AlgaeLab, grow your own Spirulina Free Food in Your Yard: Edible Weeds! Popular in Food & Drink Next time you're about to yank an offending plant from your immaculate garden of perennials, think twice: you just might be looking at dinner. Free dinner. Oh, I know what you're thinking: damn hippies! Always eating anything and everything that grows under the sun. What's next? Well, my friend, I may be a bit of a hippie, but that doesn't mean that you too can't partake in the pleasures of foraged food. I love the idea of going out in the wild to find food. Japanese Knotweed This stuff grows like a forest in the lot next to my house, and occasionally pops up in my yard. Knotweed is a crazy plant. The neighbor who told me the name of the weed also told us that it was edible, but that only the shoots were really worth eating. It turns out that this isn't true — I mean, I'm sure it's invasiveness is awful, but you can eat it when it gets big. I did manage to get a few shoots that were young, growing around my rhododendron. And it's good for you! Purlsane Dandelions
Cultivating, Harvesting and Curing Tobacco -- Victory Seed Company Cultivation, Harvest, and Curing We originally started growing and offering tobacco seeds as ornamental annuals. They are a quite magnificent plant with beautiful flowers making them a great selection for the back of flower beds. All of the seed varieties available here have interesting histories, were grown in different geographical locations, and cultivated for varied and different final uses. Pictorial of a Growing Cycle For more information about organic tobacco cultivation, click here. After the tobacco has cured for a period from several months to several years, it is then fermented and processed in many different ways. Click Here to Purchase Tobacco Seeds Many of the variety descriptions above are from the book entitled, "Tobacco Leaf", 1897, by J.
Delicious Stinging Nettles Of Spring | Terra Brockman Walking near the stream that separates the two 10-acre bottom-land fields of my brother Henry’s vegetable farm, I noticed a bed of dark green nettles about a foot tall — the perfect size for picking. And although the soft green leaves of the overwintered spinach beckoned just a few steps away, I turned away from the spinach and toward the stream bank and the stinging nettles (Urtica dioica), heeding the irresistible call of the wild. The first wild greens of spring have been highly valued by people around the world who knew they were good food and good medicine too. Most European countries consider nettles a “spring tonic” that purifies the blood. With all these beneficial aspects of nettles, you’d think there’d be masses of people out harvesting them each spring. In fact, after a get-out-the-vote rally in Chicago last year, President Barack Obama stopped by Rick Bayless’ acclaimed Topolobampo restaurant. Take the sting out Foraged nettles, plain and simple Find a nettle patch. Ingredients
Welcome! (All Things Plants) Wild Edibles: Sumac Shoots Disclaimer: Eating certain wild plants can be deadly!! Be certain to consult a professional (or a really good field guide) in order to positively identify this plant before trying this for yourself. The owners of this site will not be held responsible for any lapses in judgment or stupidity when handling or consuming wild plants. In one of my earlier articles on wild edibles I wrote about how to make sumac lemonade from the Staghorn (or Smooth) Sumac. How to Identify Staghorn or Smooth Sumac The first step before eating any wild edible is to positively identify it. Compound Toothed Leaves: Both species have pinnately compound leaves with serrated edges. Just to see the contrast, here’s a picture of poison sumac fruit cluster and leaves (notice they are smooth and not serrated). How to Eat Sumac Shoots Most wild-edible foragers are familiar with using sumac for the lemonade-like beverage you can make from it, however few know about the other important edible it provides: the peeled shoots.
Amaranth: Grain, Vegetable, Icon A book could be written about amaranth, and probably has, if not several. Amaranth is a seed used like a grain. A grain, a green, a cultural icon, a religious symbol… amaranth is colorful plant with a colorful history. It’s also nutritious. Aztecs farmed with floating mat islands. Amaranth today is enjoyed many ways. Note notches in the leaves, often present It’s a bushy plant growing 3 to 10 feet, depending if it’s wild or cultivated, a vegetable variety or a grain variety. Amaranth seed is high in protein, some 16%, contains lysine and methionine, two essential amino acids that are not often found in grain, and is high in fiber, three times that of wheat. Spiny amaranth has edible leaves and might be a medicine and sex aid. There are some 60 amaranth species, maybe 70 (it depends on who’s counting.) Amaranthus australis (southern amaranth) can easily grow 18 feet or more. The fourth amaranth was a bit of a mystery for a while. Here’s an interesting recipe from Salt Spring Seeds. Tabouli
Milkweed: A Truly Remarkable Wild Vegetable Milkweed isn’t your average weed; in fact, I feel guilty calling it a weed at all. The common milkweed, Asclepias syriacqa, is one of the best known wild plants in North America. Children love to play with the downy fluff in autumn, while farmers despise it as a tenacious weed of hayfields and pastures. 7 Natural Uses For Baking Soda In The Garden Share Baking soda is a vital part of green cleaning and has so many uses in the house, but what about the garden. Here are 7 ways to use it in the garden. 1. Mix 4 teaspoons of baking soda and 1 gallon of water. 2. Powdery mildew is causing major problems with impatiens this year, but also can be a problem for other plants, like lilacs, cucumbers, squash and zinnias. Spray Recipe: 1 tablespoon of baking soda, 1 gallon of water, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon of dishwashing liquid Mix all the ingredients together and spray plants weekly. 3. Mix in 1 gallon of water, 4 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon biodegradable soap. 4. Pour or sweep baking soda in a thick layer into cracks on a sidewalk or patios. 5. Mix equals parts flour and baking soda and dust plants (cabbage, broccoli, kale) being eaten by cabbage worms. 6. Simply wet the crabgrass, pour a heavy dusting of baking soda on the weed. 7. Source: Plant Care Today
Whitetop—A Wild Invasive Substitute for Broccoli | Wild Food Girl Whitetop is a listed invasive species, targeted for eradication in areas of Colorado and other regions. I’ve been meaning to try eating whitetop, aka hoary cress (Cardaria spp., Lepidium draba or related Lepidium sp.)—an invasive plant targeted for eradication in parts of the Colorado high country and undoubtedly other locations too. It saddens me to see whitetop taking over entire fields; I always wonder what plants might grow there if that whorey mustard hadn’t so asserted itself. Last summer, when Colorado wild edible plants expert Cattail Bob Seebeck gave me my first taste of whitetop flowers in a farm field in Mesa, it nearly burned my tongue off—a seriously spicy mustard. Whitetop mustard and fried rice underway. Whitetop Broccoli in Fried Rice Whitetop is an edible invasive plant that takes over large areas. Gregg enjoyed it prepared this way, which I served as a side dish to Tofu Cubes with Black Greasewood and sautéed oyster mushrooms. Hydrogen Cyanide? Ingredients: Instructions:
Foraging wild food with 12 easy wild foods that anyone can harvest Nature's Superfood on your doorstep In days gone by, wild foods were all we had, that used to be staple diet necessary for human health and survival. Often full of natural medicinal benefits, wild foods often saved lives in times of famine, war and ill health. It’s a little bizarre to contemplate how radically removed from nature we have actually become. As intensive farming methods and consumerism came into being, our general attunement to nature fell away, and our knowledge thereof has somewhat dwindled. Increasing food prices, uncertain times of global change and decreasing food availability has invited more and more people to contemplate alternative ways of finding food by foraging. Full of nutritional goodness Most, if not all, wild edible foods are packed full of vitamins and minerals that far surpass any cultivated varieties of fruit and vegetables. Finding out what's available in your locality I’ve posted information about 12 of my favourite wild foods below. Most of all enjoy!!!
How to Eat Dandelion Flowers This is a follow-up article to the Dandelion Greens – The Perfect Spring Survival Food article I recently wrote. If you’ve already tried preparing the dandelion greens from the prior article than you know how delicious this wild plant can be. In this article I wanted to quickly present you with another pair of delicious recipes using a different part of this common every-day plant: the flowers. Pickled Dandelion Flower Buds I’d like to thank Rosalee de la Foret for this recipe! For this recipe, you’ll want to harvest the flower buds when they are still tightly closed — before they ever opened. Ingredients: 1/2 cup onions3 tablespoons fresh minced ginger4-5 garlic cloves1 cup dandelion flower budsapple cider vinegartamari sauce The Process: Rinse the flower buds well and place into a pint jar with the onions, garlic, and ginger. Dandelion Fritters Ingredients for the Batter: 1/2 cup of flour1/2 cup of milkone teaspoon baking powder1/4 cup cornmeal1 egg1 tablespoon of honey How’s that saying go?