Foraging: Recipes, Information and Identification for Food and Medicinal Purposes

[mpod001]

Hi there,

I thought it would be a good idea to do a thread on sharing information all about how to forage successfully and to share recipes on how to use what we forage for healthy meals and for medicine.

I thought I would share a video that I have recently watched to kick us off :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eMwVa_jKoU

[Matt P]

We could have some fun with this one. What a great thread idea! Wish I had more time right now...shall have to wait until tomorrow.
A few years ago when I started reading about edible plants, I began to notice my entire yard was filled with stuff. Almost every tree had edible parts, too! It was like a whole new world. Violets, plantains, clover, dandelions, catnip, wild onion and now many things we've added. And we're in the middle of the city! A friend teaches herbalism to the local university and he once spent a year eating nothing but what he found walking and riding to and from work and around town...and gained weight! Mind you he was pretty slim anyway but still! Look forward to checking in tomorrow...
Matt

[heretogrow]

Hi mpod001! I followed your link and I have been on a foraging and Herb-fest by clicking on the videos in the feed to the right. Thank you so much for the inspiration. I have ordered my organic seeds for the spring but with a foot of snow still on the ground I was experiencing the winter blues...until now! I really needed this to shift my mental state. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Much Love,
Julia

[Ahnung-quay]

Cattail shoots, Queen Anne's lace (wild carrots), milkweed, burdock, chickweed, nettles, fiddle heads, watercress, hazelnuts, wild blueberries, elderberries, apples and pears from abandoned farmsteads, wild asparagus (look along railroad tracks), and mushrooms galore! Oh spring!!

[mpod001]

Aw Im so pleased it gave you a pick me up Julia :-) only a matter of days until the first day of spring now :-D

[Matt P]

mpod001, I suppose a SHTF event would generate a little more interest in the topic. We shall keep this on the back burner for now and hopefully revisit occasionally in the near future!
Matt

[mpod001]

I have just come across this one too, great if you get migraines like I do

http://naturehacks.com/natural-remedies/herbal-tincture-recipe-migraines-using-lemon-balm/

[Octavusprime]

I've been dabbling with gorilla gardening. There is a plethora of vacant areas with just grass and weeds. So I've taken it as an opportunity to utilize these areas for my gorilla gardening. Planting perennially plants like asparagus, blackberry, raspberry and artichoke in these areas can provide for yourself and local foragers alike. I think of myself like jonny appleseed. Providing for myself and future generations. Just be careful not to introduce invasive species that can disrupt local ecosystems.

Here are a few great videos on gorilla gardening. Cheers!

Ron Finley: Changing the way we see the world and providing food and education for local communities. "If kids grow Kale, Kids eat kale" Powerful stuff.
EzZzZ_qpZ4w

Rob Avis: "Scarcity is an artificial construct." If we can take the amount of acres that are devoted to grass around the US, we could help end hunger and obesity.
U1Y5KSGHQrw

[carryattune]

Just as a caution........ice burg lettuce is considered toxic in large amounts. Who would have thought that? It seems, if you eat too much you get an uptick in your requirements for the bathroom. Just sort of funny. Who has ever worried about eating head lettuce. Other than it has absolutely no nutritional value.

[MorningSong]

Please, please, please be careful what any of you suggest to others as edible plants! If you can, give the latin name of a plant, a very very common name, or at least a good picture of it.

Carryattune, "tiger lilies" is a common name and are true lilies....of the Lillium family.... and many lilies are usually seen as POISONOUS!

This is a picture of a Tiger Lily:

http://www.eattheweeds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Lilia_tygrysiaLilium_lancifoliumLilium_tigrinum.jpg

And yes, according to "Eat the Weeds", it is edible for humans:


The word “lily” causes more confusion than four letters ought to be able to make. There are true lilies, usually not edible, some of them quite toxic, a few edible. And there are plants people call lilies which aren’t lilies at all, some quite toxic and some edible. The next layer of confusion comes from the fact many people call many different plants the same name, in this particular case, the Tiger Lily.

The Tiger Lily we’re interested in for the moment is Lilium lancifolium, a native of Asia and Japan but naturalized in the northeast quadrant of North America, and a few other places as well. Most of this Tiger Lily is edible by humans but all parts are toxic to cats. It causes feline kidney failure. In Asia and Japan this lily is grown for its edible bulb. Cooked it resembles turnips in flavor. Flower buds are eaten raw or cooked.

Read more about it here:

http://www.eattheweeds.com/tiger-lily/

Now, I am used to eating Daylily flowers (Hemerocallis) which bloom around here in May:

http://honest-food.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/daylily-horiz.jpg

Here are 2 good links to how to use edible daylilies:

http://honest-food.net/2010/06/29/dining-on-daylilies/

http://www.eattheweeds.com/daylily-just-cloning-around-2/

Right now, in this late winter/early spring season, what I could find in my yard and untilled garden: chickweed (Stellaria), dandelions (Taraxacum) (greens and flowers), Silene (shoots), Astilbe (shoots), Bellis (leaves and flowers), Pansies and Violets (flowers), Prunella (leaves and flowers), nettles (Urtica), Chicory, Chamomile and many other things that won't come to mind at the moment.

Anyone for a dandelion frittata or dandelion salad with boiled eggs? YUM!

[carryattune]

Please, please, please be careful what any of you suggest to others as edible plants! If you can, give the latin name of a plant, a very very common name, or at least a good picture of it.

Carryattune, "tiger lilies" is a common name and are true lilies....of the Lillium family.... and many lilies are usually seen as POISONOUS!

This is a picture of a Tiger Lily:

http://www.eattheweeds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Lilia_tygrysiaLilium_lancifoliumLilium_tigrinum.jpg

And yes, according to "Eat the Weeds", it is edible for humans:


The word “lily” causes more confusion than four letters ought to be able to make. There are true lilies, usually not edible, some of them quite toxic, a few edible. And there are plants people call lilies which aren’t lilies at all, some quite toxic and some edible. The next layer of confusion comes from the fact many people call many different plants the same name, in this particular case, the Tiger Lily.

The Tiger Lily we’re interested in for the moment is Lilium lancifolium, a native of Asia and Japan but naturalized in the northeast quadrant of North America, and a few other places as well. Most of this Tiger Lily is edible by humans but all parts are toxic to cats. It causes feline kidney failure. In Asia and Japan this lily is grown for its edible bulb. Cooked it resembles turnips in flavor. Flower buds are eaten raw or cooked.

Read more about it here:

http://www.eattheweeds.com/tiger-lily/

Now, I am used to eating Daylily flowers (Hemerocallis) which bloom around here in May:

http://honest-food.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/daylily-horiz.jpg

Here are 2 good links to how to use edible daylilies:

http://honest-food.net/2010/06/29/dining-on-daylilies/

http://www.eattheweeds.com/daylily-just-cloning-around-2/

Right now, in this late winter/early spring season, what I could find in my yard and untilled garden: chickweed (Stellaria), dandelions (Taraxacum) (greens and flowers), Silene (shoots), Astilbe (shoots), Bellis (leaves and flowers), Pansies and Violets (flowers), Prunella (leaves and flowers), nettles (Urtica), Chicory, Chamomile and many other things that won't come to mind at the moment.

Anyone for a dandelion frittata or dandelion salad with boiled eggs? YUM!

I pictured day lilies. But they are the flowere I meant to picture. We always called them tiger lilies. However, they are quite edible. No one should assume they know what a dandelion, or burdock or chickory. Or sweet clover looks like. Especially the Queens Anne's Lace. Several plants look like it that are very poisonous. Such as Poison Hemlock. Most people would not know the difference.. Since there is confusion about my post, I will nix it.
No one should eat anything from the wild unless they are 100% sure.
We have been eating these flowers for years. Not once has there ever been a problem.

I guess I assumed too much. My apologies. I replaced the lilies with head lettuce. Lol

[tnkayaker]

Just as a caution........ice burg lettuce is considered toxic in large amounts. Who would have thought that? It seems, if you eat too much you get an uptick in your requirements for the bathroom. Just sort of funny. Who has ever worried about eating head lettuce. Other than it has absolutely no nutritional value.

its interesting that even though it has minute nutritional value its still seems to be prefered when i making a BLT or a TLT , a TLT is my vegan interpretation of the BLT made by toasting a good quality whole grain bread like Health Nut bread and using garden fresh tomatoes and some mayo i hardly miss the bacon, they do make a fairly good fak-in bacon that is pretty good if you really feel the need, but after growing my own tomatoes and using some lettuce like baby romaine or arugula fresh from the garden, im more than satisfied ,not to mention then i can have a second sammy without worrying about too many questionable calories lol, im sprouting my seeds now for my garden this year, its gonna rock, bon apitite'

[MorningSong]

No problem, carryattune.... it is a normal thing to mention the common names of plants... not many people actually learn the latin names (family, genius and species). I am a biologist/botany grad and got through my classes of taxonomy relying on my knowledge of common names.... :)

And you really didn't have to delete the post...it served as a good example of the fact that most plants do have several common names which vary region-to-region, continent-to-continent.

Your replacement post does bring a new and important point to the discussion, too. Too much of a good thing can be harmful as well. :) Even too many daylilies have been known to cause rapid intestinal flush. LOL

[Snowflower]

We have woods lilies here that look a lot like those tiger lilies. We also have osha - a most important medicinal plant that can be mixed up with poison hemlock way too easily. When I dig up osha, I have an automatic habit of holding each root to my nose and inhaling, even going so far as to make sure it isn't my hands I am smelling (from previous pieces), because the osha has a very distinctive odor and the hemlock does not.

I spent five years struggling to get comfrey established as a wild plant on this land, and finally succeeded five years ago. Last September it was drowned in the flood, but I think it was well enough established to come back this spring - a very important medicinal to have most especially with the gov trying to make it illegal so it can't compete with their drugs.

[carryattune]

We have woods lilies here that look a lot like those tiger lilies. We also have osha - a most important medicinal plant that can be mixed up with poison hemlock way too easily. When I dig up osha, I have an automatic habit of holding each root to my nose and inhaling, even going so far as to make sure it isn't my hands I am smelling (from previous pieces), because the osha has a very distinctive odor and the hemlock does not.

I spent five years struggling to get comfrey established as a wild plant on this land, and finally succeeded five years ago. Last September it was drowned in the flood, but I think it was well enough established to come back this spring - a very important medicinal to have most especially with the gov trying to make it illegal so it can't compete with their drugs.

My dad has a comfrey plant on his front lawn. The plant is now about 3 or 4 feet tall. We were amazed last summer when some of the leaves got to be about20 inches long. Come the summer I will post a picture.

[mpod001]

I have a couple of comfrey plants! The bees absolutely love that plant too, so that is another bonus :) Has anyone come across Mountain Rose Herbs on youtube? They do some really good videos for what to do with medicinal herbs!

Here is a video of them making a salve using comfrey ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqDq_VnZ8Ok