wild edibles my journey

[wareagle69]

how i learned wild edibles


bought a book ...read it...... just kidding well not really to date i have 24 books dedicated just to plant identification not including all my mushroom books and yes i took a 3 day course and what you put into it is what you get out of it and i focused on mushrooms so thats what i learned.
now after 15 months of studying and i do that allot i read a plant every day sometimes allot more in the morning during coffee at lunch break and last thing at night before turning off the light this year i have at least 50 positive plant id's about 30 of them edible some ate just flowers some will kill ya.
what i have found is that it takes complete dedication to my craft and only now am i starting to sample some of my finds, some still frusterate me as i am waiting for the plant to flower i have also taken to transplanting some that i find to my gardens so i can watch them year round to learn from them.
i ask a million questions of people they can id a few plants maybe not knowing its uses but still knowing what it is.
so while my journey is in its infancy i look forward to many years of learning to come. there is no quick way or fast way to learn plants it takes time and patience but i urge you all to take and make that time.

[Rick]

That's a very good post, WE. You could, of course, substitute whatever passion you have for mushrooms. But mushrooms are pretty darn good. If you expect to master your craft you have to spend time as an apprentice. As a plumber you know that. Right now, you are an apprentice mushroomer. (Me too.)

[wareagle69]

true rick i started as you know last year and it was all so over whelming, so i started my focus on mushrooms as winter progressed i decided to involve myself more in plants, funny story i was driving down my back road about a month ago and spotted milkweed among a whole bunch of other plants as i learn a new plant i see it every where its crazy i'm at hte point that i can see a plant and not know what it is but have a good idea of which family it comes from for a starting point to find it.
that being said yes i am a second year apprentice and there nothing worse than a second year know it all aprrentice even some guys in there 5th year and now journeymen still don't know crap in my opinion but i'm trying

[wareagle69]

so in continueing on i was going over my list of known plants last night. these are plants that as i drive down the road or walk thru the bush i can say with absolute certanty that this is such and that is so and so.
ok so that is part one of wild edibles between last year and this year i have about 50 in my knowledge now but how to use them what parts to use and when to use that is the next part of learning, i think that one of my instructors is correct when she says it takes about 5 years to truly know your plants.

[Rick]

Knowledge is a long road with no destination but the travel is always worthwhile.

[wareagle69]

thank you for your enlightenment shidoshi

[Rick]

My brain actually hurt a bit after I wrote that. Good thing I have coffee handy.

[Canadian-guerilla]

wareagle69

are you looking to have a general all around knowledge of edible (wild) plants
( including recognizing poisonous )
or are you just concentrating on a select few ( 5-10 ) for survival purposes

for myself, i started out learning about 3 ( purslane-yellow wood sorrel-chickweed )
got to know these three fairly well and able to recognize them easily and expanded from there
while some of these can be eaten raw, what i've been lacking in,
is actually preparing these edibles in the field and at home

[wareagle69]

i am looking/working on general knowledge all the way around, survival helps but this is a lifestyle choice, trying to eat as locally as possible which negates any terror attack on my food supply as well as any health concerns to my food supply just look at tomatoes and spinache and beef the last few years also is an economic value of growing and harvesting my onw food. ok so look up any plant on wikipedia it will have some helpful ways to use, also wild man steve brill goes in depth into preperation in his book harvesting and identifying wild edibles, a local paper here called the northern life look up articles by viki mather it was here classes that i attended she also goes into preperation stalking the wild asperagus by euell gibbons also cover this topic as does bradford angiers books as far as mushrooms hands down the best book on uses is the ultimate mushroom book by peter jordan
hope this helps a bit.
by the way are you interested in a survival course this fall taught by allen bow beauchamp?

[Canadian-guerilla]

stalking the wild asperagus by euell gibbons

i finally found this after 3+ years of looking - $2
also looking for stalking the wild dandelion by Brill
plus http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0976626608/sciencedaily-20




by the way are you interested in a survival course this fall taught by allen bow beauchamp?

maybe ?
not to worried about where, depends on how much
looking at some of these survival courses and their prices . . .

[wareagle69]

have not heard of that brill book
600 canadaian for the week well worth it to me i already train with bow so to have him for 7 days will be awesome


major find for me today found a couple of hundred milkweed plants just off my property can't describe what a find that is for me now i can harvest some of the plants for consumption also tried a small leaf while there what a taste not bitter at all score one for the eagle.
also found allot of timothy hay will be good for the criters and the eagles nest and found a long plant white bulbs for flowers with a flat carrot like root will investigate more and found a buch of chicory pulled some for my garden and last but not least got some great photos of goats beard to day.

[crashdive123]

WE - in your wild edible search - are you currently using them to replace store bought food, or is it just to have the ability to do so at a later date if needed?

[Rick]

Had a great mixed salad yesterday. Kale, spinach, early peas, purslane and nasturtiums. Nothing like augmenting the garden with wild foods.

[wareagle69]

WE - in your wild edible search - are you currently using them to replace store bought food, or is it just to have the ability to do so at a later date if needed?

well like i said i still consider myself a beginner, i can id approximatley 50 plants with absolute confidence now i am learning how to use what to use and best time to use hopefully next year i will be able to start replacing store bought food with my own harvest

[Canadian-guerilla]

hopefully next year i will be able to start replacing store bought food with my own harvest


by your own harvest,
are you meaning to collect seeds and plant your own near your home
or mark areas that have wild plants and collect them next year

[wareagle69]

by your own harvest,
are you meaning to collect seeds and plant your own near your home
or mark areas that have wild plants and collect them next year

both, i had found 3 milkweed plants so i brought one home they are taking some time to adjust then this weekend i found like a hundred plants within a kilometer of the homestead so i have marked that area, the chicken of the woods i have detailed that location as i am not sure if i could spore mark that on my property, allot of food grows naturaly on my property have bush swamp bog and disturbed meadows and pastures, some stuff like the wood sorrel and ground ivy are down the road a bit at my neighbors so i am trying to transplant to my place hopefully can do that with the bog cranberry, there is an abandoned farm has been for years i plan on scouting this weekend, also am planting some domestic plants, we did carrots this year with the hope that in a couple of years it will go wild.

[Rick]

You may already know this but carrots are biennial plants. They won't produce flowers and seeds until the second year. So you won't see baby carrot plants until year 3 if all goes well. They dig (get it, garden? Dig?) a soil pH of 6.0 to 7.0. So if your soil pH needs to be raised you can scatter some wood ash in with the carrots. They like phosphate and potash and an easy way to apply that is with wood ash.

[wareagle69]

good to know

[Rick]

If you get to the point that you have a sustainable crop of something (whatever) in your garden you can transplant it back into the wild. That should keep your flora going just like you do the little Normans of the wild.

[wareagle69]

well i am making little crop circles around the property so if it starts growing on its own the i will just leave it be, i like the idea of small little seperate gardens to keep all my different wild edibles apart mostly for observation purposes then i know what is what at all times of the year should really help with id in the bush and also for teaching

[wareagle69]

well in my never ending quest for knowledge i am going to try two things this weekend one is sting myself with what i beleive to be stinging nettles and second use the leaves of dock to help alleviate the nettles
what does this accomplish you may ask?
one it proves that they are nettles a great source of protein vit a and c and also very good for me and my horses, second will hopefully prove the theory that dock is a natural remedy to nettles.
stay tuned

[crashdive123]

Speaking of stinging....I was doing a termite inspection today on a vacant home. To my suprise, I found a large honey bee colony ---- the hard way. Only got stung twice. The good part is that I've gotten a bee removal job as a result. (gotta find a better way to drum up business)

[Rick]

Do you vacuum the bees out?

[crashdive123]

On this one they're in an inaccessible area. I'll use a soap and water foam solution to kill the bees, then start demoing the wall to get to the comb.

[Rick]

Man, that's too bad. You lose the bees and the honey. If you are knocking out the wall anyway could you drill a hole large enough for the vacuum hose and suck them out. You could even smoke them a bit. That would leave the honey for you. Mmmmmmmm.

[crashdive123]

In Florida, if your a licensed pest control operator you have to destroy any ferral bee colonies that you find and then send a few in for DNA testing. The concern is Africanized Honey Bees. They're real aggresive and will take over a colony of European Honey Bees very quickly. That being said, if I can draw the bees away from a hive (when they're not tending to their brood) I'll use an artificial fermone lure to get them to a temporary hive and then kill them. The honey is always great.

[Rick]

Oh, the old "come hither" routine. Sex will get you killed every time. And it's not even real pheromone. Sad......poor little bees.

[wareagle69]

well went canoeing woth the wife tonight thru the lines in the water and paddled around found pickeral weed, did not have a doubt by what i say in my books but i never count a plant learned until i hold it in my hands and can study it.

[wareagle69]

so saturday i spent a few hours picking blueberries and rasberries out in my back yard had blueberry pancakes and icecream with beriies, then a friend of mine wanted me to go up the road a bit and walk his sons 13 acre property found spotted jewelweed and catnip there, plus a host of other plants that i allready knew but its ao awesome to walk thru the bush and see a plant and id it immediatley just cuz i have been reading so much cats liked the cat nip, oh yeah also found out that someone bought a place just up theroad from me that wants to open a survival school looks like this will turn into a mecca of skills i plan on stopping by today to find out his qualifications

[Rick]

Wow! There goes the bunkerhood.

[Rick]

My wife and I spent some time looking for plants this morning. Here are some pics of:

Wild Carrot (cooked vegetable CAUTION: If you pick early you could mistake it for Poison Hemlock except the stalks are hairy and I tried to show that in the pic.

Wild Bergamot (good tea)

Catnip (another tea)

Great Burdock (so many uses for this guy. I'm trying to show the very flat top of the flower. It looks just like a flat-top haircut!)

Wild Potato Vine (I stumbled upon quite a few large patches. Notice the heart shaped leaves and purple center of the flower.

You can click on the pic for a larger version.

http://s348.photobucket.com/albums/q348/safe_zone/Wild%20Plants/