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Edible weeds
ongoing

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.


TOPICS: Food; Gardening; Outdoors
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To: Hot Tabasco

After they melt, you could use them as salad dressing :O)


121 posted on 02/14/2009 12:25:42 PM PST by goat granny
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To: stylecouncilor

Ping


122 posted on 02/14/2009 12:26:06 PM PST by windcliff
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To: patton
Black Walnut

I imagine most folks who live on the east coast know what they are, we used to collect tons of them. This pic is when they are growing on the tree, after they fall, the pod part will decay and the nut is inside there. They can be gathered late Sep through December or so.


123 posted on 02/14/2009 12:26:19 PM PST by djf
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To: djf

One only pulls stinging nettles out of the garden once. Then you go for the heavy gloves the next time you find it..


124 posted on 02/14/2009 12:27:59 PM PST by goat granny
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To: djf

Those things will stain even kudzu!


125 posted on 02/14/2009 12:30:53 PM PST by patton (SPQA - the last, the least and the lost)
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To: goat granny

Some folks actually don’t have much of a reaction to them. But if I even get near them, I turn into a cowering, whimpering pile of flesh!
Man, them things are nasty!


126 posted on 02/14/2009 12:31:12 PM PST by djf
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To: patton

Yup! Your hands WILL be black.

Not sure, but I thought I read the colonists used them for ink.


127 posted on 02/14/2009 12:32:37 PM PST by djf
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To: djf

Lady we bought our house in MI from had a great idea - she said, they used to lay them all out on the driveway, run them over with the car, and then let them dry.

I was wondering about the ink thing, too.


128 posted on 02/14/2009 12:36:20 PM PST by patton (SPQA - the last, the least and the lost)
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To: blackpacific
But they will not avoid all poisonous molds.

I had a contract on a cow for a bull calf to a stud. I went out to feed them before I went to the breed convention. I would be gone a week and I wanted to warn them that my husband, who hated them all, would be feeding them.

We had purchased some hay that had been interplanted with comfrey, supposedly a good plant. But when interplanted, the comfrey cured at a totally different rate than the alfalfa. The comfrey was still very wet when the alfalfa was ready to bale. So he baled it anyway and all the comfrey molded.

I saw that as I was feeding this very nice cow named Tippy. She dove into it as I was also under the impression that a cow would know a good thing from a bad one.

Well there is one bad one that they do not know. And here it was. She was cold and stiff when he went out to get them that night after he put me on the plane.

Entertoxemia C and D from mold.

They didn't tell me until I got home. I was glad for that.

129 posted on 02/14/2009 12:41:07 PM PST by Battle Axe (Repent for the coming of the Lord is nigh!)
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To: djf
Black Walnuts make a great dye for wool or mohair. I had a Black Walnut tree on the farm...You have to put on a pair of old boots, and stomp them after they fall, this opens up the husk. Then put them in a large bucket of water, set for a couple of weeks and the water makes a permanent dye that is beautiful..The dye is in the green husk. You just have to put the water through a sieve to get out particles that are in it..
PS pick them up with gloves or your hands will be brown for quite a while, does not wash off, but will wear off over several days..
130 posted on 02/14/2009 12:43:22 PM PST by goat granny
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To: djf
Wild rose hips

Not spectacularly nutritious, but very high in Vitamin C. I have alot of these around my place.


131 posted on 02/14/2009 12:43:44 PM PST by djf
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To: djf

You sure are right on that...the sting lasts for several hours......


132 posted on 02/14/2009 12:51:47 PM PST by goat granny
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To: blindsangamon

I might also suggest some ‘guerrilla gardening’ If you have access to some vacant or unused property, plant it with some of the more vigorous wild food plants, such as sunflowers, jerusalem artichokes, echinacia, day lilies, horseradish, etc. Once established, they will continue on their own, and provide an emergency food source should you need it.


133 posted on 02/14/2009 1:08:56 PM PST by blindsangamon
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To: djf
Wild hops

I have never seen it, but supposedly it is common in western Washington.


134 posted on 02/14/2009 1:10:25 PM PST by djf
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To: djf
Great thread!

If you are at all interested in the history of plants in America you can scrounge up a cheap used copy of Green Immigrants by Claire Haughton.

Claire was a botanist who came to the book's subject by chance, while making a hs school film about Colonial America. She explores about 100 plants and how the came to be here, how they fared since, and how they changed our nation.

Another fun read, was one of my beach books last summer, is "Virgin Earth" by Philippa Gregory. It's definitely not a "guy" book ... a love story is woven in to a botanist's search for freedom and a new life in the New World [historical fiction.]

135 posted on 02/14/2009 1:19:43 PM PST by Daffynition ("Beauty is in the sty of the beholder." ~ Joe 6-pack)
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To: blindsangamon

“There is also a lot of wild game, although hunting in an urban or suburban environment is not always appreciated!”

No, but trapping often is. If you use live traps you can even get paid for it, just “forget” to mention that the raccoon in your live trap is destined for dinner :p

If skinned right, the pelts are worth a lot as well.

Its been a couple years since I renewed my trapping license, but if I remember right it was only about $2 here in WI.

I mainly focused on squirrels, as the ones around my house were causing quite a bit of property damage. They even ate the distributor cap out from my dad’s truck!

I’ve studied wilderness survival since I was about 12, there’s a good online survival forum at http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/ if anybody’s interested.


136 posted on 02/14/2009 1:23:38 PM PST by Ellendra (Most eco-freaks wouldn't know nature if it bit them on the butt . . . and it often does!)
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To: Ellendra

Be very careful with coons.

Rabies in raccoons is almost epidemic. And you definitely don’t want to handle, skin, or cook an animal with rabies.


137 posted on 02/14/2009 1:33:55 PM PST by djf
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To: djf; Gabz

As someone pointed out, daylily — and not just the root, the entire plant.

HOWEVER — Lily of the Valley is 100 PER CENT POISONOUS. Fortunately, they don’t resemble each other at all. ;’)


138 posted on 02/14/2009 1:41:22 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: djf
Black nightshade

Warning! Unless you have positively identified this plant, don't eat it! Solanum Nigrum, very common, it grows all over around my place. Berries are edible, and I have eaten them. Related to the tomatoes.


139 posted on 02/14/2009 1:54:13 PM PST by djf
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To: djf

“Grow Your Own Food” - http://www.motherearthnews.com/Food-Guide-Bookazine.aspx


140 posted on 02/14/2009 2:07:40 PM PST by Perseverando
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