stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on May 11, 2020 8:15:04 GMT -5
Spiny cucumber... maxixe... CUCUMIS ANGURIA... This unlikely fruit showed up in my garden a coupla years ago... reckon possums or raccoons brought it. fruit tastes like a cucumber... pickles like a cucumber... you can also cook it like a squash... add to stews or whatever... And.... these babies really take off in the heat... right about the time that the usual cucumbers are finished... not bothered by drought... my cats and chickens love them too... Last year, I had tons left after the frost and the chickens totally made out... This plant helps illustrate the concept that you never pull plants when you don't know what they are!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 11, 2020 13:19:08 GMT -5
Neat - the leaves look a lot like watermelon leaves. Never seen those before.
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on May 13, 2020 6:32:42 GMT -5
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Post by bestofour on May 13, 2020 22:32:18 GMT -5
Spiny cucumber - if it tastes like a cucumber, what's it liked if it's cooked like squash? To me a cucumber is cool and crunchy and I can't imagine cooking one.
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on May 14, 2020 9:21:47 GMT -5
Actually, it isn't my fave way to eat them... when cut up into stew, it can be a bit mushy with a bit of a hard rind... But... those Brazilians like them that way...
Last year, I carried some plants to someone that grew up in Brazil... and when I mentioned finding mention of Maxixe being grown in Brazil, and in the Brazilian community up in Massachusetts, She suddenly recognized it... and insisted that I try it in my stew...
And... still, another friend of mine liked them in stew, just fine. All I can say is try it, maybe you'll like them cooked, or maybe you won't.
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on May 14, 2020 9:32:18 GMT -5
sochan... (rudbeckia laciniata) I think I remember these as "cow weed" as a kid... but I can't find anything online using that term. The leaves cooked as greens taste better than lambsquarter... foragerchef.com/sochan/
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Post by bestofour on May 14, 2020 22:07:18 GMT -5
Is there a way, without killing ones self, to know which plants are ok to eat and which aren't?
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Post by carolyn on May 15, 2020 6:26:12 GMT -5
I trotted back to the little pond we have at the end of a ravine in our backyard with an overflow pipe to make sure there were no leaves on it with the weather siren going off about a sever storm... I wandered a little farther back and there were RAMPS. I have always wanted to try them and I didn't even know we had some back there. before I knew what ramps were I am sure I had seen them but as busy as this place is in the Spring I don't get into the woods much. by the time I do its not ramp season anymore.
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on May 15, 2020 7:56:47 GMT -5
Is there a way, without killing ones self, to know which plants are ok to eat and which aren't? Always best to have a positive ID on your plants. When you find plants that you don't know... post pictures.... get plants identified... know what you have. if this forum doesn't have an id thread... you might try "all things plants"... unfortunately, they changed the name of the board... garden.org/forums/view/plantid/A lot of knowledgeable people there. And... get plant books, herb books, and... keep reading this forum... Also... visit greene dean's site. www.eattheweeds.com/
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on May 16, 2020 8:24:10 GMT -5
Potato substitutes.... At my house... the taters don't do much... between the voles and the fire ants and the temp fluctuations... from frost to 90 in the same week... the autumn planted taters get frosted back and then it gets too hot for them! So... Striped cushaw squash at my house tastes like taters... I don't know if it's the sand or the particular strain I have... but added to stews, or cream of tater soup... tastes fine... Problem is.... the squash are nowhere near producing... so... another substitute? Canna... The tubers look like ginger... like what you buy at the store... but taste like taters! It's a bit wasteful the way I've been doing it... where I use the newest sections of the tuber and discard the rest... but canna do grow vigorously. And... the rest of the time... Enjoy the hummingbirds!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 16, 2020 10:38:28 GMT -5
Now that's a stealth edible I could grow in MASSIVE quantities with no care. Cannas love it here. They need water in the spring dry season (unless you plant them along a pond or ditch), but when the summer rainy season kicks in, I can practically see them grow.
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on May 18, 2020 8:29:55 GMT -5
Very surprised to hear that you are watering your cana. Extreme drought resistance in my experience... adding organic material to the soil is always a plus... I have managed to kill canna by pushing the limits... no organic amendments, in the sandhills? not many transplanted items will be happy. Sometimes can find a mulberry tree or a sand pear growing on an abandoned lot or at the edge of the woods. They are not commonly planted around here any more, but every old homestead and farm used to have them because they fruited reliably without care. From just one tree you can harvest a LOT of fruit. There was not any mulberry trees here when I got here... I got busy planting seedlings that I was able to salvage from wooded areas in Macon (with owner's permission). Unfortunately, I'm not able to get many berries away from the hungry birds... The berries aren't the main reason for planting red mulberry... I NEED posts... Mulberry is one of the finest rot resistant trees that grow around here... I've also planted osage orange, black walnut, black locust (robinia), honey locust (Gleditsia)... Sadly, my cedar plantings are too prone to cedar apple rust for me to hold out much hope for them...
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 18, 2020 11:01:44 GMT -5
My "soil" is basically beach sand. And the spring dry season can (in extra-dry years) mean almost no rain from early March to late May or even June. This year we had regular rain in March, but April and May have been bone dry - all that rain you guys got passed just north of me - but we're expecting rain today.
An established patch of cannas can survive the spring dry season, especially if mulched. But not small, recently-planted tubers.
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on May 21, 2020 9:17:53 GMT -5
The elderberries are in bloom! Last year, I made elderberry syrup... was good on pancakes, and excellent over ice cream! One year, I made elderberry wine... was not a good use for elderberries... Supposedly, if you let it age for a year or two.... This year, I plan to try syrup from beauty berries.... I eat them by the hand full when ripe... but... with sugar? oughta be some good!
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Post by brownrexx on May 21, 2020 10:05:39 GMT -5
I have a few beauty berry bushes. I didn't know that the berries were edible. I will have to Google that because I don't know if the variety makes a difference.
I made elderberry jam one year and it was fabulous.
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Post by spike on May 21, 2020 19:22:55 GMT -5
Dripping jealousy! Elderberry pie is my mostest favorite ever!!
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Post by bestofour on May 22, 2020 21:13:21 GMT -5
We have beauty berries too. I've never eaten any but will now.
My sister grows cushaw squash. She actually overwintered some and has been eating them all along.
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Post by bestofour on May 27, 2020 21:29:39 GMT -5
My sisters neighbor found some reishi mushrooms on a hike and brought her some. Apparently they are like a wonder food.
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Post by coppice on Jun 29, 2020 2:33:31 GMT -5
I have long believed that one of the best places to hide wild foods is in plain sight. There are uncounted millions of miles of borders between parcels. Plant something eat-y along yours.
I give away 30 to 100 pounds of tree seed every fall. Most years I also give away apios tubers. There are others (ramps etc).
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Post by carolyn on Jun 30, 2020 7:09:46 GMT -5
I harvested beauty berries a few years ago and made beautyberry jelly. fail. it was terribly boring. If there was nothing else to use maybe I would make it again but there is a reason why no one knows about beautyberry... no one talks about it because it is flavorless?
Elderberries are in full bloom to just dropping their flowers here. I expect to see quite a crop of them. I will be harvesting them and selling them, by the basket this year I think. I will make a couple bushels into juice and put that in the cupboard for Winter or Jelly as I need it.
I am seeing lots of mushrooms and I wish I knew for certain which ones were safe and which I would make us dead or want to be dead if we ate them, but harvesting them scares me as we had a local family gather mushrooms they thought were safe and several of them died and several of them needed hospitalization. the milkman found the family when he came to pick up milk.
Stone, can I send you postage money and have you send me some of those "cucumber" seeds when you have some that went to seed? or do you think they wouldn't grow here?
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on Jul 20, 2020 13:32:47 GMT -5
Stone, can I send you postage money and have you send me some of those "cucumber" seeds when you have some that went to seed? or do you think they wouldn't grow here? They ought to grow.. I may even have some seeds left over... Send me your address in a pm and I'll mail them if I can lay my hands on them. I start them in gallon nursery pots and when they are just starting to run, I set them out. At my house, they return each year without any help on my part, up your way, you might need to save some ripe fruit over the winter in the fridge...
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on Jul 20, 2020 13:35:25 GMT -5
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on Aug 12, 2020 16:30:54 GMT -5
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Post by coppice on Aug 15, 2020 6:49:16 GMT -5
Not this year, but I did in all of the 5 previous years buy a bulk lot of apios from Sand Mountain and planted it where it could grow neglected + gave many tubers to others to plant.
I give away between 15 and 40 pounds of tree and forest seed in a fall give away. Apple pecan hazelnut among many.
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