Who needs a supermarket? Eating Wild Edibles

[schola]

Anyone ever foraged for wild edibles? It's something I want to learn about this year. Apparently there's a veritable cornucopia of greens just waiting to be picked in your back yard.

I remember blowing on fluffy white dandelions as a youngster, but apparently the young yellow flowers and leaves are good raw and make a good addition to a salad. You can even fry up the dandelion flowers in batter and make dandelion fritters!

I've always thought that vegan, raw and other types of diets aren't really high conscious if you're still driving to the grocery store to buy your mass produced vegetables that were trucked in from hundreds of miles away from an oil-powered factory farm. Wild foods could be a good low impact supplement to a healthy diet.

This year I want to try to make a whole salad out of nothing but wild plants.

A list of some wild edibles:

Dandelion
Acorns
Chickweed
Wood Sorrel
Wild Onion (onion grass)
Cress

[Lupe]

raw acorn is very bitter

[sirkinm]

Originally Posted by schola

A list of some wild edibles:

Dandelion
Acorns
Chickweed
Wood Sorrel
Wild Onion (onion grass)
Cress

Sounds like fun. Just don't plan any important social engagements right afterwards -- whatever wood sorrel is, it doesn't sound like it's gonna digest easily

[eruso]

Acorns? Wow.

[schola]

Originally Posted by Lupe

raw acorn is very bitter

I looked that one up and acorns have to be soaked or boiled to get the bitter tannins out before they're eaten. I've eaten a roasted acorn before without ill effect. They're not bad.

[Honeywith4bees]

My kids and I have foraged for wild edibles before. One word of caution, just because it's in the "wild" doesn't mean that it is not contaminated. Especially if you are eating what most consider to be weeds, it could be sprayed, or worse yet, be growing in an area that has contaminated ground water or soil.

And as far as the acorns go? For fun once, when I still homeschooled my kids, we gathered and soaked acorns to press into acorn "flour". It's an awful LOT of work for very little, and not so tasty, end result.

Dandelion leaf is real tasty, if you get it young, and very nutritious, especially for women in child bearing years.

Aren't you planning a garden, Schola?

[greeneyedgirl]

Originally Posted by schola

Anyone ever foraged for wild edibles?

This is something I'm very interested in too. Particularly berries and fiddleheads. Pine nuts would be cool too but I suspect they are labor-intensive.

One thing to keep in mind with the wild edibles is that there are a lot of poisonous varieties out there. Be careful!

[schola]

Originally Posted by Honeywith4bees

My kids and I have foraged for wild edibles before. One word of caution, just because it's in the "wild" doesn't mean that it is not contaminated. Especially if you are eating what most consider to be weeds, it could be sprayed, or worse yet, be growing in an area that has contaminated ground water or soil.

And as far as the acorns go? For fun once, when I still homeschooled my kids, we gathered and soaked acorns to press into acorn "flour". It's an awful LOT of work for very little, and not so tasty, end result.

Dandelion leaf is real tasty, if you get it young, and very nutritious, especially for women in child bearing years.

Aren't you planning a garden, Schola?

Thanks for sharing.

I am growing a garden. Got some peppers, tomatoes, swiss chard, and greens going right now. Wild edibles seems like it'd be a good supplement to a garden, if you can find them. I live in a rural area but I realize how it might harder to find edible weeds in the city or 'burbs.

[StephanieShine]

Dandelions are great in your green smoothies.

[runningbird]

Pine needle tea is said to be nutritious and tasty enough, but I later discovered there are a couple species that are highly toxic, even fatal. The blogs and how-to guides I read said nothing about this.

[schola]

Originally Posted by runningbird

Pine needle tea is said to be nutritious and tasty enough, but I later discovered there are a couple species that are highly toxic, even fatal. The blogs and how-to guides I read said nothing about this.

It's good to be aware of not only the wild edibles but the toxic plants as well; especially the toxic look alikes.