Wild Food / Flowers!

Dale Carson: Eat Your Weeds
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By Dale Carson March 10, 2012

Both the violet’s flower and leaves are edible.Fresh fiddlehead fern buds


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Each season brings a bounty of selections. Just to name a few: spring ramps, fiddleheads, lamb’s quarters, milkweed shoots, violets, chickweeds, the mustards and the cat-tails all poke their little selves up through the warming earth.

Late spring brings sorrel, varieties of cress, daylilies, purslane, wild strawberry and all the other wild berries through June and July.

Later in summer and into fall more berries, mushrooms, wild grapes, cranberries, wild carrot, burdock, sumac, ginger and other free meals and medicines can be harvested.


Dandelions growing wild in a garden in Portland, Oregon (Courtesy of foodblog.com.au)Knowledge is key. Follow one of the many very good identification guides with pictures. Do not attempt to pick by yourself—find a learned mentor. This is especially true for mushrooms. With all wild things, be wary and certain. For example, even dandelions picked along a road with heavy traffic can be contaminated by pollutants. There are many geographic locations in Indian Country and this “walk on the wild side” includes the desert delights: Southeast, Northwest, Plains and here in the Northeast.

My personal favorites are fiddleheads, dandelion, violets, ramps and watercress. All of these are spectacular in fresh salads. As with all wild things, wash them thoroughly.

Fiddleheads/Fern Roots

Pick fiddleheads between three and six inches. Wash well—two or three water changes. Steam or boil to tenderness, about 4 minutes. Chill to use in salads or eat warm with a little butter and soy sauce. They taste much like asparagus. (Later in the season, Native people traditionally eat the starchy roots boiled as an effective medicine for worms and some blood disorders).

Dandelion

Always pick the greens to eat before they flower. Wash well. Dandelions are delicious alone or in a mixed green salad. It is an excellent source of vitamin A (7,000 units per ounce) and also a good source of vitamins B, C and G. The root is prized as a diuretic in tonic, tea or coffee form. Dandelion root today is used in many prescription drugs for urinary complaints and blood disorders.




Violets

Both the flower and the leaves are edible. Violets and great in salads, and they are often used in and on baked goods—especially for their decorative qualities. Natives use them as an antiseptic and expectorant—especially in tea or tonic form. As a tea or tonic, violets have many medicinal uses.


Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/10/dale-carson-eat-your-weeds-102310

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