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Newletter 3 September 2013by GR E E N DE A N E

SEARCH 1,000+W I LD EDI BLES

HO M E ABO UT ARCHI VE CLASSES F O RAG I NG M EDI A NO T EDI BLE F O RUM

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Horsemint is in full fall foliage. Photo by Green Deane

The horsemint is happy. Most of the year the plant is visually nondescript,

keeping its presence a secret. But starting around September its bracts turn a

lavender/pink brightening every clump of herb and attracting swarms of I’m

sure appreciative insects. Like several other plants covered in this newsletter

the horsemint seems to be early this year by a few weeks. One cannot drive

along a country road and not see it blossoming profusely. I stop so often to take

pictures of the annual display I need a bumper sticker that says “I BRAKE FOR

HORSEMINT.” Farther north its relatives are called Beebalm and Oswego Tea.

They’re used in similar ways. To read more about this seductive mint go here.

While the horsemint is offering a

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Everything is edible about the Kudzu

except the seeds. Photo by Green

Deane

The Bunya Pines are don’t dropping seeds for the

season. Photo by Green Deane

While the horsemint is offering a

feast for the eyes Kudzu is teasing the

nose. The aroma of blossoming Kudzu is

unmistakable: It smells just like grape

bubble gum. You can catch the aroma of

a patch of blossoming Kudzu from

hundreds of feet away. All of the Kudzu

is edible except for the seeds. The

blossoms make a wonderful jelly.

Unfortunately the leaves have a texture

issue that one just has to accept. And

getting starch out of the roots is a

Herculean task, not exactly calorie

positive. The state of Florida asserts

that Kudzu has been eliminated locally

but I find it all the time. Perhaps they

should pay me to locate it. To read

more about Kudzu click here.

Foraging classes this

week were in soggy Sarasota

and Port Charlotte. It’s not

only coastal rain but rain over

the interior of Florida that’s

flodding out southern areas of

the state. In Sarasota

normally dry foraging spots

were flooded but we managed

to rummage around anyway.

In fact we did in Sarasota

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season. Photo by Green Deane

Ganoderma curtisii, a medicinal polypore.

what we always do in Port

Charlotte which is visit some

of the neighboring residential

areas for edibles. That produced a heavily fruiting Cocoplum and a Simpson

Stopper, all earlier features in this newsletter. Port Charlotte also produced

those fruits along with some late-season ground cherries. There was some

Seablite but it was fast fading. It’s my favorite coastal green but very seasonal.

At these two classes I managed to distribute some of my last Bunya pine nuts of

the season, either for eating or growing. To see my schedule of upcoming classes

go here.

The fungal find of the week

is not so much edible as

medicinal, Ganoderma curtisii.

(If you are going to study fungi

you have to comes to terms with

using Dead Latin in that most

mushrooms do not have common

names.) The Ganoderma curtisii

and the Ganoderma zonatum

(the latter found only on palms)

are our local versions of the

famous medicinal Reishi

mushrooms. I personally have

not use them but I know a few

folks who do. That said I am not

an expert on mushrooms by any

means. Definitely seek a more qualified opinion than mine. It’s just that I got a

second microscope — a more powerful one capable of looking a mushrooms

spores — 2000x — so I’ve playing with the new toy and making slides. My

g ou r d Blu e Por ter w eed

Br a zilia n pepper Ca lla

pa lu str is Captain JohnSmith cashews ch a r lock

Ch a r tr eu se ch icor y CloverCn idoscolu s st im u losu s

Com m elin a Cou m a din

Cr a n ber r y Hibiscu s Cr ete

dandelion Da y lily

DickDeuerlingDioscorea alata edible

flow er s Elder ber r ies EuellGibbons Fa lse Roselle

fen n el Flor ida Cr a n ber r y

Foen icu lu m v u lg a r e

Foraging Ga liu m a pa r in e

g a m m a lin olen ic a cid GLA

Gorse Johnny JumpUps Momordicacharantia poison ivyPortulaca oleraceaPrimrose Ray MearsSpanish needles UrenaLobata

Miscellaneous

Mushroom Et Cetera

Oil

Omega 3 Fatty Acids

Pickles/v inegar

Plant Uses

Plants

Protein Plant source

Recipes

Roots/Tubers/Corms

Salad

Salt tolerant/seaside

Seaweed

Soap/Saponins

Spice/Seasoning

Sugar/Sweetener

Toxic to Pets/livestock

Trees/Shrubs

Vegetable

Vines

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Masking tape around the cut edges reduces the

chances of a “paper” cut. Photo and arils picked

by Green Deane

discovery this past week is that the bitter, non-edible Sarcodon has spores that

look like crumpled bits of translucent green paper. One deadly Amanita spores I

looked at resembled slush and snowballs. Fascinating. On a related topic you will

read that there are no toxic shelf mushrooms with pores growing on wood. That

is mushroom dogma. There is at least one polypore that is toxic, the Hapalopilus

nidulans. It can cause kidney dysfunction and brain damage. This information is

via herbalist Susan Marynowski of the Gainesville Mushroom Hunters group.

Thans Susan. Fortunately this polypore is easy to identify with a little chemical

testing.

Podpcarpus wine is one of

my ongoing projects so I am

still collecting arils. They are

in season now. If you don’t

like the idea of making wine

the arils can be eaten as is or

made into jelly or pies. Just

remember the seeds are

mildly toxic. We eat the aril

only. Collecting them, as with

most fruit, requires a little bit

of technique (you don’t pick

apples and oranges the same

way!) If you can look for

Podocarpus with large arils.

Since you have to go through

the same mechanical action

with every one you pick

selecting larger arils fills the pail faster. You can pick the entire fruit with either

hand then use your thumbs to knock the toxic seed off. Or you can hold them in

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Susan Weed

one hand and roll the seed off with the other. Let me repeat: Only the aril is

eaten. To have both hand free you can make a berry pail from items you

probably have around the house. I use a quarter-cut gallon milk jug and the

shoulder strap from a long unused lap top carrying case. Lap top shoulder straps

are good because they are – -for me at least — just the right waist length and

they have swivel snaps on the end making them easy to work with. I put the

entire contraption on like a belt with the jug waist high, perfect for dropping

berries into and hands free. As all the Podocarpus arils don’t ripen at the same

time I just keep freezing “pickings” until I have enough for whatever project I’m

working on.

I’ve always like the word Salmagundi,

meaning a hodgepodge. We’ve reached the

Salmagundi time of the newsletter. The Florida

Herbal Conference 2014 will be held in Deland again

this coming February. Susan Weed will be the

among featured speakers. And again there is an

early bird special for those who sign up before Oct.

31 and use the code EATTHEWEEDS. Not only will

I be doing weed walks at the herbal conference but

I also be leading weed walks at the Florida

Earthskills gathering also in February. Closer to home I will be talking at a

Native Plant Society conference in November in Orlando and in Tampa in March

there’s a begonia conference I’ll be addressing. Busy. This is a reminder that

we discuss edible wild plants all the time on the Green Deane Forum. It’s a

friendly, wholesome environment and we even identify some Unknown

Flowering Objects now and then. It’s a bit of a challenge but I still read every

post and answer my own email. We also have many on-going conversation about

herbal applications as well.

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Eat The Weeds

DVDs are now

available.

1

2

And that’s it until next week.

_______________________________________

Even though my foraging videos are for free on

the internet some foragers like to have their own copy.

My nine DVDs have 15 videos each, from 01 to 135,

and come in nine cases each with a picture of yours

truly on it. In the process of moving the videos to DVS

some of them were enhanced slightly from the version

on the Internet. In a few months I hope to have

volume 10 available as well. I print and compile the

sets myself so if you have any issues I handle it

personally. There are no middle men. To learn more

about them or to order the DVS click here.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Jerr September 3, 2013 at 18:32

Wouldn’t it be great if I could have you send me five kudzu seeds for my

garden. All expenses paid of course. Tell me what you think. (^_^)

REPLY

Green Deane September 3, 2013 at 18:45

which you are you referring to?

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