Edible plants

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)?

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.

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/

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.

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

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....

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.

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

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.

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!

My late grandmother had an infallible method for determining a mushroom toxicity.

Her sister and brother-in-law would go out into the forest preserve to collect mushrooms. They would alway divide a portion for her and drop them off at her house on the way home.

She would then place the mushrooms in paper bag and store in a dark cool pantry overnight.

The next day she would phone her sister and ask, "How are you feeling?"

If they didn't get sick then she figured it was safe to eat them!

I am yet to find a book that dedicates a whole page of drawings to a single plant seen in all four seasons, drawn as a whole naturally. So we can ID the flowers of the summer, seeds of autum, stem of the winter and bulbs of the spring. On the accompanying page my dreambook will supply detailed information which parts are edible, when and how. Together with reference to pages where they show the look-alike deadly variety.

>> copy of Tree Finder <<

Willie, I've got it, and it works great - amazing little book!

Tom

I've found the quickest and most reliable source for edible plants are ethnobotanies, the odd reference in literature and histories and any native or person close to the land. Outside my window the latino landscapers are cleaning up the mast ( acorns) from the asphalt. I've allready collected 100 lbs of the stuff for my deer cut off from the oaks by new homes.It's a terrible waste of nature's single most nutritous crop, bar none. One of them discovered a huge grasshopper and to the disgust of my Jewish nieghbor ATE IT. She filled me with kosher goodies to calm her nerves. My filipina nieghbor laughed and asked if I was ready to eat another balut <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> Recently in hospital I had the unavoidable tapioca pudding. This concoction was discovered by a lost Conquistadore. Deciding to commit suicide over slow starvation, he boiled the deadly poisonous plant and consumed it as a last supper. Well, boiling makes it edible and he walked out on the stuff. I much prefer the ordeal of two boys who got locked into a railcar while goofing off. It was full of warm beer. They were in it for 3 days before being freed. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Native foods are a fun and usefull skill. Just practise signalling skills for a quick rescue and a deep dish sicilian pizza! <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Actaully, that's why I bought "Field Guide to Medicinal Plants: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides)" I was trying to identify a woody plant with fern like leaves, but was definately not a fern (no sporangium). But it also was not in flower and almost every flowering plant guide uses the flower color as the first key item. Arrrgggg!!!!

Anyway, the above guide helped me identify Sweetfern, a flowering plant whose crushed leaves and stems have an anticeptic odor akin to cinnamon but more pungent. It's a fair book but is definately not a medicinal guide, which it plainly states, as it seems that almost every plant cures almost every ailment!!! <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I guess I'll just have to compile that book list ASAP. Although I must warn that it's not all inclusive. I have yet to find the definative flowering plant book and bird book. No flames please as I know that bird guides are a very personal and emotional issue among the Audibon types. My observation is based upon my needs for getting an easy to use reference for young scouts ages 11 to "ol' grey beards." Most bird books require a bit of knowledge. I think Peterson's is fairly good at that, but I also distrubute a document called the Peterson Perspective, a 40 page tutorial on how to ID birds. It's good but most young boys don't care enough to wade through 40 pages just so they can begin to learn birds.

BTW, I do have a CD with html and pdf files that I created for our troop for summer camp last year with a bunch of different references for the eco/con merit badges. It's not complete and it's geared towards the environment in lower penninsula Michigan (Owasippe Scout Reservation near Whitehall, MI). But much of it can also apply to the lower great lakes area (Indiana, Illinois & lower Wisconsin). I can burn a copy or two for interested folks, but it may take me a while to get to it as I'm running low on blanks and my home PC works only part of the time (A new PC is on my X-mass list).

The rest of the "finders" series are good, but not at the same level of simplicity as Tree Finder. It's pure genious. I sent the publishers an email last year encouraging them to produce a PDA version. Wouldn't that be a fun Palm app! They were in the process of digitizing their film and were mildly interested, but I doubt they'd dedicate a ton of resources on such a project, even though I'm sure they could recover their investment quickly.

Along that same line, have you seen the NWF Handheld Guide to Birds ? Real slick and at $65 it's a good deal even though that's a lot of bucks becasue it comes loaded on a 128MB card, which would cost almost that amount anyway. The only reason I haven't bought it yet is I asked if I can purchase and add individual birds. Our troop camps in IL, WI & MI and the product is sold bu state, which isn't bad but there are few species in one state that are missing from the others. I wanted to add the differences to create a regional "Great Lakes" version. I never heard back from them and didn't follow up. I guess I should simply choose Illinois and move on. Check it out. They have a demo with a handful of birds you can download to test.

BTW, a great reference on 'shrooms is Mushrooms of Northeast North America by George Barron. Great key and wonderful photos. It's well worth the $20. You should also visit George Barron's Website on Fungi Tom Volk's Fungi

Grass IS edible, but in no way palatable. I doubt that you could choke down enough to do you any good, the seed is probably the least offensive, most "eatable" part of the plant, kind of bland and tasteless. Dandelions are great fixxed with bacon, drippings, and a little red wine vinegar, but if you're in a survival situation, just settle for the raw leaves eaten like a salad, and don't worry, dandelions don't have any poisonous look-alikes. Don't taste test unless it's a LAST resort, some wild edibles have deadly look-alikes.
There are quite a few (about a dozen around here) wild edibles that almost anybody can spot in their yard or at a park that are not only edible, but good, and good for you. With a little study, and the interest to take the time to get familiar with them, you can feed yourself fairly well.

Troy

Haven't bought this yet, plan to:

http://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com

Check out the book on identifying plants by families.

If I don't crash-land or otherwise find myself near a bunch of cattails, dandelions or blooming camas (have a lot in my back field, which is why I know what it is...), I am going to die of starvation.

But if there are cattails, I can cook the roots, make soup out of the pollen, use the fluff for insulation, & weave the leaves into a sleeping bag. And where there are cattails, there's water.

Still, I do vote for crashing in a field next to a Pizza Hut.
<img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
Sue

Cattails are pretty amazing. They are probably the most food per the amount of effort needed to procure and prepare (fine raw) them. The roots/bulbs are very filling, quite paletable and not to mention the tops of the really big ones make great hand drill spindles! Yep I'm still struggling with hand drills. I refuse to give up! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

One of the few guides I have found so fa...l four seasons.

Burncycle,

I am pretty bad at plants too, so I picked up one of those decks of cards where each card details a plant that you can eat. Very useful. You can get a deck from Campmor or a number of other places, and they aren't too expensive. Now I know at least 52 edible plants... Only a few thousand to go.

Greg

Ive seen those at Campmor and been wondering about them for quite some time. Good to get an opinion from someone that doesnt benefit from their sale. Thanks.

I went through the posts and decided to do just one post myself...

Remember that EVERYTHING you have available in the grocery came from the wild at some point. Carrots are from Queen Anne's Lace, for example.

Dandelions are great! The leaves eaten raw, until the milk/sap comes in is actually very close to ARUGALA, a cousin to the dandelion. After the sap starts coming in, I suggest cooking the greens. The roots can be eaten, but are also stringy. The flowers can be eaten raw, but my favorite way is to make wine out of it - and it only takes 2 weeks!

Lemongrass is actually a member of the onion family and is closer to scalions than grass. Lemongrass can be grown in USA gardens. There are many onions/alums that have stayd very wild. What is called Onion Grass is usually a chive that has been mown to release the onion/garlic smell. Find it, grow it and let it flower to get little burst in your mouth onion/garlic nodules.

Go to any Whole Paycheck Foods and you will find Wheat Grass in various forms. The juice is full of good minerals and can actually kill most bad breath, just like parsley.

Acorns can be roasted lightly and eaten warm, rosted darkly then ground and added to coffee. The leaves obviously have lots of tannin in them, but can be used to wrap fish or small game in a firepit cooking situation.

Almonds and Peaches are in the same familly, and you will find that peach flowers have a slight almond smell to them. One problem is that many peaches, even some 'freestone' varieties, do not have edible pits. Peach pits used to be a botanical source of strichnine - Bitter Almond.

Whatever you try to gather, be careful if it is in a populated place, I have known people poisoned becuse they picked things that had been sprayed with herbacides.

I do have a website that has a 'finding food' section, if people are interested. It is a hobby site, but there are some good tidbits of information spread thruout the self agrandizing propoganda.

Rena
SurvivalGene.com

As someone who shops there often and doesnt make a whole lot of money, I find that to be completely hillarious! I'm surprised I have never heard that before. Rest assured I'm stealing that one and will be using it often! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A general rule of thumb - I think this was a tip from Mors Kochanski - is "dry or green, not in between". I'm not sure if it applies only to certain plants or in general but I'm pretty sure it applied to clover and dandelions.

While I've become very familiar with quite a bit of which weeds are edible in the U.S., I've become curious about what's good foraging in the Carribean, and haven't had much luck with a web search, anybody got any suggestions of info sources? Thanks ahead of time.

Troy