How would you introduce someone to wild food if they never had any?

oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh those sound wonderful! Are surinam cherries like choke cherries? I'm not by the sea, are sea grapes a form of sea weed? Haven't heard of either of these, they sould interesting. Make sure you read the fiddle head fern cautions out now. Some have gotten contaminated with a disease that makes people not feel very well, usually they're fine cooked. If the person you are teaching likes things that taste like the ferns (like asparagus), that should work out well! Thanks and take care.

sould, I meant either sound or should be interesting and wrote a hybrid,sorry about that.

Some people call them Barbados cherries. I think they need a tropical climate. There are a lot of people who give up on trying to keep them out of their yards, so they make hedges of them. They are amazing! They're sweet if they're dark in color, tart if lighter, and just full of vitamin C, among the many other goodies. Seagrapes grow on trees with broad, plate-like leaves. The only grow at the beach, indicating that they require salty sand to grow. Several days ago, I saw a man on the street corner selling bags of them, but I don't think they can go any further north than Miami. What's the problem with fiddleheads?

I envy them finding wild nuts. That is a dream of mine. Persimmons don't grow up here. Poke, they were truly talented to get that when not poisonous or to prepare it in such a way as not not be. Good idea from harvest that which is planted to that which grew without being planted. Thanks and I will probably use that for my future responses to such questions. So many people are trying to reduce their food bill. I ask them to find someone in their area who can teach them or is doing that already. Thanks and take care.

Grandma grew up harvesting, and also made lipstick and rouge from poke berries.I am sure with that plant she knew what she was doing. I forgot to mention the huge washtubs full of sandhill plums (or sand plums) that were turned into jams and jellies when they could get to them before the deer. That is considered gourmet around here.

I've done soap from soapwart. I went to a class with beeswax and olive oil plus whatever herbs you need for health like chamomile for light skinned people and rosemary for darker.

I've got a little book called "Food For Free" that shows you lots of things you can eat and has a handy section telling you month by month what is available. There's bound to be someone doing wild food walks near where I live as there are quite a few bits of countryside. I made my first chutney out of plums and apple a couple of days ago, strictly speaking the plums weren't wild they came from branches over hanging from my neighbours garden. I'm going to start a discussion about that in a minute and I want to learn more about preserving fruits in jams and by canning as we are going to have tons of plums.

Where to start: You've already started with wild berries and plums, good for you! How to go on from there? When people come to your house, ask them to take a walk with you and show you anything they currently eat that is wild. Not that they remember as kids (memories change over time), currently eat. Find out if anyone gives classes in wild foods in your area, does walks on peoples lands for a fee, etc. Offer to help someone with canning or drying of wild foods. Or in the case of elderly people, picking and preparing under their directions. Many elderly people have balance problems, so they will fall over if they try to pick things or arthritis if they get down, they have trouble getting back up. Basically, put the word out that you're interested and if enough people talk to enough people, you'll find out who knows about different plants and actually uses them. Also take books out of the library or buy Peterson's Guides to Wild Edibles for your area or Wild Food plus a local one, and a third one, maybe something put out by the military. Petersons Field Guides: Edible Wild PlantsMost people can identify (but you still need to double check) dandelions, burdock, plantain (you probably see this all the time, but didn't know the name). Try internet search of: wild food dandelions or foraging burdock or uses of plantain plants (this will be the biggest pain because those bananalike things will keep coming up instead of plants). Peterson Field Guides: Edible Wild Plantsby Lee Allen Peterson. It's actually best to look up things by their latin names, so see what Arctium s are, esp. Arctium lappa and Arctium minus as well as plantago major. I know burdock sounds far fetched, but like rhubarb and potatoes, there are parts to eat and parts not to eat. Part of it is called gobo in Asian cooking. Many people order gobo or buy it in stores without knowing it's in their back yard. Take care and happy wild fooding!

Oh yeah, forgot to tell you, when searching on the internet, I usually do: burdock pictures of Or whatever in latin and pictures of, but be careful of the sources, and check out three or four pictures. Some people put tall Phlox for soapwart in pictures one time and they're different plants. So make sure your sources are good. Usually the latin named searches get better results.

The deer are everywhere. I think my mom always said lemonaid and limeaid thinned the blood. I do not envy your heat. We are on the cool side lately, that is our normal July temperature range.

What I meant to say in '05 we lost a lot of our indigenous trees, due to drought, the ones that are rain dependent. Alders, Grand Firs, quite a few Cedar, all expired! Sad sight to see! Our usual temp here is in the 80's...but it was 102 today, and I had to quit work @2:00 p.m. I am painting the exterior of an old folks home...16 units, and all their decks have clear roofs...so I think the sun increased the temp to about 110. My blood isn't thin enough to tolerate that kind of heat. Yes, there is not a lot of foraging this year, and the deer are paying for the drought, too! We are over-run with deer here, as there is NO natural predators on the Island....so I fear many will meet their maker, too! Have a spectacular evening...and take care. Cheers!

With heat comes purslane. Also other arid plants. One year only dandelions and purslane grew. Also plaintain, but not everyone likes those three. I love your usual forray like 2005. I could really chow down!

Step 1, Latin name for your plant. If you don't know that, you probably aren't going to get too far online. So search, ginger plant, latin name for (different names should come up, copy them down). Step 2, which plant is yours? You must ID by pictures from a reliable source. Search: Latin name, picture of Then try three or more sites for each name, I would only use USA biological or cooperative extension, or if there is some society for ginger. Step 3, once you have positively ID'ed your plant and you know its latin name, Latin name plus edible. You can do it other ways of course. Not sure what you searched when you searched. I might just try: white ginger plant picture and edible or many variations of those words (like two variables at a time-white ginger and edible; white ginger and picture, etc.). White ginger flowering plant and toxic as a reverse search also. After you find it, a discussion including a picture of your plant might be nice. Good for you! People are always saying there are none edible or none toxic, but most families of plants of some of each. Questioning and researching are a big part of being a responcilbe wild edible person. You're on your way, whether or not the plant is wild. Also question if its in soil that is good for edibility (free of toxens) which I know you already do (writing this mostly for other readers).

That should be plants have some of each, not of some of each.

Well, it bloomed so I have a photo now of what the flower looks like so I have a visual ID at least. I got the plant from my Dad when he was thinning out the growth in his back yard.