Passion Flower Fruit and Chia

Passiflora incarnata

"pudding"

  My Passionflower Fruit are really beginning to fall, which means they are ready and ripe to eat. More on using Passionflower and when to pick them is found here: http://ethnobotanist128.blogspot.com/2010/09/passionflower.html.

  I wanted to try something different with the seeds this year but couldn't think of what to do. One day I was making Chia Seed pudding and it occurred to me that I could flavor the Chia with Passionflower seeds. I have started eating Chia Seeds for their incredible Nutritional Value and super high Omega 3 oil content, check the web for all the nutritional benefits of Chia.
  I simply took the seeds from about ten Passionflower fruit, added about three times the amount of water as seeds, than blended them to make a drink/puree. I added enough Chia Seeds to gel the liquid, hit them with the blender again, and put them in the fridge to solidify. I guess it isn't really a "pudding", it's more like a gelatin, but it tasted pretty good, not to mention the Nutritional value of the Chia and the Fruit seed together. I love to experiment with new plant stuff especially when it turns out good.
  I also use Passionflower for it's medicinal value, and this year I dried a bunch of it and Tinctured a full quart to have on hand if the need arises. Passiflora incarnata is one of the best plants to use for insomnia and anxiety just to name two of its many nervine qualities.  For a basic rundown see: http://www.stevenfoster.com/education/monograph/pflower.html
 Its easy to grow and even if you use it for nothing else, the flowers are just amazing!

Elder Berries

I am very excited, my Elder plants have berries this year!
 Two years ago, in very early Spring, I took some stems off a large Elder plant that grew behind a place I used to work. I stuck them in water and hoped for the best. They started to grow roots and by the time the weather was starting to get warm the stems started to get leaves. I planted them in the ground and kept them watered well. They didn't do that well and I thought I might loose them but they hung on through through the summer looking pretty beat up when the fall came around.
  Last year I was happy to see new shoots coming up but there were still alot of dead branches on them though they did start to do well by the Summer time. I didn't get any flowers or berries and I was wondering if they would ever produce. This year lots of new shoot came up and I got lots of flowers. The flowers are in clusters and are tiny and white and quite beautiful. I started to see green berries about two weeks ago and almost all the berries have turned a very dark blue almost black in color. The birds and the deer get most of the berries but I also get to snack on some when I go out to water the plants.
  Elder is a very important Medicinal Plant. I use the berries are to make a tincture that I use if I get any sign of a cold coming on and through the winter I use it prophylactically to keep healthy esspecially when I get run down. The berries have been shown to prevent the flu virus from entering the cell therefore keeping it from duplicating. Take the berry tincture or syrup at the first sign of the flu and there is a good chance the duration will be shortened significantly. The Flowers are considered a diaphoretic, a substance that helps your body produce perspiration, and is used to treat colds and flu to help you sweat it out. Please do more research on this awesome herb to learn all the great stuff it is useful for. Or, just enjoy the berries as a trailside snack as you hike and play outdoors.
Peace

Ground Cherry

Plant with unripe Berries

Ripe Berries Fallen to the Ground

Berries inside Casing

  Ground Cherry is a novel plant, with it's fruit encased in a papery sack. Even with the drought we have been having and the extreme temperatures for extended time, the Ground Cherries are producing quite well while most other plants are having a hard time getting through this extreme period. Wild Edibles are few and far between this year, and makes me wonder how difficult it must be to be a hunter gatherer when the weather is uncooperative.

  I only learned about Ground Cherry since I have been in NC, I never noticed it in NY, so I assume it is not very common there. The plants are very conspicuous with it's leathery encased fruit. When on the plant the casing is green and the fruit inside is also green and should not be picked. Wait till they turn brown and fall off the plant to be sure they are ripe. I have heard the unripe fruit an be toxic if too many are eaten. When the casing is brown and has fallen off the plant, the fruit inside should be a creamy yellowish color. Now they are safe to eat in any quantity you like and I have seen recipes for pies and jams on the internet. Personally I just like to eat them as a fruit when out in the garden or I gather enough to have with oatmeal in the morning. If you have a big enough plant it will supply you with fruit till the cold weather comes along. Enjoy!

Peace

Chicory

  One of the plants I really miss after moving to NC is Chicory. Chicory was very common where I used to live, but I had never seen even one in the years I have been living in NC.
  At my last job, I had to spend time walking dogs in the parking lot surrounding the Vets office where I worked. On the side of the building coming up out of a crack in the asphalt was a plant that I watched , over time, get really huge over the weeks since I discovered it. For some reason, probably because it had been so long since I had seen one, I didn't recognize it right away. Than one day, after a long weekend, while driving into the parking lot, the plant was in full bloom! At this point I recognized it right away, it was the first Chicory plant I had seen since I moved here. I was very excited to say the least, but I also couldn't believe I didn't recognize it sooner. One day I came in early to do some tree trimming etc. around the building and one of the things I was supposed to do was to clean up the parking lot, so, I brought a pick to work with me to try to dig it out. It wasn't easy as the plants roots were under the asphalt and they were larger than the crack I was working in. Basically I butchered the poor plant and was afraid it was hopeless, not to mention the weather was really hot and transplanting a plant in flower is the worst time to do so. I cut the plant way back, placed what was left of the roots in a bucket of water, and transported it home. If there was going to be any chance of this plant surviving I knew I had to keep it out of the hot Sun and keep it well watered.
  The plant withered badly and I was afraid it was no use, but I kept watering it anyway. In a week or so the plant seemed to perk up a bit, than after about two weeks I started to see new growth! When it looked like it was doing well I transplanted it into my Medicinal Herb garden. Unfortunately, it was really hot, and though I shaded it as best as I could it still took a bad hit from being transplanted again, at the worst time of the year to transplant something. Persistent watering and shading helped and as you can see from the photo, the plant is in bloom again! I will leave it alone till late fall than find a permanent home for it and hope it multiplies to many plants over the years.
  I have only used Chicory as an edible plant though it is quite the medicinal plant also. The leaves are succulent in the spring and are good in salads and as a potherb. It is a bit bitter like Dandelion, so it's not everyones favorite, but it is a nutritious plant and is worth getting used too. The flowers are also edible and can be used as you would any other flower in salads or fritters etc.
  The most famous part of the plant is the root. You may have heard of Chicory coffee, something you can still buy in health and other stores. Chicory root is famous as a coffee substitute or additive. The large tap root is cleaned dried and cut lengthwise, than roasted in an oven or next to a fire until the desired brown color is reached. This is ground in a coffee grinder and added to real coffee to stretch its quantity so it lasts longer. It can also be roasted and used as a 'coffee' substitute by it self, though it tastes nothing like coffee, it is really good for you.
  Because I dug this plant out of a parking lot and the roots lived under asphalt, it is not usable due to any toxins it may have accumulated over the years. What I am hoping for is that this plant to be the mother plant for many others as I will collect the seeds and plant them hoping I get a viable stand of Chicory somewhere down the road.
Peace

Milkweed Seed Pods

Young Seed Pods

Lunch

  The Flowers on the Common Milkweed Plants are spent and are beginning to be replaced by young seed pods. These pods will get up to 3" long and start to turn brown and open up by the Fall, so the wind distributed seeds will get a good start by next Spring.

   If you have been following along you may remember me writing about using the young sprouts back in April and than the Flowers in June. Using the young pods is the next step in using the Common Milkweed as it's life cycle and the seasons progress. The pods are edible and make a good vegetable that can be prepared many different ways but it is important to get them while they are young. Once the pods get larger than 1" long, they start to form the silk that will carry the seeds away. So if you plan to try to eat them, try to get them before they get larger than about an inch. My Milkweed plants have pods at varying degrees of size, some haven't even started growing yet and some are about 1.5" long already. This is good because this means the season for picking the pods will last longer.

 Today I decided to have pods for lunch. It's been really hot and I didn't feel like fusing too much so I just decided to sautee them with rice. I picked a bunch of young pods and found the stems exuded alot of latex so I though it would be a good idea to boil them first for about a minute to remove the excess. Next I drained them and let them dry for a little while so they wouldn't splatter too much when I cooked them. I sauteed them in a little butter and the only spices I used were salt and pepper. If it wasn't so hot I probably would have curried them or made a cream or a cheese sauce to put over them but I thought that would be too heavy a meal for such a hot day. The pods have a unique taste, they are definitely up there on the list of good wild edibles. Give them a try!

Peace

Wild Pancakes!

Seed Stalks

Wild Pancakes!

  Yellow Dock and Curly Dock are two very common  plants on the East Coast of the USA. Both plants are Edible and Medicinal. In the early Spring when the leaves are young and tender they can be used as a potherb or as an addition to a salad.  Personally I don't like eating these Docks very much so I don't collect the leaves very often. I guess I think of them as a survival food.
   The seeds on the other hand are a different story. Normally the seeds aren't ready till later on in the season but I guess the very hot dry weather has affected them and the seeds are turning brown and crunchy already. To make sure they were dry I cut the seed stalks off the plant and laid them in the Sun for a couple of days. Once dry, I simply ran the stalks through my fingers over a large bowl to remove the seeds. The seeds develop in a covering that turns papery when dry. To remove this chafe, rub the seeds between the palms of your hand to dislodge the seeds and winnow the chafe away. I winnowed the seeds a bit but it was too windy today and I started to lose too much seed so I left the chafe on. The chafe is edible anyway and it adds alot more fiber and bulk. Once I picked out the big stuff, like leaves and branches, I ran the seeds through a coffee grinder to make dark brown flour.
  I mixed this flour with an equal amount of Organic Spelt flour; added baking powder, an egg, a few drops of Vanilla extract, a touch of Stevia and enough soy milk to make a pancake batter. I heated up the pan and made a bunch of pancakes for lunch! The batter and cakes reminded me of Buckwheat Pancakes, they were a dark brown in color and had the texture of whole grain pancakes.
  Though they weren't 100% wild, I still felt good going through the process of using these wild plants as part of my food source. Besides they were REALLY good!
Peace
        

It's Summer!

  Today at 12:17pm  the Sun reached the end of it's northern migration towards the Tropic of Cancer, or 23.5deg. North Latitude, making today the longest day of the year. From this day forth the Sun will start it's trek South again and the days will be getting shorter, only a little at first, but by July the change will be approximately 2 min. a day.
 Most of the Spring plants have gone to seed by now and many plants die back rather than deal with the hot dry weather, only to return at the end of summer and beginning of Autumn. Today it's 97deg. Most plants that supplied ample greens all Spring are withering away because of the heat, or their leaves too tough to be palatable. There are many plants that don't mind the heat, and some, actually like it, though the bounty is definitely dwindling.
  Keep checking back to follow along with my Ethnobotanical Pursuits of the Summer Plants.
Peace

Asiatic Dayflower

Day Flower

  I have recently learned about another Wild Edible! If you have been following this Blog you know how excited I get when I learn something new.
  This is a plant that was not common where I used to live so I never really learned much about it. It is somewhat common where I live now and I find it in several places on my property, including a large patch in my ex-vermiculture compost area (my chickens eat all the worms). The whole aerial part of the plant is edible. I was not expecting much the first time I sampled it because usually by the time a plant is in flower the leaves and stem are too tough and too bitter to be palatable. Not only that, the leaves felt very "papery" and dry and I expected to have to tare them apart with my teeth. I was surprised to find they were succulent and very mild tasting. So much so, that I picked a hand full and eat them, flower and all. I was excited at my new find.
 I started thinking of ways to use this new found plant and I realized it would be good in a salad with the flowers added as a garnish, sauteed as a vegetable, in an omelet or added to soups. Since the first time I tried it, I have eaten some everyday when I go out to work in the garden or tend the chickens. A great new wild snack for me!
Peace

Mimosa Water

Mimosa Tree

Flower Water in the Making

  I remember when I moved to the Burbs from the "City" when I was about 9 yrs. old. I already had a strong interest in nature, and plants in particular, when we moved to the "country". To me it was like being in the country, especially coming from the asphalt and concrete where I lived before. We actually had a lawn and trees on our property!

  The tree I remember most from those days was the Mimosa Tree that grew in our backyard. It had the most exotic looking flowers I had ever seen and I couldn't believe it was in MY yard! Unfortunately all the Mimosa Trees died in our neighborhood, must have been some kind of disease or something.

 So, the Mimosa has been a part of my life for a long time and through out my life, anytime I saw one I admired it. When I moved to NC, on the front lawn of our property were seven of what looked like trees that were severely pruned back to the point of just being ugly skinny trunks. We just figured  they were dead and I would have to cut them down in the Spring. Well, the Spring came and the trees started to sprout some green growth and to my amazement they were Mimosa Trees! Now after almost five years of letting them grow, they have become the most beautiful sight you can imagine when they all flower at the same time. They are in bloom now and the sweet intoxicating smell permeates the air, and sitting on the front porch is like being in Mimosa Heaven!

  The fact that I have had a relationship with this tree for such a long time, and the fact that I love learning about Plants and their uses, it blows my mind that it never occurred to me that the Mimosa Tree had any uses. I don't know why, maybe because when I was young I was told that it was poisonous, or, just admiring it's beauty and fragrance was enough for all those years. 

 Recently I got together with a group of people that have a strong interest in Edible and Medicinal Plants. It's very cool being able to share the combined knowledge and experience of a bunch of like minded people. It is there that my interest was sparked to learn more about the Mimosa Tree. It was there that I learned about making Mimosa Flower water.

 Simply put a bunch of Mimosa Flowers in a jar and cover with water, its that simple. I have been experimenting with how long to keep the flowers in the water and I find that about 36hrs. seems to be good. I keep the jar in the fridge for the whole time and the water comes out a slight pink color and has a nice taste and fragrance. 

  Through my research  I have found that in Asia, where the Tree is originally from, it is highly prized as a Medicinal Plant. The Chinese call it the 'Happiness Tree' because the flowers and bark are both used to combat depression and anxiety and are used as a calming sedative. According to Michael Tierra some modern Chinese Herbalists even call it "Herbal prozac"

 I highly recommend doing your own research on this magnificent Tree as there is alot more  to learn and I am just getting started on this new, and long over due, Ethnobotanical Pursuit.

Peace

Milkweed Flowers

 The Common Milkweeds are blooming and their sweet aroma fills the air in as I walk past my  garden. As I have mentioned before, Milkweeds are useful in different ways at different times of the year. Now is the time for the flowers. Before the flowers completely open, they look a little like broccoli heads, especially if you get them when they are small. There are many ways to prepare them, like breading and frying them or using them in a stir fry or stew or just simply steaming them, but today I decided I was going to boil them. Its a quick and delicious way of using the flowers. The flowers don't seem to have the bitter principal that you find in the rest of the plant at this mature stage so no need to boil them twice. Once they boiled for a couple of minuets you can strain them and add a touch of salt and some pats of butter and you have a healthy vegetable for your meal.
 When the flowers open, the scent is quite intoxicating, and the open flowers attract lots of butterflies, bees and other nectar loving insects. The individual open flowers can be nibbled on raw or put in salads. The nectar gives them a sweet taste and they are quite good. The open flowers make interesting fritters also, or can be added to pancakes and muffins. Just don't forget to leave some flowers for the insects and for the plant to produce seed pods, which will be the next Ethnobotanical Pursuit the Milkweed has to offer.
Peace