A pile of dirt is an opportunity for weeds and you.
Where do you look for edible wild plants? I often look where there are changes in the landscape. Prime is disturbed ground. If you’ve ever plowed up a plot and left it for a while your tillage happily becomes populated with weeds. At one of the places I teach a 50-by-50 foot street corner had its planted shrubs removed so a small tower could be built there. Within weeks the entire lot was covered with amaranth and purslane. The roadside soil was not wholesome but it was a great demonstration of how weeds, in this case prime edibles, are opportunists. Another place to look for edibles is a pile of dirt. That’s disturbed soil as well. Piles of dirt are usually teaming with weeds seeds that have been waiting for years to be awakened by a little light and water. Many weed seeds can lie dormant waiting decades for a growing opportunity, some even centuries.
This weedy ditch is also a transition zone.
I often say food is where the water is. It doesn’t make much difference whether the water is fresh, salt or brackish. The flora and fauna will change but there is always food where the water is. The farther away from water you are the farther away from food you are. While lakes, ponds, shore lines and ditches are obvious places don’t forget to look for depressions in lawns and the like. Any place slightly wetter than the surroundings is a different environment and invites weeds. Around drinking fountains are another likely place for weeds as well as irrigation sprinkler heads and down spouts if the roof is covered with a safe material. I once found a water-liking sugarberry tree unexpectedly on top of a dry hill … next to an irrigation sprinkler. I live on a dry hill but my elderberries thrive on roof water dumped on them in numerous gallons every time it rains.
Another fruitful place to look are transition zones (that is also where one also often finds animals, too.) Many plants exploit where different environments meet. The persimmon tree is a good example. It always thrives on the edges… edges of forests, edges of roads, paths, rivers and the like. Transitions zones are where fields meet forests, shore to land, lawns to shrubs, orchard to non-orchard, soft to hard wood forests, or along roads and trails. Plants may not grow where they’re wanted but they do grow where it meets their preferred conditions.
And of course you can look for plants in very specific environments, such as swamp plants in a bog, or blueberries in acidic soil, thistles in full sun, some pawpaws in shade. That reminds me not to overlook pastures where what is grazed or not grazed affects what grows there. Locally thistles and pawpaws are very common in pastures.
Pineapple Weed
I was given cause recently to reminisce about Pineapple Weed. The first thing is what did they call it before everyone knew what pineapples smelled like? (Pineapples, by the way, are native to South America, not Hawaii.) Pineapple Weed was once called “Disc Mayweed” but that appears to be of botanical extraction. “Wild Chamomile” is another name and more accurate but at one time all Chamomile was wild. “Rayless Chamomile” was also used though I’m sure the locals called it something else. And the botanists are still in flux with some calling it Marticaria discodea instead of Matricaria matricarioides. Personally I would go with M. discodea than M. matricatioides because the latter is not at all descriptive, inventive nor imaginative. In fact it is rather lazy. It’s Dead Latin that means it looks like itself. It would be as if my official botanical name was Green Deane Who Looks Like Green Deane.
At any rate Pineapple Weed should be sprouting up in all of North America except for four states, Texas, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. I personally know this tea-making plant will not grow in Florida. I have smuggled it in from Maine and tried to keep a pot of it growing, much to the horror of Native Plant Society folks. Have no fear: It did not escape. It died in the heat. Back home it struggled every year to grow every year in our glacial dirt driveway. Tenacious, tough, small and yes smelling of pineapples. It will be growing near you. Look around foot paths, driveway, and bare ground. To read more about the Pineapple Weed go here.
Toe Biter and 2.5 inch car key
You couldn’t tell by its drying body on the sidewalk that it is a delicacy in Thailand. In fact that’s what confusing. Toe Biters are an aquatic insect and this not only was on dry land (so to speak) but had wings… When you eat them in a Thai snack shop they come all cooked and one doesn’t notice much about their anatomy except they are insects. So I sent a photo of the deceased to an entomologist friend who confirmed it is what locals call a Toe Biter (so called because they sometimes nip at the toes of bathers.) She wrote: “You are exactly right, it is a Belostomatid. They fly well, so you can find them in dry areas. They breath air even if they are aquatic bugs. They have the means to bite (piercing style) since they are totally carnivorous. They may eat other insects but can go for vertebrates as well such as fish and tadpoles.”
Seems to me eating a Toe Biter is the best revenge … on par with eating sand spurs. If you want to read more about edible insects including the Toe Biter click here.
Two million plus views. My videos on You Tube went over two million views this week, subscribers have topped 24,000. That is why Eat The Weeds owns that space on the Internet. 135 of the for-free videos on the Internet are now available on nine DVDs. Sales have been good. It took several years to make the videos and then a couple more to get them into DVD format. With the exception of some minor enhancements they are the same as the videos on You Tube basically for less than $1 each. I’m working on volume 10. People ask why buy the DVDs when the videos are for free on the Internet? There are several answers given: First some people want them and have been asking me for years to put them on DVDs. Many folks like to have their own “hard” copy, others have slow service or are on dial up. Many want to support EatTheWeeds because there is expense in being the Internet leader in your category. Over 500 free articles also figure into that generous support. Two million. Wow! I personally want to thank everyone who helped Eat The Weeds make this milestone. To read more about the DVDs, go here.
“Mazie Jordan” and Green Deane when he was a sprout c. 1951.
It was nearly 60 years ago that I first realized you could eat wild plants. The only grandmother I knew would visit her only daughter, my mother. To get away from the men so they could “chat” they would go walking along woodroads. I was too young to listen in but my dog Sister and I would tag along. (Yes, my dog was called “Sister” because I didn’t have a sister.) Amongst tid bits of gossip my grandmother and mother would nibble here and there: Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, checkerberries, wild apples, grapes, and bunch berries, lots of bunch berries. My mother liked them even though she complained they were tasteless. I also learned on those informational excursions to stay away from the toxic “doll eyes” and other dangers in the woods. My main suppertime chore in the summer back then was to dig up dandelion greens. I was armed for my mission with a brown paper IGA grocery bag, a sharp knife, and a small but growing hand-me-down data base of wild edibles. Sadly on the morning of July 4th last, she who introduced me to the world, and foraging, died. This is why there has been a two-week lull in the newsletters. Mom, 88 and living alone in Maine, had been ill but not severely so thus her passing was sudden and quite unexpected. She was the youngest in her family and the last to go. Mom was a feisty New Englander. She did the New York Times crossword puzzles in ink and read this newsletter and selected articles thanks to a neighbor, Chuck Gowen, who printed them out for her. The entire Gowen family has been very helpful through this unavoidable ordeal. My deepest thanks to them. Mae Lydia Putney will be missed particularly during thunderstorms which she so loved to watch. Indeed… on the 4th of July within hours of her passing, there was one hell of a thunderstorm here… Message received, Ma.
This is the sad event we all have ahead of us. My condolences.
With deepest sympathy, my friend, I send condolences to you on the loss of your dear Mother and I thank you for carrying on her tradition of teaching others about Mother Nature’s bountiful wild edibles!
Condolences, regarding your Mother…
I have to think, it would have pleased her (did please her) enormously, your memories of “early learning”. Those very early (young) learning experiences and values, are valuable knowledge she gave you, which you are also passing on (through this blog).
Sorry to hear about your mom, it’s always hard to lose her….
Yeah… it’s not as if we have several so we get used to such things…
So sorry to hear about your Mother…expected or unexpected we are never quite prepared for what that will mean to us…how we’ll feel…how we’ll carry on through this journey…Wishing you well on yours…
So sorry. We have been where you are and can feel what you feel.
Our deepest sympathy.
Jim Smith
Thanks for posting the picture of you and mom, with the bit of history of the family. I am glad she lived a healthy and long life. She was certainly outside the standard deviation regarding how people view the planet, as are you…and that alone makes her life special! Hang in there, and thanks for all you do…Best, Steve
Best wishes and my thoughts are with you, my friend. We who seek immortality find it through your example. Your Grandmother and Mother passed this wonderful knowledge on to you; now you pass the culture on to us so inevitably a bit of your ancestors now lives in all of us who read and view your teachings. Thanks to your Mother for passing along this vast knowledge of nature and culture.
Deepest sympathy to you on losing a Mom so dear to you. She left you a wonderful legacy in experiences and knowledge, which we all appreciate you sharing with us. I am sure you think of her often as you are out rambling.
My condolences on the loss of your beloved mother. You wrote a lovely tribute that made me wish I could have met her.
Deane, so sorry to hear of your loss. Noone is spared that experience; nevertheless, it is a hard place to go through. But — part of living a fulfilled life is looking back and not having any regrets. I’m just sure you loved her well, and you made your momma proud! Be assured that you are loved and appreciated for all you do.
my condolences mr dean yourmom.
mr dean GOD have her in a resting place
keep up the good work and my GOD always bless u ,as keep u inspiring orders
an remember we must always
give him the oner glory
and praise in Jesus name amen how a great day mr dean
Green, your opening gambit about finding edible weeds in disturbed dirt is great. And blessings to your mother for your engagement with wild edibles. My sympathies.
Our Yankee mothers always pass on the best of their knowledge that we carry with us forever. Very sorry for your loss Deane.
My thoughts & prayers are with you.
My heartfelt condolences to you. When you continue your news letter I will consider it a loving tribute to your beloved Mother (and grandmother). I want to thank you for allowing me to share in all of your knowledge and for the part of your life regarding the things you have learned. You are appreciated and respected as your teachers before you. God Bless.
Im So Sorry To Hear About Your Mothers Passing…Our Deepest Condolences.
What a sweet tribute to your mother. The photograph brought tears to my eyes. On a technical note, thanks for making this newsletter mobile compatible as I’m reading on the Concord Coach to Boston (and then on to Gainesville). Wish I had discovered your site 10-20-30 years ago. Like it very much.
I am sad to hear of your loss, my condolences.
Thank you for passing along what you have learned over so many years.
I cannot express how grateful I am for you having learned what you know and passing it along to a world of hungry minds….and stomachs.
Sorry to hear she went on. She is likely enjoying the things she missed, walks through the woods again though, so the sorrow is in those who miss her rather than her being sad herself. It helps me to remember that when I think of family who have passed on. My condolences.
Mr. Dean, my deepest condolences on the loss of your Mother. My Mom passed away on Easter this year at age of 70, and I terribly miss Her. Glory to all Moms who are caregivers of the future. Thank you for writing whole-hearted story about your Mother.
So sorry for your loss
Deane:
So sorry to hear about your mother. My heart goes out to you sir. I hope the great memories of your time together soon replace the sad ones of her passing.
I’m so sorry to hear about your mother passing. Many thanks to her for starting you out on the right track.
Thank you for sharing the stories and picture of your Mother. Thanks to her for bringing you into our lives for you to share your knowledge with us.
I am sorry for your loss and glad for her contribution to my education (you). Peace be yours.
Thank you for sharing your memories of your mother. My condolences to you
There is no greater love than that of a mother for her son, you were blessed to have had that in your life. She was equally blessed to have had you to love. Sorry for your loss, hope you will dwell on the good memories.
Sorry for your lost, I am sure she will be watching over you on every walk in the woods. My deepest sympathy. May God Bless Her and You.
All 24,000 of your subscribers owe our deepest gratitude to the very special woman who was your mother for inspiring your interest in wild edible plants. Isn’t it amazing how the ripples from her life have spread around the world? Her legacy grows. With heartfelt condolences.
So sorry for your dear loss. She will be with you in every breeze, every drop of rain, and surely every thunderstorm too. I imagine she was and is so proud of all you do and share with us fellow foraging followers.
My condolences on the loss of your mother. Thank you for sharing her story and all the great information. May you have peace.
Sorry to hear about your Mom, thank you for sharing such a sweet story. Green Blessings 🙂 Love from Texas.
Our mother is our first teacher and our first love. I’m so sorry for your loss.
My condolences go out to you Green Deane. I’m sending some good vibes your way.
Green Deane,
Do you know of any trick to get Monstera Deliciosa fruit to ripen? I find the fruit constantly but very rarely do I ever see it ripeend to an edible point (scales falling off).
Thanks,
Dallas
My article on the main site, EatTheWeeds, tells how.
My deepest sympathy for the passing of your Mother, mine is 90 and I worry everyday…Thank you for all you do, your work is very much appreciated by us all.
Tell her that you love her: NOW!
My condolences, Green Deane. Your mother’s knowledge is being passed to so many through you. Thank you.
I wish you peace during this time.
My sincere condolences Deane. [hug]
So sorry to here of your Moms passing, But on the brighter side, I bet she is foraging in the great lands of heaven
What Love i feel when i look at the photo of you and your mother! I honor Mae Lydia Putney as well. i have a mother who connected me with Earth and Nature and i, too, am grateful. we sit together and talk of her lake with it’s turtles, birds, plants all the time. thank you deane for sharing with us and Love to you always.
You have my condolences.
Thank you for sharing memories of your mother. Ordinary moments contain life’s greatest blessings.
I just got to this email Deane and want to join in the choir of condolenses in say how sorry I am to hear you lost your Mom. I don’t think that anything is harder. Through you she has left a footprint on our hearts.
Thank you… it takes time…
Aonia i mnimi – may her memory be eternal.
With the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
Give rest O Savior to the soul of Your servant Mae,
Keeping her in that blessed life
Which is with you only Lover of mankind.