==================================[ JonSharp.net:70:wildedibles ]====
Wild Edibles -= archive content =-
-----------------
Being an outdoors person and a scholar of the natural sciences, I
naturally find myself drawn to the study of wild edibles.
Oh, and I enjoy camp cookery a lot. :) I intend
in my life to learn all that I can about wild plants, herbs, and mushrooms
so that I can put them to good use in my own camp recipes. I own a few
field guides on the subject, and try to use them as much as possible when
I go out. I will concentrate mostly on wild edibles of the Southeastern
United States as it's where I live and spend most of my time. The
Southeast seems like a good place to look for wild foods and I'm always
finding something new. Last spring, (2001) I discovered some Solomon's Seal
on a backpacking trip and encouraged my friends to all try some. Boy was
that good! Well, it was interesting, anyway. I hope to post some
information on this page regarding some of my finds in the wild. I'd also
like to post any recipes I concoct for my various edible plants. Spring is
coming soon, so I should have some notes to post this summer. In the
meantime, if you are interested in wild edibles, I recommend the Peterson
field guides. If you are an experienced forager, please contact me with
any advice you may have ifor a beginner. If you live in the Southeast
and wouldn't mind inviting me along when you go hunting for wild fruits,
nuts, herbs or mushrooms, let me know.
I went out to the Chickamauga Battlefield yesterday (3/16/2002) to do a bit of
foraging. It was a moist, dark spring day. I was hoping I might find a few
mushrooms, but the only fungi I found were shelf fungi growing on dead logs.
None that I found were marked edible in my field guide. I did find some good
edible plants, however. I found quite a patch of spring beauties. They have
a small 5-petaled white flower with pink streaks. They have a small corm that
very much resembles a small potato. According to my field guide, they can be
prepared as potatoes by boiling them for 15-20 minutes and then discarding the
tough skins. You can serve with butter and salt. I'm afraid, however, that
you would have to collect quite a number of them to get any useful serving, so
only collect them when they are plentiful. Anyway, yesterday I had a good time
looking for wild foods and maybe next time I'll find more mushrooms. In the
meantime, I will add Spring Beauties to my list of positively-identified plants.
Last Sabbath (see religious beliefs), 3/23/2002, I did some
more foraging. I was visiting my family and fortunately for me my folks had
decided to let the yard go a little longer than usual. As a result, I found a
few interesting things. There were quite a few patches of wild onions and the
back yard was covered with some type of bittercress, I believe it was hairy
bittercress. Bittercress can be added to salads and of course the wild onions
can be used as normal onions. I left the Bittercress, but I grabbed several
bunches of wild onions. It took some time to clean them all, but on Monday I
put them to good use. I sauteed them in olive oil and added cubed tofu and
fried it all up with breading. I was pleased at how well it turned out. Now
I've got two more plants to add to my list!
About two weeks ago now, (today is 4/23/2002) I took a Spring backpacking trip
with several of my close friends. We went out to the Big Frog Wilderness which
is just North of the Cohutta Wilderness on the GA-TN border. It was a great
weekend and we certainly had a great time. As usual, I was excited at what
wild plants I might find. It didn't take long to find a plant I recognized
pretty quickly. The field where we decided to make camp was full of Field
Garlic. For our Friday night supper all of us ended up having fresh Field
Garlic with either soup, noodles, or cous-cous. I don't know, however, if it
was the Field Garlic or not, but I was nauseous for the rest of the trip.
I'll give Field Garlic another try, but I'll be wary when I do. On our hike
the next day, I identified quite a number of wild edible plants. I can only
remember a few of them now, as I did not write them down as soon as possible,
but here are some I remember. I picked a little bit of Birdfoot Violet.
Birdfoot Violet is a member of the Violet family with leaves shaped very much
like a bird's foot. I and my friends had to look at our field guide for a
long time to be sure it was not Monkshood, a similar plant that is poisonous.
The leaves of the Birdfoot Violet can apparently be used as cooked greens,
salad greens, or dried and used in tea. I chose to dry the leaves and attempt
a tea sometime. I have yet to try it, but I'll post information here when I do.
There were a couple other plants that I identified, but more exciting than
those plants I can't remember, I found my first real wild mushrooms! The first
mushroom I found had an large, orange cap, thick stem and seemed a little old
as it was rather dry. The second species of mushroom I discovered was one
growing in a cluster together in the leaves and dead wood surrounding fallen
logs on the side of Big Frog Mountain. These mushrooms were gray, tall and
skinny with conic caps. I was unable to positively identify either
species as I did not do a spore print and other distiguishing characteristics
were not clear. Besides, I'm very cautious when it comes to wild mushrooms.
I would like very much to be able to follow an expert mushroom hunter around
for a weekend in the wilderness before I feel too brave about eating wild
mushrooms. Anyway, it was a fruitful weekend and I now have a few more
plants to add to my list!
Edibles Table
Here is a table I am working on to catalog the different plants I have
positively identified:
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Common name | Scientific name | Location found | Date |
| |
| Notes |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Kudzu | Pueraria lobata | Everywhere | Growing up...
|
| I never knew Kudzu was edible before studying this stuff. It's
| pretty hard to miss this southern icon.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dandelion | Taraxacum officinale | Everywhere | For a long time
|
| They're hard to miss. Lots of uses for this one.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Solomon's Seal | Polygonatum biflorum | Cohutta Wilderness, GA | Spring 2001
|
| Boiled the tubers and served with butter and salt. Very spicy
| aftertaste, almost Tobasco-like. Will try again in soup. Don't
| confuse with False Solomon's Seal.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Red Trillium | Trillium erectum | Cohutta Wilderness, GA | Spring 2001
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| White Clover | Melilotus alba | Cohutta Wilderness, GA | Spring 2001
|
| leaves had bitter aftertaste
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Wild Carrot or Queen Ann's Lace | Daucus carota | Apison, TN | Summer 2001
|
| Tastes like a carrot only tougher. I ate these raw after cleaning.
| I had a hard time finding very large roots.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Silverweed | Potentilla anserina | Cohutta Wilderness, GA | Summer 2001
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Spring Beauties | Claytonia caroliniana | Chickamauga, GA | 3/16/2002
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Hairy Bittercress | Cardamine _______ | Calhoun, GA | 3/23/2002
|
| Tastes pretty good. A little bitter perhaps, but this specimem
| was young and fresh.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Wild Onions | Allium stellatum | Calhoun, GA | 3/23/2002
|
| I fried these up with tofu and tomatoes.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Field Garlic | Allium vineale | Big Frog Wilderness | 4/12/2002
|
| I got nausea after eating this... was it the cause?
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Common Chickweed | Stellaria media | Big Frog Wilderness | 4/13/2002
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Birdfoot Violet | Viola pedata | Big Frog Wilderness | 4/13/2002
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Yellow Wood Sorrel | Oxalis stricta | Calhoun, GA | 5/19/2002
|
| Made a drink out of this. It tasted a lot like iced tea.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Common Strawberry | Fragaria virginiana | Calhoun, GA | 5/19/2002
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Yarrow | Achillea millefolium | Whigg Meadow, Citico Creek Wilderness | 6/15/2002
|
| Supposed to cure baldness.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Wild Edibles Links:
(HTM) The Mycological Society of San Francisco
(HTM) Tao Herb Farms