The Fantastic Four – 4 Essential Wild Edible Plants that May Just Save Your Life Did you realize that knowing just 4 wild edible plants could one day save your life? If there were any four categories of plants that I would recommend all people to know how to use and identify it would be these: Grass, Oak, Pine, and Cattail. For the knowledgeable survivor, knowing just these four plants can make the difference between life and death if stranded in the wilds – for each one is an excellent food source which can sustain you until help arrives. Throughout this week and part of the next, I’ll be going into details on how you can prepare and eat these plants. Grass Surprising to many is the fact that you can eat grass. The young shoots up to 6 inches tall can be eaten raw and the starchy base (usually white and at the bottom when you pluck it) can be eaten as a trail nibble. The best part of the grass plant to eat are the seed heads, which can be gathered to make millet for breads or filler for soups & stews. Oak Pine “You can eat pine?!” Cattail Conclusion
Survival Foods: Cattail, Conifers, Grasses & Acorns Ever wondered what kinds of survival foods you could eat if you were caught in a survival situation? When I first came to Washington state all I could see was a wall of green plants. I knew nothing about what I could and could not eat if I were to get lost in the woods. Where Can I Find Cattails and How Do I Eat Them? Cattails can be delicious if prepared correctly. Cattail does have a look-alike, the iris. Cattails are almost always in or next to a water source. Young shoots are the tastiest part of the plant. Munching From Conifers Did you know that many types of conifer trees are edible? Survival Foods: The Grass Family More than 400 types of grasses can be eaten worldwide. Edible grasses include: bent, wheat, slough, brome, crab, switch, canary, timothy, blue and bristle grasses. Gathering Acorns Acorns are found on oak trees. I hope this provided a look into the edible possibilities of the natural world. Sources: Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
How To Eat Wild Foods & Not Get Poisoned (How-To) Let's play pretend for a moment. Are you with me? Let's pretend you can't go down to the supermarket for food to eat. In fact, let's pretend that there is not a supermarket for one hundred miles in any direction, and you don't have any food with you. Does this seem unlikely? What this guide is:This is a guide to wild things that are 100% safe to eat. What this guide is not:This is NOT a guide to figuring out if something may or may not be safe to eat. BerriesThis is very easy to make 100% foolproof. Unless you are completely sure, do not eat non-aggregate berries - berries that are shaped like blueberries or gooseberries. Green StuffMost "green stuff" is not outright toxic, but can definitely cause you some distress. Note: You should use caution when eating any plant, particularly plants found in the water - they can harbor any creepy crawly that may have been living in the water, including giardia cryptosporidium among others. CrittersNever eat wild critters raw!
Wild Food School - Urban Foraging Guide & eBooks Urban Foraging & Cornwall Forager Guides - FREE Foraging for food - even in a city - can be fun. But where do you start? This Foraging Guide is in PDF format and is designed to allow you to print out the pictures on standard 10 x 15 cm. photo paper and then bind them together (laminate the pages if you want). Correctly printed out you will find plant picture and text side by side like the example below. Click wfsURBFORAGER.pdf to downloador right click and Save. ** If you're more interested in dealing with food and water in disaster and emergency survival situations (also in urban areas) you might like to take a look at the new book Armageddon Kitchen and Doomsday Kitchen over on this page >>> ... There are also a 98 page TROPICAL FORAGING GUIDE [approx. 8Mb] plus the Cornish Foraging and a Riverside Foraging guide. See also the exciting range of Wild Food WISDOM Cooking with Weeds™ eBooks at wildfoodwisdom.co.uk Wild Food School Homepage
Wild Edibles: How to Make Elderberry Jelly 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. With the summer coming to a close here in New England, one of my favorite wild edibles that I seek out in the late Summer and early Fall is the Common Elderberry (Sambucus nigra). In this article I’ll be showing you how to properly identify the Common Elderberry, where to find it, and how to process it into a delicious jelly. How to Identify Common Elderberry Here are the main things you’ll want to look out for in order to properly identify the Common Elderberry: Where to Find Common Elderberry Common Elderberry can be found growing in large thicks stands. Here’s the range map indicating where Common Elderberry has officially been found: How to Make Elderberry Jam
Foraging Guide App. (Cheap) - Edible Wild Plants of Temperate N. America & the UK Now FREE!! Image page of the Rose profile. The Mobile Foraging Companion is a feature-laden, cross-platform guide for common wild and naturalised edible plants of temperate North America, and Britain and Northern Europe (there is a guide for each of those two areas, to suit your needs). Whether you forage on a leisurely weekend walk, want to know about that weed in the garden, or want to prepare for a potential survival situation, this guide is one of the handiest reference guides on foraging. It is designed for quick access to all the essential information you want at your fingertips, no more wading through long text to find the facts you are looking for. This unique guide packs a lot of information into a small space: What is the difference between the N. There isn't a lot of difference, as most of the plants included grow throughout most of the temperate northern hemisphere. Common names of plants vary, so each guide is written with the appropriate names for those countries. Advertising
Yellow Dock Seed Crackers Photo by Sunny Savage For us living in the Northern Hemisphere, the earth is now in a time of hibernation. As the earth begins this season, it is common to look onto the browning landscape with a longing for a more plentiful period. But, there are actually many plants now bursting with abundance and ready for harvesting. Dock, of the Rumex genus, is one plant now available that you can use in a wild food recipe. During this time of year, you can see yellow dock out there waving its’ bountiful brown arms full of yellow dock seed, and once you shake hands with this powerfully medicinal and edible plant you will begin to see it everywhere. Many consider Dock a pesky weed, but its’ uses are many. During the late summer and autumn season its’ stems carry moderate to heavy amounts of brown, triangle seeds that are high in riboflavins which helps our body to better absorb vitamin C. Yellow dock seed can be ground up for dock seed flour and made into an assortment of hearty treats. Mix together :
Free Wild Plant Identification eCourse You are out in the forest and looking at the glorious plant life surrounding you. Whether you are a beginner and have never identified one plant, or a Botany professor at a university, you might appreciate this refreshingly simple approach to plant identification. I remember lovingly (and sometimes screamingly) that my college classes in Systematic Botany required me to become acquainted with that local Washington Flora that we plant dorks call “Hitchcock and Cronquist”. In addition, my observation skills as an ethnobotanist were refined , foraging for wild foods, fibers and medicine. What will I need? A combination of actual need for sustenance, curiosity and simple observation skills are almost all you need to start with plant identification. Wherever you are in this journey, the following activities and tips will add some elegant tools to your already blooming botanical basket. Meet a Plant Approach the plant of your choice and find a place to start.
52 Plants In The Wild You Can Eat | Self-Sufficiency (Before It's News) (Read: Fully Charge an iPhone in the Sun in Less Than 2 Hours) Suntactics.com April 15, 2013 We all know our vegetables and fruits are safe to eat, but what about other wild edibles? Here are a few common North American goodies that are safe to eat if you find yourself stuck in the wild: Blackberries: Many wild berries are not safe to eat, it’s best to stay away from them. Dandelions: The easiest to recognize is the dandelion, in the spring they show their bright yellow buds. Asparagus: The vegetable that makes your pee smell funny grows in the wild in most of Europe and parts of North Africa, West Asia, and North America. Elderberries: An elderberry shrub can grow easily grow about 10 feet and yield tons of food, their leaf structure is usually 7 main leaves on a long stretched out stem, the leaves are long and round and the leaves themselves have jagged edges. Gooseberries: Mulberries: Mulberry leaves have two types, one spade shape and a 5 fingered leaf. Pine: Kudzu: Daylily:
Food Foraging: Wild Edible Plants & Mushrooms 9 Common Edible Garden Weeds All too often, homeowners and gardeners wage war in their lawns and gardens against the plants that grow incredibly well there, but that aren't intentionally planted, and many times, the justification for these battles all comes down to the words we use to describe them. When we buy and plant packets of common flower, vegetable, or herb seeds, we spend a lot of time, energy, and water in our efforts to get those seeds to germinate and grow, and take pride in our green thumb and homegrown food supply. But when a plant that we identify as being a weed is found growing in our lawn or garden, out comes the trowel and hoe (or for the ruthless and impatient gardeners, weedkillers such as RoundUp), and we may spend the entire growing season keeping these opportunistic and resilient plants at bay, in order to have neat and tidy garden beds and uniform lawns. 1. Dandelion 2. ZooFari/CC BY 3.0 3. Cliff/CC BY 3.0 4. Wendell Smith/CC BY 3.0 5. Calin Darabus/CC BY 3.0 6. Leslie Seaton/CC BY 3.0 7. 8. 9.
5 Invasive Plants You Can Eat The logic of eating wild plants is obvious; the logic of eating invasive wild plants is even more so. Culling aggressive species that have a negative impact on native plants, while avoiding the environmental pitfalls of agriculture? And free, local and abundant? Invasive plants are non-native species that can thrive in areas beyond their natural range of dispersal. According to the Land Management Bureau, millions of acres of once-healthy, productive rangelands, forestlands and riparian areas have been overrun by noxious or invasive plants. So what can we do? 1. Native range: Old World, probably Southeast Asian in origin Invasive range: Throughout North America Habitat: Rocky bluffs, barnyards, gardens, sidewalk cracks, disturbed areas; widely found in city lots. Because of it is a prolific producer of seeds, common purslane (pictured above) can rapidly take over warm, moist sites. 2. The pretty leaves are alternate, egg shaped; stems are hollow. 3. 4. 5.
Top 10… Foods To Forage - Green Living Thanks to modern agricultural methods, foraging – once a part of the majority’s daily life – has faded away, replaced by regular trips to the supermarket instead. Recently, however, there has been a revival of interest in raiding nature’s larder thanks to increased awareness of the health benefits of wild food, not to mention the TV exploits of Bear Grylls, Ray Mears and co. But it foraging is about more than just food. It gets us out into the countryside and helps to cultivate an intimate appreciation of nature, re-establishing a connection severed by modern urban life. But for the beginner, foraging should come with a health warning as it’s easy to mistake a deadly fungus for an innocent field mushroom. Mushrooms Neither animal nor vegetable, mushrooms are a type of fungi and the largest living organisms on Earth, some reaching three miles in length. Wild Garlic Wild garlic is a good all-rounder. Elder There are more uses for elderflowers than for any other type of blossom.