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For the last few years, I've had a goal to try five new food plants each year that I've never had before. It started as a challenge to me as a forager and naturalist, but later became something more as I realized how few crops we as a society eat compared with traditional and indigenous cultures around the world. And some of these foods have unbelievable FLAVOR you just can't get at the grocery store!
Despite thousands of plants varieties that are edible around the world (estimates range from 20,000 to 200,000!), we (especially in the Western diet) typically eat relatively few plants as a 2010 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations suggests saying "Today, nearly 30 domesticated species comprise a significant portion of dietary diversity and only three principal cereal grains (rice, wheat, and maize) contribute to more than half of the world's calorie intake." (FAO 2010) For all the rebels out there, doesn't that statistic alone just want to make you want to try more foods to buck that trend?
Here are 5 new foods I've tried this last year:
American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) - The American Persimmon is ancient, native to eastern North America, a relative of the ebony tree, and produces a lovely edible fruit in the fall. The fruit is smaller than the more commonly known Asian persimmon (which can be found in grocery stores) and must be fully ripe or even "past ripe" to eat, but should you find one, count yourself lucky! They taste marvelously sweet. The trees have a distinctive checkerboard bark, and, apparently, you can grind up the seeds as a coffee substitute, but I haven't yet tried that...
Turkey Tail Mushrooms** (Trametes versicolor) - I've seem them all around before, but this year was the first year I harvested my own and tried them! Turkey tail mushrooms are beautiful mushrooms that grow out of old trees or dead wood in woodlands. They come in a range of colors and stripes like the fan of a turkey's tail! They are now coming into the spotlight a little more as one of several medicinal mushrooms that help support the body by boosting the immune system.
Plus turkeys make a tasty type of tea. Traits that I used to ID Turkey Tails: 1) tiny pores (no gills) on 2) white undersides, 3) they are the thickness of cardstock and are leathery with flat or wavy edges and 4) a velvety upper surface with concentric stripes in many different colors with 5) white at the edges or margins. There are two lookalikes: the False Turkey Tail and the Hairy Bracket which aren't poisonous (yay!) and plus these two false turkeys DO NOT have the distinctive tiny white pores like the true Turkey Tail does. They are found in woodlands from coast to coast in the US, and, from what I understand, in most places that have woodlands around the world! You can dehydrate, boil in tea or veggie soup stock or try grinding up into flour in a coffee grinder like Tradd Cotter recommends in his book "Organic Farming and Mycoremediation."
Ringed Honey Mushroom** (Armillaria mellea): Honey mushrooms are delicious, taste like a very flavorful shiitake mushroom, and out of all the edible mushrooms I've eaten, are also the first ones that have a fairly deadly "look-a-like" ... so beware! If you know your mushrooms, it doesn't really look that similar to the deadly Galerina, but please be VERY careful and confident before eating anything! Honey mushrooms are also basically tree assassins...! Notice the black thread-like tendrils growing underneath the bark in the picture below- another indicator you have a honey mushroom! Many mushrooms politely coexist with trees and nibble on dead or dying wood, but NOT the honey mushroom which can actively kill trees. Harvesting them before the spores drop is actually a great way to prevent the spores from spreading... as long as you don't inadvertently spread the spores far and wide carrying them from one place to another...! Also, another weird thing about honey mushrooms is that they recommend boiling or blanching them first before sautéing them. The reason is that sometimes honey mushrooms can have a compound that disagrees with some people's digestive systems... so if you try them for the first time, go slow, and just eat a few to ensure you aren't one of those people who has a reaction to it.
** CAUTION: Before harvesting mushrooms, it's important to get a great guidebook and also preferably a real-life person as a guide! I used the help of the Philly Mycological Club and an awesome book I discovered this year to go a little beyond my current mushroom knowledge called: How to Forage for Mushrooms Without Dying: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Identifying 29 Wild, Edible Mushrooms by Frank Hyman. It's an easy read, has a hilarious writing style and gives you confidence on how to identify many edible wild mushrooms. Check it out or something similar to build your confidence with mushrooms over time!
Hawthorn (Crataegus) - Hawthorn trees are everywhere, and yet only recently did I identify it right down the street from me. The little berries almost look like little tiny crabapples hanging off a tree (or small shrub) ... one difference is that their seeds are large and few and wrapped inside the hawthorn berry flesh instead of inside a seed chamber like with apples and pears. However, hawthorns can be tricky to ID as the leaves, fruits and plants in general come in a wide variety of colors (berries), shapes (leaves) and sizes (spines, tree heights, etc...). But don't worry, even professionals struggle to ID hawthorn varieties...
Hawthorn is apparently really good for heart health and more studies are coming out showing their value for humans and animals to support better blood flow and circulation, help lower high blood pressure and cholesterol and protect against heart disease. There are a lot of ways hawthorns are typically used such as in jams, jellies, wine, and candies. I found a recipe that recommended soaking the berries for 4-6 weeks in a non-flavored alcohol such as gin or vodka (or you could do a flavored vinegar or cordial) to make a drink to be sipped or added to fizzy water to add a rosy color and floral flavor. Once I identified hawthorns, I realized they are everywhere all around me! Even the dry southwest has variants of hawthorns with yellow berries!
Gingko Nuts (Gingko biloba): Gingko is also called "the silver apricot" and has edible nuts (though you need to cook them!). These trees are all throughout our cities and parks, and you may have noticed people (who are in the know!) collecting them from your area. You've probably also noticed that the female trees produce a very stinky fruit in the fall. Yet, I didn't know that the nuts on the inside of the fruit are edible when cooked, beautiful and also incredibly tasty! Plus they apparently are full of antioxidants, support brain health, and increase healthy blood flow in the body! BUT a word of caution that if you do eat them, eat them in moderation (less than 10/day or even less for a child as it has been done traditionally in many Asian cultures) as there can be problems if eaten in excess over time!
To get the nuts free of the incredibly stinky fruit, stomp on the fruits with your shoe to mush out the "nut" and use a plastic bag over your hand to collect the nuts inside so your hands don't smell. Plus gingko is apparently in a similar family to poison ivy so some people do have reactions to being exposed to a lot of the fruit. Then rinse the nuts a few times at home (preferably outside!) to get them free of any stinky fruit residue. There are many excellent videos out there on how to process the nuts along with foragers' favorite harvesting techniques.
But isn't it a lot of work to harvest wild foods? Sometimes, yes, it can be. At the same time, I didn't spend any time seeding, watering, planting or tending these wild foods... so I figure I can invest a little bit of time in the processing of these free and nutritious wild foods! Plus the more I get to eat and know these plants, the more I appreciate and notice them in the landscape. I might notice certain populations threatened by development or just disappearing... having been nourished by these plants, I find myself having a vested interest in seeing more of them. Perhaps taking a portion of what I harvest to plant and pass on the gift that I received in harvesting them. This is especially true for native plants which have multiple benefits in the landscapes they have adapted to. And also another reminder to be mindful when harvesting to just harvest what you need, leaving plenty for others (human and animal alike!). Robin Wall Kimmerer has a beautiful description of this in her book Braiding Sweetgrass as she talks about the concept of "honorable harvest".
Why bother eating more diverse foods? Food diversity matters. Wild or diverse foods are rich in trace elements we need in our bodies for optimal health many of which are sadly lacking in some of our modern foods. More diversity in our food also matters for biodiversity across larger landscapes - we as a human species collectively plant and support those plants that we regularly eat and use, and the more we diversify our diets (esp. eating more perennial foods!), the more we encourage greater, more diverse plantings. A more diverse diet also helps diversify our own gut microbiomes for long-term health and resilience.
Plus it's fun to track years through the new foods you've tried!
2019: Pawpaw, Orach (salad green), Highbush Cranberry, Aronia, Stinging Nettles, Wood Nettles, Chicken-of-the-Woods Mushroom, Desert Hackberry, American Hazelnut, Beaked Hazelnut
2020: Pheasant Polypore Mushroom, Japanese Knotweed, Jewelweed Seeds, Sea Lettuce (Seaweed), and Irish Moss (Seaweed), Black Walnuts, Butternuts
2021: Siberian Elm seeds, Black Locust Flowers, Freshwater Mussels, Winter Cress, Desert Wolfberry, Chiltepins, Pincushion Cactus Fruit, Spicebush
2022: American Persimmon, Turkey Tail Mushrooms, Giant Puffball, Wood Ear Mushroom, Ringed Honey Mushroom, Gingko Nuts, Pine Needle (Tea), Hawthorn
2023: Barrel Cactus (Fruit and Seeds), Longevity Spinach, Cholla Cactus Fruit, Emory Oak acorns (aka: Bellotas), Andean Apples (cactus fruit)... I'm well on my way to a good plant year already!
Referenced Resources:
FAO (2010). The Second Report on the State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
"How Many Wild Edible Plants Do We Eat—Their Diversity, Use, and Implications for Sustainable Food System: An Exploratory Analysis in India". Front. Sustain. Food Syst., 11 June 2020. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00056/full#h6
Some Great Foraging Books to Get You Started:
How to Forage for Mushrooms Without Dying: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Identifying 29 Wild, Edible Mushrooms by Frank Hyman
Southwest Foraging: 117 Wild Edibles from Barrel Cactus to Wild Oregano by John Slattery
Samuel Thayer's Foraging Book Series starting with The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Wild Edible Plants
Euell Gibbon's Books: Stalking the Wild Asparagus (eastern woodlands) AND Staking the Blue-Eyed Scallop (for harvesting from the sea and shore)
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