Search: horsemint

Around most Chinese Elms now is a layer of falling leaves and samaras, both edible especially the smaller leaves. The species is semi-deciduous which makes harvesting easy now. To read more about the Chinese and other Elms go here. Photo by Green Deane

Though Wild Lettuce is edible raw or cooked it is also almost always bitter. Photo by Green Deane

The Wild Lettuce season has started. During a foraging class near Daytona Beach this week we found a small Grassleaf Lettuce. While Wild Lettuce can grow nearly any time of year it favors the cooler months locally. Besides the Grassleaf Lettuce the other major species usually found include the Florida Lettuce, the Canadian Lettuce and the Prickly Lettuce. Wild Lettuces are among the few plants with white or beige sap that we do eat. They can be consumed raw or cooked however Wild Lettuces are usually somewhat bitter either way. You can read about them here and here.

Horsemint makes a spice and tea. Photo by Green Deane

Definitely nearing the end of its season is Horsemint. Related to a variety of mints in North America it’s usually easy to find in the fall because of its showy pink bracts. It also has the habit of growing along dry sandy road banks and cuts through sand hills. Horsemint is not only an excellent spice but it makes a sedative tea in stronger concentrations. Like many of its relative called Bee Balm, when in blossom it attracts a wide variety of insects. Often a bunch of Horsemint will literally be a source of buzzing for a week or more as insects pollinate it. The species also transplants easily. To read more about Horsemint, go here. Still growing strong in some places is Smartweed. A wet ditch full of the peppery plants in blossom was seen near Daytona Beach. The leaves are very hot and the blossoms hot and bitter. You can read about Smartweed   And American Beautyberry, which we have written about several times in this newsletter, is perhaps at the height of its fall season and very easy to find. You can read about the Beautyberry here. 

Brazilian Pepper is a questionable species. Photo by Green Deane

Also fruiting heavily this time of year is the controversial Brazilian Pepper. At one time it was heavily promoted as the “Florida Holly” ignoring that the state has many native hollies. Its berries are often confused with a relative called Pink Peppercorns. In fact “Pink Peppercorns” were banned from the United States for several years because authorities thought they were the same species as Brazilian Pepper. As for using the Brazilian Pepper berries as spice, clearly some people can without any problems. Other people get extremely sick trying them just once. Some people can use them for a few days or weeks without a problem and then get ill. As I tell my students in foraging classes, you’re on your own with this one. The berries taste medicinal to me so I don’t use them.

Sumac berries are used for their tart hairs. Photo by Green Deane

Closely related to the Brazilian Pepper but useable are several sumacs. Our local one, the Winged Sumac, is heavy with fruit. The most common one where I grew up in Maine was the Staghorn Sumac, a rather attract and exotic looking shrub for a cold part of the world. I can still remember exactly where it grew in our horse pasture. While the quality varies with the species all sumacs — except poison sumac — are used the same way. Their acid can be used to make a vitamin C rich lemonade-like drink. Using hot water in the process creates a tea with tannic acid. The dried berries and be used to make a spice and spring sprouts can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked. Heavy rain — like Hurricane Matthew had — can wash most or all of the tart acid off so harvesting them with an eye on the weather is advisable. To read more about the sumac go here.

Teaching a foraging class in Port Orange while avoiding a flood tide. Photo by Dan Dowling.

Upcoming Foraging Classes: All the classes  are outside and about four hours long. This usually involves three or four hours of easy walking on paths or grass for a couple of miles. All the plants covered at the various locations are on this website.

Sunday, November 20, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. 9 a.m. Meet at the beginning of the Peggy Park Trail inside John Chestnut Park.

Sunday, November 27th,  Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m. Meet by the tennis courts next to the YMCA.

Sunday, December 4th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 2200 East Lake Road, Port Charlotte, FL. 9 a.m. We meet by the parking lot near the intersection with Ganyard Road.

To learn more about the foraging classes go here. 

The Nine-DVD set includes 135 videos.

All of Green Deane’s videos are available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for the newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in slightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each. They make a good Christmas gift. Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. They make a good gift for that forager you know. Individual DVDs can also be ordered. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page or you can go here.

Do you know this edible? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum. Photo by Green Deane

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified? On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations around the world share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.  You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is Newsletter 233.   

If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here.

There will be no newsletter Nov. 29th as it is the fifth Tuesday in the month which gives the writer a short vacation.

Persimmons are ripening. Now is the time to find the trees. Photo by Green Deane

There are many reasons to forage, and learning to forage is a progression. Some people are just curious about the world around them. Others have definite goals such as finding food independently of others. Some are looking for what wild plants can provide. That can be different flavors, textures, nutrition and combinations of nutritional elements. There is also bacterial diversity, non-modified genetics, and an absence of man-made chemicals. For some eating more like your ancestors make more health sense than eating highly processed modern food.

The Annona fruits are ripening. Photo by Green Deane

And there is a progression in the learning, or so I think. It’s usually starts with what we call weeds, small herbaceous green things around where we live. That takes a while. One problem is everyone wants to identify all the plants they see rather than actually looking for specific edibles.  That makes the job harder. An easier way is to look for one edible or so per month when it is in season. About the time we are comfortable with low plants there are trees. They seem like difficult hunks and hard to tell apart. But trees nurtured humanity. The forest was not the dark dangerous place of fairy tales but ancient man’s grocer story, hardware store and pharmacy.

Non-native Crowfoot grass is easy to identify. Photo by Green Deane

After one gets a few trees down the next huge challenge is grass. The challenge of grasses is an almost completely new argot description and very small if not microscopic identification elements. Grasses are a pain in the … grasses. They can be extremely difficult. I am told by professors that grass taxonomists are so rare they can name their price and their employment is completely guaranteed. If you know a young person with an interest in biology it could be a good career. With grasses I am happy if I get the genus right, and a few of the species. The saving grace is, according to grass experts, there are no toxic native North American grasses. But many non-native grasses can be toxic.

Chanterelles are fairly easy mushrooms to identify. Photo by Green Deane

After weeds, trees, and grasses comes fungi… Personally I think grasses are more difficult than mushrooms to identify but mushrooms tend to carry a greater threat. One difficult aspect of mushrooms is they can be highly seasonal and only around for a short time. You can study an oak tree for years, chanterelles might be here for just a few days. I take my time with mushrooms. Often it is years between me finding a species, leaning about it and eventually eating it. I don’t rush mushrooms. Mistakes with them are not as forgivable as with some other plants.

As many of you know I ride a little over 100 mile a week, on a two-wheel bicycle and a three-wheel trike. The latter puts one in the right position to see a lot of edible (without crashing or falling off.) I have been seeing a lot of fruiting persimmon trees. Some just beginning to ripen but most still a month off or more. And right now Horsemint is very noticeable and easy to find. Not to be forgotten are grapes. They are early this year and you should be able to find them easily now. Remember, all grape seeds are tear-drop shaped.

Classes are held in sunshine and rain.

Upcoming Foraging Classes:

Saturday, Sept 10th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m..

Sunday, Sept. 18th, Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m.

Sunday, Sept. 25th, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. 9 a.m.

To learn more about the classes go here. 

The Nine-DVD set includes 135 videos.

All of Green Deane’s videos are available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for the newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in lightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each. Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. They make a good gift for that forager you know. Individual videos can also be ordered. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page or you can go here.

Do you know the edible in this photo? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum.

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.  You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is Newsletter 223.   

If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here.

Beautyberries have little flavor but make an excellent jelly. Photo by Green Deane

August is a hot month. Foraging falls off, class attendance is down, folks are on vacation in cooler climes. I usually spend a couple of weeks in North Carolina rummaging around. But August can be an extremely productive foraging month. Locally you should be able to find many things during your foraging treasure hunt. Grapes are ripening, both single tendril and forked tendril. Simpson Stoppers are still fruiting here and there as are Pindo Palms (the wine started two weeks ago is coming along nicely.)  The American Beautyberry is happily coming into it’s own with bunches of magenta berries, and, as mentioned in last week’s newsletter, be on the look out for Horsemint, its pink bracts and preference for sandy, dry locations makes it an easy find.

Unripe Saw Palmetto Berries

And while they are not yet ripe it’s easy to spot Saw Palmetto berries and Persimmons (both are still green.) The Saw Palmetto berries will go from green to gold (see photo right) then to black though they will probably be poached before they turn black because they can be used medicinally when green. The Persimmons won’t be edible until around mid-October or so and then the best ones are those you have to fight the ants for.  No frost is needed. Now is also a time to be looking for Hackberries aka Sugarberries, some are almost ripe but September is their better season. The tree’s green pea-sized fruit will turn to burnt orange in color. Crunchy. Black Gum fruit — currently green — won’t be ripen ’til fall and even then it is gawd-awful bad. But Black Gum fruit is edible but you’re hungry, desperate and have a lot of sugar.

Harold Grandholm emptying raked blueberries in a blueberry field on the Merrill Road in Pownal Maine about 1969.  It earned back-to-school money. To the north is the Bradbury Farm.

In my native state of Maine grapes and apples were  still unripe in August but blueberries were abundant. Because of wide-spread acidic soil one could easily find 120- acres blueberry fields like the one at left. They were “lined off” with string into rows for blueberry rakers. Like digging clams blueberrying was backbreaking work and they always missed a few. So after the fields were raked we’d go pick our fill. We also had high bush blueberries, wonderful 12-foot high spreading shrubs that liked to grow among ledges and rock fences. It was also a time to find Milkweed pods in the pastures. Unfortunately our various species of milkweed pods here in Florida are not edible.

Classes are held rain or shine.

Upcoming Foraging Classes: 

Saturday, Aug 27th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m.  (This class is cancelled because of a tropical rainy weather this weekend.)

Sunday, Aug. 28th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, FL, 33405. 9 a.m.  (This class is cancelled because of a tropical rainy weather this weekend.) 

Saturday, Sept 10th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m.

Sunday, Sept. 11th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 2200 East Lake Road, Port Charlotte, FL. 9 a.m.

For more information about the foraging classes go here. 

The Nine-DVD set includes 135 videos.

All of Green Deane’s videos are available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for the newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in lightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each. Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. They make a good gift for that forager you know. Individual videos can also be ordered. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page or you can go here.

Do you know what these poisonous berries are? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum.

Want to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Do you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food.  You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

Ganoderma growing over a pine needle. Photo by Green Deane

If you are interested in edible or medicinal mushrooms there have been reports of Chanterelles (I harvested some of those myself) and quite a few edible Lactarius. Boletes are also producing but their edibility is more trial and error but fortunately there are no deadly members of the group. From the medicinal point of view I have also been seeing a lot of Ganoderma zonatum, our local Reishis that likes to kill palms. Whether are various species of Ganodermas are as good as the ones sold in herbal shops is a hot debate.

This is Newsletter 222. As next Tuesday is the fifth Tuesday of the month the newsletter will take a week off and resume in September.  

If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here.

Monarda punctata (Horsemint) can blossom for several months. Photo by Green Deane

Some plants successfully hide until the time is right for them to attract pollinators. One of the best local peek-a-boos is Horsemint, Monarda punctata. It is just staring its prime blooming season. While you can find it booming other times of the year now and September is its prime time. Horsemint likes sandy soil that dries out well. It’s easy to spot from the road. Any time you have high sandy banks on either side of the road that’s a prime location for Horsemint. Look for the showy pink bracts. And while it’s not a requirement I usually find Horsemint in a transition zone, usually between low grass and shrubs or trees. Besides having a very attractive aroma it also makes a relaxing tea. If you want to read about Horsemint you can go here.

Pindo palm wort new into the secondary fermenter. Photo by Green Deane

Two weeks ago while scouting the location for a new class I found five Pindo Palms fruiting. Famous for jelly and wine I carried about seven pounds home. I would have scrumped more but ran out of things to carry the fruit in. Like lacto-fermenting wine making follows a basic recipe with minor variations. The challenge is not to produce a drinkable wine but a consistent product time after time. Since this batch of Pindo wine is a one-shot deal I didn’t make it fancy. As the fruit is sweet I added only about five pounds of sugar. To make the alcohol I picked champagne yeast, fast working throws a sweet flavor. Because the fruit is so sugary a little acid was added, not unusual. The major difference is I also added some pectin enzyme to reduce the fruit’s naturally high pectin content (which is why it is called the Jelly Palm.) Pectin can make the finished wine cloudy but does not affect the flavor. The enzyme should help it clear. After 10 days in a primary fermenter with the pulp and seeds the juice was strained and put in a secondary fermenter. Now it will be allowed to work and settle and be racked every few months. Since it is not a grape wine it might be drinkable by next Pindo Palm season.

The flavor of Begonia blossoms and leaves changes with their color. Photo by Green Deane

This might be a good time to mention that Begonias are edible. We saw some this weekend at my foraging class in Gainesville. Unfortunately a rather popular book some 20 years ago said they are not edible. I actually spoke with the author once and she told me in subsequent editions that mistake would be changed but the book never went into reprints. Thus the mistake can be found on the internet. Begonias are not only the favorite of growers (and cemetery pots) they are naturalized locally. I see them often in damp spots such as stream banks or drainage ditches. The leaves are edible as well as the blossoms. They can be prepared in a variety of ways and the juice is also a vegetarian rennet. My favorite are wax begonias (and the flavor can vary with their color.) You can read about them here.

Goldenrod is Ruderal. What’s that mean? Read the a Photo by Green Deane

Also seen on bike trails and blooming now is Goldenrod. It’s a bit of a treasure hunt and disappointment. The treasure hunt is that one species is better than all the rest for tea, Solidago odora. It does grow here, has an anise flavor, but is hard to find. It is reported in most counties but is not common. Goldenrod grows in about half of the United States, southwest to northeast. Other Goldenrod species can also be made into tea, perhaps all of them particularly for herbal applications, but they don’t taste anywhere near as good as the anise one.  In fact, after the “Boston Tea Party” of 1773 halted tea imports colonialists drank Goldenrod tea and even exported some to China. It did not catch on. However, every time I see a Goldenrod I pull off a leaf and crush it hoping to detect the tell-tale anise smell. It’s a golden treasure hunt.

Classes are held rain or shine. Exceptions? Hurricanes.

Upcoming Foraging Classes: 

Saturday, Aug 20th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, FL 32127. 9 a.m.

Saturday, Aug 27th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, FL, 34981. 9 a.m.

Sunday, Aug. 28th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, FL, 33405. 9 a.m.

Saturday, Sept. 3rd., Blanchard Park, 10501 Jay Blanchard Trail, Orlando, FL 32817. 9 a.m.

Saturday, Sept 10th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m.

Sunday, Sept. 11th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 2200 East Lake Road, Port Charlotte, FL. 9 a.m.

For more information about the foraging classes go here. 

Do you know what kind of mushroom this is? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and some 9,000 others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about, such as the one to the left. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Melicoccus bijugatus, Tree with golf ball size fruit. Beacon Hill Food Forest. Roadside Plant. Blolly or some kind of ficus? Pawpaw time in central Alabama. What is it? Edible Leguminous Tree. Subtropical Looks Like Winged Bean. Smilax? Roadside Plant. Weed In Garden. Those Special Places. Yellow Fruit Found Along River. Bee Humor. Pretty Purple Plant. Cultivated Apios Americana, and Mushroom Identification Tips. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

The Nine-DVD set includes 135 videos.

All of Green Deane’s videos are available for free on You Tube. They do have ads on them so every time you watch a Green Deane video I get a quarter of one cent. Four views, one cent. Not exactly a large money-maker but it helps pays for the newsletter. If you want to see the videos without ads and some in lightly better quality you can order the DVD set. It is nine DVDs with 15 videos on each. Many people want their own copy of the videos or they have a slow service and its easier to order then to watch them on-line. They make a good gift for that forager you know. Individual videos can also be ordered. You can order them by clicking on the button on the top right of this page or you can go here.

Beautyberries are not toxic to humans. Photo by Green Deane

Nearly every mother tells her children Beautyberries are toxic. Now some websites are saying so. They are not toxic. Insipid might be accurate to some palettes but not toxic. More so they make a beautiful jelly and I have an unopened bottle of Beautyberry wine that I am saving for a special occasion. Beautyberries actually fruit twice here in Florida, once a season in northern areas such as New Jersey. Locally they are heavy in their first season. If you’ve wanted to look for them now is the time. Nearly any woodland area has them in a transition zone (usually, grass to woods.) Look for bright magenta berries clustered around stems (surrounded by smelly leaves.) You can read more about the Beautyberry here.

This is Newsletter 221. 

If you would like to donate to Eat The Weeds please click here.

Sometimes Tallow Plums are literally at your feet. Photo by Green Deane

Some plants stay hidden until they fruit, or go showy in the fall like the Horsemint. No matter how many times I see the Tallow Plum it is always a surprise. Without fruit it kind of hides, blends in. But this time of year the

Tangy Tallow Plums, Photo by Green Deane

bright yellow fruit is difficult to miss. Indeed, foraging is much like dating: A good part of success is knowing where to look. Dry scrubby places with oaks and pines — and near the coast helps — is where you will find the Tallow Plum. There’s usually some large tree nearby, oak or pine, and it will be an understory shrub fighting for space. The fruit are so yellow they almost yell danger but I’ve never heard of any allergies. They are … tangy, not red-plum sweet and not as acidic as an orange. Flavorful, a good candidate for a sauce for oily meat such as duck or goose. Note the fruit harvested off the ground are slightly more orange and sweet than the yellow ones still left on the shrub. To read more about the Tallow Plum go here.

White American Beautyberries. Photo by Green Deane

Are the berries to the right edible or not? Ninety-nine plus percent of white berries are not edible. White berries are a huge warning flag saying stay away. But there are exceptions.  I can think of a few wild white berry species in the world that are edible, some in North America and one in Africa. But what of the berries pictured right? They are white American Beautyberries. Usually they are magenta when ripe. These are stark white. I have eaten a few. They taste like the colored ones. A few years ago I had a woman in New Jersey write to me and report she eats them all the time and makes jelly out of them. That’s not an official endorsement but it is about as close as one can get to knowing if they are edible. There are at least four species of Beautyberries that can spontaneously produce white berries, and there might be a man-made cultivar or two. The berries probably are not bad but I would approach with caution. We had a discussion about them on the Green Deane Forum recently. To read more about them click here.

Look for garnet terminal clusters of fruit. Photo by Green Deane

This is also a good time of year to find sumac berries. The most common one locally and the one most found most widely dispersed throughout North America is the Winged Sumac, Rhus Copallina. Sumacs are fairly easy to identity because of their terminal cluster of garnet-colored berries. Acid on the berries can be used to make a lemonade then the dried berries can be ground up for a spice. A lot of folks are justly concerned about Poison Sumac. However, Poison Sumac has off-white to light green berries and they grow on stems near the main trunk of the shrub. Also you have to be in wet spots to find Poison Sumac and the leaves are a different shape. To read about the Sumacs go here.

Sea Oats, Photo by Green Deane

The grain pictured right, Uniola paniculata,  is edible though it does not produce a lot of seed. It is also protected. It’s not protected because it is rare. In fact it’s very common. But the plant’s roots helps keep Florida’s coastal dunes in place thus Sea Oats are protected. These were seen growing in Melbourne, Florida, near Patrick Airforce Base. I have known some folks to grow Sea Oats in their backyard as a long-lived perennial grass.  They are very drought tolerant and highly regarded by browsing animals, such as deer, but are lowly regarded by grazing animals such as cows. As Sea Oats are protected you might want to find a similar looking relative in the forests of Florida. They are called… Wood Oats... not too imaginative. Wood Oats are edible as well, and not protected. Use them as you would cultivated oats. To read about Sea Oats click here.

The blossoms and fruit are edible, too.

Cactus represent one of those foraging species totally ignored by most people because they think cactus does not grow near them. In fact, cactus are native to 46 of the 50 states. Most of them used to be all in one genus, Opuntia, but now many are in the genus Nopales. Species in both genera have pads and NO white sap. Those are the two key elements you want to look for: Pads and no white sap. Younger pads are better than older pads in that they are usually tender and have less spines to contend with. A third genus that produces edible fruit is Cereus. And the four states you think cactus are not native to is probably wrong. They are native to Alaska. Got you on that one. They are not native to the ones most distant from the southwest: My native state of Maine as well as New Hampshire, Vermont and Hawaii (though they have been introduced to the Aloha state.)

Upcoming foraging classes with Green Deane:

Foraging classes held rain or shine except for hurricanes.

Sunday, Oct 11th, Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave., Ocala, 34471. 9 a.m

Sunday, Oct 18th, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, 32246. 9 a.m.

Sunday, Oct. 25th, Dreher Park, 1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Nov. 1st, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 23000 Bayshore Rd., Port Charlotte, FL 33980, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Nov. 8th, John Chestnut County Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685, 9 a.m.

To learn more about the classes go here. 

These mating “walking sticks” are not edible but the plant they are on makes a nice tea. You would know that if you read the Green Deane Forum.

Want to identify a plant? Perhaps you’re looking for a foraging reference? You might have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane and others from around the world — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are also articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: An Odd Pine, Guini Wasps, Vine? 3 TX UFO’s, Shrub In High Desert, The Power of Play, Pandanus candelabrum, Rainforest UFO, Crazy Ants,  and Moringa Oleifera. You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is weekly newsletter 178. There wasn’t a newsletter last week because this writer takes every fifth Tuesday in a month off. Incidentally, clicking on ads even if you don’t follow through helps to pay for the site and weekly newsletters .

To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

A bike trail archway created by edible Paper Mulberries and Wild Grapes.

One of the more common question beginning foragers ask is where do you find edible plants. The answer, and not being sarcastic, is nearly everywhere. We are surrounded by edible plants. We only have to learn how to see them. To that end I took a five-mile round trip walk today on the Seminole Wekiva Trail (with a Starbuck’s at half way.) I walked instead of riding my Catrike because I had recently ridden 80 miles so it was time to take a hike. As there was a 70% chance of rain I took my little waterproof Olympus camera.

Spanish Needles

Any short walk will produce Bidens Alba, or Spanish Needles. They are nearly everywhere locally which is one good reason why they never became a commercial crop though that effort was underway more than 50 years ago. For culinary purposes we use young plants and growing tip of older plants. This is because the plant has a medicinal side which usually involves older plants. Foragers and herbalist have different gold standards and usually use plants in quite different ways.

Perennial Peanut

The second species spied on the walk is not really a wild plant but rather an intentional ground cover, Perennial Peanut, Arachais glabrata. A little plant with a large number of names it’s being increasingly used in parks and the like as ground cover and some homes but is on the expensive side. Usually only the blossoms are eaten, raw or cooked. Chefs like to use the raw blossoms which have a pea or green bean taste. The rest of the plant is not consumed.

Ever lasting Amaranth

Another common weed seen several times was Amaranth, a close relative of spinach. There are several species locally with all of them edible including the spiny one. However, with the spiny amaranth one has to carefully harvest the leaves rather than the entire young plant. Cooking does not make the spines softer. While amaranth is edible raw it responds well to cooking. The seeds of all the Amaranths are edible, too.

Crowfoot Grass

Crowfoot Grass is not native to North America. It’s from Africa where the species is used to make unleavened bread and frothy beer. While crowfoot grass is easy to harvest — when ripe — the grains are tiny, eye of a needle size. The best one can do is collect about two quarts an hour but they can grow in large colonies making that fairly easy. The grains also have a small amount of cyanide in them but drying and cooking drives that off.

American Beautyberry

Beautyberries are found in the southern half of the United States and have one or two seasons a year depending whether you are on the north end of that range or the southern. Many writers — Professor Julia Morton for one — dismiss the species because the non-edible leaves are smelly and the fruit bland. However, the fruit make an excellent, vibrant jelly (and when dried an antioxidant tea.) The leaves rubbed on you are a good insect repellant, definitely a saving grace.

Bitter Gourd

Another smelly plant is the . It does smell like a decaying rubber sneaker. Despite that the plant has a long culinary and medicinal history. From a food point of view the leaves can be boiled and eaten as a green, the green fruit can be boiled and consumed though it might be bitter. The red coating on the seeds are full of lycopene. The seeds and ripe orange fruit are not edible though opinions vary on that. Medicinally the plant has been to treat diabetes.

Sword Fern

Puckery not bitter is an identification of the next plant I saw on the trail, the Sword Fern. There are five sword ferns locally but only one produces swollen stolons, which look like hairy tan to brown marbles. Their astringency can range from mild to severe. Roasting the stolons makes them sweet and chewy. We do not eat the fiddleheads of these ferns. And since it is an invasive species eating the stolons is one’s civic duty.

Skunk Vine

Very few people ever notice the pretty non-edible blossom of this next plant along the trail. The ruby and white chalice blossom belongs to the odorous Skunk Vine which actually smells more like a sewer than a skunk. However, young leaves and growing tips are extremely nutritious, on par with Broccoli, and abundant. Little stipules and the aroma make the plant difficult to misidentify. Leaves and tips are edible raw or cooked.

Banana in Blossom

There’s more to the banana than meets the eye. Nearly everyone knows bananas are edible — at least commercial ones — but in other parts of the world more of the banana species is consumed. The purple blossom is often on the menu, raw after soaking in salted water, or mildly cooked. The inner pitch of the banana stalk is also edible, raw or cooked. The leaves have enough oil in them to make cooking on and in them possible and the stem stalk’s first liquid is medicinal.

Red Spiderling

Our next trail inhabitant is from India and gets unnoticed because of its low-growth profile, Tar Vine or Red Spiderling. It has extremely small ruby-colored blossoms and a spread-out growth pattern. It likes edges of sidewalks and curbs and the like. Young leaves are boiled as a side dish. The root also has medicinal uses in treating fatty liver disease. The root also shrinks on drying or cooking so there isn’t much left for those who also try to eat it. Sometimes the peppery root can taste like yuca.

Florida Betony

Starting its fall to spring run is the esteemed Florida Betony. While the above ground parts have their use it is the grub-like root that is highly prized. It is edible raw, cooked, or my favorite, pickled. You can find the plant all year but it tends to disappear in the hot summer months. The leaves can be dried and used to make a passible tea. The plant can also be cooked as a famine food. It tastes musty. The roots, however, are gourmet fare.

Nutritious Purslane

It’s difficult not to walk on Purslane it is so abundant. Yet, people tell me they have a hard time finding it. For me it is just the opposite, I look down and there it is waiting to be harvested or taken home for a plant in the crowded garden. In suburbia look for it in sidewalk cracks, curbs, post office landscaping, at the base of road signs, along building basement walls. It really is everywhere including parks and open-mowed lawns. You just have to look for it.

Hackberry Fruit

One of the more unusual trees along the trail is the Sugarberry. The species itself is not unusual but it’s location is. They like to be near water but not in water. One does not find them  on top of dry hills except along this trail. Why? Because one has been growing near an irrigation outlet for decades so even though it is on a dry hill it thinks it’s near water.  The leaves are also distinctive making it easy to identify. The burnt orange fruit are edible when ripe.

Panic Grass

Don’t panic over Panic Grass. It’s a North American native grass and thus not toxic. The seeds are edible raw or parched but it is difficult to get a picture of them. There are no toxic native North American grasses but several imports are, for example, the mildly toxic Crowsfoot Grass mentioned above. The only real precaution is to make sure the grass doesn’t have any fungus on it, ergot. A close inspection can rule that out. If it looks funky you don’t eat it.

Epazote

Winner of the smelliest plant along the Seminole-Wekiva Trail is Epazote, a common spice. Opinions are divided on what the plant smells like. The majority think it smells on par with an industrial floor cleaner or spar varnish. But other noses can detect a citrus or lemony scent, much to the surprise to everyone else. Aromas are subjective. Besides a spice it has been used as a mess of greens, that is, boiled. My taste buds revolt at that idea but it is consumed in Central America.

Winged Yam

If you know where to look along the trail edible yams can be found at several locations. This particular species is Dioscorea alata, which has an edible root. As the trail skits many back yards I suspect these yams were plants and have either escaped cultivation or have been ignored. At any rate the squared stems and opposite leaves as well as misshapen air potatoes make it easy to identify.

Creeping Cucumber

Any walk this time of year would be a great disappointment if one did not find jelly-bean sized Creeping Cucumbers. Fortunately there are numerous chain link fences along the trail which a perfect man-made trellises for the wild cuke. They also like hedges. Slightly sour these tiny cukes are a favorite trailside nibble and salad addition. Oddly, they do not pickle well.

Poke Weed

This round up of a dozen and a half edibles along the Seminole Wekiva Trail would not be complete without a new poke weed heralding the new season. Young leaves and stems should be boiled twice before eating.  There is debate on that but no harm being safe. While eating poke is a southern tradition few Native American tribes at the weed preferring to use it medicinally.

Kudzu Blossom

There were no unforeseen edible plants during our class this past week in Cassadaga, the only town in North America comprised of psychics.  Colby-Alterman Park is a nice location and there was a good turnout. No doubt the more aromatic plant of the day was blossoming Kudzu. The aroma smells to me just like grape bubble gum kids chew. Three big leaves with hair on the leaf’s edge make it easy to identify. We sorted out the invasive yam from an edible yam, found a wild persimmon, tasted some tart sumac berries, enjoyed the scent of Horsemint and pondered of the identity of a few mushrooms.

Foraging classes held rain or shine except for hurricanes.

Foraging Class Schedule: Saturday, Sept 12th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, FL, 34233. 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 19th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 26th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 3rd, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, 32935-2335. 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 10th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St., Gainesville, 32641. Sunday, Oct 11th, Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave., Ocala, 34471. Sunday, Oct 18th, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, 32246.

To learn more about the foraging classes or to sign up for one, go here.

You’d know what this is if you read the Green Deane Forum.

Need to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Maybe you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Odd Vine? Hunting and Trapping Ethics. Knife Accidents. Ragweed? Some Kind of Lespendeza? Survival Garden. Sweet And Toxic, Neat Stove Idea, and Cordage Plants Video.  You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is newsletter 175.  Because of recent updates by Word Press whether future newsletters and articles have a comment section or not is in limbo. As most page creators wanted the comments turned off that is the default setting. However, turning the comments on is not working and WP has not yet addressed that problem. Yes, as programmers are wont to do, they fixed it and made it worse and can’t fix their fix.

To donate to the Green Deane Newsletter click here.

Monarda punctata (Horsemint) can blossom for several months. Photo by Green Deane

Wild mints are prima donnas: Once on stage they hate to get off.  Locally I would expect to see Horsemint, Monarda punctata in full bloom next month but it has pushed the season and can be found now. It can flower for several months. This week I saw a nice stand along a bike trail in south Vousia County, exactly where one would expect to find it: On a dry bank up from the trail. You can also find it in the same area near roads especially roads that cut through a sand hill. Look for the showy pink bracts. If you want to read about Horsemint you can go here. Next week I’ll be seeing the bright red Monarda didyma in the Carolinas. No doubt there is a showy mint near you. And if you want to see some of the plants I’ve been identifying along local bike trails and read about recumbent trikes you can visit The Green Deane Machine on facebook.

Rail right-of-ways have been treated for over a century to kill off plants. Photo by Green Deane

We shouldn’t forage along railroad tracks and you can blame it all on the Russian Thistle. This species, best known as the tumble weed that rolls across the wild west in movies, came with immigrants to southern South Dakota in the early 1870’s. Best guess is it contaminated their flax seed. By 1895  it reached New Jersey and California. The question was how? A professor who worked for the Department of Agriculture figured out the trains were spreading the seeds coast to coast. It was a remarkable idea at the time and brought him much fame. His solution to the unintentional distribution? Kill plants long railroad tracks. Thus began the practice of putting down some mighty and long-lasting chemicals to kill weeds sprouting amongst the iron rails. Railroad tracks are a good place to find seeds to take home and plant but not to find food. There have even been a few reported deaths from foraging along rail road tracks.

Goldenrod is ruderal. What’s that mean? Read the article. Photo by Green Deane

Also seen on bike trails and blooming now is Goldenrod. It is a bit of a treasure hunt and disappointment. The treasure hunt is that one species is better than all the rest for tea, Solidago odora. It does grow here, has an anise flavor, but is hard to find. It’s reported in most counties but is not common. Goldenrod grows in about half of the United States, southwest to northeast. Other Goldenrod species can also be made into tea, perhaps all of them particularly for herbal applications, but they don’t taste anywhere near as good.  In fact, after the “Boston Tea Party” of 1773 halted tea imports colonialists drank Goldenrod tea and even exported some to China. It did not catch on. However, every time I see a Goldenrod I pull off a leaf and crush it hoping to detect the tell-tale anise smell. It’s a golden treasure hunt.

The mysterious Swamp Rose Mallow. Photo by Green Deane

Hibiscus moscheutos is one of my mystery plants and ranges over much of the United States except for the high plains states and the west coast (and my native state of Maine.)  The Swamp Rose Mallow is blossoming now in damp spots locally particularly along the St. John River. I think its blossoming is more related to the shortening of the days than the weather per se. It has five separate petals united at the base and five green sepals. The blossom lasts only one day. They range from cream with a red or purple center to pale pink. It has a sticky, stringy juice. The question is, as a Hibiscus, are the blossoms edible or other parts? I have never found a reference to edibility. In fact, it seems only one Native American tribe used it medicinally, the Shinnecock who lived on what we now call Long Island. They used it for bladder infections. European settlers, however used the species for a wide variety of ailments. As several writers attest it “abounds with mucilage.” It is always interesting when such a wide-spread plant is rarely mentioned in the ethnobotanical literature. That could mean it wasn’t used, we didn’t ask, or they didn’t tell us. To read more about mallows go here. 

Foraging classes held rain or shine except for hurricanes.

There will not be any newsletters for the next two weeks as I will be hiking in the Carolinas along the Appalachian Trail. While there I hope to visit Forager Emeritus Doug Elliott and family, and, Mushroom Expert Ken Crouse. This written labor of foraging love will resume at the end of August. As for upcoming foraging classes they are:

Saturday, August 29th, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.

Saturday, September 5th, Colby-Alderman Park: 1099 Massachusetts Street, Cassadaga. Fla. 32706, 9 a.m.

Saturday, Sept 12th, Red Bug Slough Preserve, 5200 Beneva Road, Sarasota, Fla, 34233. 9 a.m.

Saturday, Sept. 19th, George LeStrange Preserve, 4911 Ralls Road, Fort Pierce, Fla, 34981. 9 a.m.

Saturday, Sept. 26th, Spruce Creek Park, 6250 Ridgewood Ave. Port Orange, 32127. 9 a.m.

For more information about classes go here.

Do you know what these unripe wild edibles are? You would if you read the Green Deane Forum. Photo by Green Deane

Need to identify a plant? Looking for a foraging reference? Maybe you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we — including Green Deane — chat about foraging all year. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Lawn Weed? Weeds of NJ. Vine ID Please. Another Weed. Is Cymopterus macrorhizus edible? Name This Bark. Wood Potato? Canadian Horseweed. Fried Greens? Fuzzy Ganoderma? Shaggy Top But…? Red Maple? Harvested Honey. A Few Texas UFO’s. Weed on Long Island. Fern? Hello From Cypress Texas. My Chaya, and Elderberry Blossoms.  You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

This is newsletter 173.

PS: I might be interested in renting a two-bedroom house with storage or a three-bedroom house south of mid-state and not in-town starting this fall. Liked to get away from lawns and neighbors. If you know of any possible places please let me know.

What do Spanish Moss and Bromeliads have in common? They are both related to pineapples including the Wild Pineapple pictured above. The Wild Pineapple is not too wild being planted in various local for it’s technicolor  blossom. To read more about the Wild Pineapple go here.  Photo by Green Deane

Unlike many areas we get a continuous crop of Ground Cherries but there are seasonal bulges in production, spring and fall. They are coming into season locally though if you miss some now you can certainly find some this fall.

Unripe Ground Cherries. Photo by Green Deane

Like the American Nightshade (Solanum americanum) Ground Cherries (Physalis spp.) are somewhat misunderstood. People hear the word “nightshade” and get rattled forgetting that the Nightshade family includes tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant and tomatillos. Both the American Nightshade and the Ground Cherries have fruit that is toxic when unripe but edible when ripe… usually. I add “usually” because every now and then I find an American Nightshade that is bitter when ripe as are some Ground Cherries. In the past the practice was cook the bitter ones. That should get rid of the bitterness, if not don’t eat them. I find so few bitter Ground Cherries (or American Nightshades) that when I do I just skip it and move on to another plant. However, I have eaten a few bitter Ground Cherries and nothing came of it. So I am not sure if avoiding bitter ones is a matter of safe foraging or preference. While most of the Ground Cherries are edible when golden ripe an ornamental one is not, Physalis alkekengi, the Chinese Lantern. And like American Nightshade there are commercial versions of Ground Cherries as well. To read more about Ground Cherries, go here. 

Horsemint also called Spotted Bee Balm. Photo by Green Deane

Another plant we look for in the fall but can be found in the spring is Horsemint, Monarda punctata.  It’s a very aromatic member of the mint family that is easy to spot in late summer or early fall when it puts on brilliant pink bracts.  The dotted blossoms are pretty but small. It’s the showy bracts one can see from the road. Every now and then a few  blossom in the spring, even occasionally the summer. Like it’s fall kin the flower is always an eye (and insect) catcher. Horsemint is related to several well-known northern mints such as Bee Balm and Oswego tea. Why is it called Horsemint? Because the word “horse” was often used to describe something rough, coarse, or large. The Horse Conch comes to mind. Horsemint also contains a chemical a lot of folks would like to make illegal. To read more about it go here.

The forked tendril helps you locate the better species of grape locally. Photo by Green Deane

Generally there are three types of wild grapes locally. There are 1) native grapes, 2) “escaped cultivars” and 3) native cultivars that have not escaped… far. Let’s take the latter first. Intentional native cultivars include the Noble (red) and Carolos (white.)  These are usually planted around the home for food and wine if one liked fruity libation. Generally said they have not escaped into the wild in any great number. When you do find them “in the wild” there is or was usually a house nearby. These were bred from the native grapes which are inconsistent in fruiting and poorer quality. The native grapes are actually one chromosome different from most grapes and might be put into their own non-grape genus. They can go years without fruiting and can range from sour to acceptably sweet. Once while making jelly from them by hand their acid burned my hands. Some botanists want to have them classified as invasive. Thirdly there are the “escaped cultivars.”  Their history is up for editing. Are they natives? Do they have some European heritage? And if so when did that happen? Regardless from whence they came they have bunches of grapes like those you buy in the store, only smaller. They fruit consistently and produce a good grape for home use, neither high in acid or excessively sweet. Their leaves are much larger than the “native” grapes and less bitter. They also have a “forked” tendril and are the grape I prefer to harvest. If you look you can find them.

A tessellated Green Deane teaching a foraging class. Photo by Kelly Fagan.

My Upcoming Foraging Classes:

Saturday, May 9th, Boulware Springs Park, 3420 SE 15th St., Gainesville, FL. 32641. 9 a.m.

Sunday, May 10th, Jervey Gantt Recreation Complex, 2390 SE 36th Ave., Ocala, FL, 34471. 9 a.m.

Saturday, May 16th, Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335. 9 a.m.

Sunday, May 17th, Highwoods Preserve, 8401 New Tampa Blvd., Tampa FL 33647. 9 a.m.

Saturday May 23rd, Mead Garden: 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789, 9 a.m.

Sunday, May 24th, Florida State College, south campus, 11901 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, 32246. 9 a.m.

Highwoods Preserve is the odd-class out in this line up. I was invited to teach a class there by a student who only came to one of the classes there. So it has been a couple of years since this location was offered. Unlike a park we are guests at this location. To learn more about foraging classes go here. 

Solanum americanum berries. Photo by Green Deane

Botany Builder 27: Lucid, from the Dead Latin Lucidus, meaning clear, bright, shiny, glowing, looking polished. (In botanical Greek the same meaning is found in the word Gano as in Ganoderma, the Reishi mushroom.) The shiny part of the plant can be a leaf, seed or fruit as in the American Nightshade mentioned above. One of the identifying characteristics I look for with the American Nightshade is shiny unripe berries and shiny ripe berries. Dull berries indicate a different species. The Reishe mushroom is called Ganoderma because its cap is shiny. Literally translated Ganoderma means polished skin as in leather. 

Pluteus petasatus. Photo by Green Deane

One of the problems when you study mushrooms is they often aren’t around long enough for you to become familiar with them. They can be highly seasonal. Photographs, of course, help, as does getting the opinion of others. That is why I started several mushroom pages on Facebook included Florida Mushroom Identification Forum and Southeastern US Mushroom Identification. And while I usually have to travel to find mushrooms to study this one popped up not six feet from where I write these newsletters. The question was, what was it? By the time I got a good identification from folks who should know the mushroom was long melted and gone. It is Pluteus petasatus which not only is edible but when raw has a slight aroma of radishes. It’s an attractive mushroom and was growing in a mulch bed of old wood chips.

What can you do with this blossom? Read about it on the Green Deane forum.

Need to identify a root? Looking for a foraging reference? Maybe you have a UFO, an Unidentified Flowering Object, you want identified. On the Green Deane Forum we chat about foraging all year long. And it’s not just about warm-weather plants or just North American flora. Many nations share common weeds so there’s a lot to talk about. There’s also more than weeds. The reference section has information for foraging around the world. There are articles on food preservation, and forgotten skills from making bows to fermenting food. Recent topics include: Fuzzy Tree, Lacto-Fermenting Stachys Roots, Sweet Aromatic Herb, New Book: Southeast Foraging. Hibiscus Help. Native Wormwoods. Ancient DNA. Love Me Some Betony. Passiflora edulis. Top Restaurant Serves Deer Moss, Uvularia sessilifolia? Where Have You Found Currants?, and Purple flowering plant ID,.You can join the forum by clicking on the button on the upper right hand side of this page.

Poor Man’s Pepper Grass is quite common now. If the leaves were larger and the seeds heart-shaped it could be Shepherd’s purse, also edible. Photo by Green Deane

Wild Geraniums are barely edible and are usually employed medicinal. Photo by Green Deane

Near my dentist’s office there is a dry drainage ditch. As it is on a hill it’s there to collect and hold rainwater to slow down erosion. Shaped like a right angle, it is perhaps 400 feet long in total. As I was early yesterday for my scheduled torture I went wandering down the ditch.  Food is where the water is and where the rain carries seeds. There was Wild Geraniums — barely edible — lots Sheep’s Sorrel, numerous Common Sow Thistle, a mother load of Western Tansy Mustard — there isn’t an Eastern Tansy Mustard — Spanish Needles, Plantains, a young Paper Mulberry — no adult in sight — pods from the wrong kind of ear tree, Poor Man’s Pepper Grass — pictured above — and Pellitory. While it is the right time of year and it was the right place it does demonstrate you don’t have to travel to a distant state park to find forgable food.

It’s that strange time of year in Florida. Will it be 38 tomorrow or 83? And if we’re going from one temperature to the other — the direction is not too relevant — it will probably rain. Now days we can look at the forecast and stay inside. We have food in the pantry. In the past, though, if you didn’t forage you didn’t eat. Only weather that was worse than your hunger kept you from foraging. We have the luxuries of extra food and not having to go out in bad weather… which reminds me of Eastport, Maine, not far from where I grew up.  In the last 20 days it’s had 99 inches of snow. Might as well get one more dusting and call it 100. Once when I was in school we had a storm that snowed us in for three days. That was the year you could jump off the roof into the snow and not bottom out. Another time an ice storm covered the snow so thick that you could skate for miles across the fields on the snow and not break through. Once it was so cold the schools had to shut down for the week. They couldn’t keep them warm.  That is weather you don’t forage in. But here in Florida my foraging classes are only called off because of accident, injury or hurricanes. My upcoming schedule:

Foraging Classes: Sunday, February 22nd, Mead Garden, 1500 S. Denning Dr., Winter Park, FL 32789. 9 a.m.  March 7th, Wekiva State Park, 1800 Wekiwa Circle, Apopka, Florida 32712.   9 a.m., March 8th, John Chestnut State Park: 2200 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34685, 9 a.m. March 21st Wickham Park: 2500 Parkway Drive, Melbourne, FL 32935-2335., 9.a.m.  March 22nd, Dreher Park,  1200 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33405.  9 a.m. April 5th, Bayshore Live Oak Park, 23000 Bayshore Rd., Port Charlotte, FL 33980, 9 a.m. For more information or to sign up for a class go here.

The following guest article is by Mike Conroy.

Of Bees, Butterflies, and Moths

Honey bee about to land on a Date Palm blossom. Photo by Green Deane

What, you might ask, do bees, butterflies, and moths have to do with foraging? Well, nothing, and everything. You see, many plants require pollinators in order to reproduce, and reproduction is everything to foraging. Without reproduction, we would have anything to forage.  Bees, butterflies, and moths (and wind, rain, and bats) are all pollinators. This includes both the honey bee, which was imported from the “Old World” European countries, as well as native bees, such as the bumble bee. And, since these insects pollinate our edibles, they deserve a mention in our newsletter.

Fritalaries are a common southern Passionflower vines.

We are all keenly aware and welcoming of the varied and colorful butterfly in our communities, our yards, and our gardens. They don’t bite and they don’t sting. They are pleasantly colorful and, in our hurried lives, lend a thought to a slower life drifting on the currents of time. And while they do pollinate, they are not as efficient as bees. Moths are often considered a nocturnal (night time) traveler, seldom seen during the day. But did you know that some moths are day fliers? And they, too, are pollinators, regardless of their time to be up. While butterflies typically, but not always, seek out brightly colored red, yellow, orange, purple, and etc. flowers with mild sweet smells, moths tend toward less colorful flowers with stronger, sweet, odors. And, like butterflies, are not good pollinators of our favorite plants.

Moths are often smaller than butterflies and like the night. Photo by Green Deane

Bees are defined as being insects with, shall we say, fuzzy hairs on their bodies. They have been around for some 65 to 120 million years. And they have been a major pollinator for most, if not all, of their existence. During this time, some plants have come to rely on bees as their only source for pollination, and thus for their existence. One of our favorite nuts, the almond (though for you who are in the know, the almond is not really a nut), comes to mind. We rely, whether we know it or not, on bees to provide our food. It is estimated that 4 out of every 5 foods we eat, at some point, require pollination by bees.

A bat pollinating a banana. They also visit kapok trees. Photo by Merlin Tuttle.

So why do people kill bees? Well, they sting, of course. And who, besides the beekeeper, ignores a stinging insect? But, did you know that less than 1 of every 4 “bee stings” is really a bee sting? A study in a California emergency room found that over 3/4 of all bee stings are really wasp and hornet stings. Further, bees, and especially honey bees, do not like to sting. It is their last – literally last – resort. With the exception of the queen bee, a bee dies shortly after stinging because it rips its stinger out of its body when it pulls away, leaving the stinger in you. Queen bees are the only bee that can sting multiple times, and they are seldom found outside the beehive. By the way, bee drones – the male bee – do not even have a stinger. And there are a few stingless bees to boot. So why do bees sting if they are going to die anyway? The most common reason is they are protecting their home, the beehive. But, they will sting if you step on them or otherwise threaten their life, as in swatting at them. Other triggers for stings are certain perfumes and scents. While many question why these perfumes cause the sting response, personally, I suspect that some of the “flavors” of the perfumes mimic certain chemicals in the scent of a skunk – a raider of beehives.

Bumble bee landing on a Spiderwort. Photo by Green Deane

Foraging bees, those you see in your yard or on flowers, are usually too busy collecting nectar and pollen to think about stinging. So next time you see a bee, even if it is crawling on you, it is probably better to say hi and calmly let it alone. It will soon leave without even saying goodbye. Oh, and one other interesting thing about bees; while they won’t remember you later, they have great facial recognition. In other words, they can tell one person from another, just on their facial features.

Now, back to foraging. Honey has been foraged for thousands of years by humans. But, unless you are willing to suffer a multitude of stings, this is best left to the experts. Still, no conversation about bees would be complete without a bit on honey.

Many people like to chew the waxy comb once the raw honey is extracted.

Honey, as you buy it from the grocer, is usually not in its natural, raw state. It is often heated, sometimes pasteurized, and on a rare occasion, is adulterated with products like high fructose corn syrup. Usually, with the exception of adulteration, this is done to present the honey in a marketable fashion, meaning in its liquid form – people don’t like to buy crystallized honey; or in the case of pasteurization, to make it safe for human consumption. By heating honey, it limits the crystallization of the honey, something that is a normal process in honey. Heating also alters some of the sugars found in honey, and additionally destroys some of the enzymes contained in honey. Many of these enzymes aid in the digestive process of honey, but are not required to be present as your body produces these enzymes. So, if you want honey as it is found in the beehive, you must either find honey labeled “raw”, or purchase it from a known source.

One thing is certain though, without bees, butterflies, and moths, our world of greens would be vastly different. When you see them, give pause in wonderment to the intricate ways the world around us works.

Florida Herbal Conference 2015

The Florida Herbal Conference is our next big event, February 27th to March 1st. I’ve taught edible plants there for the last three years and will be there again this year. It’s a must for all southern herbalists and well as those northern ones who want to escape freezing cold and study their craft in the dead of winter. It always has interesting speakers and great classes. While there is some cross over between Earthskills and Herbalism the conferences are sufficiently different to justify attending both. For more information and to register go here.

Green Deane Forum

In nearly every class and daily on-line I am asked if I can identify a plant if a picture is sent to me. I say I will try and also suggest the sender join the Green Deane Forum.  There’s  a UFO page there, Unidentified Flowering Objects. On the forum we chat about foraging — and other topics — every day along with techniques to harvest and use the bounty you have found. And it’s not just about Florida or the southeast. There are members from all around North America and the world. The link to join is on this page just to the right of this article. You do have to pick a screen name and the forum let members private message each other. There are only three rules: Keep it civil, keep it clean, and try to avoid mentioning Wikipedia (which Green Deane has a significant dislike for.) Recent topics include Golden Rod’s Edible? Fire Roll, Wahoo Bark, Eating Bitter Foods, Witches Butter, Braiding Natural Cordage, Smilax-Asparagus alternative, Loquats Pie and Grappa, Wild Possum Grape Jelly, Young People Want Healthier Food, Leather Root? Horsemint,  and Gnarly Mushroom.

Can you identify these winter tree/shrub buds. Photo courtesy of Kew The Botanist.

18 Tree and Shrub Buds for you to identify. To enlarge click on the picture. If still too small click on the link above. Here’s the key: 1. Ash 2. Maple. 3 Birch. 4. Alder 5. Elderberry 6. Hazel 7. Beech 8 Horse Chestnut 9. Rowan 10. Oak 11. Basswood 12. Lilac 13. Hawthorn. 14. Blackthorn 15. Larch 16. Sycamore 17 Dog Rose. 18 Elm

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