Go wild
Wild food is not so crazy as you think. Your grandparents probably caught fish, shot rabbits, picked mushrooms and grew fruit and vegetables. Now in your busy lives (because you don’t do what your grandparents did, you have to work to BUY everything.
This makes you dependent on having a job and other people for your sustenance. In this current crazy world maybe not such a good idea.
Now is a good time to recalibrate your survival skills from none to some. Apart from the normal things people need like gold, silver, bulk foods, water filters, guns and ammo you need to know what you can eat by catching it, picking it or growing it by yourself.
It is good to have survival skills no matter what.
Fishing is the first thing on the list. If you live near a river, lake or an ocean you have a lot of potential food. If you don’t have one, buy fishing rod and tackle and start learning to fish. Oh! You don’t like killing animals, so you can’t do that. Yet, you eat fish, cows, chickens at restaurant’s every day and that’s all right. No it isn’t you are a weak minded hypocrite. Of course your constant appetite for eating dead animals creates the need for someone to kill them just for you and your slate is clean: no it isn’t. When you are starving you will soon enough change your hypocritical ways and kill something. Might as well learn now. American Indians say sorry and thank you to the spirit of any animal they have killed for food. I like this respect and acknowledgement of what they have done.
Hunting for rabbits, deer, birds, frogs and even snakes will ensure you have food in your families bellies. This usually means using a rifle. So buy one and try to shoot something. Then skin it, cook it and eat it. Gross? Not if you are hungry.
Next is wild food. Mushrooms, berries, bugs, leaves and nuts. There is an amazing amount of flora you can eat and you never knew it. The rip off supermarkets keep this from you just like the pharmaceutical companies and doctors hide the value of herbs. Governments are corrupt and they support big business selling heaps of junk to keep the economy ticking over, because it is much more important it ticks and not you.
There are a lot of wild food books and websites that will explain what you can eat in your area as can the ‘older generation’ that can’t do selfies but can take care of selfie very well.
Here are a few chapters from my book Dropout 2020.
Never forget that if things go wrong: worse pandemics, wars, economic collapse then you are only 9 meals away from being a barbarian. Better to be one now, before it happens.
Chapters
Chapter 7: WILD FOOD
Introduction
I am no expert on wild food. I have included some plants, berries, mushrooms and shell fish. There are many good books available on wild food and foraging that have pictures and more detail. I suggest you buy some and also some field guides, especially for mushrooms considering how poisonous some of them are. This book is not a field guide, neither is it full of details on any subject. It is an overview of many of my own experiences and things I consider important when dropping out and surviving. Most of this book is relevant for the two outstanding issues facing people in 2021: living peaceful, natural and sustainable lives and surviving any kind of collapse or military outbreak. It does neither perfectly. There are many good books and websites on prepping as there are on foraging, they are both compatible with each other.
It makes sense when you drop out to prepare 10-100% for any eventuality that may threaten you and your family in the future, without losing your sense of now and joy. This chapter is a fall back in case you haven’t bought any other books and, in an emergency, you need some information that will help you. I highly recommend you start your wild food recipe book ASAP and fill it with all the edible things within your area, including photos, descriptions, actual food recipes and storage ideas. You should be able to buy mushroom, fish, berry, nut, herb, plant field guides that will help you identify everything. Also make the effort to find out from the locals what mushrooms, plants, berries, nuts, fish are plentiful and edible.
My lists in this chapter are things you can eat, now you need to know how to find and recognize them. It is good to have survival skills and food is number 1. And finally, you should always think about Thai people (in rural areas) whose diet consists of 70% foraged food: leaves, mushrooms, fish, ant and bee eggs, herbs and roots. Thy are a healthy and natural part of their diet. As long as they have rice they can survive. It is also genius from an economical way. By spending a little on food, they can save money and buy a Toyota Twin Cab after a few years, at least the deposit. Same with their houses. They often build them over a few years only using some cash from a rice harvest and with the help of friends. Their houses are modern and comfortable.
Everyone can build a house including women. They wouldn’t call wild food, wild, it is just normal and free. They are not slaves to supermarkets, that’s for sure.
Plants
Amaranth – Amaranthus retroflexus
You might have heard this plant called pigweed and you’ll often find it growing wild in fields or abandoned gardens. The stem is the easiest way to identify this plant. It is erect, and the upper part is covered in dense, short hairs that have a reddish tint. Both wild and domesticated versions of this plant are edible. You can eat the whole plant, though some parts are best cooked before being eaten. Be sure to pick from areas that haven’t been poisoned.
Acorn – Quercus
You have probably seen them lying around on the ground in parks and forests, but did you know acorns are edible? The little nut provides a healthy dose of starch, which is usually difficult to forage. You can crush the nuts to make a flour substitute. You can eat the nut, though you should crush, roast or leach them first. Look for a hole in the shell, which means the dreaded oak weevil has invaded the nut. Eating these raw can cause constipation.
Barberry – berberis Vulgaris
Salads
Beech – Fagus sylvatica
roasted or raw with salt
Bistort – Persicaria Bisorta
Eat the leaves
Among the most common berres are blackberries, raspberries, mulberries and sloes, and uses range from juices and cordials to jams and jelly, pies and cakes, wine and gin, and ice cream. Look for berries in woodlands, hedgerows, and parks from late summer.
Blackberries Rubus spp.
True blackberries grow across the U.S., and they are a delicious treat to eat right off the vine. Himalayan blackberries, which are part of the same family, grow pretty much everywhere on the west coast, whether you want them to or not. They look like trailing blackberry bushes, though the fruit isn’t nearly as sweet as a real blackberry. Can eat the leaves, shoots, and berries.
Blueberries – Cyanococcus
Blueberries grow multiple thornless canes directly out of the soil in sunny areas close to water. They only grow wild in the northern and eastern areas of the U.S.
The freshly picked berries are delicious on their own or added to desserts. Plenty of poisonous berries look like blueberries, so make sure you are identifying the plant correctly.
Bluebead – Clintonia borealis
You can eat the leaves of this plant, but the rest of it is poisonous.
This plant is part of the lily family, and many plants in this family are poisonous. The berries, roots, and flowers of this plant are toxic.
Burdock – Arctium lappa
This plant is easy to spot if you look for the annoying burrs. When those aren’t present, look for a rosette of oblong, pointed leaves with no stem that grow close to the ground in the first year.
Edible parts: The leaves are edible, but older leaves are tough and taste better when cooked. Young roots and the interior of the flower stalks are also edible.
Broadleaf Plantain – Plantago major
This plant is packed with nutrients, and you can also use it medicinally to treat diarrhea and digestive issues. Look for oval or egg-shaped leaves growing in a rosette. When you break the stems, you’ll find strings that look like celery. The leaves are edible.
Be careful you can mistake young lily plants for broadleaf plantain.
Catnip – Nepeta cataria
Catnip grows almost anywhere. Look for the fuzzy, arrow-shaped leaf with rounded teeth on the edges. It smells slightly minty (it’s a member of the mint family). Eat the leaves and young flowers. Catnip can look like wood nettle, but it lacks the fuzzy, soft look. Wood nettle will also give you a bite if you touch it.
Cattails – Typha latifolia
Also known as bulrushes, not only can you eat this plant, but you can use it to make baskets or mats. The head can be dipped in fat and used as a candle. Look for a brown, cigar-like head on a tall stalk. Inner part of the plant, roots, flower spikes, and pollen can be consumed. Don’t mistake this for the blue flag iris (Iris versicolor). They grow in similar areas.
The roots, when washed and peeled, are an excellent starch source with a potato-like flavor and can be prepared like potatoes. They also can be dried and made into a flour.
Chickweed – Stellaria media
Great vegetable and good in salads. Flowers and leaves are edible. Fresh new leaves wash then saute. You’ll find this European-native growing wild in lawns and cool, shady areas where the soil is moist. You can eat the leaves of this plant raw, but they taste better if cooked. Don’t eat too much at one time.
Cloudberry – Rubus chamaemorus
There’s nothing like a fresh cloudberry. Look for a low-growing plant with three leaves per plant in northern boreal regions. The flowers are small and white, and each plant grows one light red berry. Fruit and flowers of this plant are edible. If you can find it, I highly recommend cloudberry jelly.
Coltsfoot – Tussilago farfara
While the blossom looks similar to dandelion, coltsfoot’s leaves have a heart-shaped, waxy appearance. You can eat the flowers, stems, and leaves. Pregnant women should not consume this plant, and there may be small amounts of toxins in the leaves, so don’t overeat.
Common Poppy – Papaver rhocas
sprinkle the dried seeds on bread.
Common Mallow – Malva Sylvestris
Wash well and make into a soup
Common Sorrel – Rumex -Acetasa
Leaves in soups, boiled vegetable and lemon flavour in salads.
Coneflower – Echinacea purpurea
This North American native has been eaten and used as medicine for hundreds of years. Look for the daisy-like flower that features petals popping out of a prickly center cone.
You can eat the leaves and petals of this edible wild plant. Some flower varieties resemble yellow coneflowers which are not edible.
Curled dock – Rumex Crispus
Curly dock is one of many edible wild plants. People consider this a weed, and you’ll find it in neglected areas like parking strips, roadsides, and overgrown lawns. Look for long, pointed leaves with a wavy edge growing out of a central taproot.
You can eat the leaves, but note that the young ones taste best.
Don’t overeat this green plant as it contains oxalic acid. Make sure you aren’t eating a plant that has been poisoned. Boil them twice the second time with some salt.
Dandelions – Taraxacum officinale
They are freely available throughout the country for most of the year. The whole plant can be eaten: leaves in salads, sandwiches or pies, while flowers (in bloom between February and November) can be used in anything from risotto to omelets. If you can’t wait for the buds to open, they can be marinated and used like capers for flavour. Make dandelion coffee by grinding the dried roots and use as normal. It’s totally caffeine-free and has a vaguely chocolatey taste. The roots can also be thrown into stir-fries or added to vegetable dishes.
Dandelions are an underappreciated plant that far too many people are eager to eliminate. They are nutritious, easy to find and taste wonderful. The whole plant is edible and contains many macronutrients, including plenty of calcium. Because people consider this a weed, make sure you are foraging from an area that hasn’t been treated with pesticides.
Elder – sambucus nigra
The best anti-viral for you and the children
Can eat off the bush, make cordial and eat the flower heads.
The aromatic blooms can be eaten raw, cooked, dried or powdered, and added to cordials, wine, salads, fritters, ice-cream, cakes, biscuits, jellies, jams, sweets, tea and meat dishes, as well as to beauty products such as skin lotion and eye cream.
Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
A member of the honeysuckle family, elderberry is grown as an ornamental in some areas. It’s native to North America east of the Rocky Mountains. Look for compound leaves on a medium-sized shrub. When fruiting, look for black berries in umbrella-shaped clusters.The flowers and fruits are edible. Don’t mistake this for water hemlock.
Fat-hen – Chenopodium Album
Iron, protein and B1
Can be eaten raw but best cooked and eaten the same as spinach
Fiddleheads – Matteuccia struthiopteris
Fiddleheads are ferns before they have fully opened. You’ll find them emerging from the ground in spring from wet, fertile soil. Furled-up fern portion of the plant is the edible part.
The ostrich fern fiddleheads are the edible kind. Some ferns are poisonous, so identification is crucial.
Fireweed – Chamerion angustifolium, Chamerion canescens
This pretty plant is part of the evening primrose family. Look for the tall, purple blossoms growing from long, pointed, alternate leaves. Flowers are edible raw or cooked. Leaves from young plants can be eaten, as well. Watch your quantities when eating fireweed. Too much can have a laxative effect.
Fruit – insect damaged
The easiest way to prepare damaged fruits is to scrub them thoroughly, then cut slices from them, skin and all, until you reach the area of insect damage. Cover these slices of fruit with water and boil until they are soft. Then pour them into a colander and push the pulp through with an old-fashioned wooden potato masher or a wooden spoon. Return the pulp to the stove. Add the sweetener of your choice, and cook until blended. Can make apple sauce, jelly and jam
You can also preserve them.
Garlic Mustard, jack-by-the-hedge – Alliaria petiolata
Eat the leaves, mainly finely chopped in salads. They taste like garlic.
People consider this plant a weed so you can do your part to help keep it in check in the wild by eating it, which is fortunate because it’s delicious. It has scalloped leaves in a basal rosette, but the surest way to tell that you’ve found the right plant is to crush the leaves. It will smell like garlic. The entire plant is edible. Multiple doppelgängers exist including ground ivy, black mustard, and fringecup. You’ll know it’s garlic mustard if it smells pungent and a lot like garlic.
Gooseberries and Currants Ribes spp.
There are over 100 types of gooseberries in North America. In the early fall, these cheerful berries start popping up in cooler climates. The plants are covered in thorns and have maple-like leaves with scalloped edges. The berries can be anywhere from pale gold to dark red. Eat the berries. Some gooseberries are covered in spikes. Boil and mash the spiky kind before forcing it through a strainer.
Hazel – corylus avellana, americana, cornuta
There are two types of hazelnuts native to North America, and some European types have naturalized in the U.S. Nuts are ready in early August and into the fall. Look for multi-stemmed shrubs that grow about 10-feet tall (though they can get up to 25-feet with the right conditions) with husk-covered brown nuts. Nuts from this tree are edible.
Hawthorn – May Tree – Crataegus Monogyna
Eat the nut flavoured leaves straight from the tree. Also make jam from the berries. Taste the berries to see if they are sweet first. the leaves sandwiched between slices of bread were once a staple food in the spring. The leaves can also be added to salads, made into a tea or munched straight off the branch, while the roasted seeds make a good coffee substitute. Hawthorn berries, bountiful in autumn, make a tasty jam or fruit bread
Hickory Nuts – Carya
The husks of hickories split into four parts and fall off as the nuts hit the ground. The tough shell can be broken with a hammer or a heavy nutcracker.Shellbark and shagbark hickories are generally preferable to the heavier-shelled mockernut hickory. Other members of the genus Carya are the pignuts. There is a wide variation in flavor among the pignuts. Some are bitter and even astringent; others are sweet. The only way to find out whether the tree in your collecting territory has good nuts is to taste them. If they are bitter, leave them for the squirrels. If they are sweet, you have an easily cracked nut that can be used in any recipe calling for hickory nuts or for nuts in general.
Horse-Radish – armoracia rusticana
Peeled, washed and grated. as a garnish for roast beef.
Hop – Hummulus Impulus
Jerusalem artichoke – Helianthus tuberosus
Blooming yellow sunflowers with tubers on their roots cannot be confused with any other plants, so even a beginning forager can safely harvest Jerusalem artichokes.
The tubers of Jerusalem artichoke contain inulin, a substance similar to starch that is sometimes recommended in special diets.
Because the inside tends to get mushy and the skin toughens, it is best to scrape the tubers before cooking them. The tuberous root can be eaten raw or cooked.
Juniper – juniperus communis
Berries in gin, beer and sauce
Lamb’s Quarters – Chenopodium album
This common “weed” grows pretty much everywhere humans live. Look for diamond-shaped leaves coated with a flour-like powder on the underside. All parts are edible.
Beets, spinach, and Good-King-Henry are three cultivated plants from the family Chenopodiaceae. Related to quinoa in Peru.
Use the well washed leaves like spinach. can go back and break more leaves off (terminal shoots) during the summer.
Lime – tilia – europaea
Put young leaves in salad sandwiches
flowers dry inside for 2weeks and make tea
Mallow
Deep-frying the leaves makes satisfying green ‘crisps’, while the seeds have a delicate nutty flavour. The mauve flowers have a similar flavour and texture to the leaves and are also a good addition to the salad bowl.
Milkweed (common milkweed)- Asclepias syriaca
Unopened flower buds, young fruits, and freshly opened flowers are all good foods. Stir fry. Better to Wait for the plant to bloom in summer and gather its flowers and fruits.
Milkweed is the only source of food for Monarch Butterfly caterpillars, but it also makes a good snack for humans. Because it is bitter and contains toxins, it should be a last resort for nutrition. Eat the leaves, flower buds, and pods. The sap from this plant can be toxic to humans and animals in large quantities.
Miner’s Lettuce – Claytonia perfoliata
This plant got its name because miners would eat it to stave off scurvy. It’s easy to identify by the disk-like leaf with the stem passing through the middle. Eat the flower, leaves, and roots.
If you eat too much of this plant, it can have a laxative effect.
Mulberries – Morus rubra
And the black mulberry (Morus nigra) and the white mulberry (Morus alba)
Generally, the ripe fruits are purple or black rather than red, but the rubra may come from the color of the immature fruits. They crowd the branches between alternate simple leaves, which vary in shape from toothed to lobed.
Mullein – Verbascum thapsus
Look for this biennial growing in dry, sunny locations. It’s easy to identify by its tall, erect stem with yellow blossoms, but the large, velvety leaves are easy to spot as well. You can eat the flowers and leaves. Some people are allergic to this plant, particularly the little hairs that grow on the leaves.
Nettles
Make tea, soup, beer and even haggis. Boiling will get rid of the sting. Packed with vitamins and minerals, nettles contain more vitamin C than oranges. Nettles should be harvested before the flowers appear in early spring and only the young ones.
Oak – quereus Robur
Acorns – chopped and roasted. Oaks are even more abundant than hickory and walnut trees. There are more than fifty species of oak ( genus Quercus) in the United States. They are divided into two groups: white oaks with rounded leaf lobes and black oaks with sharp tipped lobes or bristles. White Oak acorns roast for 90 minutes.
Black Oak acorns are not edible unless you leach out the tannin using a lot of hot water. Oil can come to the top which you can use for cooking. Grind the acorns as soon as they are shelled. The easiest way is to use a meat grinder. Use a number 2 or number 3 blade so the flour ranges from fairly fine to some chunks one-eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch across. If you want a finer meal, grind the nuts twice.
You can leach the meal by boiling it for three hours with a change of water every half hour.
Oregon Grape – Mabonia aquifolium
Make the berries into a jelly or jam
Pickleweed – Salicornia europeae
This salt-loving plant is sought after by chefs for its savory taste. It grows primarily near the coasts, but also inland near saline water. It has opposite shooting branches and a succulent-like leaf. Top parts of the stems can be consumed raw or cooked.
Pigweed, Common Amaranth – Amaranths Retroflexus
Boiled leaves
Pumpkin vines and flowers
A squash, watermelon, or pumpkin plant in your backyard can provide many summer flower meals while some of the fruits are permitted to ripen. Leave the female flowers with inferior ovaries on the plant and harvest some of the male flowers.
Prickly-pear cactus – genus opuntia
Eat the pads, flattened stems when young and tender. Handle with forceps. If muddy, scrub with a stiff vegetable brush.
Cut off the spines along the edge of the pad. Cut the pad into thirds. With a sharp, thin knife remove the clusters of spines from the upper and lower surface of the three pieces along with a small circle of the green skin to which the spines are attached. Cut the pads into narrow strips about a quarter of an inch wide. A gelatinous juice will ooze from the pads when cut. Drop the strips into boiling water and cook them for three minutes to seal the edges and stop the flow. Cook until tender, then drain, butter, and serve them as a green vegetable, or drain them after boiling three minutes and combine them with other vegetables.
Purslane – Portulaca oleracea
You’ll find this succulent weed growing all over cities and suburbs, where it likes to grow in the cracks of sidewalks and under trees. It’s nutritious, and you can eat it raw or cooked.
Eat the flowers, leaves, and stems. Serve it as a boiled green vegetable flavored with a bit of garlic and with some hot peppers along the side and call it by the Mexican name, verdolaga.
Boiled purslane has a mild acid flavor and a slightly oily consistency. It cooks down very little, so you will know when you gather it exactly how much you will have to serve. Gather in early summer when tender.
It can look like spurge, which is poisonous (and a terrible weed). If you break it open and there is white liquid, don’t eat it.
Queen Anne’s Lace – Daucus carota
This plant is hardy and grows where others might not. The white flower will sometimes have a single purple spot in the center. The leaves look like a domestic carrot. The leaves and roots can be eaten. Watch out, this plant looks like poison hemlock and giant hogweed.
Red Clover – Trifolium pratense
Clover is in the pea family, and it has a bit of a pea-like taste. Look for pale green leaves with a distinct chevron pattern.
Can eat anything and everything, but you should cook older leaves.
Red clover variety is edible but contains high amounts of alkaloids in the fall. Not everyone tolerates clover as an edible. Pregnant women shouldn’t eat it.
Rose petals
Rose Petals and hips
Jam, tea, salads and more.
Rose petal jam. Lots of sugar, boiled lemon rind and some water. When gathering petals avoid the white triangle where it joins the stem it is bitter. Roses petals have a very aromatic, floral and slightly sweet flavor. They can be eaten raw, mixed into various fruit or green salads or dried and added to granola or mixed herbs. … Summary All varieties of roses are edible, but the ones with the sweetest fragrance are likely to have the most flavor.
There are more than 200 species of roses and 20,000 man-made hybrids. The flavors of rose petals run the gamut from totally flavorless to bitter, sour to sweet, slightly spicy to herbal and apple to minty. With all the roses to choose from, how do you pick those to eat? First, seek out the white beach rose Rosa rugosa alba. It is the most delicious rose, with Rosa rugosa coming in a strong second. Many old roses are delicious. Try Damask roses (Rosa damascena) and Apothecary rose (Rosa gallica). When choosing hybrids, go for the fragrant ones first. Some, however, leave a metallic aftertaste. That’s why it is important to sample all roses before using them in the kitchen.
Rowan, Mountain Ash – sorbus aucupuria
Orange fruits good for making marmalade chop up some apple to make pectin.
Salsify – Oyster Plant
Every part of salsify—leaves, stem and roots—is edible and it’s no accident that the vegetable is called the oyster plant. When cooked or steamed a short time, salsify’s taste very much resembles that of sea food. I use this trait to good advantage in what I call my “combination sea food meal”.
Scots Pine – Pinus sylvestrus
Nuts from pine cones and pine needle tea
Sea beet, Wild spinach – beta Vulgaris
Wash well and use the same as garden spinach
Self-heal – Prunella vulgaris
Self-heal is the bane of lawn owners, but an excellent plant for foragers. It grows in clusters with ovate leaves and small, purple, tubular flowers. You can eat the eaves. Make sure not to mistake this for ground ivy.
Sheep Sorrel – Rumex acetosella
Sheep sorrel is in the buckwheat family. It has arrow-shaped leaves with red stems covered in tiny flowers in the spring. Eat the leaves and seeds. Only eat this edible wild plant raw in small quantities.
Silverweed – otentilla anserina
This ghostly silver-shaded plant is both easily identified and easily prepared. It’s parsnip-shaped roots—the edible portion of the silverweed—are dug, scrubbed and boiled until tender. Drip some melted grease or butter on the boiled roots and eat ’em hot.
Slippery Elm – lmus fulva
The reddish inner bark, which peels very easily in the spring, is the edible part of the slippery elm. It’s harvested by finding a large tree and carefully cutting the outer bark away from the trunk and large limbs. You can do this without harming a tree simply by sawing off a few of the larger, lower limbs and peeling the bark only from them.
You can drop a good handful of fresh inner elm bark into a pressure cooker and “let ‘er go” for an hour at 15 pounds pressure. The finished bark is tender enough to slip down the throat like gelatin. You can add meat to a batch of the bark and cook it under pressure too. It makes a pretty good soup!
Leaf Tea
Sorrel – Rumex
Better to cook the leaves than eat raw (a lot of Potassium oxalate).
Stinging Nettle – Urtica dioica
Pick the leaves before high summer. Steam for a few minutes and eat with butter
It’s too bad that stinging nettles have such a negative reputation because they are nutritious and tasty. Look for the distinctive arrow-shaped leaves with teeth on the edges. You also know you’ve found it when you feel the bite. You can eat the leaves, stems, and roots.
Wear gloves and long sleeves when picking this plant. Best when they are young. You must cook them to get rid of the sting. Vitamin A and C
Sweet violet – viola odorata
flowers decoration and good in rice puddings
Sweet Chestnut – Castanen Sativa
Roasted chestnuts
Sweet gale – Myrica gale
Also known as the bog myrtle, this plant has several medicinal benefits, including as a treatment for acne, stomach ache, and liver issues. You can also keep the leaves around as a potent insect repellent. This plant grows as a shrub near bogs, with flat, oblong leaves. Its fruit and leaves are edible and make a tasty tea. Pregnant women should not eat this plant.
Violets – Violaceae, Viola
All violet leaves are edible. The common blue violet and the white violet with a blue center are the best. Can sauté them, boil them or eat in salads. You can eat the flowers in a salad.
Walnut – fuglans regia
Eat the nuts
Watercress – Nasturtium officinale
As the name implies, watercress grows in dense mats in shallow running water. It is full of vitamins and minerals. wash well, a good cooked vegetable. The leaves, stems, and flowers are edible.
Wild Fruit
Wild fruits like plums and crabapples
Usually, apparent still hanging from their trees. Mash into a jelly or strain as a juice blended with water, sugar and boiled.
Wild rose Rosa spp.
Wild roses have pink flowers with five petals. When the fruits form, they are round or pear-shaped, and orange or red in color. They grow everywhere from wooded areas to roadsides.
You can eat the petals, rosebuds and young shoots and leaves.
Be careful, raspberry and blackberry plants look like wild roses. That’s because they are all in the rose family.
Wild Onion – Allium bispectrum, Allium canadense
This grass-like plant can be identified by the onion-like scent. It grows small six-petaled flowers with a small white bulb underground. It likes rich soil. The entire plant is edible. Wild onions are part of the lily family, which contains toxic varieties. Be sure to smell the plant, because that will tell you if it’s the edible type.
Wild Garlic
it’s easily harvestable throughout the year and is versatile and delicious. It tastes much like regular garlic but has a milder flavour than cultivated cloves. Use the leaves to spice up a winter salad or stir-fry, or use it to add flavour to soups and stews.
Wild Ginger – Asarum caudatum, Asarum canadense
This shade-loving edible wild plant has heart-shaped leaves that grow low to the ground. It looks similar to coltsfoot. Snack on the rhizomes and leaves.
Flavor: This doesn’t taste like commercial ginger. It has a subtle peppery flavor with just a hint of ginger. Don’t overeat this plant because it contains an acid that can be a diuretic.
Wild Leek – Allium tricoccum
Also known as ramps or ramsons. If you can find these, you’ve hit the wild edible plant jackpot, because they are delicious. In the spring, look for wild leeks in the moist soil, usually under trees. They grow in 2 or 3 broad, smooth leaves out of a white bulb. Don’t harvest the bulb, because ramp populations are dwindling, and it takes five years or more for a ramp plant to mature. You can eat the bulbs and leaves, but we recommend leaving the bulb in the ground to produce a new plant. Lily of the Valley is a poisonous lookalike, so watch out. They only grow in the eastern and mid-western U.S.
Wild Persimmons
Wild persimmons are one of nature’s real bounties. In the early fall the simple alternately arranged leaves drop from the tree, often exposing hundreds or thousands of small orange-colored fruits. Pick when ripe. Can make into a pudding. Wash the persimmons. Remove stem end and any tough, stained skin. Split open and remove the seeds. Put the pulp in a jar and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.
Wild Strawberry – Fragaria virginiana
You’ve had cultivated strawberries, but a wild strawberry has a flavor all its own. They look like the ones growing in your garden, but smaller.Eat the berries. Can be confused with mock or false strawberries.
Winter Cress – barbarea vulgaris
cooked as a green and the flowers are good stir fried like broccoli.
Wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum)
Wood lily blossoms in a field. Wood lily is an edible wild plant. Look for cup-shaped, purple-spotted orange flowers on a 1 to 3-foot stalk. The stem has long, narrow leaves in whorls. This plant is becoming less common.
You can eat the flowers and seeds of this edible wild plant.
Wood Sorrel – Oxalis
Wood sorrel gets confused with clover, and it’s even known as American shamrock, even though it isn’t a shamrock at all. Look for three joined heart-shaped leaves. Each “heart” will have a crease down the middle. When it is blooming, you can spot it by the pink, white and lavender flowers. Leaves and flowers are edible raw, but the flavor is milder when cooked, and toxic compounds are removed via the cooking process. Watch out, this edible wild plant, like other sorrel varieties, contains oxalic acid. This component gives it its acidic taste but is also toxic in large quantities. Not safe for pets to consume.
Yarrow – Achillea millefolium
Yarrow has feathery, lance-shaped leaves that are smaller as they grow up the stem. Flowers bloom from spring to autumn and feature round-topped clusters of tiny, white blossoms. It’s an adaptable plant that grows in a variety of places. The leaves of this plant are edible. Poison hemlock and water hemlock look a lot like yarrow, so be sure to identify the plant correctly.
Yaupon holly – Ilex vomitoria
Yaupon holly edible wild plant with red berries
Yaupon is the only native tea plant in North America and, until recently, many landowners were trying to eradicate it as an invasive species (which it isn’t). A cup of tea from this plant contains as much caffeine as your average cup of coffee. Dry or boil the leaves to make tea, it has a similar flavor to yerba mate tea. Don’t eat the berries because they can make you vomit.
Yucca – Spanish bayonet, Spanish daggers, Eve’s needle, or Adam’s needle
Eat the flowers and buds. petals delicious in salad sandwhiches. the buds make nice pickles. the fruits have white grubs i them suitable for fishing.
Roditch 2022 March
Roditch
Biography
I am a retired Photography Teacher, Refugee Settlement Manager, and Builder. For the past 10 years, I have been teaching part-time, writing books, taking photos and doing lots of research.
All the books I write come from experience and research. Yes, in my life so far I have worked with refugees, taught art, built houses, studied herbs, and health. I have also studied astrology spirituality including meditation, animal welfare, and poetry.
I sincerely hope that you can gain valuable information from my books (usually short and sweet introductions) to different facets of life I have visited.
Where to find Roditch online
Website: http://roditch.com
Blog: http://roditch.com
Books
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 103,380. Language: English. Published: January 6, 2022. Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Autobiographies & Memoirs
A story about my life in Warrnambool, Castlemaine and Rushworth
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 249,020. Language: English. Published: December 19, 2021. Categories: Nonfiction » Children’s Books » Lifestyles / Country Life
Time to dropout and start a new, secure and sustainable life.
Price: $2.00 USD. Language: English. Published: October 26, 2021. Categories: Nonfiction » Art, Architecture, Photography » Photography – Photo books
Portraits by Roditch. These photos are a collection of Roditch’s portraits over the past 5 years. They are a reflection of the person.
Price: $2.00 USD. Language: English. Published: October 26, 2021. Categories: Nonfiction » Art, Architecture, Photography » Photography – Photo books
This is a collection of photographs of rural Thailand. Including farmers, Monks, temples and farms
Price: $2.00 USD. Language: English. Published: October 24, 2021. Categories: Nonfiction » Art, Architecture, Photography » Photography – Photo books
Original Photos of Buddha sculptures Thailand taken by famous photographer Roditch
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 170. Language: English. Published: December 6, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Inspiration » Spiritual inspiration
One reason I love Buddha is because he knew that animals had sentience, consciousness, and that consciousness was as valuable, respectable, sacred as any Homosapien.
Thailand of Dreams Series 1 by Roditch
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 170. Language: English. Published: December 4, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Inspiration » Spiritual inspiration
Thailand is a country is worth exploring to regain your imagination, love of nature, fairy tales and spirits of the land.
Portraits and Souls Series 1 by Roditch
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 180. Language: English. Published: December 4, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Inspiration » Spiritual inspiration
Portraits have always been there as a window into someone’s soul if only we are to look and care.
Beautiful Buddha Series 1 by Roditch
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 180. Language: English. Published: December 4, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Inspiration » Spiritual inspiration
Buddha is the peace in the world. Everyone can benefit from Buddha,s teachings.
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 140. Language: English. Published: December 4, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Inspiration » Spiritual inspiration
Children are the magic in the world. NASA has done research that confirms that all children are born creative geniuses, but, by the time they are 7 years old their genius has been retired by cultural and family conditioning.
Musing with the Fishes Series 1 by Roditch
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 180. Language: English. Published: December 4, 2020. Categories: Fiction » Inspirational
It is a wonderful way to relax and tune in with nature; just looking into water and musing with the fishes.
Off the Fence Posts by Roditch
Price: $3.00 USD. Words: 20. Language: English. Published: April 18, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Art, Architecture, Photography » Photography – Photo books
This book is a collection of posts I have made over the past 3 years.
Musing with the Fishes by Roditch
Price: $10.00 USD. Words: 530. Language: English. Published: April 16, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Art, Architecture, Photography » Photography – Photo books
What is real? As you look into these pictures you can see spirits and goblins and all sorts of magical things
Price: $10.00 USD. Words: 600. Language: English. Published: April 15, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Art, Architecture, Photography » Photography – Photo books
Thailand people love family, culture, Buddha, music, and celebrations.
Price: $7.00 USD. Words: 1,090. Language: English. Published: April 15, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Art, Architecture, Photography » Photography – Photo books
Thailand has a unique balance of culture, spirituality, art, agriculture, and the environment.
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 7,120. Language: English. Published: April 14, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Inspiration » General self-help
Right now you are creating your future if nothing else. This book is about a future that belongs to the rich and powerful.
Teaching ESL English Zen by Roditch
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 5,990. Language: English. Published: April 14, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Education & Study Guides » Teaching methods & materials / language arts
10 years of experience teaching ESL English to Kindergarten, Primary, Secondary, University, and Teachers.
Animal Sentience Zen by Roditch
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 10,700. Language: English. Published: April 13, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Science & Nature » Animals
Sentience is the word we use to say that we are animals like animals are human.
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 3,550. Language: English. Published: April 13, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Contemporary Poetry
Poetry is a way to communicate more deeply and completely. It is not just about writing a poem it is being a poem for your family, friends, and society.
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 2,900. Language: English. Published: April 13, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Art, Architecture, Photography » Photography – how to
Photography comes from the soul as any art does, the deeper you go the better your photos will be.
Price: $3.00 USD. Words: 750. Language: English. Published: April 13, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Art, Architecture, Photography » Artists
Shepparton, Victoria, Australia has produced an amazing amount of brilliant artists over the years.
Price: $3.00 USD. Words: 790. Language: English. Published: April 13, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Science & Nature » Environment
The conservationists in the Goulburn Valley, Victoria Australia are outstanding people.
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 1,560. Language: English. Published: April 12, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Contemporary Poetry
Poetry from your own pen is a baby bird flying from the nest into the stars.
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 190. Language: English. Published: April 12, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Ancient Poetry
This is a book of original poems and photographs by Roditch, inspired by Zen Koans.
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 190. Language: English. Published: April 12, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Ancient Poetry
This is a book of original poems and photographs by Roditch, inspired by Zen Koans.
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 220. Language: English. Published: April 12, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Ancient Poetry
This is a book of original poems and photographs by Roditch, inspired by Zen Koans
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 210. Language: English. Published: April 12, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Ancient Poetry
This is a book of original poems and photographs by Roditch, inspired by Zen Koans.
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 210. Language: English. Published: April 12, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Ancient Poetry
This is a book of original poems and photographs by Roditch, inspired by Zen Koans.
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 180. Language: English. Published: April 12, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Ancient Poetry
This is a book of original poems and photographs by Roditch, inspired by Zen Koans.
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 180. Language: English. Published: April 11, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Ancient Poetry
This is a book of original poems and photographs by Roditch, inspired by Zen Koans.
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 190. Language: English. Published: April 11, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Ancient Poetry
This is a book of original poems and photographs by Roditch, inspired by Zen Koans.
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 200. Language: English. Published: April 10, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Ancient Poetry
This book of original poems and photographs is inspired by Zen Koans
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 200. Language: English. Published: April 10, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Ancient Poetry
This book of original poems and photographs is inspired by Zen Koans.
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 190. Language: English. Published: April 10, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Contemporary Poetry
This book of original poems and photographs is inspired by Zen Koans
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 170. Language: English. Published: April 9, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Ancient
This book of original poems and photographs is inspired by Zen Koans. The words come in an inspirational moment and have more meaning than you first think and challenge your mind; like Zen Koans.
Meditation and Prayer Zen by Roditch
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 9,640. Language: English. Published: April 9, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Health, wellbeing, & medicine » Mental health
Throughout history, meditators have been both influential and mysterious. To look at some of the great meditators, see their works and know them more deeply helps when meditating your way to a fuller and richer life.
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 11,920. Language: English. Published: April 8, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Health, wellbeing, & medicine » Aging well
The fountain of youth is real. By fasting 1 day a week, taking resveratrol, Metformin and AMPK you can live much longer, be more healthy and energetic
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 8,580. Language: English. Published: April 8, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Health, wellbeing, & medicine » Aging well
There are many places in the world where people still get a large proportion of their food in the wild. And there are just as many who go hunting for their food in supermarkets.
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 6,580. Language: English. Published: April 7, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Health, wellbeing, & medicine » Aging well
People worry about dying from Covid-19 but most of us are dying early because of cancer, heart and liver disease already.
GMO and Glyphosate Zen by Roditch
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 6,870. Language: English. Published: April 7, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Health, wellbeing, & medicine » Family health
If we don’t have the land or the time to grow our own food then we should buy only organic because Genetically Modified Food plastered with Glyphosate is not an option for a long and happy life
Fruits of Our Labour by Roditch
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 21,200. Language: English. Published: April 6, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » History » Australia & New Zealand
This book is a history of the Goulburn Valley Fruit Industry.
Teresa – Love on the Riverbank by Roditch
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 1,810. Language: English. Published: April 4, 2020. Categories: Poetry » Epic
Our heart is silent when it wants to scream out “I am here, love me.” Poetry is kissing with words, words that can cross infinite boundaries of the mind to pierce the heart of a willing soul.
A Suitcase Full of Dreams by Roditch
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 83,830. Language: English. Published: April 3, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » History » Australia & New Zealand
The Goulburn Valley, Victoria, Australia is home to thousands of refugees and immigrants from around the world. Shepparton is the main city in the Goulburn Valley which is surrounded by orchards.
Francis of Warrnambool by Roditch
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 7,870. Language: English. Published: April 3, 2020. Categories: Fiction » Fairy tales
A lot of very talented people were born in Warrnambool in the ’50s. Like Dave Dawson, Peter Lucas and Jack Wilkins.
Debt and Self Sufficiency by Roditch
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 6,090. Language: English. Published: April 2, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Self-improvement » Emotional healing
We all have too much debt. It is time to pay it all back and remain debt-free forever.
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 4,870. Language: English. Published: April 2, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Politics & Current Affairs » Civil & human rights
Everyone has the right to physical,. emotional and intellectual freedom. These rights are eroding and it is time to make a stand.
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 7,380. Language: English. Published: March 30, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Engineering, trades, & technology » Construction / General
Many years ago I built my own house out of second-hand materials.
Price: $4.00 USD. Words: 7,420. Language: English. Published: March 30, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » New Age » Astrology
This is a small Astrology book. Like all the ZEN series it is a simple introduction about a vast topic.
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 1,360. Language: English. Published: March 30, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Music » History & Criticism
The Sunbury Pop Festival in 1972, photos and poems. Original photos and Poems by Roditch
Swat the Fly – A Covid-19 Self Help Guide by Roditch
Price: $5.00 USD. Words: 26,300. Language: English. Published: March 29, 2020. Categories: Nonfiction » Health, wellbeing, & medicine » Alternative medicine
This book is a collection of natural remedies used by Doctors that will help you prevent and overcome the covid-19 virus.
Roditch’s tag cloud
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