Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You don't need all that fat to make greens taste good. Try marinated Kale salad using half and half lemon juice and good olive oil with a bunch of minced or chopped garlic and salt and pepper. Maybe add in some herbs too. Let the dressing sit on the kale or other dark greens for 30 minutes or so. I think it tastes yummy and the greens are a lot easier to chew. They taste great because the flavor from the dressing has absorbed into them. You could even throw in some orange slices, a peach or a mango for a lot more flavor.
Also protein is WAY over-rated. Too much protein harms your kidneys. You need your kidneys to filter out cellular waste. You can get all the protein you need in a day from about six raw almonds.
Emily, please promise me you will never do that again. Never never never. A case in point--I have, no had, a plant in my yard that looked just like celery only with pink blotches on the stem. I decided to go look it up so I broke off a piece of it and went to the computer with it. I looked up "wild plants in the celery family" and the first hit was poison hemlock. Looked that up and sure enough that's what it was. I'm sure glad I didn't taste it but apparently it was pretty stupid to even touch the stuff. The weird thing is that all of the weeds within a 3 foot radius looked like they'd been hit with a flame thrower--they were deader than dead. Which is what I would be if I decided to eat that stuff, or at least very sick and 63,000 calls a year are made to poison control centers b/c of this stuff. Anyway, I"m pretty interested in wild plant foods which is why I had a hunch about the hemlock in the first place, but I probably will leave anything alone which is in the wild parsley family until I know a lot more about it b/c I've heard that water hemlock, which is also poisonous, looks just like Queen Anne's Lace or wild carrot.
Don't worry. I had already done lots and lots of research including finding out that all dandelion lookalikes were edible before asking about it on this forum and although this water lettuce didn't have a flower the leaves were very similar. Also I read that most of the greens around here are edible. I even think the descriptions err on the side of being too conservative. For instance they say that some plants need to be cooked several times to be edible. I think they just say that because the average modern American's palate is so limited, they just wouldn't like the taste. However I bet a lot of these wild edibles could be juiced or eaten in small amounts without being cooked to death and a lot more of their nutritional content could be utilized.
I have since posting contacted the Clemson Extension office and emailed in pictures of weeds I was wondering about.
You don't need all that fat to make greens taste good. Try marinated Kale salad using half and half lemon juice and good olive oil with a bunch of minced or chopped garlic and salt and pepper. Maybe add in some herbs too. Let the dressing sit on the kale or other dark greens for 30 minutes or so. I think it tastes yummy and the greens are a lot easier to chew. They taste great because the flavor from the dressing has absorbed into them. You could even throw in some orange slices, a peach or a mango for a lot more flavor.
Also protein is WAY over-rated. Too much protein harms your kidneys. You need your kidneys to filter out cellular waste. You can get all the protein you need in a day from about six raw almonds.
Olive oil is fat... not saturated animal fat, but fat all the same and it works the same way on your taste buds.
Elevated dietary protein only harms your kidneys if your kidneys are already damaged and/or functioning poorly. Just like how eating salt only raises your blood pressure if you already have hypertension.
For instance they say that some plants need to be cooked several times to be edible. I think they just say that because the average modern American's palate is so limited, they just wouldn't like the taste. However I bet a lot of these wild edibles could be juiced or eaten in small amounts without being cooked to death and a lot more of their nutritional content could be utilized.
Be careful with this. The appropriate response to your statement is, "sometimes yes, sometimes no." In many cases, there is a valid reason for cooking them (sometimes several times). In many cases that it is required, it's to bring the toxins down to a safe level for consumption--leaching it.
In reading through my manuals, I've seen it go both ways. Just be sure you really know whatever you are eating does not need to be cooked or at least soaked to leach it. Here are two examples (one yes, one no):
Classic wild edible literature states that the edible parts of Milkweed need to be boiled several times. It turns out that is not true. It is speculated that those authors stating that it does were either parroting earlier authors or were trying to eat Dogbane.
On the other hand, to get the tannin down to a safe level, acorns need to be soaked or boiled repeatedly. Tannin is an everyday part of our diet in minute quantities, but is a mild toxin and in larger quantities, damage the membranes of our digestive system. It is also classed as an antinutrient because it interferes with the body's absorption and utilization of minerals and proteins.
Of course, sometimes the plant is cooked because you can't eat it if you don't--it's way too hard, stringy, or tough.
But be careful about not cooking something that needs to be cooked in order to get the toxin level down. One misconception about poisonous plants is that if you eat them, you'll die or become violently ill immediately. In some cases, that is true. But in other cases, the low level of toxin will have no immediate effect. As you eat more and more, the toxin builds up until it starts destroying your body (kidneys, liver, etc) without you even knowing about it until it's too late. There is not a dichotomy between edible plants and poisonous plants. Not mutually exclusive. It's a spectrum.
Plants can't run and hide from you when you want to eat them. So they defend themselves by producing toxins. Some plants are much better at it than others.
This is a good thread. All they seem to want to talk about in the gardening forum is growing gaudy looking flowers and stupid non-edibles.
There are a few of us who are into wild edibles. Quite a few more who are into gardening edibles. I wish there were more. One poster seems to be really knowledgeable, especially with wild edibles, but only posts here once in a while.
There are a few of us who are into wild edibles. Quite a few more who are into gardening edibles. I wish there were more. One poster seems to be really knowledgeable, especially with wild edibles, but only posts here once in a while.
I'm very into growing edibles, and a little into wild edibles. I hunt morels and other mushrooms, use purslane that grows in my yard, sometimes wild garlic, dandelion greens, and other things. Wild mulberries, raspberries, paw paws, and persimmons from the woods.
This is a good thread. All they seem to want to talk about in the gardening forum is growing gaudy looking flowers and stupid non-edibles.
It wouldn't hurt you to plant a few flowers. Your soul needs feeding, too, and a bit of beauty can be a spirit-lifter.
Advice from someone who grows fruit: the bees must be fed for most of the year, not just when the fruit trees are blooming. If you want your fruit and veg pollinated, you will do better if you provide something for the bees to eat during the times that your food plants have finsihed blooming.
If there is lots for them to eat most of the year, the bees will stick around your place and be there when you need them.
I do get a bit frustrated with so many "gardening" sites and forums dedicated to ornamental gardening instead of edibles and beneficials. I have several "flowers" in my food garden; but they are either edible in themselves or have some other utlilitarian benefit they're not there just to be pretty. Food & cover crops are pretty to me --- nothing says that utility can't be beautiful
It wouldn't hurt you to plant a few flowers. Your soul needs feeding, too, and a bit of beauty can be a spirit-lifter.
Advice from someone who grows fruit: the bees must be fed for most of the year, not just when the fruit trees are blooming. If you want your fruit and veg pollinated, you will do better if you provide something for the bees to eat during the times that your food plants have finsihed blooming.
If there is lots for them to eat most of the year, the bees will stick around your place and be there when you need them.
Most edible plants are angiosperms, that is flowering plant for you non botany geeks; but yes, one does need to keep in mind that its good to allow the flowering stage if not normally in the food production process. Carrots the next year become queen Ann's lace, for example. Its not just pollination either. Need to support parasitic wasps that helps knock down the aphids, and there the carrot family comes in pretty handy. Have some cilantro doing the job now. Then you have the seeds.
Don't get too careless though if you do this with parsnip, given the photo toxicity of the sap.
Of course now is a good time of year to spot potential wild parsnip patches for late fall and early spring....
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
All they seem to want to talk about in the gardening forum is growing gaudy looking flowers and stupid non-edibles. 
