Equipped To Survive Equipped To Survive® Presents
The Survival Forum
Where do you want to go on ETS?

Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 >
Topic Options
#34888 - 12/01/04 05:04 AM Edible plants
Burncycle Offline
Addict

Registered: 09/16/04
Posts: 577
I'm horrible at identifying plants. I probably couldn't identify a plant if there was a picture in a book and I was staring right at it... I can only identify the most common of plants.

I was reading about how to find if a plant is edible or not...

Apparently I should:
"1) Look. Avoid fuzzy plants, or plants with milky sap
2) Smell. Avoid almond/peach smelling plants
3) Touch. Break open and rub on inside of wrist, wait 20 minutes, see if a rash develops
4) Taste. Rub on inside of lip, or top of tounge. Avoid if sharp/stinging/burning sensation present
5) Eat. Small portion, wait several hours. Repeat with gradually larger portions.

One part of the plant may prove inedible, but other parts of the same plant may be edible. Try with different parts... root, stem, leaves.

Some plants aren't edible raw, but are edible boiled. If all parts of the plant fails the tests, and there are no other plants around to try, boil the plant and try the tests again."

Ok, but dumb question.
Grass is everywhere..... the green stuff we mow <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Is that edible at all (boiled or raw)?

Top
#34889 - 12/01/04 05:18 AM Re: Edible plants
Polak187 Offline
Veteran

Registered: 05/23/02
Posts: 1403
Loc: Brooklyn, New York
I remember when mushroom picking my parents always told me that if you go with ones that have sponge underneath you are safe. Ones that have little "dividers" are dangerous. Except for one orange mashroom that had them and was considered a treat. That's when the taste method was used and if you cut the mushroom in half, touched the inside of the flesh with your tounge and it stung than it was the poisonous one. My parents used that method all their life and so did I for the time I was in Poland and it seemed to work fine.
_________________________
Matt
http://brunerdog.tripod.com/survival/index.html

Top
#34890 - 12/01/04 05:34 AM Re: Edible plants
AyersTG Offline
Veteran

Registered: 12/10/01
Posts: 1272
Loc: Upper Mississippi River Valley...
Sure, if you can digest cellulose... AFAIK you'll get no energy value from eating grass stems. I suspect seeds are edible, of course - it's grain. But your question has me wondering if there are any useful trace nutrients that one could ingest from drinking an infusion made from macerated grasses.

"Grass" covers a pretty wide range of things, of course... rye to bluegrass to gamma grass to... corn, I think. And probably some things with a common name that includes the word "grass" even though the plant isn't really a grass. Is lemon grass a grass? (Don't confuse me with sedges - yet.)

Any botano-nutritionists here? I thought this was a silly question at first, but upon reflection, I think it probably has some interesting answers.

Dang! I wouldn't have thought to ask this question...

Tom

Edit: a hint of some answers here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/arc/675/


Edited by AyersTG (12/01/04 05:41 AM)

Top
#34891 - 12/01/04 06:29 AM Re: Edible plants
Chris Kavanaugh Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 02/09/01
Posts: 3824
The plant taste test is part of the fossilized literature. My personal opinion is there are enough plants out there that will pass this test and then hit you later with some alkoloid compound that is terminal even in ICU. Mushrooms, while delightfull and full of many trace minerals, have very little food value . Sometimes even experts can misidentify a mushroom with lethal results. Chewing on some plant that makes you retch up precious body fluids isn't fun. Food like all other survival efforts must be looked at in terms of gain vs loss. Even a starving predator will pass on prey that fights or flights enough to drain it's energy reserves. Indigenous peoples have very intimate ethno botanical knowledge. You may see them subsist on acorns in the literature, but be assured there were countless other seeds known as emergency resources, if not for a pleasant change in diet. Plant knowledge for a given area holds no real shortcuts. Even in an urban area I see many ethnic groups harvesting an abundance of plants we call weeds. Those overwatered, overfertilised and chemically saturated lawns of golf course and corporate offices are an insult to a marvelous survival plant- the Dandelion.

Top
#34892 - 12/01/04 06:59 AM Re: Edible plants
Burncycle Offline
Addict

Registered: 09/16/04
Posts: 577
Oh joy, now there are different types of grass I have to recognise? <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />


Top
#34893 - 12/01/04 07:01 AM Re: Edible plants
Burncycle Offline
Addict

Registered: 09/16/04
Posts: 577
Dandelion? Another one of the few I can identify <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Any more detailed information on them?

*scratches chin* if only I could genetically alter kudzu to taste like doritos....

Top
#34894 - 12/01/04 11:20 AM Re: Edible plants
Anonymous
Unregistered


Dandelion's root can be used to make tea or coffee. If i remember correctly you can eat the leaves...dont take my word for it though. Try it first <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
The inner bark of many a pine tree can be eaten, others are posinous. Confusing stuff. Same goes for their needle leaves, But with so many undigestable chloroplasts contained I doubt its worth the risk...

I'd love to learn more about nutritional, medical values of plants and learn to ID them. Hopefully this summer I will participate in a week long survival course and learn more then. Finding it too hard to learn from the books alone.

Top
#34895 - 12/01/04 12:14 PM Re: Edible plants
joblot Offline
enthusiast

Registered: 02/21/03
Posts: 258
Loc: Scotland
Hi there
The web is chock-a-block full of information on plants and their toxicity/edidablity or not...
On dandelions there is this link.

http://intra.whatuseek.com/query.go?crid=1b532fea4043b31f&query=dandelion

I have only downloaded the one entitled -"Making dandelions palatable by John Kallas, Ph.D Issue #82 "which has good iinformation


If you know what the plant looks like, you could try this link - no pictures but full of information on habitat, edible uses. location, medicinal uses etc,etc

http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/D_search.html

Hope this helps

Top
#34896 - 12/01/04 02:56 PM Re: Edible plants
brian Offline
Veteran

Registered: 07/28/04
Posts: 1468
Loc: Texas
Bermuda? St Augustine? Rye? There are lots of types of "grass". <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I feel your pain. Learning to identify useful wild and introduced plant life in my area with extreme accuracy has been a project of mine for about a year now and I still have a loooooooooong way to go! I have yet to find any really good (free) info on the web but I have found several good field guides on Amazon.com after sifting through a sea of useless ones. Most of the ones I have are regional and focused on my area although I do have one that I really like that covers the entire lower 48. If I'm not 100% sure then I don't eat it. I mostly stick with the really easy stuff right now and I do eat things like Sunflower seeds and Cattail bulbs often.
_________________________
Learn to improvise everything.

Top
#34897 - 12/01/04 04:26 PM Re: Edible plants
billvann Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 05/10/01
Posts: 780
Loc: NE Illinois, USA (42:19:08N 08...
But, Tom, most of what see in the wild as "grass" are in fact sedges! In fact, I bought the "Field Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, and Rushes of the Northern United States by Edward Knobel ($5 at Amazon.com makes for an interesting stocking stuffer) so I could start to learn to ID them. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to do so. Plus it's not the best guide for field work as most of the distinguising features involve the shape of the seed head and/or seed itself. But it does have a decent key and provides some basic info on the subject and for $5 it's a good buy.

I have a collection of my favorite fields guides that I've collected and haul with me on every campout in a big tool tote. (I also have misc. stuff such as plaster and cardboard strips for animal track casts). I'll take the time in the next month or two and compile my "recommend reading" list for nature guides and pass it on to the forum.

But I can unequivically recommend all of the "finder" series of pocket books. Visit the Nuture Study Guild Publishers. My mom gave me a copy of Tree Finder back in the '60s and it is the easiest tree identification book I have ever seen. And it sells for only $3.50!
_________________________
Willie Vannerson
McHenry, IL

Top
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 >



Moderator:  Alan_Romania, Blast, cliff, Hikin_Jim 
March
Su M Tu W Th F Sa
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Who's Online
0 registered (), 453 Guests and 95 Spiders online.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newest Members
GallenR, Jeebo, NicholasMarshall, Yadav, BenFoakes
5367 Registered Users
Newest Posts
What did you do today to prepare?
by dougwalkabout
03/27/24 11:21 PM
Zippo Butane Inserts
by dougwalkabout
03/27/24 11:11 PM
Question about a "Backyard Mutitool"
by Ren
03/17/24 01:00 AM
Problem in my WhatsApp configuration
by Chisel
03/09/24 01:55 PM
New Madrid Seismic Zone
by Jeanette_Isabelle
03/04/24 02:44 PM
EDC Reduction
by EchoingLaugh
03/02/24 04:12 PM
Newest Images
Tiny knife / wrench
Handmade knives
2"x2" Glass Signal Mirror, Retroreflective Mesh
Trade School Tool Kit
My Pocket Kit
Glossary
Test

WARNING & DISCLAIMER: SELECT AND USE OUTDOORS AND SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT, SUPPLIES AND TECHNIQUES AT YOUR OWN RISK. Information posted on this forum is not reviewed for accuracy and may not be reliable, use at your own risk. Please review the full WARNING & DISCLAIMER about information on this site.