Early Spring

[dixieangler]

The white blooms are already out on the Blackberry bushes, plants and trees producing more starch now, and the new green, Grape Vine, Willow, and Maple leaves are out. More blooms and green "Springing" up. Lots of other new growth showing up. Starting to get out of the lean months and more plant food is starting to be available. Fortunately the cool weather is hanging on before the heat sets in.

[coon4492]

I'm hoping to learn more about wild edibles this spring. I feel comfortable with all of the survival hunting/fishing tactics so now it's time I learn a thing or two about wild edibles. So far the only thing I know that's safe to eat are acorns and cattails.

[dixieangler]

Deane Jordan is supposed to have a DVD series coming out soon. I hope to get the set. He has something like 125 episodes now but I still have not seen the DVD series up for sale yet on his web-site. When you want to know whether a plant is edible or not, get a set of gloves and cut a sample, put it in a bag, then take it down to the county agriculture or extension office or college botany professor for them to tell you what it is. That way you will know for sure what it is and whether or not it is edible, medicinal, or usable or not. Otherwise find a local botanical expert on wild plants but this can (may) be a far more expensive way to identify plants. Plant guides like Peterson's is nice but only take you so far, then it comes down to local knowledge.

BTW, keep an eye out for snakes crawling around while poking around plants now that its Spring.

While on the subject, I know what John McPherson thinks about wild food. He thinks that all you need is meat (protein) and fat to live on. While it is true you need meat and fat primarily, if you do not eat enough carbohydrates and vitamins then you could still die. Nutrition needs to be well rounded so meat and fat alone will not do it. If you do not get vitamin C, you get scurvy and die. If you do not get vitamin A, your eyesight, hearing, smell, basically senses deteriorate. If you do not get vitamin B, you get beriberi (thiamine deficiency) and die. If you don't get vitamin D, you get calcium deficiency and weak bones. If you don't get vitamin E, your hair, nails, teeth, and parts of your body start to fall off. Bottom line is you need the carbohydrates and vitamins of plants in addition to meat (protein) and fat and there is no way around that. I am not trying to dispute JM about the need for meat and fat but I disagree that a person can live on meat and fat alone and there are lots of nutritionists that say the same thing I just did. Meat and fat just does not provide the critical vitamins and carbohydrates that come from plants.

[coon4492]

yea don't they call it rabbit starvation? You eat nothing but meat yet you still die because you lacked the vitamins. I didn't think of taking questionable plants to an expert I was just going to try and work with books. That's a way safer idea I'll try that instead.

[dixieangler]

yea don't they call it rabbit starvation? You eat nothing but meat yet you still die because you lacked the vitamins. I didn't think of taking questionable plants to an expert I was just going to try and work with books. That's a way safer idea I'll try that instead.

Rabbit starvation is eating nothing but meat while getting no fat or other nutrients from the rabbit parts. Some animals have no fat and a rabbit is one of them but there are some other parts that give added nutrition. Still the human body needs fat. One of the best for both meat and fat is deer and their kin. Animal bones will give calcium (vitamin D) for instance. But vitamins and carbohydrates will largely be found in plants.

Please do take your plants to the county ag/ext. office or college or local expert regardless of what the books say. Books are a start and give an idea of what kind of plant you may have as well as other plant uses and info but a plant authority will provide a positive identity for the plant. A positive identity is a must, the life you save could be your own.

[coon4492]

there's a local conservation office pretty close to my house, do you think they would be of any help with identifying plants? I feel like they would atleast know an expert they could direct me too.

[dixieangler]

Yes. If they can't help ID wild plants then they should know some other office or someone who can.

[your_comforting]

My local cooperative extension office suggested books and such for me. Might check there. It's where you take your soil sample if you garden.. you know the place.

And yes, I've already relocated 2 snakes this year. It got up to 87F today so snakes are out. Watch your step AND your hands.

[coon4492]

87 degrees? where do you live? In Pennsylvania it's been 38 degrees. I wish it was 87 here, than I could actually do some fishing.

[dixieangler]

where do you live?

I believe your_comforting lives in South Georgia.

[LDS]

Early spring my sweet butt!




That's snow on them buttercups!

Taken this morning before church.

[your_comforting]

Yep. South Georgia.

Some of the wild edibles that are ready for harvest here: Salvia lyrata, Monarda punctata, Oxalis stricta, Stachys floridana, Raphanus raphanistrum (and a few other wild mustards like Cardamine hirsuta). Let's see... there's wandering jew, Florida pusley, several thistles, and lettuces, dandelions, spiderwort..

I have a long list of blooming plants I'm keeping a journal for my bees foraging habits, as well as my own.

Which brings me to the next point.. one of our most valuable tools is simply pen and paper. Learning wild plants is quite a feat, just because there are so many, and so many that are similar to others.. I've been studying them for about 2 years now, and have only committed a handfull to memory (actually, close to 100 or so). I will say this: The edibility of ANY plant is of little concern if you cannot confidently identify it. FIRST learn the plants, THEN learn whether you can eat them or not and how to prepare them, if at all.

There is a book out there called something like "stalking the wild asparagus" which to me is a prime example of how you can "seek" a plant, yet spend a lifetime never finding it.. why not learn what you have readily available, and seek those elusives after you are confident you'll have something to eat. At least that's my plan... I still have not found ostrich fern...

Flower presses and scrapbooks can be a fun way to get the whole family involved too.

[dixieangler]

Stachys floridana also known commonly as the Florida Betony but in Florida it is referred to as the Florida Hedgenettle or Rattlesnake weed (due to its edible tuber resembling a snake rattle).

I am still looking for this one.

I will say this: The edibility of ANY plant is of little concern if you cannot confidently identify it. FIRST learn the plants, THEN learn whether you can eat them or not and how to prepare them, if at all.

Yep. One plant at a time.

[your_comforting]

Look in flowerbeds... People literally spend collective billions of dollars a year trying to eliminate it, when they could just dig up the root, thereby destroying the plant, and have a delicious snack.

[dixieangler]

I don't see many "flowerbeds" out in the woods. If I have to go to a cultivated spot or agricultural plot, then it won't do me much good as a "wild" edible. Remember I go out in the woods, not in and around civilization as much. But I will peak into some flowerbeds for it occasionally.