Lilac and turquoise porcelain berries

During the past few years I have made a point of paying regular visits to the waterfront in Tallman Park(on the Hudson River, just north of the border with New Jersey.)  This is a place I’ve known for over 30 years, and being a naturalist, I have made mental notes of the plant life that has visited the area during that time.

About 5 or 6 years ago, I spotted a porcelain berry plant that I had only previously seen in the marshes at Cape May.  It was such a beautiful and exotic plant, that I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t want it growing there.  But it was considered invasive, and therefore a nuisance to be “managed”.

Porcelain Berry Vine “Tree sculpture”

On my own property at the first signs of the porcelain berry vine, I will eagerly pull it up, roots and all.  It is a voraciously greedy plant that spreads both above and under the ground, covering everything in its path, and choking out all other species, including the tallest of trees, until all that can be seen are the silhouettes of the dead skeletons supporting the green mass of foliage.

Over time I have watched the waters edge of the park transformed by these plants, that have now spread out into the phragmites marshes and are advancing up the hillside into the park.  I have often wondered why there was never that same urgency in this park as there has been in Cape May to eradicate the vine, before it was too late.  Alas, we have now gone beyond that point.

Having said that, I am bound to admit that there is an exotic beauty that come along with the transformation of the park, that has given this area a mystical beauty that it never possessed before.  Close up, one is greeted by the multiple colors of the berries and from a distance there is a sculptural magic to the grand displays of the vine cloaked landscape.

Porcelain Berries are closely related to grapes and are consequently edible.  For those of you who enjoy bland food with a slightly prickly aftertaste, they would make the ideal snack food, especially if you also enjoy a slimy texture.  However, since they are so uniquely interesting, they can be used as a colorful garnish, without fear of accidentally eating one or two.

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The Hunger Games is about survival, but then so is life itself.

Many of us are fortunate enough to lead comfortable existences where we take shelter, food and water for granted  But for many people across the world, that comfortable life often ends very suddenly, and they are left to depend on their wits and knowledge to survive.  They may not be fighting an enemy determined to destroy them as in the story, but their survival is just as dependent on their knowledge and abilities.

Disasters happen every day, such as hurricanes and tornados, that leave people stranded or homeless, where often they must depend on their skill and wits to stay alive until help arrives (if it arrives at all!).

This is why, even we who live in the “cradle of civilization” should always be prepared for such eventualities.

The true hunger games will likely happen when the industrial food chain breaks down and food suddenly becomes scarce (which is a strong argument for local agriculture and vegetable gardens).

One might store food in readiness for such an event, but just as in the story of The Hunger Games, one has to be able to hold on to it.  When there are a lot of starving people roaming around, things will get nasty and personal food stores will be prime targets.

The safest survival stores you can have, is knowledge.

Those who can turn to nature for shelter, water and nourishment will stand a far greater chance of survival.  This is why I have always felt it very important to develop my basic life skills and learn what plants can be eaten and which ones are poisonous.  My knowledge of wild foods and primitive skills has given me an inner confidence that has taken me through life.

Living off the land in an emergency is not easy,

nor is it necessarily very pleasant, however, it can mean the difference between life and death.  A knowledge of the medicinal uses of common plants can also be invaluable when there is nowhere else to turn.  The healing properties of common weeds such as plantain could stave off a serious infection when it is applied to an injury.  Common yarrow has historically been employed to stop bleeding on the battlefield and shepherds purse will help with internal bleeding.  We don’t have to wait for the arrival of a silver parachute sent by some distant benefactor, if we know how to make use of the herbal pharmacy that surrounds us.  Nor need we go hungry.

Of course, there are many other nature crafts and skills that would serve us in a survival situation.

Knowing how to build shelter, make fire, find water, fish, trap and hunt using only what nature provides, are skills that we may never need, yet given a true emergency situation, this ancient knowledge could mean the difference between surviving and becoming another statistic.

The post How to Survive the Hunger Games – Suburban Foragers’ Style – part I appeared first on Suburban Foragers.

There’s a big hoopla about West Nile Virus right now and I wonder what is really behind it.  So few peoplehave ever contracted it, and very few have died from it.
In fact, you stand more chance of dying by falling off a donkey.

It is hardly a reason to go spraying millions of gallons of poison across the landscape, in the hopes of killing off the mosquito population.  So why aren’t they out there spraying for donkeys?  It’s just as ridiculous.

Rather than poisoning the area for the rest of its inhabitants (including bees), a less toxic approach to the problem is to make ourselves less desirable to the mosquitos.

When I’m out in nature, I resort to a number of tricks to keep those flying critters at bay.

I’ve had some success using plants extracts, like marigold and catnip.

On a trip to Maine, I found the woods to be full of mushrooms (which I didn’t eat) and mosquitos (which did eat me). I had noticed that the fields around there were covered in Tansy plants.  That evening, I crushed some tansy leaves and flowers and slowly sautéed them in some coconut oil, for about 3 hours then drained off the resultant oil.  The following morning, I lathered myself with this makeshift repellent and went back to the woods.  I was delighted with how effective it was.

I’ve experimented with various herbs for smudging, where a bundle of dried herbs is burned and the smoke used to drive out everything from insects to evil spirits.

It is usually accompanied by a ritual or prayer performed while the smudge stick is being waved around a room or a person.  White sage is the most popular herb to use, but in the east I generally use dried mugwort which smolders well and deters them skeeters.  I’ve often added strips of cedar bark or lavender for a different aroma.  In either case, it works pretty well.

When I’m camping, I often build a fire, even on a hot day, as wood smoke is very effective.

The smokier you smell the less the mozies like you.  After a couple of days without bathing, nothing (or nobody) wants to be near you.  Sometimes, when the little critters are particularly bad, wiping mud on your skin helps, but it is not too comfortable, and tends to scare the guests at garden parties.

There’s a few don’ts with biting insects.  Don’t wear perfume.  Don’t wear bright colored clothes and don’t breath.  That last one is a toughy, but carbon dioxide is like a magnet to those little buggers.  However, chewing on garlic helps.  They don’t like garlic, so eat it regularly when you are in the woods.  Besides, it helps boost your immune system.  I like to gather and pickle field garlic bulbs.  They make a tasty bug repellent snack.

As Tony Isaacs points out in his recent article on the Natural News Website,

there is a safe, non-toxic insect repellent from Herbalist Debra Nuzzi-St. Claire that suggests using the formula:

* 1/2 ounce citronella oil

* 1/4 ounce lavender oil

* 1/8 ounce pennyroyal oil

* 1/8 ounce tea tree oil

* 1/8 ounce jojoba oil

I’ve used a very similar repellent and found it to be a pleasant and effective alternative to the chemical sprays on the market.

Of course, one of the best protections against diseases, is a healthy immune system.  This requires eating fresh nutritious foods and drinking teas made from immunity-boosting herbs, such as echinacea, elderberry (and flowers), astragalus, goldenseal, oregano and heal-all.  You can buy these as ready made dried teas or gather and dry your own.

However, since your chances of dying from West Nile disease is about 7,500,000 to 1, I wouldn’t go getting bent out of shape about it.  The bottom line is, you should be careful when riding a donkey and always take what the media is feeding you with a pinch of salt (preferably sea salt!)

The post What to do About West Nile Virus? A non-toxic pesticide free natural solution appeared first on Suburban Foragers.

Hops, like valerian, are a traditional herbal remedy for anxiety, restlessness and insomnia.

You may be familiar with hops in association with beer brewing (where it is used as an anti-bacterial agent and for flavoring brews). I am simply happy to brew up a relaxing tea for those nights I have trouble winding down to sleep. When I decided to take an indefinite break from alcohol consumption, I swapped out my nightly beer for hops tea to get a similar calming, sleepy effect without the nasty hangover. If you are living sober and want a good substitute for beer to help soothe you, try some hops tea. The active ingredient in hops is a chemical component called dimethylvinyl carbinol, a known sedative and hypnotic.

This week Paul, Adrienne and I rescued a mess of hops for our friend Charlie. He had planted hops in his lush perennial garden and ended up with more hops than he knew what to do with, and didn’t want to see them go to waste. Paul noted that hops are in the Cannabis family, Cannabidaceae, making it the legal cousin of marijuana (that explains its mellowing effect). He also mentioned that you can fill a pillow with hops for soothing rest to give as a crafty, healing gift.

What are hops?

Hops are the cones (flowers) of a vigorous climbing perennial herb, Humulus lupulus, whose name sounds like a magical herb or spell out of Harry Potter.

How to find hops

If you don’t have a friend like Charlie to invite you to pick hops, you can keep an eye out in the late summer for a plant that climbs like a honeysuckle. If you need help you can sign-up for our workshops, or download the Suburban Foragers iPhone app as a high-tech guide (coming 2013), or buy our weather-resistant guide for a low-tech reference to take into the field.

How to harvest hops

Hops are ready to harvest when they are green and papery. Look inside for golden pollen-like lupin and give it a sniff for that hoppy beer fragrance. Pluck the cones (flowers) off the vine with your fingers or harvest entire clusters by clipping off the lateral vines. When you get home lay them out to dry in a ventilated area out of the direct sun. You may simply spread them on a sheet in an unlit room by a breezy window or under a fan for about 3 days. Or you may hang the lateral vine clippings from hooks or strings in a breezeway for 3 days. When they have dried, place them in an airtight jar in a dark cupboard. Some harvesters suggest freezing them in an airtight bag. They will keep for a year before they lose their potency.
Here’s an excellent how to video on harvesting hops. Ben shows the difference between mature and immature hops.

Brewing hops tea

To make a non-alcoholic homebrew use about 3-5 hop cones per cup of tea. Simply pour boiling water over them, cover and steep for 5-20 minutes. This is a bitter brew (which I like), but you may sweeten it up with honey or sweet herbs like mint.

Hops Tea

Edibility

The young leaves of Humulus Lupulus can be eaten as a wild food.

Poisonous Look Alikes

None

Warnings

According to the Plants for the Future entry on hops some people have experienced skin and eye irritation. Some depressed people have felt worse from the sedative effects. They advise to avoid hops during pregnancy (antispasmodic) and with breast, uterine and cervical cancers.

Do not let your dog eat hops. Hops can cause malignant hyperthermia, fatal in dogs.Source Wikipedia.

Paul, Adrienne and I can vouch that we have not personally experienced nor have known anyone to have experienced the side effects mentioned above.

What experience have you had with hops? Please share! We welcome your feedback, questions and personal experience.

The post Hip Hop Hooray for Humulus lupulus! appeared first on Suburban Foragers.

Every August, you can find black cherry trees covered in drooping clusters of shiny ripe fruit, like thousands of threaded beads. These cherries are smaller and more tart than the domestic varieties.  They grow in elongated racemes and appear to be more like berries on little stalks.  However, you will find that each “berry” contains an unmistakable cherry pit.

They are not as sweet as regular cherries, but their tannic tartness makes them ideal for making jam, jelly, syrups and wine.  However, despite their being considered unpalatable, I really enjoy their sweet/sharp flavor straight from the tree, and will happily spend time munching away on them as a refreshing snack, whilst out walking.

The bark of the young tree is used for its medicinal properties, mainly as a cough remedy and sedative.  However, avoid eating the leaves, as they contain cyanide, which reaches toxic levels once they are crushed or begin to wilt.  Many cattle and horses have died from ingesting them.  The pits are also poisonous, although they have to be crushed in order to release their cyanide content, so fear not, if you accidentally swallow one or two. They’ll just pass on through.

Unless you have a cherry pitter, removing all those pits can prove to be very time consuming.  You can try rolling the fruit between two cutting boards to loosen up the pits, but this can be very messy.  All in all, you won’t get a lot of fruit at the end of the day, so I’d recommend having some apples on hand.  I’d recommend crab apples, but they are just as labor intensive as the cherries.

If you can pit sufficient cherries to make a cherry and apple pie, you won’t regret it.  However, these wild cherries are not as sweet as regular cherries, and may require more sugar in the recipe (according to your taste preference).  Pitted wild cherries make great accent fruits in fruit salads, green salads,  and chicken and tuna salads.  I’ve used them to make a sweet and tart sauce for fish, which I’m sure would work just as well with chicken & pork.  For a wicked dessert idea, try soaking them in rum or brandy for a while, then pour them over ice cream or even waffles with some whipped cream.

We recently made some venison kaftas for a wild foods feast.  Fortunately, black cherries were in season, so we made a black cherry sauce to accompany them.  It was a big hit.

If you are lucky enough to be able to harvest some black cherries, try making a sauce.  The recipe is fairly simple and easy to make. Depending on how much you reduce the sauce, you can make a useful black cherry syrup, which can be added to seltzer for a refreshing drink or taken straight as an very effective treatment for coughs and bronchitis.

See Lisa Caccamise’s recipe here

The post This Season’s Wild Edible Plant: Black Cherries appeared first on Suburban Foragers.

Along my favorite trail there are lots of elder bushes rising up out of the tangle of roses, grape vines and honeysuckle.  I always make a point of going there during the late spring and mid summer to gather the flowers and the berries.  As there are so many, I can gather a bagful of elderberries by harvesting two or three clusters from each bush, leaving most of them untouched.

The flowers can be gathered without the need to pick the umbels.  When they are ripe enough, I’ll hold a bag beneath each umbel in turn and shake it.  Half the petals will fall away, and land in the bag, leaving the bush intact.  With the berries, I harvest before they’ve fully ripened, as the birds will snag them the moment they are ripe.

When you are elder gathering, you’ll find that carrying a 4ft pole with a hook on the end will come in very handy for pulling down the upper branches (with the most showy clusters).

Elderberry has been used historically for its medicinal properties by many cultures, with good reason.  Modern clinics are exploring the beneficial components in the plant and are using it with good result.  Oncologists in Israel are using extracts of the plant to treat cancer and AIDS.

It is so effective in boosting the immune system, that, as a kidney transplant recipient, I have to avoid regular ingestion, as it can counteract my immunosuppressants.  However, I’m not averse to drinking a few cups of elderflower tea when I get a cold or flu.  It lessens symptoms and considerably speeds recovery.  I make a special tea for whenever a virus hits

Cold and flu tea:  Combine equal amounts of elderflowers, boneset leaf*, mullein leaf and coltsfoot leaf (1/4 ounce of each).  Put them into a quart jar and fill it with just boiled water.  If the jar is made of glass put a large metal spoon in it and pour the water directly onto the spoon (it stops the jar from cracking).  Put a lid on the jar, but don’t screw it tight.  When it has partly cooled, stir in an ounce of raw honey (local is even better) and a sliced lemon.  Leave for 4 hours (or as long as you can).  Filter into another jar, lid it up and keep in the fridge.  Drink about 2/3 cup every 4 to 6 hours (when I feel the symptoms returning).

* If you don’t have boneset, try camomile.

It tastes really good.  What’s more, it helps lower cholesterol and improves vision.  If it didn’t conflict with my meds, I’d be drinking it every day.

Of course the berries are just as potent but they are not to be eaten like other berries. They have very little flesh, crunchy seeds and they are bitter tasting.  They also tend to be poisonous when raw.  Cooking renders them safe and improves the flavor, but you’ll need to add a sweetener.  In fact, if you have harvested enough berries, I’d recommend making a syrup.  It can be used much like honey, to sweeten and fortify drinks.  Adding an ounce of syrup to a glass of seltzer makes a healthy and tasty soda drink.  The syrup can be taken straight as a remedy for coughs, so why not put it over pancakes while you’re at it.

The post Blog: Gathering Elderberries: This Week’s Wild Medicinal Plant appeared first on Suburban Foragers.

Milkweed pods

Milkweed is one of the most useful plants that we have been blessed with.  Beginning in May, the shoots appear, heralding the spring.  If I encounter a large enough patch, I’ll carefully harvest a few by slicing off the tender tops.  I’m careful to only select from those that are about 10 inches or less, as the taller plants begin to get tougher and as they develop a red blush, they become somewhat toxic.  The harvested shoots are usual about 6 to 8 inches in length, and have 2 or three pairs of leaves, with a cluster at the top.  I remove all but the very top leaves and put them aside to be used in other dishes.  What remains resembles asparagus.

These tasty shoots are delicious to eat as is or they can be lightly boiled or steamed and serves with butter or your favorite sauce.  I prefer them to asparagus.  One of our recommended recipes for May I call Milkweed Seaweed noodles, in which I shave thin slivers from the stems until I have a bowl of green “noodles”.  I then either steam or blanch them until slightly softened.  I generally make up an Asian style dressing, using soy sauce or tamari, rice vinegar, fish sauce, sesame oil and palm sugar, which I pour over the noodles.  Finally, I sprinkle over some toasted sesame seeds and serve.  Try it.  It will become a perennial favorite with your family.

In June the flowers begin to appear.  Before they open they resemble clusters of capers.  If there are enough clusters at this stage, I like to pick a few to use in a variety of dishes from salads to soups to stir fries.  As the flowers open up they become more colorful and really help to brighten up a salad or just about any dish.  They are a perfect snack when you are walking through a meadow and happen upon a patch of milkweed.  However, be careful not to pop a bug in your mouth, as milkweed flowers are very popular with insects, particularly the Monarch butterfly and a little orange and black beetle known as the milkweed bug.  It is quite harmless, and if you are feeling adventurous, quite delicious.

After the flowers fade and drop away, start to look out for the seed pods.  There are generally about  2 or 3 to a plant, particularly in sunny areas.  When they reach about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in length they are ready to be harvested, however, only pick them if there are plenty to be had and always make sure to leave a few to propagate for next year.  The pods only remain edible for a few days before they begin to get tough and stringy. You can tell if they are too ripe without having to pick them.  The edible pods are very firm.  As they become spongy feeling, you’ll know that it is too late.

The pods can be used in many different ways.  They are quite tasty raw, or sliced up and added to salads.  They can be sautéed, battered and deep fried or prepared like you would okra (without being slimy). Another idea you can try is to split them along the seam and remove the insides (immature seeds and silk, then stuff them with grain and chopped vegetables, cover them with cheese and breadcrumbs and bake them in the oven or steam them and drizzle your favorite sauce over them.  There are so many ways that you can prepare them that the only limit is your imagination.

In the Fall, after the plant has begun to die off, it still has its uses.  The stalks can be stripped of their outer layers, which can be used to make twine.  I have made some very strong thread from milkweed, that I used to sew on a button that is still firmly attached several years later.

As if this wasn’t enough, the latex from the plant can be used to remove warts (I’ve done it – it really works).

To watch a video on cooking milkweed  click here

For a recipe for cooking milkweed click here

The post Blog: Milkweed: This week’s seasonal edible plant appeared first on Suburban Foragers.

However, this has been a very unusual year, and many plants are appearing a month or more earlier than usual.  So along side the spring flowers you will find many species that normally don’t appear until May or June.  Consequently, this is one of the most lush Aprils I can recall since moving to New York over 30 years ago.  In fact, it has been one of the earliest and most abundant foraging seasons.  I was able to photograph flowers throughout January and February, that simply shouldn’t have been there.

Thanks to the recent rains and warm days we are seeing wonderful displays of flowers, so if you have the opportunity, take some walks in the woods and fields.  You never know what you will come across.

I have included pictures of some of the plants one would usually expect to find in April.

The post Spring: Ephemeral Plants appeared first on Suburban Foragers.

Dandelions are part of the Composiate family of plants. These plants cover Asters and Sunflowers.

I love  looking at dandelions-  When they pop up all over a field I get very excited.  I know that there will be dandelion tinctures, oils, fritters and if I am feeling ambitious, Dandelion wine, in my future.  Brigitte Mars, an herbalist and writer, knew so many things to do with dandelions (both edible and medicinally) that  she was able to fill up a book.

According to the web site , Wildflowers-and-Weeds.com, here is what can be said about the Compositae family that the dandelion falls under:

“The uniqueness of the Aster or Sunflower family is that what first seems to be a single large flower is actually a composite of many smaller flowers. Look closely at a sunflower in bloom, and you can see that there are hundreds of little flowers growing on a disk, each producing just one seed. Each “disk flower” has 5 tiny petals fused together, plus 5 stamens fused around a pistil with antennae-like stigmas. Look closely at the big “petals” that ring the outside of the flower head, and you will see that each petal is also a flower, called a “ray flower”, with its petals fused together and hanging to one side. Plants of the Aster family will have either disk flowers or ray flowers, or both. When the seeds are ripe and fall away, you are left with a pitted disk that looks strikingly like a little garden plot where all the tiny flowers were planted.”

Dandelion leaves can be a bit bitter especially after they flower.  They are great added to a salad, cook like spinach with garlic and oil or made into a pesto.  The bitter is supposed to be good for digestion and something that our ancestors regularly incorporated into their diets.

I like to make a salve with dandelion flower oil-  I find it nourishing and healing for my very dry skin.  Dandelion teas are good as a diuretic without depleting you of calcium.  The Rockland Forager is particularly fond of dandelion root ‘coffee’, a recipe we will make available soon.

One of the truly great things about dandelion is that it is readily available, you can collect it without worrying about depleting the supply.  It is a great plant to research, study the plant and learn about .  It is one of the great plants to adopt in the beginning of your plant journey.

I hope this inspires you to go forth and adopt a dandelion before they blow away.

Elana Fine

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