Edible Wild Plant Topics

J

John Kallas

Joined
Dec 6, 1999
Messages
3
I am a publisher of a North American-based newsletter on edible wild plants and other foragables. I would like to know edible plant topics forum members would be interested in us writing about. A list of previous articles on wild foods can be seen at http://www.teleport.com/~wildfood

Thank You,
John Kallas
Editor and Publisher
Wild Food Adventurer Newsletter
 
John,

I would be very interested in any topic on wild edibles. Back in the early 80s I was one of the founders of a local organization devoted to foraging called the Forager's Society. I edited the newsletter for about 4 years but had to give it up when I returned to college. The group has since disbanded. But it was great while it lasted.

One of the problems I've always found with developing peoples' enthusiasm for wild foods is the lack of good recipes. When properly prepared, wild foods can be absolutely delicious, yet most people don't realize this and get turned off early on by the "raw" taste of wild edibles.

So, under survival or primitive camping conditions, what wild foods/recipes do you recommend for pure taste enjoyment, given only a few handy "extra ingredients" to add to the mix? One of my favorites is creamed nettles. Any good recipes for this?


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Hoodoo

When you arrive at the fork in the road, take it.
Yogi Berra
 
I've always been unlucky in finding edible food listings for different regions. Especially the prairies!! Coming from ND, there aren't a lot of option to be found in the wild, or so I've found. So a more regionalized listing of plants would be nice. Eastern US, Western US is kinda "broad". Any help here would be greatly appreciated, probably other areas as well for other people. Say things like the Great Lakes area, the Northwest, the Southwest, the Mountain states and so forth!

Good luck!


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Plainsman :)
primitiveguy@hotmail.com


 
MOST DEFFINITLEY!!

I would love to read anything on edible wildplants.Especially on anything on preparations.

thanks chris
 
I have a book that lists all the edible plants in North America the name is Edible Wild PLants and it is part of the Peterson Field Guide Series. Great book, written by Lee Allen Peterson, try going here to get your copy http://www.hmco.com/trade/ Good luck. Geoff.
 
Thank you for the suggestions. More recipes would be good. I tend to think in terms of "Minimum processing requirements" That is, what do you need to do to a plant part to make it edible and palatable. Once you learn that, you can use the plant in any conventional recipe. You know, once young nettles are boiled, they can be used in any of thousands of standard spinach recipes.

John Kallas
Editor and Publisher
Wild Food Adventurer Newsletter http://www.teleport.com/~wildfood
 
This is an update for those interested in edible wild plants. I've recently published "Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate" 2010. You can get detailed information about the book at my web site.

Respectfully,

John Kallas, Ph.D., Director, Wild Food Adventures
Institute for the Study of Edible Wild Plants and Other Foragables
4125 N Colonial Ave, Portland, OR 97217
(503) 775-3828 mail@wildfoodadventures.com
http://www.wildfoodadventures.com
 
i would love a total listing with pics of the edible in the mid eastern states like NC, SC, VA, Tenn, Ga.... when folks think of the SE they think of Fla and a few others. they are pretty different than NC, SC and Va. (correct me if i am wrong)
 
thanks john, for joining here. my niece has taken numerous of yr classes. and she and i will be taking some together next year. glad to see you here!
 
id like to see some semi comprehensive and area specific cheat cards or pamphlets for people like me who dont really want to read a whole book but enjoy trying some more basic wild edibles on hikes and such. something that will allow you to have some fun with kids or when its not your main focus for the day type of thing
 
Welcome to W&SS John,

Edible plants is a fascinating area but also very complex and multi-faceted. Topic areas of interest to me are: identifcation, harvesting technologies, meal or bulk-scale processing methods, storage by primitive and modern means, medicinal uses, multiple uses (e.g. while processing edible parts of harvested plants, can other parts be used for cordage etc.) and of course cooking methods separated into primitive and modern.

I think the juxtaposition between modern and primitive across topic areas related to harvesting/processing/storage/cooking would be unique.

As for identification, many field guides are available but they often only show the plant during its edible stage. This is useful, particularly for books organized by season. It would seem that a newsletter approach would allow you to focus on a specific plant or small group of them. It would be very nice to show how edible plants can be identified at different times of the year so that people can mark stands of growth for future reference. E.g. can you forage for plants under the snow if you know they are found there?

I will look at your website!
 
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