Well, I’m pushing the season, but not the spirit of the conversation. This is wild rice (black) on the St. Regis River in the northeastern part of the Adirondack Mountains of NY. We were touring, just happened to have our poles. Later, we did the canoe gathering. Paddle through, bend the plants over into the canoe and beat the plants to drop the rice. Takes like an hour to cook. Has a mild taste, not like white rice, but good. Gets better as you hunger.
And I just happen to love the sound of my Merc at full bore!
Wild edibles are survival food for sure, but you can plant some cut and come again foods that will be your survival food right in the garden. Asparagus is one. I also have strawberries, blueberries , raspberries, gooseberries, Arctic Beauty kiwi fruit and grapes. Not a whole bunch of any one, but a pretty good mix of grown here fruits. There are also wild apple trees all over.
Also on that list are ; chives, garlic chives and bunching onions. Eaten fresh or cooked, leaves dried or used fresh in soups, stews, chopped into salad, eggs, etc.
Garlic chives have flat bladed leaves and smell and taste like garlic, no need to “run” to the store for a bulb of garlic. Pot some up for indoors in winter. Grow your own garlic for winter. I plant garlic in the fall here.
I have plabted those bouncing onions (called winter onion here) seeds this spring but i had wery litle info about it so thanks for the nice pictures. Is it true that they self reproduce?
Yes, it’s true. The individual onions will reproduce by division. I’ll try to dig a clump that shows this and post it later. You will see this as your onions mature and the single plants start producing clumps of onions. Think of planting a single clove of garlic. Eventually, it becomes a clump of cloves with a single root system.
A permanent location should be used as you only have to plant theses once and as long as you leave a plant to form another clump.
Pepe
This is the male kiwi flower which has pollen producing stamens and variegated leaves (only on male plants). Can’t remember which is which, just think, stamens- stud. Pistils uhhh, ummm, err, well, you know.
Now I can identify the other vines that have popped up and cull out the males since one male vine is plenty for all the females I have. The real young male vines don’t seem to develop the variegation right off, thus the flower is your cue.
This is lamb’s quarter. Looks like a weed in your garden, but it is a wild green. Early on, like here, pick the whole plant and lightly steam or boil. Later when the plants are big you can harvest just the leaves. Cooks like spinach, but tastes much better. Serve with a pat of butter, salt and pepper if you like. There is also another green, red root, but it’s not up yet. I’ll post a pic when they start to grow. Both are delicious if you like greens! You’ll never pull these and toss them in the compost pile again.
This helps identify another wild edible in the fall with its stand of tall stalks. It is Jerusalem artichoke. It’s not an artichoke. Some call it wild sunflower because of its tall stalks and yellow flowers.
They grow to a good size. I usually peel, slice thinly and fry like potatoes, but you can cook and mash (not my favorite prep as they tend to be pasty in texture). Recommended for diabetics instead of potatoes.
Here’s that same patch in spring to help identify. They kind of resemble sunflowers. Some folks call them sun chokes. They are loaded with yellow flowers later on. I’ll post the flowers later this season.
This is another cut/harvest and come again survival food flowering in Spring, horse radish. I’ll post some harvesting pics in the fall. If you look closely, you’ll see some missed garlic growing in this bed. Looks like small onion plants.
I just found some red root. Cook it like lamb’s quarter. Another very good green available early in the season. I’ll let this “weed” patch grow so i can harvest my greens.
Pepe
Edit: This is actually pigweed. I called it red root which it has, but lamb’s quarter also has a red root, so leaf id better.
The jerusalem artichokes are eaten raw here in salads. Great taste and it ripes in the fall so we dig it all winter. The taste gets better when the frost gets them
Let me remind you foragers that the cattails are growing and will be flowering soon. Take advantage and gather some pollen. I’d better get out tomorrow because they don’t flower for long. Wait a week and you could miss the pollen. I’ll post what I find tomorrow, unless there’s a bunch of garage sales.
Pepe
Here’s another valuable survival, multi purpose, cut and come again plant, comfrey. I grow it all over my garden and use every leaf as potassium rich mulch. Also rich in nitrogen, it won’t rob the nitrogen already in your soil. Potassium is very soluble and leaches out of the top soil easily resulting in a potassium deficiency. Comfrey roots mine deep potassium, store it and supply it to your plants as it biodegrades as mulch. You can use this in any space in your yard or garden, one plant or a group. Easy to care for, almost set it and forget it. It’s not too fussy about where it grows. Deep roots = drought resistance. It’s also a beautiful looking plant. The bees love it! It makes a nice mild flavored tea, very good with honey.The bruised leaves make a great poultice. I can vouch for this. Helps with burns, too. Here’s some more info on comfrey;
I extended my raspberry rows and planted comfrey every 2’ on the border. I will also plant comfrey along all the new rows. It doesn’t impede the raspberry plant growth, as you can see. Plant it in your weed patch. Plant it anywhere. Plant it everywhere and forget needing 10-10-9999999!
Pepe
It is a great plant but a hardy one. VERY hardy one. And it reproduces fast. Last year l saw a few of them on our oats feald and this year it almost overgrown our barley! It was a lot of work for me and my wife to get rid of it.
The roots are alsow great medicine. Dry them and pulverize and when you cut your self rub that powder on the cut. It stops the blod imediatly!
l mix barley, corn and store bought chickhen feed in about equal parts for the meat chickens the hens just get corn and barley. l am planing to replace that chickhen feed (composed of soya (GMO!) corn and sunflower mostly) with homegrown soya beans next year. Planted it for the first time this year to se if it grows well here and to get more seeds for next year.
