Just as the title says. What grows wild around central Indiana that is able to be eaten and how can they be distinguished from other vegetation? I'm working on making a personal guide (Of my own to keep in my BOB) that tells me specifics and details on what is out there to survive when my preps run out.
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What is some wild vegetation that is safe to eat, locally?
- Thread starter jbrooks19
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Cat tails and stinging nettles were staples of native Americans. You can eat the roots and pollen of the cat tails. You prepare the stinging nettles by carefully picking them, and then dunking them in boiling water. That removes the needles, and they are a ready to eat delicacy. Dandelion greens and flowers, along with poke leaves, make a great salad that can be garnished with hickory nuts. Christmas ferns, common in Indiana, have leaves that taste like apple peels.
IndyGunworks
Grandmaster
HUH, who would have thought... I am pretty sure I have about 3.5 acres clear full of stinging nettle... I wonder what the nutritional value is....
It is full of fiber and some claim it relieves arthritis, though I don't have it so can't know. It gets sold for that purpose, dried and ground for making tea.
Most of the low spots on my place are full of it. I've only ever cooked and eaten young shoots/leaves, using them like I would spinach or similar. Good in pasta sauces, baked into savory pies, added to salads....
Most of the low spots on my place are full of it. I've only ever cooked and eaten young shoots/leaves, using them like I would spinach or similar. Good in pasta sauces, baked into savory pies, added to salads....
Consider scouting the used books stores/sites for Euell Gibbons' Stalking the Wild Asparagus. It is the definitive guide to what you are trying to do and is replete with line drawings and text to aid identification.
There is a huge list of wild edibles here. It's what people used to eat. The nutritional analysis I have seen on nettles is darn good, but I haven't eaten them much yet myself. I am hoping to cut and hang a bunch of them this weekend to supplement my chickens during the winter.
I agree with not trusting images on the internet. OTOH, some people feel that many of the assumed "toxic" plants aren't really toxic, but that one guys book just mimics another book and the rumors get passed on.
I started foraging by going out and looking for something seasonal, or conversely picking a plant that looked interesting and then finding out if parts of it were edible. I try to identify it in the field, then come in and research it, then go back and look at it in the field again.
Some of the vegetation is best eaten when immature, but hard to identify at that stage. After I've seen some plants go through their cycle, I have an easier time identifying them the next year.
Last year was a great year for apples, so you could also find a lot of crababpples, hawthorns, and wild plums. The same trees had little fruit this year.
Milkweed also has several options. The early shoots are supposedly like eating asparagus, but I haven't tried them. I've had the buds (like broccoli) and the pods (blanched several times) and really liked them.
Lambs quarters and various mustard-type greens are abundant and good in salads.
Wild onions are easy to identify by the smell, and can be used just like domestic onions (just much smaller)
This time of year, you can pick up acorns, black walnuts, and other nuts. It's just that processing them is a pain. I'd like to get better at cracking black walnuts, because the taste and nutrition are great. We don't have any Chinese/American chestnuts, but those would be great to find.
If you get in wetlands, you can harvest the Katniss plant (ie hunger games) also known as arrowhead or duck potato. Like many plants it has a toxic look-alike you need to learn to differentiate.
Autumn olives have either just died off, or we didn't have many this year.
I think we're too late for paw-paw fruit, but I've always wanted to find some.
Persimmons should still be on the trees, and might be even better after it frosts a few more times.
There are a lot of books. The Stalking the Wild Asparagus is more about ideas than strict identification but it's worth having.
I think Samuel Thayer's website and books are excellent. He is in Wisconsin, so has a lot of the same plants that we do.
Also, watch the schedules at the state parks. Some of the naturalists are good foragers and hold free wild edibles classes.
I agree with not trusting images on the internet. OTOH, some people feel that many of the assumed "toxic" plants aren't really toxic, but that one guys book just mimics another book and the rumors get passed on.
I started foraging by going out and looking for something seasonal, or conversely picking a plant that looked interesting and then finding out if parts of it were edible. I try to identify it in the field, then come in and research it, then go back and look at it in the field again.
Some of the vegetation is best eaten when immature, but hard to identify at that stage. After I've seen some plants go through their cycle, I have an easier time identifying them the next year.
Last year was a great year for apples, so you could also find a lot of crababpples, hawthorns, and wild plums. The same trees had little fruit this year.
Milkweed also has several options. The early shoots are supposedly like eating asparagus, but I haven't tried them. I've had the buds (like broccoli) and the pods (blanched several times) and really liked them.
Lambs quarters and various mustard-type greens are abundant and good in salads.
Wild onions are easy to identify by the smell, and can be used just like domestic onions (just much smaller)
This time of year, you can pick up acorns, black walnuts, and other nuts. It's just that processing them is a pain. I'd like to get better at cracking black walnuts, because the taste and nutrition are great. We don't have any Chinese/American chestnuts, but those would be great to find.
If you get in wetlands, you can harvest the Katniss plant (ie hunger games) also known as arrowhead or duck potato. Like many plants it has a toxic look-alike you need to learn to differentiate.
Autumn olives have either just died off, or we didn't have many this year.
I think we're too late for paw-paw fruit, but I've always wanted to find some.
Persimmons should still be on the trees, and might be even better after it frosts a few more times.
There are a lot of books. The Stalking the Wild Asparagus is more about ideas than strict identification but it's worth having.
I think Samuel Thayer's website and books are excellent. He is in Wisconsin, so has a lot of the same plants that we do.
Also, watch the schedules at the state parks. Some of the naturalists are good foragers and hold free wild edibles classes.
IndyGunworks
Grandmaster
Can you elaborate more on how you store the nettles for winter? Ill have to get some pics but I am pretty sure If I harvested the nettles before winter I could easily feed the whole family for a month just on them alone. Its 3.5 acres of very moist flood plane so nettle heaven... When you walk through them they are just under waste high and even in jeans they make you itch like crazy because of all the little stickers.
Indygunworks, I'll see if I can find some good links later this weekend on eating and cooking nettles. In general, I think they are better if they are immature.
You can btw eat a raw nettle leaf just by turning it inside out so you don't get you lips prickled but I think they are much better cooked.
I haven't eaten them preserved/dried before but am planning to do that primarily for the chickens.
Oh and don't forget dandelion and plantain. Those 2 plants plus lambs quarters are probably in the lawn of anyone who doesn't use herbicides. They are much better when tiny and immature, but again I identified the mature ones before I could easily identify the immature ones. When we are short on lettuce and spinach, I throw some dandelion leaves, plantain leaves, mustard, and lambs quarters in the salad. I think the nutrition of these beats the domestic greens anyway. Just don't tell my husband. He doesn't trust the wild edibles and he doesn't know he's been eating them.
And I almost forgot rose hips! I hate the nasty multifloral roses but right now their hips (seed packets with some flesh around them) are ready to harvest. You don't get much from each one but they are tasty. Harvest them when just turning from orange to red, so they are just soft enough to eat. You kind of bite into them and spit the seeds out at the same time. Or you can save them and use them for tea. I'm going to try some rose hip/wild mint tea this year.
Maybe we should have a plant walk followed by a shoot a few times a year ?
I'm no expert but since I got interested I keep adding a few plants to my list. I just found some honeysuckle with berries this week. I really didn't have the time to find out if it was a type of honeysuckle for humans to eat, so I just made sure my chickens saw it and they did indeed enjoy it.
You can btw eat a raw nettle leaf just by turning it inside out so you don't get you lips prickled but I think they are much better cooked.
I haven't eaten them preserved/dried before but am planning to do that primarily for the chickens.
Oh and don't forget dandelion and plantain. Those 2 plants plus lambs quarters are probably in the lawn of anyone who doesn't use herbicides. They are much better when tiny and immature, but again I identified the mature ones before I could easily identify the immature ones. When we are short on lettuce and spinach, I throw some dandelion leaves, plantain leaves, mustard, and lambs quarters in the salad. I think the nutrition of these beats the domestic greens anyway. Just don't tell my husband. He doesn't trust the wild edibles and he doesn't know he's been eating them.
And I almost forgot rose hips! I hate the nasty multifloral roses but right now their hips (seed packets with some flesh around them) are ready to harvest. You don't get much from each one but they are tasty. Harvest them when just turning from orange to red, so they are just soft enough to eat. You kind of bite into them and spit the seeds out at the same time. Or you can save them and use them for tea. I'm going to try some rose hip/wild mint tea this year.
Maybe we should have a plant walk followed by a shoot a few times a year ?
I'm no expert but since I got interested I keep adding a few plants to my list. I just found some honeysuckle with berries this week. I really didn't have the time to find out if it was a type of honeysuckle for humans to eat, so I just made sure my chickens saw it and they did indeed enjoy it.
IndyGunworks
Grandmaster
I would be down for a plant walk.
DurangoUSMC
Plinker
Usual strawberries, black berries, raspberries around here. Although I have a crap load of what appears to be wild parsnip and schwarzbeere in the backyard.
I often see the shows on tv with survivalists finding and eating things found naturally in the wild. I have often wondered what can be found here and how to indentify. Alot of the posts on this thread tell you what to find, but I need pics and want to know how to prepare them safely along with how to store them. These links you posted are exactly what I have been looking for! Thanks!!!
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