Edible weeds

ongoing

[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.

[MHGinTN]

When I was building my house, the construction workers would eat their lunch under the double tree because it was so much cooler undert there ... have you ever looked up how much water a mature black walnut expires through its leaf canopy per hour of sunlight? It will amaze you, and is the source of the cooling at the base.

[patton]

Dunno the volume of H20, but I do know that they are like swamp maples...hundreds of gallons per tree per day, as I recall.

[gracie1]

Many years ago (mid 70’s) here in central CA an indian woman and her 4 kids went picking wild mushrooms in the foothills. They all suffered liver failure, 2 died, and one ended up with a liver transplant.

My dad says his mother would cook wild mushrooms with a silver dollar in olive oil and a cast iron skillet. If the silver dollar turned black, she would throw them out. I would never try such a stunt nowadays and would never advise anyone to try it.

We have large numbers of wild mustard greens around our house.

[thecodont]

California's most famous roadside stand (I-80 in Vacaville) got it start from a black walnut tree.

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http://www.alamedainfo.com/nut_tree_CA.htm

The Nut Tree, Vacaville, California

The postcards and other images below provide a great visual look back at the history of the Nut Tree. It was a popular stop for those traveling between the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento and points farther, such as Reno, along U.S. Highway 40, which became interstate 80 in 1964.

The Nut Tree started as a fruit stand. The first permanent restaurant building opened in 1921. The Toy Shop and the Nut Tree Railroad opened in 1952. The railroad had a quarter-mile track running through the Nut Tree orchards and gardens. The Nut Tree Airport opened in 1955. A new Dining Room opened in 1958. In 1962 the U.S. Post Office designated the area Nut Tree, California. The Nut Tree Coffee Shop opened across interstate 80 in 1965. In 1970-71 a new bake shop and merchandise area opened. In 1970 the Nut Tree Airport was donated to Solano County. In 1976 a Nut Tree store opened in San Francisco at 655 Beach Street.

The famous black walnut tree that the Nut Tree was named after was planted in 1859 and died in 1952. "The Nut Tree is a large black walnut standing on the State Highway, near Vacaville, California. It grew from a nut picked up on the Gila River, in Arizona, in 1859, by one of a party crossing the plains to California. It was planted where it now stands, by Josiah Allison in 1859." 1 Back of Nut Tree souvenir plate produced by Vernon Kilns, USA.

The Nut Tree was closed from about 1996 until 2006 when the new Nut Tree opened. For more information about the Nut Tree today you can see http://www.nuttreeusa.com/

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There's a large black walnut tree in my backyard, but the nuts don't always have kernels; there are no other black walnut trees close by.

[gardengirl]

Glad you had a busy day! We’ve been busy already too. People are itching to get their gardens planted. We’ve already sold a bunch of our potatoes and some seeds. Cole crops aren’t big enough yet, thanks to 2 weeks of cold cloudy weather. Got our roses—230— in Weds and wave petunias and callies for a couple hundred baskets. My wonderful crew got the roses planted and the baskets done. I’m grounded—someone has to stay in the store and wait on customers! LOL

Expo sounds great! Don’t you hate how they plan all the stuff you’d love to go to during your busy season?

The closest I get to checking out the competition is going to Walmart or Lowes! Truly, I don’t care much. I’ve got a huge loyal customer base that gets larger every year and I’ve got all I can handle! We have the best plants and service in the county , hands down. Where we are we don’t have any room to expand, so... :)

[patton]

Not enough water, I would guess.

The place we had in MI that was overwhelmed with black walnut, was about 8 feet above the water table.

[thecodont]

Hollyleaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia)

California native. Evergreen. Big cherries (sweet, but with tough skin) and very large seeds. The seeds are also edible (and high in protein) but first must be ground and leached with hot water several times to rid them of hydrocyanic acid.

http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_pril.pdf

The pits were then rubbed to remove any remaining pulp and skin before being spread out in the sun to dry. When dry, the pits were cracked with a stone and the kernels removed. The kernels contain hydrocyanic acid, a bitter tasting poisonous compound, which was removed by a leaching process prior to cooking. The kernels, either left whole or pounded into a meal, were then leached in several changes of cold or warm water. The ground meal was used as a base for soup and made into tortilla or tamale-like foods.

[djf]

Wow. Holly, eh?

We have lots of small, ground cover type holly here that has similar berries. Not sure what it’s called though.

[thecodont]

It's a cherry (Prunus), it just looks like holly (Ilex).

Take your groundcover to your nurseryman or extension service, maybe they can identify it for you.

[canaan]

This has been moved to the eligibility thread for some reason...?

[djf]

What is an “eligibility thread”?

[GOPJ]

Interesting. Thanks for taking the time to explain :)

[GOPJ]

If it gets to the point where this is necessary to survive (and will last longer than a bottle of thousand island) then please point me to the oleander.

Even in the horrid german concentration camps people clung to life - it's who we are... Best to prepare - you'll keep wanting "one more day" - just like the rest of us.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Roasted ‘coon with sweet potatoes is very good! Never would I have believed it until I got really brave and tried some. Many believe that eating ‘coon is for the backwoods poor, but I have to tell you that the best recipe I have is from a millionaire hunting buddy of mine.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

I’ve never heard of or seen huckleberries in the South. Sure that they weren’t some variety of blueberries? If they were indeed huckleberries, I’d sure like to find some as they make awesome pancakes and syrup.

[canaan]

I found this thread on the constitutional eligibility thread page about Obama - it was moved there after all most of the responses had been made - all the other articles on this page are about his eligibility. I was surprised to see a post about plants. I think someone made a mistake when they categorized it and moved the thread.

It’s the first story on this page: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/birthcertificate/index

[Oberon]

How 'bout lamb's quarter? This stuff grew in our Maryland garden faster than I could pick it out... and we didn't plant it, it just volunteered.

You pick the leaves (the younger plants are better, natch) and cook them up very much like spinach. The flavor is very like spinach too... more like New Zealand spinach than the regular kind.

[Ellendra]

You used to manage the Seed Savers store? The one on Monroe Street? I used to walk down there between classes sometimes when I went to Edgewood HS. Cool!

[Ellendra]

I’m told grasshoppers and crickets taste like shrimp. Bee larvae are edible and don’t have stingers. Some slugs are edible.

Never tried them myself, but I have several friends who have.

[piasa]

Black walnut leaves make a good bedding for dogs- repels fleas.