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Eating Wild Plants |
by:
Alan Detwiler |
There arenumber of reasons you might want to use wild plants as food.
Wild plants have some unique flavors that can be among your enjoyed favorites. Watercress with something sweet such as pancake syrup inpeanut butter sandwich is one I particularly enjoy. Dandelion greens pesto mixed with spaghetti sauce is another.
Sincetaste of many wild edible plants is so different fromusual cultivated vegetables, you likely will at first not accept some of them asdelicious flavorful food. Just about any food flavor other than sweet, salty, starchy, and fat are, I suppose, acquired tastes. It takes time for your mind to recognizeunfamiliar flavor as'tried and true' favorite. Introducewild food into your diet by eatingsmall amount when you are most hungry. Repeatedly doing so can makenew
food one that you especially enjoy.
The amount of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients in wild food, according to many sources, is onaverage greater in wild foods. Domesticated vegetables have been selectively bred for looks, production quantity, taste, length of storage and other qualities other than nutrition.
The fruits and vegetables sold insupermarket have been chemically fertilized; exposed to herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, andvariety of other chemicals; and they may have been genetically modified and/or irradiated. The safety of eating such produce is of concern to many people. Wild foods formost part, avoid those concerns. If you do gather wild foods avoid taking them from along roadsides, lawns that have been treated with chemicals or any other areas that may have been treated.
There ispossibility that supermarket food can be contaminated with pathogens. Dozens of diseases can be spread byinfected person handling food anywhere fromtime it is harvested until it is put into your grocery bag. Plants growing inwild are untouched by human hands.
Wild plants can be prepared in many ways. Greens can be put throughfood processor or blender to make pesto. Add just enough oil and/or water to letmixture process well. The pesto can then be easily mixed with other ingredients such as peanut butter, tomato sauce, or syrup for flavoring. Some greens such as lambsquarters, chickweed and purslane can be used anyway spinach is prepared. Strong or bitter tasting greens can be boiled changingwater once or twice to reduce bitterness. This is sometimes done with dandelion leaves. Then other ingredients can be added for flavoring and texture.
Wild fruit can simply be mixed with nuts or seeds such as sunflower seeds or almonds.
Some plants such as cattail tuber shoots and burdock root can be boiled to increase tenderness or to reduce strong flavors and then simply eaten as is.
Be sure of what it is that you are going to eat and be sure that it is edible. Consultgood reference book. If possible have someone who is familiar withparticular plant point it out to you. Most photographs are not of high enough quality to be relied upon to positively identifywild plant.
Some edible plants have poisonous look-alikes. Some plants have edible parts and have poisonous parts. Some plant parts are edible only after being prepared inparticular way. It is common thatsmall quantity ofplant can be eaten without problems but if you eat too much your digestive system will protest forcefully.
There's about six or eight disaster scenarios that I can think of that seem likely to happen at some time. Most of them seem unlikely to happen in my lifetime. But you never know. Isn't it prudent to be prepared, at least to some extent, ineventnormal food supply is interrupted. Examples of disasters that seem likely to happen areasteroid hittingearth,massive nuclear war,global epidemic, andfailure of one or two major crops such as corn and wheat due towidespread disease or climate change.
The gathering of wild foods is interesting and enjoyable. Foraging forfavorite or new addition to your menu may take you through woods, through open fields and meadows and other places of beauty. It isgreat way to get out intonatural world and enjoy its complexity and majesty. It adds toperception thatworld isgood place that is to be enjoyed. It is emotionally pleasing to find something that seems free and of exceptional value.
Making use of natural foods gives you greater awareness ofinter-relatedness of living things to each other and toenvironment. That greater awareness helps us more appreciateweather and climate,abundance of nature, agriculture andfood supply, andimportance of protecting those things.
If you are interested infew detailed recipes andcouple of other general preparation methods see www.bobcatswilderkitchen.com
For more information on wild edible plants and recipes see ForagingEdible Wild community.webtv.net/Taimloyd/FORAGINGTHEEDIBLE
Forlist of links to more informaion see
dmoz.org/Recreation/Outdoors/Wildlife/Plants/Edible/
Forfew books on wild edible plants see theforagerpress.com/bookstore/plantguides.htm
Aboutauthor:
This article can be published in print or electronically, free of charge as long as it is substantially unaltered and containsfollowing author info and links (text or active):
Alan Detwiler isauthor of several books about things to do for fun. The books are available at Amazon.com
His web sites are www.leisureideas.comand www.makegizmos.com
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