parking lot. It’s a large parking lot, meet near the bathrooms. This is a compact area with a lot of poison ivy so we have to be alert. Among the forageables at this location is a hurst of Persimmons, numerous Seagrapes, native Blue Porter Weed and a planted Chaya. We will also see some salt-tolerant edibles and perhaps some seaweed as well.
George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. The preserve is only about three miles from the junction of the Turnpike and I-95. It has no bathroom or drinking water so take advantage of the various eateries and gas stations at the exit. After exiting either the turnpike or I-95 go east on Okeechobee Road. Turn right onto S. Jenkins Road. Then left on Edwards Road. Then right onto Silvitz Road. After crossing the small St. Lucie River (a small S-curve among those straight roads) turn right onto Ralls Road. Go to the end of Ralls Road then turn left into the preserve. Part of the trails through the preserve take you along ox bows of the St. Lucie River and Ten Mile Creek. During my last visit I saw a lot of Ground Cherries, Amaranth, Purslane, Barnyard Grass, Dollar weed, Spanish Needles, Gopher Apples, Sow Thistles, native and escaped grapes, Smilax, Poor Man’s Pepper Grass, Pellitory, False Hawk’s Beard, Water Hyssop, Coral Bean, Hairy Cow Pea, Southern Wax Myrtle, Fireweed, Epazote, Catails, Willows, Pines and a lot of fish.
Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave., Ocala, FL, 34471. Meet at the entrance to the pool, aka Aquatic Fun Center. This walk is about a mile long and mostly on well-graded paths. While there are no immediate aquatic plants at this site there are numerous wild edibles. Among them are: plantain, epazote, oxalis, sycamore, pepper grass, hickory, usnea, pines, oaks, amaranth, Chinese elm, Florida elm, Hercules club, smilax, blackberries, wax myrtle, eastern red bud, spurge nettle, sumac, magnolia, tansy mustard, paper mulberry, sow thistles, Florida betony, camphors, ground cherry, red spiderling, podocarpus, Spanish needles, milkweed vine, muscadine grapes, summer grapes, palm, persimmon, beautyberry, dandelion, false hawk’s beard, plum, cherry, hawthorn, and henbit. Because of the distance this class has to have confirmed students ahead of time.
John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Meet at the trail head of the Peggy Park Nature Walk, pavilion 1 parking lot. This is a very nice, small county park on Lake Tarpon with part of the walk being lakeside. We will walk the Peggy Trail backwards, then visit the boat launch area, then an observation tower, then wend along the board walk lakeside. At the end of the boardwalk we will go through the center of the park back to where we started. That’s about a mile walk. Among the edible species there are: beautyberry, bitter gourd, blackberry, dayflower, caesar weed, cattails, chuffa/sedges, crowfoot grass, dahoon holly, false hawks beard, fireweed, Florida betony, Florida elm, grapes, cultivars, grapes, muscadines, groundnuts, heartleaf drymaria, hickories (water and pignut) dwarf ilex vomitoria, maples, oxalis, palms, panic grass, pennyworts, persimmon, pickerel weed, pines, oaks, reindeer moss, red bay, saw palmetto, smilax, Spanish needles, smart grass, sumac, sycamores, usnea, water hyacinths, wapato, water shields, wax myrtle, and willow.
Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. Meet at the bathrooms. The garden has been around for some 80 years through various stages of attention and neglect. It has over 100 edible species on an annual basis. Mead Garden has natives, exotics, now-banned plants, once-common plants, and just plain old weeds (often removed from more-attended gardens.) Among the edible species in Mead are: Amaranth, American Burnweed, American Eelgrass, Beautyberry, Bee Balm, Bitter Gourd, Blackberries, Black Cherry, Black Tupelo, Bulrush, Cabbage Palm, Caesar Weed, Camphor Tree, Cattails, Ceriman, Chickasaw Plum, Chinese Elm, Commelinas, Crowfoot Grass, Creeping cucumber, Dayflowers, Eastern Coral Bean, Elderberry, Epazota, Feijoa Tree, Florida Elm, False Hawks Beard, Florida Betony, Gallberry, Goose Grass, Goto Kola, Grapes, Ground Nuts, Guinea grass, Heartleaf Drymaria, Hibiscus, Hickory, Ilex vomitoria var nana and pendula, Koontie, Lemon Grass, Lantana, Loquat, Magnolia, Maples, Melaleuca, Micromeia brownii, Monkey Puzzle Tree, Nagi Tree, Night-blooming Cereus, Oaks, Oxalis articulata, intermedia, stricta, Paper Mulberry, Pennyworts, Pickerel Weed, Pindo Palm, Pines, Podocarpus macrophylis, Poke Weed, Queen Palm, Red Bays, Red Bud, Red Mulberry, Reindeer Moss, Rubber Plant, Sand spurs, Saw palmetto, Seagrape, Shell Ginger, Skunk vine, Smartweed, Smilax, Sow Thistle, Spanish Needles, Spiderworts, Surinam Cherry, Swamp lilly, Sweetgum, Sycamore, Tulip Tree, Usnea, Violets, Wapato, Water Bacopa, Wax Myrtle, Wild Pineapple, Willow, Yam, Dioscorea alata.
Red Bug Slough 5200 S. Beneva Road, Sarasota. There are about 12 parking places and a residential street across the street that can be used. Among the edible there are pokeweed, pepper grass, pines, sida, tar vine, Spanish needles, fireweed, amaranth, puslane, bitter gourd, horseweed, sow thistles, plantagos, native and non-native grapes, smilax, sumac, cabbage palms, oaks, magnolias, gallberry, caesar weed, beautyberry, willow, sword ferns, hairy cowpea, wax myrtle, elderberry, pellitory, saw grass, true thistles, blackberries, sweet bay, sweet clover, panic grass, water shield, wapato, black medic, day flowers, dollar weed, dock, bottle brush, epazote, silverthorm, saw palmetto, maypops, ground cherries, porter weed, black nightshade, False Hawk’s Beard, Oxalis, creeping cucumber, and a few toxic ones such as poison ivy, coral bean and rosary pea.
Seminole Wekiva Trail, Sanlando Park, 401 West Highland St. Altamonte Springs, Florida 32714 (at the intersection with Laura Avenue.) We meet in the first parking lot on your right immediately after the entrance. This class involves about two miles of walking over several hours , some of it on an active bike trail. There is parking, drinking water and several bathrooms. We visit the immediate park area near tennis courts then north through park woods to a softball park. After that we walk the bike trail south back to the park seeing about 60 edible species depending on the time of year.
Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. GPS: N 20°05’35.4″ W080°58′.26.2″ Entrance is on the west side of southbound Ridgewood Ave (which is also US 1) Northbound traffic will have to make a U-turn. For southbound traffic, after passing Nova Road and the twin bridges the park entrance is 1/2 mile south on your right. The park, not far from Daytona Beach, has 1,637 acres and three miles of “nature” trails. It combines in a small area three different plant environments; a small patch of weeds common to urban areas, coastal hammock growth, and plants tolerant of the salty environment. Most are noticeable four species of hollies including the infamous Ilex vomitoria, the North American equivalent of Yerba Mate. Two common brackish water edibles, Saltwort and Sea Purslane, are also abundant. We will meet at the restrooms (it’s actually it’s a pavilion but the direction sign says restrooms.)
Tide Views Preserve, 1 Begonia Street, Atlantic Beach Fl 32233 (near Jacksonville Fl.) This is a new location still being explored.
Treaty Park, 1595 Wildwood Drive, St. Augustine, Florida 32086. Go past the dog park, the skate park and the racket ball courts. We’ll meet at the pavilion near the pond.
Turtle Mound: Canaveral National Seashore Park. While there are plenty of plants to look at we will probably have to change locations in the park at least once during the class. Because of parking this may require car pooling. There is also a fee per car to get into the park. For a preview see my video on You Tube entitled Turtle Mound. We will meet at Turtle Mound parking area. Among the edible species growing there are: Ground cherries, saw palmettos, eastern coral bean, wild grapes, seablight, sea purslane, salicornia, searocket, Persea, cabbage palm, smilax, black mangrove, Ilex, feral citrus, spurge nettle, papaya, wild peppers (in season) sea oats (protected) crowfoot grass seaside bean, opuntia, nopalea, toothache tree, seagrapes, purslane, hackberry, sedges, Spanish needles, sweet bay, and oaks,
Urban Crawl, meet in front of Panera’s, north end, 329 N. Park Avenue, Winter Park. Free parking in the parking garage, levels four and five behind Panera’s. The Urban Crawl is designed to help you identify edibles found in a city environment. We will see edible natives, imports, ornamentals, and neglected landscaping. We’ll also discuss issues with foraging in an urban area. Afterwards we can talk plants over coffee at Panera’s. We will walk approximately 2.5 miles most of it, but not all, on sidewalks. The following edibles can be seen: Dandelions, Podocarpus macrophyllus, false Hawk’s Beard, cabbage palms, white clover, the bottle brush tree, Bidens pilosa, various Oxalis, pellitory, dollarweed, night blooming cereus, oaks, camphor trees, sword ferns, pepper grass, hairy bittercress, roses, cherries/plums. saw palmetto, dwarf and full grown Ilex vomitoria, pines, skunk vine, Turks cap, two species of sow thistle, Nandina, beautyberry, smilax, cattails, koontie, pickerel weed, dock, Micromeria brownii, bulrush, yellow pond lilly, water shield, shell ginger, Chinese elm, natal plum, Stachyis floridana, pansies, canna, lantana, purslane, wax begonia, sedges, pindo palm, American holly, spiderwort, goose grass, mulberry, chickweed, and tansy mustard. Non-edibles worthy of mention: Rosary pea, the most toxic seed on earth, dog fennel and mexican poppies.
Venetian Gardens,201 E. Dixie Ave, Leesburg, FL 34748. What do you do with low islands that flood regularly? Add some bridges and call the park Venetian Gardens, which is about a half mile west of Leesburg Regional Medical Center. It’s a 100-acre park on Lake Harris and is also adjacent to a ball park. The flat landscape lends itself to easy walking but we’ll cover about three miles during the class walking about the park. As it is lake side the list of foragables leans towards the aquatic and we might get our feet wet. There are also many freeloading birds and squirrels in attendance… will beg for photo opt.
Wekiva State Park, 1800 Wekiwa Circle, Apopka, Florida 32712. There is a park admission Fee: $6 per vehicle. Limit 8 people per vehicle, $4 for a single occupant vehicle, $2 pedestrians or bicyclists. Meet at the Sand Lake parking lot. Unlike city parks or the urban area, Wekiva Park is “wild” Florida. There are very few weeds of urbanization. The edibles are mostly native plants and far between. This class is recommended for anyone interested in what the natives used. We will walk about four miles roundtrip. The plants are sporadically located. We will visit upland scrub and river bottom ecological zones, and then we will retrace our path and ”test” everyone. The walking is on trails and depending on the weather, at times it can be taxing. Bring water, appropriate clothes, and hiking equipment.
Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. Meet at the “dog park” inside the park (turn right after entrance, go 1/4 mile, dog run on right, parking at run or on previous left.) This park is a recreational area more than a wildlife habitat, Wickham Park still offers several dozen edible species in two distinct habitats. We will walk about 1.5 miles. Among the edible species are Oaks, Cabbage palm, Crowfoot grass, Pines, Centella erecta (Asian Dollar Weed) Pennywort, Dollarweed, Plantains, Bidens pilosa (Spanish needles) Saw palmetto, Caesar weed, Grapes, ( native and hybrids) Smilax, Yucca filamentosa, Gopher apples, Wax myrtles, American Beauty Berry, Poke weed, Sumac, Saw grass, Elderberry, False hawks beard, Pellitory, Creeping cucumber, Oxalis, Bitter gourd, Cattails, smooth-leaf bacopa, Gallberry, Wapato, or wapati, Bull thistle, Ground cherry, and Purslane.
I have not found any ripe cherries so far this season. Photo by Green Deane
Blueberries, are a bit late this year, Photo by Green Deane.
Several observations suggest the seasons are off. April is our target month for several wild fruit ripening such as Black Cherries, blue berries, blackberries, mulberries, Surinam cherries and loquats, The first three have been late and are only beginning to ripen. The amount of rain has also been light so traditional mushrooms seasons have not started. By now we are usually picking blueberries, and plenty of blackberries, and sampling black cherries. Not so this early May. Mulberries and Loquats, have performed well.The Suriname Cherries have been spotty.
Candyroots vary in height. Photo by Green Deane
In the realm of plant populations there is endangered, threatened then rare. But there is a huge distance between rare and common. The yellow bloomer to the leftt — Candyroot — is not on any about-to-disappear list but one doesn’t see them that often. You have to be at the right place — seasonally damp pine scrub — and the right season, April and May in Florida but it can be found later in the year. Candyroot comes in two colors, yellow that can sometimes make it to orange. Native Americans and early Europeans would chew the roots, which have a spearmint-esque flavor, or wintergreen, and to some palates licorice. The tap root is also rather small, so it’s not much of a chew. Kind of like a woodland breath mint. To read more about Candyroot you can click here.
Yellow pond lily, blossom and seed pod. Photo by Green Deane.
Yellow ponds, that’s how I think of it, or in some places, yellow rivers. That’s because the American Lotus is in blossom. The first time I saw a small lake of these blossoms was when an old dry lake was deepened for a housing development. The next spring suddenly what was for decades a dry lake was full of American Lotus blossoms. This is because the seeds can stay viable some 400 years, or so the experts report. Talk about a survival food! There are multiple edible parts on the American Lotus but I prefer the seeds. I also think when collecting by hand the seeds proved to be the most calories for the amount of work. The roots are edible but digging them up can be a messy, laborious job. Locally American Lotus are easy to find now: Just look for a lake with large yellow blossoms on long stems. Further north and west they are a favorite sight on rivers such as the Mississippi. To read more about the American Lotus go here.
Foraging classes this weekend:
Foraging classes are held rain, shine, hot or cold. Photo by Nermina Krenata
Saturday, May 4th, Eagle Park Lake, 1800 Keene Road, Largo, FL 33771. Meet at the pavilion near the dog park. 9 to noon.
Sunday, May 5th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St., Gainesville, FL 32641. Meet at the picnic tables next to the pump house. 9 a.m. to noon.
For more information on these classes, to prepay or sign up go here
Eggs come in many colors and sizes. Photo by Green Deane
Though demonized, forgiven, and demonized again eggs have always been a large part of my diet. I eat ancestrally and eggs were definitely on the menu. The local farm store has sales that sometimes includes duck eggs which I grew up eating. We also had chickens (and pet squirrels, rabbits, dogs, cats and horses… my mother collected horses and I had to take care of them so much that in 1969 I volunteered for the Army to get away from horses and haying.) Three local turkeys provide their large pointed eggs and I find ducks eggs often in parks with a quacking population. A few years ago I noticed that most “survivalist” and or “prepper” sites and articles just did not mention eggs. That prompted me to write a large article on eggs, birds to fish. You can read it here.
Green Deane Forum
Tired of Facebook and want to identify a plant? The Green Dean Forum is up and running again. Have you come to dislike Facebook, then join us on the forum. Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.
You get the USB, not the key.
172-video USB would be a good end of spring present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy. Most of the 172 USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form.
Finally, a physical copy of the book.
Now in its second printing is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. It’s available in many locations including Amazon. Most of the entries include a nutritional profile. It can also be ordered through AdventureKeen Publishing.
This is weekly newsletter #599. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.
To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter clickhere.
Pindo Palm can fruit almost anytime. Photo by Green Deane
Pindo Palms grow from south Texas to Washington DC and often fruit in the spring. This past week two of them dropped fruit near Tampa. Which means don’t argue with Mother Nature, just harvest, take note for next year and be thankful. Most consider yellow Pindo Palm fruit to be delicious. The seed inside is also edible and tastes like coconut. It is easy to extract (whereas the queen palm kernel is tough to get out of its shell. and the fruit is more fibrous.) Pindo palm is also called the jelly palm because some years it has enough natural pectin and sugar to make jelly without any additional pectin or sugar. While both the Pindo and queen palm have edible fruit and are feather palms they have quite different growth structures. Queen palms are usually skinny and tall, with green fruit turning orange, pindo are shortish, stout, with green fruit that turns yellow to golden. Look for both in yards and cemeteries.
Green Deane in Deland Florida with wild mustard in February 2014.
Admittedly is uncommon to see yellow mustard and yellow Pinto palm fruit available at the same time. A common roadside plant, mustard is often a strip of yellow you see in a glance as you drive by. It is found from southern Florida to Maine but in different seasons. In the no-snow south it’s a winter plant because it is too hot in the summer for the cool-weather species. It’s a spring and summer crop “up north.” Canola oil is made from a mustard that like summer in Canada. While wild mustard and radish look similar and are used the same way, mustards tend to have most of their blossom on the top end where as radishes fall over and have blossoms along the stalk.
Malvaviscus pendiflorus. one of two species locally. Photo by Green Deane
We saw several species blooming this past weekend in my foraging class. The Hibiscus were happy including the “Sleepy Hibiscus.” It’s a fairly easy shrub to identify because the bright red blossoms never unfurl. The delicate blossoms dissolve quickly upon consumption. Some would call them slimy. Also blossoming is the Bauhinia. It’s a tree that is both easy and challenging at the same time. The blossoms are edible, look nice in salads. Some of the species have edible seeds and some do not. (They are in the pea family and most pea trees — most not all — do not have edible seeds.) Sorting out which Bauhinia you have can be a challenge, nearly as bad as sorting out which Cereus you have. Like the Cereus cactus there are several man-made Bauhinia hybrids and perhaps even some fake botanical names. It can make species identification a real headache though as far as I know all the blossoms are edible. Only “discovered” a century or so ago the blossom of the Bauhinia blakeana is the emblem of Hong Kong. You can read about the Bauhinia here.
Surinam Cherries have eight ribs.
Almost every year one can find a species blooming out-of-season. If the climate changes we might see an increase in that. As in previous classes we saw some grapes blossoming in early December when they should be setting in the spring. But perhaps the most out-of-season display this week was Surinam Cherries in fruit. I had Suriname Cherries in my yard for many years. They are best when a deep red with a bit of blue hue like the color old time firetrucks. If Ferrrari orange they are not ripe. Even when ripe many people do not like the taste of them. To read about the Suriname Cherry go here.
Classes are held rain or shine (but not during hurricanes.)
Foraging Classes: A summer problem has cropped up. Severe weather.
Because of severe weather predicted for Dec.16th and 17th classes those days have been canceled
Dec 30th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405, 9 a.m. meet just north of the science center.
To read more about the classes, to pre-pay or sign up, go here.
Finding Mistletoe during the 13th annual Urban Crawl in Winter Park.
My 14th annual Urban Crawl is coming up, on Friday Dec. 22nd, 2023, in downtown Winter Park. It is a free class. A reasonable question is what about foraging in a city? There is some surprising research. Dan Brabaner is a geoscience professor at Wellesley College, Boston. With some undergraduate students they studied preserved food collected from fruit trees and the like in the urban Boston area. What they found was cherries, apples, peaches and herbs were relatively low in lead and arsenic. That is, a serving had less amounts of these toxins than the allowed daily amount for a child. The team also did not find a significant difference between peeled and unpeeled fruit. The fruit was low in toxic chemical because they are the furthest away from any toxins in the soil. This would apply to tree nuts as well. Leafy greens faired well, too, because they grow fast and 1) don’t have time to accumulate toxins and 2) most air pollution on them can be washed off. Brabander also analyzed foraged food from plants growing in the urban environment not growing on agricultural soil. These foods had higher micronutrients because they were not growing on worn-out agricultural soil. Calcium and iron were higher as were manganese, zinc, magnesium and potassium. Thus we know that not only do “weeds” pack more of a nutritional punch because they are wild but also because they can be growing in better soil. We meet in front of Panera’s at 10 a.m. We wander south to the Rollin college, stop at Starbucks, to drink and drain, go east to the public library area, then back to Panera’s, that takes a couple of hours. Park in the parking garage behind (west of ) Paneras. If you park more than three hours on the streets of Winter Park you can get a ticket (this has happened in previous years.) Please invite anyone interested in plants who is having a hard time making ends meet.
Toxic Butterweed’s blossom does not resemble a mustard. Photo by Green Deane
A dangerous plant is making its seasonal debut: Butterweed, Packera glabella (formerly Senecio glabellus.) I call it dangerous because it is toxic and resembles an edible species. Butterweed likes to grow in damp places and until it blossomed resembles the mustard family. However, unlike all mustard which have four petal blossoms, Butterweed’s blossom resembles a yellow daisey. And mustards have a distinct flavor, Butterweed has a mild taste. Overs the season it becomes attractive and prolific. There has been at least one poisoning in Florida in recent years. The victim survived with medical attention. The toxin affects the liver. it is also highly toxic to horses and cattle.
You get the USB, not the key.
172-video USB would be a good holiday present and is now $99. My nine-DVD set of 135 videos has been phased out. The USB videos are the same videos I have on You Tube. Some people like to have their own copy. The USB videos have to be copied to your computer to play. If you want to order the USB go to the DVD/USB order button on the top right of this page. That will take you to an order form. I’d like to thank all of you who ordered the DVD set over the years which required me to burn over 5,000 DVDs individually.
Green Deane Forum
Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about
warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also
articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.
Finally, a physical copy of the book.
Now in print and delivered last week is EatTheWeeds, the book. It has 274 plants, 367 pages, index, nutrition charts and color photos. Several hundred have been pre-ordered on Amazon. Most of the entries include a nutritional profile and if no profile reported then noteworthy constituents. I have no doubt that the book will outlive me, my little contribution to posterity.
This is weekly newsletter #582. If you want to subscribe to this free newsletter you can find the sign-up form in the menu at the top of the page.