Uncommon edible plants fruits, herbs, seeds, etc.
 

Sue, (AKgardengirl) asked me what else I grew and here it is so I don’t step on the Pomegranate thread.

In this post there will be some rather strange if not out right bazaar plants and seeds that are or were used for a food source or for medicinal purposes.

First I must say if you don’t know what you are doing please don’t go out and eat this stuff.
Some of it is very much like its very poisonous cousins.:no:

My history and experience goes back to my upbringing as a small boy growing up in the Ozark Mountains carrying a rifle at the age of 9 shooting small game for the supper table.

On these trips in the woods I was with some old timers who knew what to eat on the way.
I was also told what plants were good for certain ailments.

Finding a bee tree by looking at the bees at a watering hole and watching them fly a straight line to their tree was also high on the list of things to learn.

I didn’t think much of it at the time but they were survival skills that folk’s way back in the good old days took for granted as a way of life.

Here’s one I learned out in West Texas while stomping around in the desert.

The honey mesquite bean is a good treat when you are famished; just eat the dried sweet pulp from around the seeds and inside the pod.
The leaves are a good way to cure indigestion and were use by the natives in the area.
Trust me it works.
It has to be the honey mesquite, almost any other plant of this type will kill you or at the very least make you hallucinate and then maybe die.
Please read this, the Mesquite is one good plant.
I have plenty of these.
[URL]http://www.desertusa.com/jan97/du-smesquite.html[/URL]

Next is the Vitex Plant
I have one and need more.
I’ll let the links speak for there selves.
A real good plant to grow.
[URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitex_agnus-castus[/URL]
[URL]http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/bio406d/images/pics/lam/vitex_agnus-castus.htm[/URL]

I will post more later.:)
Worth

Herbs
 

Very interesting Worth. I have read of Vitex in herbal books. I know of some old timer's remedies that grow wild up here. When I was little, my grandma would make tea from a shrub called "Kinnikinnick", which is described in the book "Discovering Wild Plants Alaska, Western Canada and the Northwest", as good for kidney and female conditions. We always ate Lambsquarter or Pig Weed in lieu of spinach in the summer. I prefer it to spinach which I have a time growing anyhow as it bolts fast, even up here. I have a couple of books on Alaska's medicinal and edible plants which I refer to at times. When I lived in SE Alaska, we would pick a green called "Goosetongue". Also collected different kelps. Thanks for listing a couple of your wild edibles. I would like to hear about more of them.
Sue

Here is a rather odd plant that I grew up with, we don’t have any right here at the house but they do grow wild in sandy areas.
They have been used for a contraceptive and for all sorts of other things.

This thing is listed as a perennial which bothers me as most plants of this type are annuals.
I will have to do more research on this one.
100 pound roots are reported as well.

I never new the plant had much use growing up but I can tell you it does stink.
Stinking gourd, Buffalo gourd.
[IMG]http://www.fireflyforest.com/flowers/images/yellow/yellow_94/Cucurbita_foe_300.jpg[/IMG]
[URL="http://www.nazflora.org/Cucurbita_foetidissima.htm"]
[/URL]
[URL="http://www.nazflora.org/Cucurbita_foetidissima.htm"]
[/URL]
[URL]http://www.nazflora.org/Cucurbita_foetidissima.htm[/URL]

Worth

Another bazaar plant is the devils claw.
I remember the cows eating the very sticky vines and then the dirt would stick to their faces.
The pods are edible.
.


[URL]http://tc2tc.mojolingo.xuite.net/m2m-0000/waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0801.htm[/URL]


[IMG]http://www.carnivorousplants.org/seedbank/species/Images/Ibicella_claws.jpg[/IMG]

When I was a kid in late 40s early 50s, and we were out in the woods during summertime learning to be pure bred American Patriots and didn't go home for lunch we ate stuff like berries, fruit, palmetto hearts, crawdads, fish, frogs and etc.

[IMG]http://home.fuse.net/mmalott/pawpaw2.jpg[/IMG]

We used to know where these trees were and would not tell anybody else.
Then we would have to try and make it to them before all of the rest of the critters did to get the fruit.
A nice snack while hunting in the woods.

The Pawpaw tree.


[URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawpaw[/URL]

I don’t think they will grow where I live now.

Worth

I don't have any of these I think I'm too far south for wild ones but they do make a good pie.
We call them gooseberries there are many cultivators.
They grew wild where I grew up.

[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ea/Gooseberry_Ribes_grossularia_%28detail%29.JPG/200px-Gooseberry_Ribes_grossularia_%28detail%29.JPG[/IMG]


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribes[/url]

Poke salad
I love this stuff and had some growing at my old place i need to get some growing here.
every spring we would go out and pick huge burlap sacks of this stuff.
You have to cook and drain it twice or it can give you rather disturbing discomforts of the belly.
it is listed as a poisonous plant but it ain't killed me yet.
[IMG]http://lucasland.org/pokeweed.jpg[/IMG]

[URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokeweed[/URL]

This one was introduced here many years ago and has now become a weed.
It is every where around here.

[URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumex[/URL]

Rumex
 

The sorrel, dock and mountain sorrel grow wild up here. I understand that the smaller leaved variety is called sorrel and the large leaves are referred to as dock. I have a patch of the mountain sorrel (oxyria digyna) in a flower bed. I add it to salads in the early summer. As kids we would find the sourdock and eat it out in the woods. Hey Worth, one plant that grows in both states with extreme differences in weather! Invasive in your part of the world and a wild, native plant up here. We do have many other noxious invasive plants that someone found it to be a good idea to try to grow and now they have taken over, pushing out the native plants.
Sue

Sue many plants that grow up there in the summer will start to grow down here in the winter.
It never has failed to amaze me how the stores will put out plants in the spring down here when it would be better off started in the fall.
An added bonus would be no bugs.!!!
Your spinach bolting is due to the long summer days we have up there.
As we both know, it goes from dark and cold to warm with the sun up all of the time.:)

I forgot to add, strawberries are considered a weed by some folks in Alaska.

Worth

I found this site on eating acorns and how to prepare them.
I like the picture of the squirrel standing up.

I have ate a lot of squirrel and I can tell you he ain't fit to eat.
[URL]http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/recipes/squirrel.html[/URL]


Worth

I’ve fell behind here,

Here is an odd one prickly pear cactus.

The fruit is good just don’t get little stickers in your mouth like I did, ‘that was horrible.:cry:
The pads I think are some of the most retched tasting things I have ever had.
Their slimy and taste terrible.:evil:

But here it is.
[URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opuntia[/URL]

Worth

Every year in early spring my dear old Dad (God rest his soul) would go into the woods and find a patch of bluegrass. He'd remove and wash the roots, then bring them to a boil in a pot of water. Strain it, let it cool and refrigerate. Drink a tumbler full every morning for two or three days. Considered it his "spring tonic" as it rather vigorously removed all the "winter toxins"....

[FONT=Arial]Oldredneck I have done a search and can’t find anything but music.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]I bet that stuff really worked did you use it too?:shock:[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Worth[/FONT]
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