Dinner Island Ranch Trip Pic Heavy

[Batch]

My brother Sean and I went camping at Dinner Island Ranch in Clewiston, Florida Saturday and Sunday. The weather was great with a great breeze. We shot some recurve and threw tomahawks. Worked on wild edibles and just generally chilled out.

A cool looking rabbit on the road to camp.

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Red Mulberry starting to grow in this head (hammock)

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Wild Coffee

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[Batch]

We found where FWC or the ranchers stacked cleared live oak. Good cooking wood!

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Sunset

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Picker some Spanish Needles for dinner.

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Spanish Needles with chopped red bell pepper, jalepeno and hot italian sausage. Really good!

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[Batch]

Poke Sallet (kinda scraggly).

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Better Poke Sallet
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Poke Sallet bug orgy!

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Resurrection Fern

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[Batch]

Water Hyacinth, wild edible and a nightmare invasive!

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A couple of deer pics. We saw lots of deer.

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Baby gators and mama. Mama bluffed a little and as I got closer she went down and came up on the other side of the pond. Her babies are in another pond on the other side of me. There were 7 babies that I counted.

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[Winter]

looks like a good trip. I don't know what the plants you are eating taste like. Any comparable flavor?

[Batch]

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These pictures have been resized several times and still won't load.

This is a gator and a turtle up on the bank.

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Same gator after the turtle boogied.

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Then this beautiful lady decides I am getting too close for her comfort and slides in the water.

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[Batch]

looks like a good trip. I don't know what the plants you are eating taste like. Any comparable flavor?

It's a kinda mild green. Like a mix between spinach and collards.

[Winter]

That works for me.

Texture like spinach too?

[Batch]

Yes, it is Bidens Alba and I boil it and then cook it in butter or oil. Though there are no cautions with that plant.

[Rick]

Great pics, Batch. Looks like you had a great time. Thanks for taking us along.

[Winnie]

Yup, looks lovely. Thanks.

[crashdive123]

Looks like a great trip. I'm not quite sure how to break this to you though......in your first deer picture there is a cow stalking the deer.

[Daniel Nighteyes]

looks like a good trip. I don't know what the plants you are eating taste like. Any comparable flavor?

It's a kinda mild green. Like a mix between spinach and collards.

Yep. My father used to love eating poke greens in scrambled eggs -- AFTER he'd properly prepared them, of course. He taught us to cook 'em in three changes of water -- pretty much like collards, although for a different reason.

He taught us to look for poke in old fence rows, because they seemed to LOVE IT there. Of course, this was in Mississippi/Alabama. Where did you find yours, Batch?

[Daniel Nighteyes]

I'm not quite sure how to break this to you though......in your first deer picture there is a cow stalking the deer.

"MOOOO-ve, Deer! You're grazing in MY spot!"

[Batch]

Dinner Island Ranch is a working cattle ranch and a WMA acquired by the state in 2005. It is slap covered in game.

I just found out that we had poke weed and mulberry down here. My buddy showed me Poke Sallet up in Maddison, Fl in February. We found it there in full sun on high and dry ground and also next to a brush line.

The ones we found were in the same Prairie Hammock we camped in. The scraggly bush with the berries was found just on the edge of the hammock on the south side. It was almost completely concealed by ceasar weed and since the weeds looked scraggly to me I probably wouldn't have found it if it weren't for the berries. The better looking one with the bug orgy was found in the hammock near oaks and cabbage palms. I hadn't been looking in heads and hammocks just because I thought it was more prone to full sunlight. Though the hammock allows for several hours of sun in the spot that the plant grew.

The plants in the hammock would only need one boiling because they had no red on them really. The other scraggly plant I was told to boil until the water comes out clear. That is usually 3 changes of water with about 15 minutes of boil time per change. I have also read that the plant has high vitamin A content and that is what you are trying to boil out. Even after a 15 minute boil it has 90% of your vitamin A daily recommended amount.

I have heard peeling the red off of the stalk and boiling it is good. I will not do that... yet. I told my friend that Green Dean says only pick plants up to 8" tall and none with red stalks or leaves. My friend asked me if Green Dean had grown up eating polk sallet? "Cause I did!" he said picking leaves off the plants. My friends got a lot of years under his belt in Florida's wild places and when he cooks wild game it is unbeatable. Knows his plants and trees and when he don't he won't say he does.

We were cooking up some backstrap venison that his grand nephew had killed locally. He was frying it and said his nephew didn't have any bacon grease. He said, "This is good. But, bacon grease will make it pop!" I said that everything pops in bacon grease. That's why you don't cook bacon in the nude. He got all serious and said that he was serious. "If this was in bacon grease it would make your tongue slap the brains out yer head!"

[Rick]

That's the way mom always fixed it as well. She went through three changes of water. She always picked hers along fence lines or roadsides. The fact I couldn't remember what pokeweed looked like is actually what started me on this whole "survival" thing.

Batch - There are several toxins in poke. The worse one is lectin. It causes red blood cells to lump together. Lectin is also what is found in castor beans but not in the same concentrations of course. Still, it can be pretty toxic if you don't cook it properly. The interesting thing is you can buy canned poke around here. I would have thought the lawyers would have nixed that but apparently there is still one company that doesn't listen to their lawyers....yet.

[Dontkno119]

Hey guys, I live in broward county and dinner island seems like the closest slice of wilderness that is somewhat close by. Does anyone know if you have to stay at one of the camps? I have my own hammock and would rather camp near a water source if available. I have never been there before.

[crashdive123]

Batch should be along soon and will be able to answer your questions.

[Batch]

Dinner Island is a working ranch. We camp there and drive around on the grades and hike in the hammocks during the hotter months. It is not a wilderness. Camping is only allowed in the designated camp area. And for the first time since Dinner Island open 10 years ago, we had FWC in our camp last night. But, honestly, they are looking for poachers and listening for gun shots. A couple of twenty somethings. They were cool. On e grew up hunting Corbett. So, we were on the same page.

I would consider Dinner Island car/ truck camping only. The OK SLough is backed right up to it and allows camping.



If you are looking for closer. You can go a mile further west on Alligator Alley to about mile marker 51. There is a pull off on the L-28 canal and you can hike in. I don't think they have any established camps. But, on the north side is Loonyville which has some private lands. 10 miles further west you can go north or south on the Florida trail. Dispersed camping is allowed through out.

I am in Broward as well. I grew up in Margate, work in Fort Lauderdale and live in Coral Springs. We camp every two or three weekends.

[Rick]

I stopped reading after "Alligator Alley". 'Nuff said.