What are you eating/making right now?

Regenerative Subsistence Flora Food & Medicine
#1

Salad with violet leaves and petals, dandelion leaves and petals, steamed mouse-ear chickweed, steamed wintercress “broccoli”, sheep sorrel leaves and chives from the garden

Hamburg stew with onions, garlic, kale, and most importantly lots of dandelion greens

Dandelion cookies (from John G. on learningherbs.com) - soooo yummy - I double the amount of dandelion petals

Japanese Knotweed steamed with apples (with a little butter and maple syrup, as desired)

Violet petal vinegar (with raw apple cider vinegar)

Violet leaf tincture (with vodka)

And, from last year’s reserves: nettle/spearmint tea with a bit of honey

#2

You live up to your name admirably… ;D

I haven’t been far beyond the standard dandelion & plantain fare, mostly because I still need to learn (easy) and remember (not so easy) a more diverse range of wild edibles.

Last year I sampled a few earthworms & grasshoppers, and plan to do so again when they’re around in profusion. They’re a little fiddly to prepare, but I think it’s a practice thing.

#3

Good post. Especially since I’m behind most of the people on this forum in growing season and they can remind me what to look for before it comes up so I catch it at just the right time!

I’m eating:
Lots of leek products, dock leaves with rice and spices, japanese knotweed but it’s too old for the skin to be tender and I had to peel it which is a pain in the butt. Made a dandelion apertif (vodka, lemon rind, sugar, blossoms, let sit 6 weeks). Dandelion blossom tea. Chickweed on bacon lettuce chickweed sandwiches.

So dandelion you must eat the dandelion leaves (cannibal!) even after the flowers come out. You don’t find them too bitter?

#4
They're a little fiddly to prepare

I bet!

So dandelion you must eat the dandelion leaves (cannibal!) even after the flowers come out. You don't find them too bitter?

Cannibal, I am. I don’t find them too bitter - yet. Eating them in November? - Now that was bittttttter! I want to build up my bitter taste buds though, you know?

Today’s salad (common plantain, moneywort, oxeye daisy, sheep sorrel, orpine or live forever, and, of course - [color=yellow]dandelion flower petals! [/color] )

#5

One of the failure club projects for this week is to eat a new plant (or a new part of a plant). I know it is something we can all do. Question is what to try? I’m leaning towards solomon’s seal root, orpine root, greenbriar shoot, or bugleweed tuber. It might be a bit late in the spring for eating roots and tubers (they are sending their energy up into the new growth) but what are ya gonna do, you don’t always notice the plant until it’s big! I wonder too if it matters that much. Let’s say it still tastes good and is tender, then nutrition wise, even though less nutritious than a late fall or early spring dug plant might it still be as nutritious or more as a crappy storebought food?

#6

Funny you should bring new plants up, just today I finally found some mullein in the woods (luckily I do a volunteer job patrolling a nature reserve) and had a good ol’ chomp on it raw. Not unlike dandelion in bitterness, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover the fine fluff on the leaves doesn’t irritate my mouth like my local hairy-plantain…

#7

Today I ate chickweed cooked in olive oil with some curry powder lemon juice and soy. Over rice. Not a new food. An oldie but a goodie.

#8

Penny, I think I have to eat chickweed tomorrow! Yummmy!

Today, I introduced a 6-year-old boy to violet flowers. I can’t even tell you how much he enjoyed the experience. He liked them better than the debris huts and lean-to’s I showed him in the woods. Ah, behold the power of wild foods…

#9

speaking of violets–violet leaves are one of my favorite–possibly my very favorite–greens. they’re sooo delicate. cook them in just the water clinging to the leaves after you wash them and a dollop of oil or grease (i usually use bacon fat).

and omelets with dandelion flowers and violet leaves can’t be beat.

#10

Ooo. i’ve been meaning to use the violet leaves to make a violet paneer. You know like the Indian dish palak paneer? I also pick up my first order of raw milk today from a local farm. I’m excited to see how that tastes.

#11

I love to eat violet leaves too - but just raw, right out of my yard with a quick rinse. I’ve been gathering a handful every morning. They are an incredible way to begin my day…

Also dandelion flower fritters …this is one of the best ways to highlight dandelion flowers in my experience. From yard to fritter in less than 5 minutes and I can really feel all the life force in the dish this way!

#12

ramps (aka leeks) with poke greens and eggs, cooked in bear grease (from last fall)

canned bear meat (from last fall) stew, with wild greens including nettle, sochan (aka “green headed coneflower”), violets, knotweed, smartweed, sour dock, lady’s thumb (a buckwheat family plant), milkweed…

bee balm, cleavers and nettle tea

roadkill possum stuck with spicebush twigs and grilled

chickweed and oxe-eye daisy salad with canned fish and herbal vinegar/olive oil dressing…

www.wildroots.org

#13

Today I made braken fern ala orange frim Billy Joe Tatum’s cookbook. It was alright, but could have been better. I would alter the recipe if I made it again. I suppose that is my new plant for the week. I’ve nibbled it before but never made a meal out of it.

#14

today i had a salad of basswood leaves, violets, dandelion, plantain, cattail corms, daisy flowers, columbine flowers, leeks and steamed nettle heads. i have also been drinking burdock root tea, mullien tea, and yellow birch tea.
ive been nibbling on raspberry leaves as well.
thistle stalks are just starting to pop up and are delicious on a hot day.

#15

High five burdock root drinkers! I’m doing an experiment that involves drinking at least 2 quarts of burdock infusion a week. So far it seems to have made a slight difference in my PMS symptoms and skin. More so than when I drank nettle or oatstaw or comfrey.
May I ask where you are located, tree whisperer?

#16

I dug up the root of either curly dock or yellow dock and am wondering if I can make it into a tea or eat them. Anyone know? I know burdock is edible, but what about the other common docks?

#17

Yeah you can definitely make them into tea. It’s a lot like dandelion root, enhances bile production, good for the liver. You could eat it too. If you think the taste and texture are good I would go for it. I’ve seen it used in fall/winter stews. My one book says late summer to mid-fall is the ideal time for medicinal purposes, but forget ideal. Things can still be good even when they aren’t “ideal”.

#18

i think it has a lot of iron in it too.

#19

be careful when eatin it though (curly dock), as i read ingesting the roots and leaves raw can cause severe stomach cramps.

#20

Penny Scout, I noticed that you said you have drank a lot of comfrey. I heard that stuff if taken internally over a long period can cause severe cancer. Just care about you and don’t want you to get hurt.