In Defense of Wild Vegetable Plants
I run into a lot of resistance to eating wild plants. They can be suspect - are they good to eat? I am fortunate in that some wild plants and mushrooms were on the menu in my childhood home so I grew up understanding and believing how tasty they were. They can be despised or laughed at - eating weeds does not seem like a garden or life accomplishment to many. Yet I would answer that wild plants and mushrooms can be extremely delicious, nutritious, and productive when other crops are taken down by poor growing conditions such as extreme weather. I invite people to taste (young & cooked) wild nettle greens, lambs-quarter, dandelions, wild mint in teas and jellies, wild strawberries, wild raspberries, wild blackberries, and wild huckleberries. I am also trying to branch out to other wild foods, such as burdock roots. I will admit that adapting to new foods is a challenge for me.
I wonder could the spring time wild plants be used to grow winter crops indoors in cold weather climates? Could the wild plants be grown to overcome adverse gardening conditions? If we had to face food disruptions would we be able to forage for edible wild plants and have a healthier diet? Some things to ponder.
Comments
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I keep an eye out for good stands of edible wild plants on my land, do everything I can to encourage them, and consider them basically an extension of my garden. Plants I particularly like to eat or otherwise use are free to grow wherever they want to; I rearrange yard and garden plans to accommodate them.
Despite everything I do to keep them out, the deer, groundhogs and rabbits are relentless; sooner or later each season somebody breaks in and takes out a good section of my garden. When that happens, I still have the wild greens to fall back on. When drought or other bad weather ruins the garden, the wild plants are usually still there to eat. Besides, as you write, the wild plants can be delicious, and they are generally much more nutritious than domesticated vegetables. You just have to ignore friends from town who can't believe you eat weeds, and refuse to even consider trying them. It's their loss, right?
Using the springtime wild plants to grow winter crops indoors is an interesting idea, but I'd be doubtful you'd have much luck. or at least it would be really complicated to make it work. Different plants have different needs as far as soil content, depth and such, and also different requirements for seed germination. They can be really picky about where they will and won't grow, much more so than domesticated plants. It would be interesting to do some experimenting though.
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@flowerpower * I don't see why you couldn't have some of the wild greens growing throughout the winter. Pigweed seems to come up in any pots that I have made up with garden soil. Dandelions should make good greens. Clover sprouts grow well so I don't see why they shouldn't grow as plants under lights or in a green house if you have a suitable climate. Although, domesticated, mustard has become invasive in a lot of areas. It makes good winter greens or microgreens. Chickweed might get a bit leggy and it might be too warm inside for chickweed. Sorrel grows prolifically and I think it is another that would do well as a microgreen.
But there are lots that you could try. Nice to have some of the more bitter greens for winter salads as usually the only bitter green available in the stores is arugula.
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@torey Taking notes, thanks. :) I will have to see what Mustard and Sorrel look like. I think I ate Sorrel as a child.
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@MaryRowe I hear you about gardening with wild animal companions. I think the rabbits would be the most troublesome to keep away. I guess fences with various features would be the solution.
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@flowerpower * This is a link to E-flora BC. This site is maintained by UBC and is one of my main plant ID websites. Interactive maps so you can get exact locations of plants. https://ibis.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/eflora/
In the Browse section, you can click on species, genus or family. I usually start with genus. That will take you to a drop down menu that will list everything found in BC; native and non-native. When you finally get to the actual species of the plants there is a full plant description page with the interactive map. Below the pic and map, there are headings that you can click on to open and see Species Information, Habitat/Range, Status, etc. Below the pic there should be a link to other pictures of this species in the gallery.
You can use the map from that page or open another window with the map pare. On the map you can click on the dots for locations.
So if you are looking for mustard, I would choose genus and then pick Brassica from the drop down menu. That will take you to a page listing all the species of Brassica found in BC. You can then click on each species to have a look at the info page. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a listing for sorrel, so i guess it hasn't escaped cultivation. But you can go to the Rumex genus and see all of the wild sorrels. For domestic species, the Red-veined or Bull's Blood Sorrel is very pretty and tastes the same as green sorrel.
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@flowerpower * Oh, I think it may be a toss-up. Sooner or later the rabbits will find a way under or through any fence I set up--though I have not yet tried electric. "Smell" deterrents--marigold borders, human hair, etc. work, until the rabbits get really hungry, then nothing works. The big groundhogs we have around here are like tanks--they can tear and push their way through, or burrow and undermine most fences. And last year the deer leapt over a fence nearly 5-foot high to wipe out my garden in a single night. It is an ongoing game of wits, and eventually the critters always win. My neighbors all keep large dogs which helps deter the raiding, but a couple of those dogs are chicken-killers, and I don't want to deal with that. So the garden chess game goes on....
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A survival garden of "weeds" would probably be your best choice in a survival situation for a variety of reasons. 1.) People won't recognize them as food and steal them. 2.) They don't require fertilizers, pesticides (not that we should use them anyway) or anything really to grow well and abundantly since most wild edibles don't have tons of pest or disease issues (depending on the plant). 3.) They usually have more vitamins, minerals and nutrients then the plants we grow in our gardens. I think we should always grow them personally.
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@karenjanicki I love the idea of a survival garden of weeds. I always eat my weeds, or drink them in tea. I am planting more weeds in the spring.
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I agree. I planted squash last year in the empty lot across the street, and someone picked them before they were even close to ripe. Now I'm planting edible weeds like pig weed, wild amaranth, dandelions, and whatever edible grows there. Those plants survive and thrive even during the dry season.
My landlord planted a beautiful shrub by the street, and it was gone the next day. I asked his wife if she would like to plant my ashwagandha there because no one knows what it is and won't be tempted. Two years later, it's still there.
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I have weed seeds and herb seeds that I want to plant where we live. I do have vegetable seeds too but I'm hoping to plant them at my parent's private country property.
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That's insane! Someone stole a shrub? Who does that?
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@karenjanicki More people than I thought, and in a survival situation, they may do worse. I doubt they'll steal weeds, though.
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The guy we buy apples from keeps honey bees. A couple years ago, his bees found a patch of wild mint. Best honey I have ever tasted. I wish we'd gotten more from him.
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I am trying to learn what to forage locally. A lot of people here have talked about the wild mushrooms but I am hesitant as I haven't found 3 sources that agree on a single wild mushroom I have found but Jack o lanterns which are poison.
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Also, we forage every year. We've picked wild apples (it was a tree on public land that we assume belonged to a homestead a very long time ago), wild plums, black raspberries, asparagus, etc.
Next year we'll be picking black raspberries and currants from our own treeline. Is it still foraging if you are harvesting from your own property?
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I definitely wouldn't start with mushrooms. There are too many uncertainties. I recommend starting with very safe and easily identifiable plants such as dandelion, burdock, plantain, elderberries and rose hips.
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Absolutely! Gathering plants you didn't grow is always a type of foraging. And if they are on your own property with easy access and you know the conditions they were grown in that's all the better :).
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