| |
Natural Foods - It's amazing how many things are edible if you know what to look for. Many natural foods require an aquired taste, so that's why you don't see them at the local market. However, when it means abating hunger, it's worth embracing. I try to sample edible foods as I run across them so that I know what to expect, and start aquiring the taste for the times I'll need to eat them.
|
|
See Photo
|
Plantain
Plantain is edible and medicinal. The young leaves are edible raw in salad or cooked as a pot herb and are very rich in vitamin B1 and riboflavin. A poultice of hot leaves can be bound onto cuts and wounds to draw out thorns, splinters and inflammation. The root is said to have been used as an anti-venom for rattlesnakes bites.
|
See Photo
|
Dandelion
The Dandelion is generally revered in the U.S. as a weed, however, it is both nutritionally and medicinally rich. Nutritionally it provides carbohydrates and vitamins. The leaves can be eaten raw like a salad or boiled like mustard greens. The root can be boiled like carrots, and the blossom can be batter-fried. Medicinally, it is a diuretic, so you may not want to eat in abundance for long periods.
|
See Photo
|
Yucca
Yucca is a multi-resource plant. The white blossom is edible and can be eaten right off the stalk. The roots are harvested and prepared like potatoes which can be boiled or roasted. The post season stalk is used for firecraft - both as hearth board and spindle.
|
See Photo
|
Prickly Pear
Prickly Pear (also known as nopales) is a cactus which has multiple parts that are edible. The stalk, also known as a paddle, is pear shaped and flat. You shave off the spikes and eat either raw, or cook by frying or boiling. It has a consistancy similar to okra, so it's kind of slimy. Many folk cut it up into 1/4" pieces and fry with eggs. The fruit, known as fingers or tuna, is often sweet and full of seeds, but very tasty. It can be eaten like fruit.
|
|
Coconuts
You will find these in the tropical regions. By placing a sharpened stick "point up" in the ground, you can slam the coconut onto it and rip the outer husk off. Then, by taking a stone in hand, you can strike the coconut on it's equatorial line and it will break open. You can drink the fluid (or coconut milk), eat the white "meat" and use the shell for a bowl. The dried outer husk makes good tinder.
|
|
