Posted on 07/26/2014 10:24:00 AM PDT by blam
July 26-2014
by oovgroov
Did you realize that knowing just 4 wild edible plants could one day save your life?
If there were any four categories of plants that I would recommend all people to know how to use and identify it would be these: Grass, Oak, Pine, and Cattail. For the knowledgeable survivor, knowing just these four plants can make the difference between life and death if stranded in the wilds – for each one is an excellent food source which can sustain you until help arrives.
Throughout this week and part of the next, I’ll be going into details on how you can prepare and eat these plants. For now though, here’s a quick overview into what they have to offer:
Grass
Surprising to many is the fact that you can eat grass. Despite there being hundreds of varieties of bladed grass found in the Americas, almost all (99% of them) can be eaten. This ranges from wheat, oats, and bamboo to the wild meadow varieties.
The young shoots up to 6 inches tall can be eaten raw and the starchy base (usually white and at the bottom when you pluck it) can be eaten as a trail nibble. The more mature the grass plant gets, the more fibrous the plant becomes. For older plants the base can be chewed and spit out; extracting the beneficial juices in the process. Or a tea can be made from the fresh or dried leaves.
The best part of the grass plant to eat are the seed heads, which can be gathered to make millet for breads or filler for soups & stews. Of the 99% that can be eaten raw, .
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(Excerpt) Read more at tacticalintelligence.net ...
Thanks. I’ll take a look.
I don't know about that, every time my cat eats grass she ends up puking on my carpet.....
Wild oats are just about everywhere I go, growing as weeds by the side of the road.
As far as your average lawn is concerned, I would have liked to know how exactly one could consider that edible?
You probably won't be able to digest the grass in your front lawn, but if you let it go long enough something edible might turn up there. Check in a book first, though.
Heck, that's what my Dad ate when he was growing up.....Right before he walked ten miles to school, in the snow, with bare feet, uphill (both ways).
I made acorn bread about 30 years ago. Lot of work. I remember having to “leach” the bitterness out of the acorns.
I never tried it, but read somewhere (long before google) that a tea or tisane can be made from staghorn sumac not to be confused with poison sumac, totally different plants. One is more of a tree and the other a bush. I just looked it up on google and it’s called Indian Lemonade or Tea.
Not here, unless I am missing something. Here we have several varieties of pine and some oak trees, along with the occasional dogwood trees. Sometimes, rarely, you can find some wild apple trees or blackberry bushes, and the only thing that grows on lawns that might be slightly edible is dandelions -although I have never tried. Since I always get a slight rash whenever I work on the lawn and trimmings, I do not think I should take a chance that dandelions might fare any better in regards to personal health.
More detailed information on exactly how to subsist on pine products might be helpful, however, since I do not know personally anyone who harvests them for eating. Mostly mature trees for the lumber, younger pines for the seasonal Christmas Trees, and pine needles for good firestarting stock.
Bananas are worthless. Once you skin them, and throw away the bone, there’s nothing left!
I can’t recall who said that. Some comic? Redd Foxx?
Euell "Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible" Gibbons.
He died shortly after making the Grape Nuts commercial that made him famous. The joke was that he choked on a pine cone.
That was almost forty years ago. This makes me feel really, really old all of a sudden.
You’re not the only one. I remember Funny ‘n Glare (Sonny and Cher, for those of you who never read Mad Magazine) did a short spoof of his GrapeNuts commercial that had him repeating the “You ever et a pine cone?” line in it.
If not properly prepared Polk Plant aka Poke Weed is poisonous, if not deadly. Re-checked this on google, because I was sure I had read this many years ago, probably in a book on New England wildflowers and plants that I used to have.
I seem to remember that Euell Gibbons died of stomach cancer when in his 50s.
Euell Gibbons picnic = find a shady spot and eat it.
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