Not sure if they are a member of the apple family, I mistook one for an apple once. Prepare to pucker!! Note that even the small flowering quince plants make itsy-bitsy quinces.
Posted on 02/14/2009 10:03:07 AM PST by djf
I have decided to start a thread focusing on edible weeds. Many of the common plants we see everyday are edible, and while most are not hugely palatable or nutritious, a few are truly very good.
If you would like to post a recipe, please post recipes related to these plants only.
As always, an extreme amount of caution is advised. It's probably true that 90 percent or so of plants are actually edible, there is a small percentage that if you eat them, you WON'T have to worry about eating again!
Oleander comes to mind, it would take less than two leaves to kill an average person.
So be careful.
BUMP for tonight! Short lunch today; we’re swamped at the Garden Center.
A general observation is that most brightly-colored insects and small animals are poisonous - like poison-dart frogs, or monarch butterflies. Predators recognize their bright colors and avoid them. Camouflaged bugs are usually the tasty ones.
I think that was Free Descendant’s point. If he/she had to rake up weeds to eat because it got that bad here, he/she wanted to end it all by eating oleander.
LOL. Loved the commercialization ideas for kudzu at the end too.
Wood ash yields lye. You can make lye soap using pork fat too.
Heck, my daddy did that when we went camping. Soaked for a while in diesel fuel.
I’ve been waiting for someone to mention milkweed but I don’t see it yet.
The pods have a few days, when they are small (2 inches long, maybe 1/2 or 1/3 grown) when they are tender and sweet if boiled and served like broccoli.
These must be caught when they are first growing and before any of the seed fibers inside have formed. Boil, drain, and boil again until tender, maybe 2 minutes rolling boil each time. If you can cut the raw pod easily with a knife, you have it at the right state to pick. If you can cut the cooked pod with a fork like broccoli, it is cooked just right. A little butter, and let me ask, have you ever tried the spice known as ‘Mrs Dash’? We love it on vegetables.
“Queen Anne’s Lace
Yur basic wild carrot”
Which looks very similar to Hemlock, a poisonous plant.
I’d avoid this one. (Not really much root to it and carrots are pretty cheap.)
See:
http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/poison/plants/pppoiso.htm
That’s a great link. I’ve seen entire ‘old home places’ covered by kudzu. Closing the windows might help, but you might want to take a machete to bed with you just in case.
I lost a house in Norfol, VA, to kudzu once ... I went away for the weekend, and when I came back, the living room floor had collapsed.
If you eat poke make certain it is very young, not more than 10 to 12 inches high, and cooked. See:
from:
http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/poison/agbook/phytolac.htm#Phytolac
“POISONOUS PARTS: All parts, but primarily the roots, are considered poisonous. Small quantities (more than 10) of raw berries can result in serious poisoning of adults. Fatalities in young children can result from the consumption of a few raw berries. Phytolacca americana contains mitogens, compounds that can be absorbed through skin abrasions, causing blood abnormalities. Sensitive individuals should handle pokeweed with gloves. Root preparations have been used as a folk-medicinal, a practice than can be dangerous.
OF INTEREST: Cooked, young, tender leaves and stems are eaten by some people as a pot-herb. These young greens are the “poke salad” of Southern fame. They contain low concentrations of phytolacca toxin which is destroyed by proper cooking.
Thanks for the info. That could come in handy sometime!
I was just thinking that kudzu would make a good source for a book, or movie, of horror stories. Ha.
Thanks. I’ve never eaten it myself, but I know the smell, and the flower cluster/seed head is almost exactly like the carrots in my garden.
Now I have read conflicting reports about carrot greens being poisonous, if anybody knows more about it, please let us know.
Old VA joke - “How to plant kudzu: Throw it at the ground, and run like heck. Do it at night, or leave a will.”
But the colors are warning colors throughout nature. Black and yellow wasps...stings. Red and black poisonous Velvet ants.
The Monarch butterfly larvae are white and black and yellow striped. Let a bird try to eat one and he will never again. They are very noxious as they sequester the toxins from milkweed, their host plant, into their bodies.
Some insects mimic these warning colors and escape their enemies.
Black usually indicates thick hard chitin too.
Maybe if you put hot tabasco on everything...well maybe not.
LOL
By the way, sequatas taste like almonds.
good one LMAO
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