EatTheWeeds: Episode 02: "ITEMIZING" edible wild plants

[@MattSpon]

youre intelligence and love is inspiring. I'm a rough young fool of a man, but i see this world's beauty isn't in the flash ive always been a part of. I'm studying plants and focusing on what I can eat in the woods now, getting out of the money world of control. Thank to your invaluable love and interest, I can study a pro online! and, you're voice is calm and scientific. Good all around. thanx! never stop!

[@WalterTonetto]

You're great, Deane! Blessings on you!

[@EatTheWeeds]

Generally said I avoid mushrooms. As for editing... in those early videos I had no idea how to use my editing software and had to do things in one take.

[@roncolson1361]

First off your videos are awesome very well done.I live in Wisconsin and i was wondering if you have any videos or information on edible plants in Wisconsin.once again thanks for such great videos

[@EatTheWeeds]

North Carolina is a great place to collect wild edibles, you have quite a variety there and they usually look the way they're supposed to. As for the videos, they get better. I was learning the software and for six weeks was quite ill and it shows in some of them, but I had the time so I made them.

[@Khono]

Ahh, jduff, I didn't notice your earlier post where you mentioned you're from Newfoundland. I'm still a beginner and haven't found anyone local to show me the edible plants, so I'm proceeding slowly. Because I'm in such an urban area, the places where I can pick unpolluted/poisoned plants aren't easily accessible. Weeds in your yard are probably the easiest to start with, assuming you don't use pesticides. As Green Deane said, we likely have many of the same edibles, but in different quantit

[@templarsoul]

Enjoyed your two videos and am looking forward to more! Thanks!

[@schnellerfuchs13]

Wow, that's one of the most perfect clip I've watched. Thank you sooo much! Just subscribed to your channel. Thx!!!

[@cutlerylover]

thats very interesting, I have not heard that yet myself, but I am still very new to plants and wild edibles in general...

[@EatTheWeeds]

Thanks for writing... The cotton plant in the field is not edible like other mallows, except the seed oil after processing. The processed cotten fluff may indeed be non-toxic but I doubt there much nutrition there. With other mallows you can usually eat the leaves, or the roots, or the blossoms. Cotten is not so accommodating without processing. More so, cotten as a fiber crop is one of the most heavily pesticided crops there is since it is not destined for consumption but textiles.

[@EatTheWeeds]

I'm sorry, I didn't know I had a new comment here. ITEM is an approach that helps one organize information. More so, each one has to be answered well. As for Florida Betony, it has square stems and a definite mint-like light lavender flower. More so, as the season progresses it will develop a root that looks like a big white grub. I have a blossom on my web site and as soon as there are larger roots I will post a picture of them as well... have small ones at the moment.

[@joesalgado1953]

Awesome video Mr Greene

[@EatTheWeeds]

Dandelions do have white sap, but so do many other plants, some edible and man not. It is best to wait for the blossom to make sure. As for honeysuckle, it sits on the cusp of edible/non-edible. The Japanese Honeysuckle is called said because the nectar in the end of the blossom is edible, but that is all.

[@EatTheWeeds]

My pleasures... I'd like to think they get better as time goes on. When I first started I had no idea how to use the video software....

[@EatTheWeeds]

There's about a half a dozen common plants with white say that are comsumable in some way, but the vast majority, many hundreds, are not. The dandelion blossom makes a nice tea. I have a video on You Tube about that. You can use the stem as a glue stick.

[@Nannaboy1]

Have you ever done a video covering the symptoms you might have from eating the wrong thing, or do the symptoms have too broad of a range? Have you ever covered wintergreen? it's very common in my area, i've read in feild guides that it's leaves contain something similair to asprin any thoughts?-Ryan

[@cutlerylover]

Great video! As for the white sap, I know dandelion is an exception, but any others? I think you cna eat the flower tops of milkweed too, but after you boil them...is that right? I am going from memory of a book I read...Anyway very good video, Thanks!

[@EatTheWeeds]

Thank you for your kind comments. When I was making those early videos I had never used a video camera or the video software. They're kind of rough. They do get somewhat better (they HAD to get better.) One headache at the time was I only had Sunday mornings free and there was a landing commercial jet about every 10 minutes, so I had to get it done between roars. I have trained speakers and I just view the camera as an interested person. As for DVDs... I haven't a clue as to how to do it.

[@2Halifaxion2]

Excellent video. I can see how at the 8 minute mark the need for editing comes in, just to organize the info a little better for the viewer. Everyone forager should know that the sure fire cure for a lethal ingestion of mushrooms is intravenous lipoic acid, and not many hospitals are aware of this.

[@EatTheWeeds]

Thanks you for your kind words. And of course, be careful. If you have any question, ask. I might not be able to answer them but I'll try.

[@Khono]

Hey jduff, where abouts in Canada? I live in Southern Ontario and got some good books from MEC: Mountain Engineering Coop. You can also get some at provincial parks which have gift shops. The Pinery has a nice one, it's on the east side of Lake Huron. The more local information you can get the better because the less local a book is the fewer plants in it you'll be likely to find. The Plants for a Future website is a nice source for edible plant info. Also try googling for region specific.

[@EatTheWeeds]

Many of the plants in my videos do grow in Wisconsin. A local author who has excellent books for your area is Samuel Thayer. His books are Forager's Harvest and Nature's Garden.

[@Jefferdaughter]

@EatTheWeeds - Write that book! I vote for one for the Northeast first. - Clear illustrations, photos and/or drawings of details - ordered or indexed useful season(s) - habitat, ...along with other issues like polluted soils, etc. If no publisher will take it on, consider self-publishing. You already have an audience = readershop!

[@hargobindsingh2012]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge Dean. I am going to watch all your clips. I am a food forest/permaculture/aquaponics enthusiast in Central Fl. The woman that cuts my hair said she was going on one of your tours. I will want to do that soon. Where do you do them at?

[@robinconkel-hannan6629]

I never boil poke more than once and in fifty five years, I have never made myself, my family or my friends sick from eating it.. I also harvest it all summer.. I just avoid the tough stalks and any part with red/purple on it.. Or peel it off as instructed by my Apache stepmother.. Japanese also eat it all summer..

[@Khono]

Same here, I can't really pick much wild stuff where I am right now but I'm preparing for a major 'camping' trip this summer. The gum latex is particularly interesting to me not just because it's edible but because it might be appropriate to compliment non-plastic containers I'd like to try making this summer (I don't trust plastic 'cause it can leach chemicals). I don't recall which plant(s) have edible latex gum. I thought it might be milkweed but I just checked this book and it seems not..

[@EatTheWeeds]

There is some judgment involved. Plants uphill from a country road would not bother me, or 20 feet from a flat road. It is interstates and parking lots, and ponds fed by street drainage that are serious issues.

[@EatTheWeeds]

As mentioned below the greater honeysuckle family (which includes viburnums and eldberberries) includes edibles and non-edibles and taste is not a test of edibility.

[@robertbrunston5406]

Thank you, this is something I have always wanted to learn about.

[@EatTheWeeds]

That is why you have to research plants, and why you should study with someone local. Quite a few deaths are caused by honeysuckles.

[@EatTheWeeds]

If it got eaten I didn't have anything to do with it. Are you looking for a natural glue or covering? Pine pitch with wood ash is an excellent glue.

[@EatTheWeeds]

Actually I can answer your question reasonably accurately. There are about 375,000 difference species of plants and about 20,000 of them edible for a 5.3% rate of edibility, or five out of every 100 different species, world wide. More so only 135 are found in markets world wide, and six of those make up most of the North American diet.

[@ImASurvivorNThriver]

Great information! Thanks for sharing Green Deane. :-)

[@EatTheWeeds]

I.T.E.M. is a good standby ... identify, time of year, environment, method of preparation. Answer all of those well and you are in safe territory.

[@captaincoolness55]

dandelions are completely edible and it's one of the few white milky sap type plants you can eat! :D the roots can be made into coffee, and the leaves cure a stomachache. i don't know what the stem or the flower does though. any help on that?

[@DreidMusicalX]

I am living here in Yantis Yexas and I live on Lake Fork. There are Dew Berries everywhere! When you are talking about cars driving by and they could be bad from that right? What about less traveled road sides on th efarm roads that are not used as much or should I actaully go off in a field area to get them? There are forest area around me but snakes! haha! Also what would be a good book to get for a beginner like me? I really want to know more about plants and what I can eat, when, and how?

[@EatTheWeeds]

Plants don't know borders.... Wildman Steve Brill is in New York and Samuel Thayer (The Forager's Harvest) is in the Great Lakes area. The plants they cover you should have. About 75% of the plants on my site are in Canada.

[@jokertim777]

Green Deane, This may be a difficult question to answer, because I'm sure it varies from place to place. However, could you give me a rough estimate of what percentage of plants are considered edible. To clarify, if you had a patch of wild (prairie, woods, or swamp) would one out of ten plants be edible?

[@Khono]

I've also heard of some milky latexes being edible like bubble gum.

[@EatTheWeeds]

@MickScarborough There are some several can eat raw but most of them have to be cooked because they are bitter, or have elements that are toxic and need to be removed.

[@DreidMusicalX]

My wife was wanting to know about the dandilions and hunsuckles. Are the dandidlions have a white looking milk in the when you break them off? I pulled on today that I thought was one but it had the white milky stuff in the stem? It had no leaves around it but he also just cut the grass around here. Also she wants to know is the honeysuckles eatable?

[@Cheuvin]

it seems like ITEM can be reduced to IP - Identify correctly, Prepare correctly

[@fettkatt87]

Thank you and GOD BLESS YOU!!!!

[@Khono]

quantities. While we can get lawns full of dandelions here, they're rare for Green Deane down in Florida. Yes, definitely a nice alternative to store-bought :). I'd much rather spend a couple hours picking wild greens like garlic mustard, dandelion, and Plantago major than work for a few hours to buy similar greens from the grocery store that're who knows how old. But it's a pity, they're continuing to ruin what clean land we have left here.

[@EatTheWeeds]

@heythisrocks Quite. I've tried to get some publishers interested in such a book since there isn't one, but...

[@firebrandsgirl]

@DavidandJeannie6 Hello, I got come cotten seeds one year and didn't get any flowers. Are they worth trying to grow again?

[@EatTheWeeds]

As most of the plants are not edible they would produce a huge amount of different toxicology. I think I have a wintergreen article on my website.

[@EatTheWeeds]

Regional books are usually the best.

[@EatTheWeeds]

How is the old gang? Are you still playing the sax?

[@EatTheWeeds]

I've been told uncooked leaves do, too.

[@kathinspain]

We have a white mulberry tree. It has TONS of berries every year. They aren't nearly as tasty as normal mulberries though.

[@EatTheWeeds]

Honeysuckles are a tough family with plants on the edible side and nonedible side, and quite a few edible but not palatable. Young leaves of L.japonica are parboiled and eaten in Japan. In China the leaves, buds and flowers are made into a tea but it is suspected of being toxic. Several native species have edible berries. Some honeysuckles can stop your heart and kill you. Make sure you have the right honeysuckle and what can and cannot be done with it.

[@cutlerylover]

Hey, very interesting...

[@Khono]

This's from the book by Nancy J. Turner and Adam F. Szczawinski titled Edible Garden Weeds of Canada. Sorry for all the posts :-/

[@EatTheWeeds]

Remember it as you like, but environment and time of year are important.

[@Khono]

Okay ummm.. it seems one of my comments got eaten up. It turns out milkweed CAN be used as a gum according to this book (there was a little side note I didn't see at first). It's in the book I just mentioned.

[@stargateproductions]

What is the white berry that you can eat?

[@odin422]

You rule Green Dean!

[@MickScarborough]

Are there many plants you can eat raw? I dont cook plants. They lose too much beneficial qualities.

[@starshock01]

just thought i'd add that you should be very careful eating white and red mulberries, because unripe fruits contain a hallucinogen

[@EatTheWeeds]

Where, in general terms, do you live?

[@EatTheWeeds]

@bramble3838 Then you might say it palys both ends against the middle.

[@EatTheWeeds]

There are mixed reports, some say all true orchids are edible, others say no.

[@EatTheWeeds]

Yes, there are some exceptions, about a half dozen, but there are hundreds of plants with white sap that are not edible.

[@DreidMusicalX]

Thanks so much!

[@VUandChips]

Nice shirt.

[@EatTheWeeds]

@heythisrocks No, there are no good ones for even the southeast. My website is as close as you are going to get.

[@geogeduggan6579]

Waiting for your book in 2024

[@DragonBuddah]

@EatTheWeeds why not self-publish it? e.g. lulu com

[@EatTheWeeds]

In the next videos and on my website of the same name.

[@EatTheWeeds]

No, it is not. It a nephrolepis ferns which do NOT have edible fiddle heads.

[@TribalGlobe]

That fern you just grabbed at the end and said it wasn't edible.. it is.. when it's young their fiddle heads.

[@EatTheWeeds]

Take it one plant at a time.

[@nephilangel]

Service to humanity = write an e-book for donation? We need this information and we need to get this manner of thing in full swing for every continent and climate....? Some one said that you call something a weed when you know not what it is good for. All around us grows the answer to every need. Western Australia is a tough climate but.....We need knowledge of native flora, what's left of it....=(

[@RevereSkye]

💚🌱

[@EatTheWeeds]

Seeds? That's interesting...should be peppery...

[@theinfinitecenter5573]

special thanks to EAT THE WEEDS for inspiring this song kzbin.info/www/bejne/bqPFeXx5j8SEl68

[@EatTheWeeds]

Why thank you.... but do try to study with someone local.

[@EatTheWeeds]

Edible but not esteemed as the red, black or Texas mulberries.