Showing posts with label Early Summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Early Summer. Show all posts

Buffalo Gourd

Scientific Name(s): Cucurbita foetidissima
Abundance: common
What: flower, seeds, root
How: flowers raw or fried; seeds roasted or boiled; root as tea
Where: dry fields
When: summer, fall, winter
Nutritional Value: calories and protein in the seeds
Dangers: flesh of the gourd is extremely bitter and can be poisonous in large doses due to saponins.

Buffalo Gourd plant when young.
BuffaloGourdYoung


Mature Buffalo Gourd vine.
BuffaloGourdMature

Buffalo Gourd fruit.
BuffaloGourdFruit

Buffalo Gourd root.
BuffaloGourdRoot1

BuffaloGourdRoot2

Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.
BuffaloGourdTX

North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.
BuffaloGourd

Nose and eye find this plant at nearly the same time. The large, heart-shaped leaves and yellow, 5-petaled flowers of Buffalo Gourd give off an unpleasant smell which reminds me of nasty gym socks. Starting in mid-summer the fruit appear. Looking first like small, round watermelons these fruit eventually turn more yellow as they mature but never grow bigger than a baseball. Buffalo Gourd vines can stretch many yards from a central taproot and the beings perennials, show up in the same spot year after year. It's large taproot makes the plant very drought resistant and it grows best in the drier areas of Texas, especially in the Hill country and westward.

The flowers, similar to squash blossom, can be eaten both raw and fried. They do have a bad odor and are somewhat bitter when raw.

Buffalo gourd seeds were a staple food of early Texas Native Americans. The seeds must be completely cleaned of any gourd flesh or else they will be extremely bitter. Once completely cleaned they can be boiled and mashed into a porridge or roasted like pumpkin seeds and have a similar flavor. These seeds do contain a large amount of calories in the form of oil (25-42%) as well as a significant concentration of protein (22-35%).

The large taproot of Buffalo Gourds were to be strong medicine by Native Americans. These roots were used internally as a tea and also externally in poultices. Due to the high concentration of saponins and other potent chemicals healing with this root should only be tried under the direction of a trained herbalist!

Saponins are found in both the plant's root and in the skin of the gourds and are capable of producing a lather when vigorously combined with water. Because of this they were used as a soap substitute.


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Clover - Crimson

Scientific Name(s): Trifolium incarnatum
Abundance: uncommon
What: seeds, flower
How: seeds ground into flour, sprouted; flower raw or dried for tea
Where: sunny fields and ditches with moist soil, landscaping
When: spring, early summer
Nutritional Value: calories


Field of crimson clover
Crimson Clover Flower IGFB9

Young flower just beginning to turn crimson.
Crimson Clover

Mature flower head. They are much more elongated than white and red clovers
Crimson Clover IGFB

Close-up of leaf. Note the fine hairs along the leaflets' edges.
Crimson Clover Leaf

Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.
CrimsonClover-TX

North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.
CrimsonClover-NA

The sunny fields of east Texas turn fiery red in the springtime with thousands of Crimson Clover flowerheads. This durable, prolific wildflower can often be found growing profusely in road medians thanks to Lady Bird Johnson's Texas beautification program. Beware sticking your nose too close to inhale its sweet aroma as both butterflies and bees find its nectar quite delicious!

Though lacking the medicinal properties of Red Clover, Crimson Clover's flowerhead makes a pleasant tea and can be used either fresh or after drying. I've never smoked it but based on my experience with other clovers, it's likely it'll be just as good.

The seeds have a long history of being collected and ground into flour. The individual seeds are small but it's relatively easy to harvest many of them to add to other plant seeds you've gathered. These seeds can also be sprouted into highly nutritious microgreens using standard sprouting techniques.

Being a nitrogen fixer, Crimson Clover makes an excellent fallow crop for revitalizing depleted soils. They prefer near-neutral pH soil with good drainage for optimal growth. A thick mat of this will often choke out other weeds which is either good or bad depending on how hungry you are. :-)


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Dandelion

Scientific name: Taraxacum officinale
Abundance: common
What: leaves, flowers, roots
How: young leaves in salad or boiled; flowers are used in wine; roots are roasted to make a coffee substitute or boiled for twenty-thirty minutes before eating
Where: yards, sunny
When: spring, early summer
Nutritional Value: Vitamins A, B, thiamine, riboflavin, minerals, and protein

Medicinal Summary:
Flower - wound healer (salve, infused oil)
Root/Leaves - diuretic; antibacterial; laxative; sedative; appetite stimulant (poultice, tisane, tincture)

Single dandelion plant.
dandelion

Dandelion IGFB RPL

Dandelions are very persistent!
Dandelion Leaves IGFB9

Cluster of dandelion plants, flowers, and seed-heads.
Dandelions

Perfect time to harvest dandelion leaves, just before any flower stems appear.
Dandelion

You only want to use the yellow and white parts of dandelion flowers. Their green collar is extremely bitter and must be removed.
Dandelion

Close-up of Dandelion flower. Note how the stamens split into two curls at the top.
Dandelion

Dandelion flower stems are hollow, may have fine hairs, and end in a single flower.
Dandelion Stem

A mature dandelion root can be twelve feet long! This one was a little over one foot.
Dandelion Root IGFB12

The best part of dandelions for eating are the white leaf stems right at the top of the root, sautéed in some bacon grease!
Dandelion Harvest IGFB12

Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.
DandelionTX

North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.
Dandelion

Dandelions are one of the superfoods of foraging due to their high amounts of vitamins, minerals, and protein as well as the multitude of ways to use them. However, these nutrients come at a cost, mainly the strong bitter flavor of this plant.

This bitterness can be tamed via several different methods. The easiest is just to boil the leaves in several changes of water to extract the bitter compounds. This will remove a small amount of the nutrients and the resultant leaves are not very visually appealing.

If you have access to milder greens with which to make a salad then "dilute" a small amount of shredded dandelion leaves with a much large amount of mild greens. 1 part dandelion + 9 parts mild greens is a good ratio.

Wilting the dandelion greens with hot bacon grease is perhaps the most flavorful method. The hot grease both destroys some of the bitter compounds as well as coats and "desensitizes" your tongue to the bitterness. This is my favorite treatment. Note that olive oil will also work though not quite as well.

Overwhelming the bitterness with (sour) vinegar and or salty (soy sauce) flavors also works. A strong vinegar/oil salad dressing with the dandelion greens works very well.

The yellow flowers can be used to make wine, tea, or dress up a salad. Remove the extremely bitter, green bracts from the base of the flower though.

To make dandelion coffee you first need to collect a large bowl of dandelion roots. Scrub them to remove dirt, then roast them in an oven at 400 degrees F until they turn brown. The dark brown the darker the resultant coffee. Grind the browned roots in a coffee grinder and then you can use the results as you would regular coffee grounds. While this tastes just like normal coffee it does not contain any caffeine.

Here's another great source on how to grow and use dandelions: Gardener's Path - Dandelions

Edible Dandelion Mimics:
Dandelion
Cat's Ear
Chicory
Japanese Hawkweed
Sow Thistle
Texas Dandelion
Wild Lettuce


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Honey Locust

Scientific name: Gleditsia Triacanthos
Abundance: common
What: buds, flowers, young seed pods, seeds
How: raw or cooked in soups and stews, tea/drink
Where: sunny, arid land
When: Spring, summer.
Nutritional Value: sugar, protein, minerals
Other uses: extremely hot and fragrant firewood
Dangers: These can occasionally contain toxic, bitter tasting compounds. Only use sweet-tasting honey locusts.

Honey locust spines on trunk of tree. Note how the spines have spines!
HoneyLocustTree

HoneyLocustSpines

Honey locust leaf, compound in structure. Each of the ovals is a single leaflet portion of the full leaf.
HoneyLocustLeaf

Honey locust spines on branches along with flowers.
HoneyLocustSpine2

Close-ups of very young honey locust seed pods.
HoneyLocustSpine-Pods

HoneyLocustPod

Close-up of honey locust spine.
HoneyLocustSpin

Almost mature Honey Locust pods. At this point they can be collected for the taste good they contain.
Honey Locust

Mature honey locust seed pod. Eat the yellow/orange "goo" between the hard seeds.
HoneyLocustPod

Size 12 foot next to fallen Honey Locust seedpods.
Honey Locust

Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.
HoneyLocustTX

North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.
HoneyLocust

Growing to almost 100 feet tall and living up to 120 years, Honey Locust trees are distinguished...and wicked protectors of wooded areas. Their trunks and mature branches are covered with sea urchin-like clusters of spines up to four inches long! They have a broad crown that offers lovely, dappled shade during the summer. Come fall it's compound leaves turn yellow and then drop leaving the dark gray, bumpy bark to stand stark against the winter sky.

These tall, spiky trees are often found on the edges of woods and to a lesser extent in the interior. In either case it's likely they'll be surrounded by many small honey locust saplings. The springtime flowers are beloved by bees and make an excellent honey. The young, tender pods can be cooked like green beans. The yellow/gold "goo" between the seeds inside both green and mature seedpods is sweet and tastes like honey. The hard, mature seeds can be ground into a calorie rich, gluten-free flour after removing them from the long, flat pod.


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.

Kudzu

Scientific name: Pueraria species (P. lobata, P. montana, P. edulis, P. phaseoloides and P. thomsoni)
Abundance: plentiful
What: young vine tips, young leaves, flowers, roots
How: vine tips & leaves cooked; flowers raw or tea; roots scraped for starch
Where: fields, old farms,
When: spring, summer, fall, winter
Nutritional Value: vitamins, antioxidants, protein, calories
Other Uses: kudzu vines can be woven into fine baskets
Dangers: do NOT plant kudzu, it'll engulf everything!! Be very careful transporting kudzu so as not to drop any seeds.

Kudzu vine.
Kudzu1

Kudzu2

Close-up of kudzu leaves (three leaves per stem)
Kudzu3

Kudzu leaves in the wild look like Poison Ivy.
Kudzu

Close-up of open flowers.
Kudzu6

Close-up of closed flowers at tip of flower raceme.
Kudzu7

Close-up of vine stem.
Kudzu5

Kudzu seed pods are weirdly hairy.
Kudzu

Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping.
KudzuTX

North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture.
Kudzu

First introduced from Japan to the United States during the 1876 Centennial Exposition, this out-of-control weed now covers over seven million acres of the American South. Kudzu grows up to one foot per day, putting it in the top four fastest-growing plants known. As it grows it covers and smothers all other plant life...along with anything else that doesn't move out of its way. It is a common sight to see mile after mile of trees, powerlines, and abandoned homesteads covered in kudzu as you drive the backroads of the South.

It is small compensation that the kudzu can be eaten. It's vine tips are tender and full of important compounds such as antioxidants, as well as being high in protein (16% dry weight). The hairs on the vines and leaves make them unpleasant to eat raw, but a quick dip in boiling water wilts these hair so they no longer cause any problems. After boiling the vine tips and young leaves for 30-60 seconds they can then be used in any manner one would cook spinach, collard greens, or other leafy green vegetable.

Kudzu begins flowering in July and continues into September, producing an intense, somewhat artificial, grape smell. Open kudzu flowers can be used raw and make a colorful, flavorful addition to salads. They can also be seeped in hot water to make a tea. These flowers will last a day if kept in the refrigerator.

Kudzu roots can grow to enormous sizes, eight feet long and over 200 pounds! They contain a large percentage of starch but are also fibrous at that size. You are better off digging up smaller roots, 1.5" to 2.5" in diameter, which can be roasted like a potato. Be sure to peel the root before eating. The peeled roots can also be pounded, grated or ground into a gluten-free flour. The starch in kudzu roots can be fermented to produce alcohol. Woo hoo!! Roots are best dug up in the early fall but can be harvested all winter if you need the calories.

The seed pods are green in color and are not edible, nor are the seeds they contain.

Beware of poison ivy mixed in with kudzu. Please do not plant kudzu as it will escape your control and devour everything that doesn't move.


Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.



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