Finding Wild Edible Food: I’m Not Preparing For The Zombie Apocalypse

“Please Don’t Eat the Daisies!”

Remember the movie Please Don’t Eat the Daisies?  Turns out you could eat them if you wanted to!  In today’s post I’m talking about the concept of foraging for food, not just the random eating of the weeds from your lawn.  Is food foraging a romantic notion of self-sufficiency and living off the land?  Is it a realistic  solution to solving food insufficiency?  Is having a knowledge of wild edible plants really my only hope for surviving the zombie apocalypse?

I’m sure you’re wondering what on earth got her off on this kind of tangent.  Two things.  First, my buddy Chris’s,  (Spring Valley Farm) recent Instagram post.  He and his wife are retired and and enjoying an “off the grid” lifestyle; and he posted a video of his home made pizza oven and a picture of some wild ramps.  Which I thought was pretty cool; and because pizza with goat cheese is pretty tasty.  

The second thing that happened was Tustin (my husband) mowed a patch of Morel mushrooms into oblivion.  He thought they might have been Morels; but mowed first and asked questions later!  In an effort to confirm that they were indeed Morels (they totally were) and to help me find more, I called Karen Stephenson, an expert in wild edibles.

That conversation turned into a 3 hour tour (Gilligan homage) of our 25 acre property.

The Three Hour Tour

Karen Stephenson is the smartest person I know when it comes to wild edible plants and their nutritive value.  She’s a  professional wild food educator, wild food nutrition expert, Chartered Herbalist, Master Naturalist and a writer.  Let’s be clear, I’m not vegan; a survival extremist; or of the belief that there will actually be a zombie apocalypse.  But what I am is a person who is serially retired and has the time and inclination to pursue whatever whacky tangent pops into my head.

We went for a walk on the weekend out in our “back forty,” and this is one of the plants  Karen was really excited to see.  These beautiful little yellow Lady Slipper plants are native to Ontario; and relatively rare. They are in fact, orchids.

Karen came over to help me understand how to forage food locally. There’s tons of local plants that are edible and/or medicinal.   Lady Slipper is edible; but Karen cautions that it should only be eaten in a last ditch survival situation.  Before you get so far gone that you need to eat rare orchids, Let’s look at what else we found.  There was way more than I thought there would be!

The “Not So Rare”, But Still Totally Tasty, Plants

I actually have no particular desire to forage for my own food; I’m actually pretty lazy.  But what I always have, is a desire to learn something new.   It wouldn’t kill any of us to learn more about our surroundings, and the abundance of nature.  To me, this was just an fascinating topic that I had time to pursue; and let’s face it, the hike and fresh air would do me good.  Probably the real point this blog.

Sumac

Garlic Mustard

Horsetail Fern

Queen Anne’s Lace

Sumac for tea, Garlic Mustard for pesto, Horsetail Fern for toothpaste, and Queen Anne’s Lace for salad.  Be warned, Garlic Mustard tastes exactly like garlic, and it’s very, very strong.  So much so, a small amount is all that’s needed. Try infusing it in a really fresh ice pressed raw olive oil  like what you can get from Rallis Family Farm.

Here’s the actual scoop on Daisies.  The stalks and stems are great in salads; and the flower and petals are delicious when pickled.  If you’re go to the trouble of picking and preserving Daisies, use a high quality organic apple cider vinegar.  And if you’re trying to buy local, try Filisinger’s from the Owen Sound area.

100g of daisies contains 600mg of potassium, 190mg of calcium, 160mg of vitamin A, 88mg of phosphorous, 33mg of magnesium, 2.7mg of iron, and 2.6mg of protein. I don’t understand how there could be protein, unless there was a bug or something!

I have included my conversation with Karen in this video, if you’re looking for a more fulsome explanation of a specific plant and what to do with them.  We also cover more plants during the conversation than I’ve included in this post (Giant Puff Balls and Turkey Tails for example).

Herb Robert

Pine Tree & Cone

Both can be made into tea.  Pine needles can be dried, and put through to a fine grind and added to flour to make awesome shortbread cookies.  Herb Robert leaves are good in salad and the roots make very effective mosquito repellant…it’s from the geranium family after all.

Ramps From Spring Valley Farm

And here are the ramps from my friend Chris’s farm.   You can buy these in the spring at local farm markets.  They’re also referred to as wild leeks.  Ramps are an early spring plant, and I do have plenty of these.  They will go nicely with my other spring edibles…morels and fiddleheads.

I haven’t really covered any of the medicinal plants we found and discussed while out on the hike; but they were surprisingly numerous.  

We know that the Rain Forests have been providing the pharmaceutical industry with medicinal compounds for a century or more.  Be we may not have done a very good job looking in our own backyard (literally and figuratively).  Karen pointed out plants that promote circulation, stimulate cartilage repair, and fungi that are just starting to be looked at for cancers.

From a foraging perspective, I brought nothing back with me.  But from a learning perspective, it was a morning well spent; not bad for chasing down a question that “just popped into my head”.

I will share this with you.  Daisies taste like parsley, Sumac seeds taste citrusy, Queen Anne’s Lace tastes like carrots, Garlic Mustard  roots taste like horseradish, and nothing tasted like chicken!

Karen has so much more info to share; and you can find her books and recipes at www.ediblewildfood.com  I’d love to hear about any wild edible you’ve eaten, and I’d really love it if you would share the recipe.  What’s one thing that you’d like to learn this week?

Cheers,

Cynthia

ps, some photos are mine, some came from IStock (like the plants that aren’t in season), and the wild leeks are from Chris at Spring Valley Farm.  And any product mentioned here is not a paid endorsement.