Edible Wild Plants of Winter

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Edible Wild Plants of Winter

• (And Autumn)

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Dandelion

• Taraxacum officinale
• Parts used roots, leaves, flowers, and crowns.
• No poisonous look-alikes
• Leaves can be eaten raw in salads, steamed, or
  sauteed. Flowers can be made into wine or dipped
  in batter and deep-fried like fritters. Roots can
  be made into a coffee substitute.
• Most older leaves can be made milder-tasting if
  covered with a bucket or other container for a
  few days up to a week

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Dandelion

• Has more beta carotene than carrots, more iron
  than spinach. Also has vitamins B-1, B-2, B-5,
  B-6, B-12, C, E, P, and D, biotin, inositol,
  potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc

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Watercress

• Nasturtium officinale
• One of the oldest-known leaf vegetables eaten by
  human beings
• Member of the cabbage family, related to Mustard
• contains significant amounts of iron, calcium and
  folic acid, in addition to vitamins A and C.

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Watercress
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Plantain

• Plantago major
• Broad leafed plantain, also a narrow- leafed
  species
• Young leaves are edible but not very tasty
• More useful in medicine and first aid has been
  used to stop bleeding, and to treat burns, skin
  irritations, bee stings and mosquito bites.

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Shepherds Purse

• Capsella bursa-pastoris
• Relative of mustard, very mild-tasting green. Can
  be eaten raw in salads, steamed, sauteed, or
  cooked in soups and stews.
• provides vitamin C and K, some protein, sulfur,
  calcium, iron, and sodium.

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Shepherds Purse

• Used in Medicine to stop bleeding and as an
  astringent
• Seed pods are also edible

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Milkweed

• Asclepias syriaca
• young shoots, young leaves, flower buds and fresh
  fruits are all edible
• primary source of food for the caterpillars of
  the monarch butterfly
• mature stems, leaves and pod bark contain
  compounds that are toxic in large qualities and
  have been known to poison sheep, cattle, and
  other livestock.

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Cattail

• Typha latifolia
• One of the most important and common wild foods
• The shoots, flower stalks, rhizomes and pollen
  are all edible
• Related to Corn

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Common Spicebush

• Lindera benzoin
• Grows in damp woods throughout the Eastern United
  States
• Berries taste similar to allspice and can be used
  as a seasoning or in pies
• Leaves and twigs can be used year-round as tea
• Settlers called this plant fever bush

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Wild Ginger

• Asarum species
• root can be used in place of regular' ginger in
  recipes
• despite the name and similar flavor, it isn't
  related to Asian ginger
• Grows on UNCAs campus

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Cattail

• Other non-food uses for the plant include using
  the leaves to make dolls, thatching for roofs,
  baskets and mats.
• After the flower heads have turned brown and
  inedible, they were used to stuff pillows and
  mattresses, but must be enclosed in a thick
  batting material, or they cause hives on the skin!

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Daylily

• Hemerocallis fulva
• Introduced species, escaped into wild.
• Shoots, buds, flowers and tubers all edible
• Use the shoots raw in salads, or sauté, steam,
  stir-fry, deep-fry, bake, simmer in soups, or
  pickle.
• Cook the unopened buds like green beans.
• Use the flowers raw in salads, in soups, or
  deep-fried.
• If you dig up a lily and it doesnt have
  tubersDONT eat it, its poisonous!

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Arrowhead

• Sagittaria latifolia
• Also known as wapato, duck potato, and indian
  potato
• The buds and fruits of this plant in late summer
  are edible, but plant is mostly prized for its
  tubers, which were traditionally gathered by
  wading into ponds and dislodging them with ones
  feet so theyd float to the surface of the water.
• Can be eaten raw but best when cooked, like the
  name suggests, tastes almost identical to a
  potato, but with a slightly nutty taste.

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Wild Carrot

• Daucus carota
• Ancestor of cultivated carrots
• Also called Queen Annes Lace
• Root is edible when young, then becomes tough
• Crushed seeds have been used since ancient Greece
  as a contraceptive/abortive, and recent studies
  have proven this effect

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Jerusalem Artichoke

• Helianthus tuberosus
• Member of the Sunflower family
• Also called the Sunchoke
• Cultivated in some gardens and found wild
• Produces inulin instead of starch

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Mushroom Disclaimer.

• Ive picked mushrooms that are easy for a
  beginner to identify, but unless youre 110 sure
  you have right species, dont risk it!
• Field guide to North American Mushrooms is your
  friend
• Most of these mushrooms are perfectly edible (and
  some are choice) but because some people can get
  an upset stomach from eating them, always cook
  them first

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Amanita Mushrooms

• Account for 90 of mushroom fatalities
• With very few exceptions, amanitas grow on the
  ground near trees
• Very young amanitas, called buttons, resemble
  puffballs, but when you cut puffballs open,
  they're undifferentiated inside. An amanita
  button has a cap, stem, and gills inside.

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Amanitas continued

• Unfortunately even the most deadly Amanitas
  supposedly taste wonderful, and symptoms dont
  appear until 8-12 hours after ingestion, when
  its too late.
• amanita toxins prevent cells from making new
  proteins, which kills themif untreated death
  comes after days of suffering from liver and/or
  kidney failure
• Doctors can shunt the blood through filters to
  remove the toxins. They use dialysis to replace
  the kidneys, and give the patient a liver
  transplant. Sometimes the patient can be saved

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Fly Agaric

• Amanita muscaria
• poisonous, but not deadly
• Various peoples have used mushroom in shamanic
  rituals
• Aspects of Santa Claus were inspired by this
  mushroom. His red coat and white buttons
  symbolize the red mushroom with its white
  patches. Santa flies because the mushroom
  sometimes creates the hallucination of flight. He
  uses reindeer because they're fond of the
  mushroom, and herders who eat reindeer that have
  eaten the mushroom get high too.
• The Koryak shaman would bring prepared fly
  agarics to ceremonies in a sack, like Santa's bag
  of toys, and enter the yurt (portable circular
  domed dwelling) through the smoke hole (like a
  chimney).
• Santa lives at the North Pole because for most
  Europeans, Siberia might as well be the North
  Pole. And in Europe today, Christmas cards still
  often depict the fly agaric

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Chanterelles

• Cantharellus cibarius
• Found in summer and fall on the ground in Oak,
  Conifer and Beech forests
• Often sent to France to be canned, and are then
  imported back into the US as over-priced French
  Gourmet Mushrooms

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Fried Chicken Mushroom

• Lyophyllum decastes
• very prolific in fall and spring.
• found in grassy areas and on disturbed soil
• best used in soups, stews, and sauces.
• Not so good fried because of chewy texture

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Honey Mushroom

• Armillaria mellea
• comes in two main varieties brown and yellow
• found in fall at the foot of living or dead trees
  or stumps, especially Oaks
• Like previous, best used in soups, sauces and
  stews, but good fried too

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Morels

• Morchella species
• Considered a choice edible
• Cut in half should be hollow from top to bottom,
  with no division between the cap and stem.
• Found in old orchards, near dead trees, in soils
  with limestone in it

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Morels

• Are particularly prone to appear after forest
  fires
• So much in fact that in the 19th century the
  Russian government passed a law making it illegal
  to burn down forest areas, which people were
  doing to harvest the morels that would pop up the
  following year.

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Hen of the Woods

• Grifola frondosa
• Grows in almost all the USA, in the fall at the
  bases of deciduous trees living or dead
• Ranges in size from 3 to up to 50 pounds
• Sold as Maitake mushrooms in specialty foods and
  health stores

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Puffballs

• Calvatia gigantean
• Cut open before eating to distinguish puffballs
  from inedible (but not deadly) earthstars, and
  deadly amanita in their button stages.
• When cut open a puffball will be solid white
  throughout with a texture like cream cheese. A
  button Amanita will have a stem inside.

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Oyster Mushrooms

• Pleurotus ostreatus
• Choice mushroom
• Looks, smells and tastes like what its named
  after
• Used in recipes as a Vegan substitute for seafood
• Can be found all year round.

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Wintergreen

• Gaultheria procumbens
• Most wintergreen flavorings used today come
  from the sap from Sweet Birch trees
• The leaves are made into tea, and the berries
  (perfectly edible) can be made into pies, jellies
  and tarts