Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Wild foods and food security

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Wild foods and food security
  • Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2004 12:52:38 -0700

Gene GeRue wrote:

::::::::::::::
THE OVERSTORY #145--Wild Foods and Food Security
By Ian Scoones, Mary Melnyk and Jules N. Pretty


Contents:
: INTRODUCTION
: CONTRIBUTION TO FOOD SECURITY
: --> Seasonal Use
: --> 'Famine' Foods
: --> Monitoring and Early Warning Systems
: --> Resource Access and Vulnerability
: THE NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF WILD FOODS
: --> Dietary Diversity and the Role of Wild Products
: --> The Impact of Social Change
: --> Comparisons with Domesticated Food Sources
: --> Malnutrition
: CONCLUSION
: LITERATURE
: ORIGINAL SOURCE
: ABOUT THE AUTHORS' ORGANIZATION
: WEB LINKS


tvoivozhd---wild foods are not as prevalent as they were when more undisturbed areas of forest and meadow existed, but they are still out there, some no further than weeds in your garden, good source of boiled greens being spring dandelions, and starting in early spring, extending to late fall, , purslane and lambs-quarters coming to mind. http://www.yougrowgirl.com/use/recipe_weeds.php

Most weeds in the garden are edible - Viki Mather (05/26/04)
Despite the miserable, cold and rainy weather over the Victoria Day holiday long weekend, it didn't stop me from getting out there and tucking seeds in to the warming soil, and dreaming of a summer full of beans, broccoli and squash.

MATHER

I think I'll wait another week or two to plant the tomatoes though.

Gardening has always been a little difficult for me, and not just because the dirt around my little log cabin is thin over the bedrock.

I have trouble gardening because I love the weeds. Daisy, dandelion, chickweed and lamb's quarters abound in my little garden. And they are all delicious. How can I evict them just to plant some lettuces?

As I prepare the beds for planting the boring things like carrots and potatoes, I'll be carefully gathering in the first salads of the year. Along with a few leaves from the hardy self-seeding lettuces, we will have fresh wild leeks, young dandelion leaves and tender sprouts of chickweed in the salad tonight.

We still have a few tender winter cress leaves and flower buds that can be tossed in with fresh, young clover leaves. Couple this with a few of the skinny asparagus that are just emerging, a few small plantain leaves and wood sorrel, and we're going to have a great salad.

This is the advantage of knowing something about the weeds that grow in the garden. You get to enjoy fresh veggies long before the pampered cultivated stuff is ready - or even planted!

Nearly every weed in the garden is edible - but a few are not. You have to know what you have before tossing it into the salad.

Dandelions are the easiest. Everybody knows what a dandelion looks like. You don't even have to have a garden to have a good crop of this wonderful plant.

Just make sure there haven't been any pesticides applied to the area where you are picking!

The young leaves from plants that haven't made flowers yet are best. They are much like endive, and can make up to half of the greens in any garden salad.

If you happen to be a coffee drinker, and want to cut back on your caffeine intake, you can make good use of dandelion roots you pull from the lawn.

Roast them in a slow oven until they are deep brown, then grind them (a blender works well). Use this ground roasted root to make a caffeine-free drink, or blend it with your regular coffee to reduce the total caffeine content.

Even with my high tolerance for weeds in the garden, I find there are just too many to keep them all. I pick what I can, then toss the rest of the plant into the compost.

http://www.virtualitalia.com/recipes/edible_weeds.shtml (Italian view of edible weeds)

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:F_mWsqfFszUJ:www.living-foods.com/bookstore/wildedibles.html+edible+weeds+,+garden&hl=en
(fine assortment of books on edible weeds)

http://landscaping.about.com/od/ediblelandscaping1/ (about.com on edible-landscaping, including as Native Americans practiced it. Don't forget the blueberries)

http://www.thegardenlink.com/html/articles/article_weeds1.htm (stinging nettles are delicious and weeds make essential habitat for beneficial garden bugs)

http://users.netconnect.com.au/~ewood/edible_weeds.html (there are 50,000 edible plants, improve your diet and reduce your food cost by eating weeds)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/victorygarden/recipes/wildsalad.html (yin and yang fresh wild salads)

http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/edibpond.html (edible pond and bog garden---use duckweed to clean up run-off from the automatic washer outlet pipe that feeds a small yard pond, I planted cattails near the outlet of our private lake to stop erosion and cattail roots are very nutritious, pollen makes good bread---and once established it is a perennial, requiring no maintenance whatsoever. What's wrong with a garden on automatic pilot?


http://www.primalseeds.org/weeds.htm (and if you are ambitious enough to do anything about it, you don't have to call in an Extension Department specialist to make soil tests, your weeds will tell you what is wrong with your garden soil, and what you should do to correct it.






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page