Edible plants: what leaves can be eaten. Edible wild plants
Going on a long journey into the wild (thank God that there are still such places on Earth!) It is worth arming yourself with knowledge about what edible plants may meet you on the road. Such information will never hurt, and sometimes it can save a life. After all, unlike nimble animals, birds and fish, which are not so easy to catch, plants - here they are. You just need to know which wild plants can be used for food, be able to recognize them. Let's talk about it.
There is a known case when Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, a Russian and Soviet biologist, geneticist, breeder, during extreme travels with an expedition in the Sahara, got lost in the sands during a sandstorm. The locusts dried by him in the warm sand, which could be easily caught, served as food for the scientist until the storm subsided. Great amount proteins and carbohydrates contained in this insect supported Nikolai Vavilov in extreme situation. Enough examples of this are known. Nature is always ready to help a person ... But, today we will talk about plants.
Let's talk about wild plants that serve as a source of food for people who find themselves in an extreme situation. And this opus is about the plants of the temperate natural zone, which stretches in a wide strip between the tropics and the subarctic along the entire circumference of the northern hemisphere.
Some of the edible plants described here also grow in the southern hemisphere. Just there, as can be seen from the diagram, the area of the temperate climate zone is relatively negligible.
In an extreme situation, food is not only and not so much taste. First of all, nutrition is important, well, and safety for the body, of course. The largest number nutrients, primarily carbohydrates, namely starch, is found in the roots and tubers of plants. Most starch in tubers and roots is found in autumn-spring period before the start of plant growth. In spring, starch turns into sugar to ensure plant growth and the nutritional value of roots, tubers, rhizomes, bulbs is significantly reduced. So, get lost, or get into some other extreme situation in the conditions wildlife, somewhat, so to speak, more pleasant at the end of summer, in autumn.
Here is a list of the most famous wild plants that can be used for food:
1. Burdock, burdock
2. Ramson
3. Wild onion
4. Nettle
5. Sorrel sour
6. Ivan tea, fireweed
7. Cattail broadleaf
8. Arrowhead
9. Water chestnut, chilim
10. Bracken fern
12. Quinoa, white gauze
13. Dandelion
14. Plantain
15. Couch grass
Rhizomes, bulb tubers must be thoroughly cleaned from the ground and rinsed well in water (preferably running water).
Most roots taste better roasted. First, boil them until they become soft. Then they are baked on stones or in the coals of a fire. Many rhizomes after such heat treatment become softer, and meta, even tastier.
burdock familiar to everyone. Its young leaves and shoots are edible. However, old leaves are also edible, but, of course, young leaves are tastier. They are added to salads, soups. Burdock rhizomes can be eaten in any form - raw, boiled, baked, fried. It is usually recommended to eat burdock roots in a baked, fried form, but pickled and boiled burdock roots are a delicacy in Japan and China. To taste, burdock roots resemble potatoes; when raw, they are quite juicy, sweetish in taste. AT field conditions it is difficult to do this, but, nevertheless, note to the hostess - dried burdock roots can be ground into flour and made into cakes, cutlets. And dried and roasted burdock roots are a great coffee substitute.
Cheremsha- a valuable food plant, has a characteristic garlic smell. In addition to the taste value, wild garlic has wonderful antiscorbutic, volatile properties - it contains vitamins (C, carotenes) and other useful substances.
In early spring, after the snow melts, young shoots of wild garlic are harvested. Eat in salty, fresh and pickled form. Soups, salads, fillings for pies, seasonings for meat, fish - all this can be prepared using wild garlic. You can boil wild garlic before cooking to remove the specific garlic smell. You can dry the leaves and bulbs of wild garlic.
Attention! Do not confuse wild garlic with hellebore, which is poisonous! Hellebore should not be eaten!
As you can see, these two plants have a similar leaf shape. However, in addition to the difference in the color of the greenery, the poisonous hellebore has a pronounced longitudinal ribbing, while the wild garlic leaves are smooth. Also, the base of the leaf of wild garlic has a pale lilac tint. And the leaves have a pronounced garlic smell, if crushed in the hand. The differences are significant, but people manage to confuse ...
Onion wild easily recognizable by its characteristic odour. It is distributed almost everywhere. An edible bulb can be up to 25 cm underground. In writing, of course, you can use onion leaves. They are long, coming out from the very base of the plant.
Nettle - the most popular edible wild plant. Perhaps, anyone knows that in early spring, salads, green borscht, cabbage soup are prepared from young nettle leaves, chopped pulp is added to cutlets ... In addition to wonderful taste, these are also very healthy, vitamin-containing dishes.
Sorrel sour grows in damp places almost everywhere. Sorrel leaves are used for food. They are very juicy and sour in taste.
Ivan tea, fireweed, Koporsky tea. The name of the plant speaks for itself, indeed, Ivan-tea has long been used as tea in Russia. Even exported. You can meet this plant in almost all sparse forests, in clearings, burnt areas, along roads. Leaves and unopened buds are brewed instead of tea. Ivan-tea rhizomes are also edible. Dig up willow-herb rhizomes better in autumn. Flour made from dried fireweed rhizomes can be used for baking cakes and bread. And fragrant coffee is prepared from roasted, crushed rhizomes of willow-tea.
cattail, grows along the banks of reservoirs - rivers, lakes, oxbow lakes. You can use boiled or fried, baked young shoots and rhizomes for food. They contain a lot of starch and proteins. From the flour prepared from the rhizomes of cattail, you can bake cakes and bread. Of course, it is better to mix with wheat or rye flour for stickiness. Like most of the other described rhizomes, roasted and crushed cattail rhizomes are used to make a coffee drink.
The best time to collect rhizomes is spring and autumn, when they contain the highest amount of carbohydrates (starch).
arrowhead is an aquatic plant, on average 30-90 cm tall. The leaves are large, their shape can be from narrow to wide arrow-shaped, and sometimes striped under water. Flowers have three rounded petals. Always grows near fresh water. The tubers are edible raw, but much tastier when cooked.
Water chestnut, chilim, rogulnik — aquatic plant having an interesting diamond-shaped rosette of floating leaves. Quite often found in freshwater reservoirs. Nuts are very hard, they can be eaten raw, boiled, baked, dried. Pancakes are baked from walnut flour, porridge can be made from crushed walnuts.
Fern. Not all types of ferns are edible, only two species - bracken and ostrich. These plants should be well distinguished. Young shoots of ferns are recommended to be boiled first (up to 10 minutes), and then you can make salads, fry and even marinate from them. The taste of fern shoots resembles mushrooms.
Sleep. The leaves of this plant contain a lot of vitamins and other valuable substances. Young leaves and shoots of goutweed are used instead of cabbage for cooking first courses, okroshka. In dry form, the leaves of goutweed are used as a seasoning for meat.
Quinoa Truly a true savior. I remember the stories of my mother, who recalled how, in the hungry post-war years, the quinoa literally saved people from hunger. Seeds are used as food - you can make pancakes, cakes from them. The leaves are added to soups and salads. It is pickled, salted, fermented, dried.
Dandelion. The entire plant is edible. Dried rhizomes are used to make flour and brew a coffee drink. Young leaves, pre-soaked in cold water added to salads. And fragrant jam is made from dandelion flowers.
Plantain. Plantain leaves are used to make salads, soups, and seasonings. Plantain seeds are also edible.
Wheatgrass. This malicious weed, which causes a lot of trouble to gardeners and gardeners, is an edible plant, moreover, it has healing properties. More than once I had to observe our smaller brothers - dogs and cats eating green wheatgrass leaves. White rhizomes of wheatgrass, and it is better to dig them up in the spring, then rinse thoroughly, brew instead of tea (it has a very pleasant, slightly sweet taste). The dried rhizomes of wheatgrass are ground into flour, porridge is cooked from it and even bread is baked!
Undoubtedly, human achievements in the agricultural sector are enormous. New varieties of cultivated plants with their remarkable characteristics are amazing. But it is very unfortunate that knowledge about wild plants that once fed our ancestors, literally saved them in difficult periods of life, is forgotten, erased from the memory of the people. Knowledge about the properties of these plants has been collected for thousands of years, passed down from generation to generation. Wild plants, as edible wild plants are often called, both feed and treat, in a word, rush to help people.
Study wild edible plants. In an emergency situation, this knowledge will help you find edible plants and keep your strength longer, hold out.
Dense, endless forests have been beckoning people since time immemorial. Clean air, saturated with the aroma of forest flowers, tall trees and sprawling shrubs allow you to fully feel the unity with nature.
However, it also happens that when going to the forest for a quiet or green hunt, a person wanders into a maze of giant trees and is not able to find the way back. In such cases, you should completely rely on the mercy of mother nature, which takes care of a person, providing numerous plants that quench thirst and hunger.
Plants that help you survive
Plant foods contain almost all the substances necessary for a full life: vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates. In some plants, leaves and shoots are suitable for food, in others - flowers and inflorescences, in others - berries. And certain species have healthy and nutrient-rich roots.
The main advantage of herbs is the ability to eat them without pre-treatment, as well as the availability and prevalence in almost all corners of the Earth (except for the polar and desert regions). Knowledge of the properties of forest plants will help the lost traveler to maintain his strength and successfully survive in the wild.
Related materials:
Why are plants planted in the spring?
Representatives of the plant world, suitable for food
Perhaps the most widely available plant with edible shoots and leaves is the nettle. Its leaves are extremely rich in vitamins C, B and K and carotene. Young nettles can be consumed raw, but before that you need to carefully knead the leaves to remove burning hairs.
Dandelion as food
No less common is the dandelion. What this plant looks like, perhaps, every person knows. Dandelion is rich in calcium, phosphorus, protein and iron. The leaves of this plant can also be eaten raw, but you must first soak them in water to remove the bitter juice. But the most nutritious part of the plant is the root - it can be fried, boiled or dried for subsequent grinding into flour.
sour
Many outwardly unsightly herbs are not only edible, but also widely used in medicine. Among them can be called sour - a plant with small leaves, preferring damp and shaded places. Oxalis is rich in vitamin C and oxalic acid and is usually eaten raw. Dried sour is used as a seasoning.
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is found in almost every forest - a broad-leaved plant that grows in the form of huge rosettes. Rhubarb stalks are eaten raw, dried or boiled. Be sure to remove the skin before use.
Related materials:
Why are plants green?
The huge hogweed plant has edible roots, leaves and shoots. Its stems are very juicy and will quench your thirst wonderfully. The rhizome has a sweetish, pleasant taste, in terms of calories and sugar content it is comparable to corn. But the leaves of the plant have a rich and pungent smell, and it will be better to soak them in several waters before use. However, it should be borne in mind that some types of hogweed are poisonous and are not suitable for food.
bracken fern
In the bracken fern, you can use leaves and young shoots thoroughly washed in water for food. They taste like mushrooms.
Inedible plants in the forest
It is worth at least briefly studying the features of the forest flora, so that, being one on one with nature, you do not accidentally eat something hazardous to health and do significant harm to yourself. For example, you should not use spotted hemlock - this plant is very similar to cow parsnip, but it exudes a pungent odor that can cause a headache.
Despite its external attractiveness, May lily of the valley is also an inedible plant - its bright red berries can cause severe poisoning.
Voronets is a plant resembling elderberry in appearance, only with red berries. The use of this plant in food is fraught with sad consequences up to a lethal outcome.
Many herbaceous plants are edible. Most of them contain almost all the substances necessary for a person. Plant foods are richest in carbohydrates, organic acids, vitamins and mineral salts. Leaves, shoots, stems of plants, as well as their rhizomes, tubers and bulbs are eaten. The underground parts of plants, being natural stores of nutrients, are very rich in starch and are of the greatest value in terms of providing nutrition; plants with edible leaves and shoots are widespread. Their main advantage is ease of collection, the possibility of eating raw, as well as in the form of salads, soups and additions to other products. Substances contained in herbaceous plants are able to partially restore the expended energy, support the vitality of the body, stimulate the cardiovascular, digestive and nervous systems.
One of the most common plants in the forest is the stinging nettle (Urtica dioica). Its stems are straight, tetrahedral, unbranched, up to one and a half meters high. The leaves are opposite, ovate-lanceolate, with large teeth along the edges. The entire plant is covered with stinging hairs. Nettle grows in shady moist forests, clearings, burned areas, along ravines and coastal shrubs. For its great nutritional value, nettles are sometimes called "vegetable meat". Its leaves contain a large amount of vitamin C, carotene, B and K vitamins, and various organic acids. Nettle with long time ago used as a food plant. Very tasty green cabbage soup is prepared from its young leaves. Scalded with boiling water, nettle goes to salads. Young, not hardened stems are chopped, salted and sour, like cabbage. Inflorescences are brewed instead of tea. Nettle also has numerous medicinal properties. It is mainly used as a good hemostatic agent. Fresh juice (one teaspoon three times a day) and infusion (10 grams of dry leaves per cup of boiling water, boiled for ten minutes and drunk half a cup twice a day) are used to treat internal bleeding. Externally, fresh leaves or powder from dried leaves are used to treat festering wounds.
Dandelion (Taraxácum officinále) is also common in the forest flora.— perennial height from 5 to 50 centimeters with a thick vertical almost unbranched root; oblong, pinnately serrated leaves and bright yellow flower baskets collected in a basal rosette. Dandelion settles on slightly soddy soils - in floodplains, along roadside ditches, on slopes. Often found on forest clearings and forest edges, on the sides of forest roads. Dandelion can be quite attributed to vegetable crops(in Western Europe it is grown in vegetable gardens). The plant is rich in protein, sugars, calcium, phosphorus and iron compounds. All parts of it contain a very bitter milky juice. Fresh young leaves are used to make salads. Bitterness is easily eliminated if the leaves are kept for half an hour in salt water or boiled. Peeled, washed and boiled roots are eaten as a second course. Boiled roots can be dried, ground and added to flour for baking cakes. Ground dandelion root can replace tea. The dug out and peeled rhizome of the plant is first dried until the milky juice ceases to stand out at the break, then it is dried and fried. To obtain an excellent tea leaves, it remains only to finely crush it.
Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) grows in river valleys, along sandy coasts, in meadows in spruce, light coniferous, birch and mixed forests. In the spring, its pale spore-bearing stems appear from the ground, similar to densely spaced arrows with brown tips, and a month later they are replaced by green “Christmas trees” that do not wither until autumn. It's strange ancient plant edible. Young spring spore-bearing shoots are used for food - they are used to prepare a salad, cook soup or eat raw. You can also eat peanuts - nodules growing on the rhizomes of horsetail - they are rich in starch, taste sweet and are suitable for eating raw, baked or boiled. Horsetail grass ("Christmas trees") is rich in valuable medicinal substances and has long been used in medicine. Possessing hemostatic and disinfectant properties, infusion (20 grams of horsetail per cup of boiling water), powder or juice of fresh grass is used to treat festering and incised wounds. Horsetail infusion is used to gargle with sore throat and inflammation of the gums. All of the above applies only to horsetail; other types of horsetail contain alkaloids.
burdock
Among the many herbs of the forest, there is nothing more common than burdock (Arctium tomentosum). In the hollows and ditches, in the fore forest, on the bushy slopes to the river - everywhere you can find this green hulk, sometimes exceeding human height. The trunk is sinewy, fleshy with a red tinge. Dark green arshin-length leaves seem to be covered with felt from the wrong side. In Siberia, burdock has long been considered vegetable plant. In spring, young tasty leaves are boiled in soups and broths. But the main thing in burdock is a long, powerful root crop that can replace carrots, parsley, and parsnips. The fleshy roots of burdock can be eaten raw, as well as boiled, baked, fried, used in soups instead of potatoes, and cooked from them cutlets. In field conditions, burdock roots are thoroughly washed, cut into circles and baked on a fire until a golden crust is formed. Fresh burdock leaves are used as compresses for joint pain and bruises.
In spring, when the buds on the trees barely begin to unfold in forest clearings and thickets, primrose stems (Primula veris) appear along the banks of rivers and in thickets of bushes, similar to bundles of golden keys. This is a perennial plant with a straight flower arrow and large woolly, whitish, wrinkled leaves. Bright yellow corollas of flowers with five cloves are fragrant with honey. Primrose in some countries is bred as salad greens. Its leaves are a pantry of ascorbic acid. It is enough to eat one leaf of a primrose to fill the daily requirement for vitamin C. In early spring, fresh leaves and flower arrows of this plant are an excellent filling for a vitamin salad. Soothing and diaphoretic teas are prepared from the leaves and flowers of the primrose.
One of the first spring herbs is oxalis (Oxalis acetosella). This simple forest plant is unsightly and inconspicuous. The acid has no stems. Fleshy light green heart-shaped leaves depart immediately from the roots. Dense thickets of this grass can often be found under the trunks of fir trees. It grows everywhere in shady and humid forests. Oxalis leaves contain oxalic acid and vitamin C. Along with sorrel, it is used for dressing cabbage soup and soups. Sour juice refreshes well, so a sour drink is prepared from crushed sour, which perfectly quenches thirst. Oxygen can be put in a salad, brewed as a tea or eaten fresh. Applied to purulent wounds, boils and abscesses, crushed sour leaves or their juice have a wound-healing and antiseptic effect.
(1).jpg)
At the end of spring in the forest glades among the herbage it is easy to find a straight stalk with a tassel of spotted flowers and oblong / like a tulip, leaves also covered with spots. This is an orchid. From the Latin name it is clear that this plant is an orchid. Indeed, the first thing that catches your eye is a purple flower - an exact reduced copy of a tropical orchid. In addition to beauty, orchis has long attracted people with its juicy tuber, which is rich in starch, protein, dextrin, sugar and a whole range of other nutrients and healing substances. Kissels and soups, cooked from orchid rhizome, perfectly restore strength, save from exhaustion. 40 grams of crushed tubers powder contains daily rate nutrients needed by humans. Orchid tubers, which have enveloping properties, are used for indigestion, dysentery and poisoning.
On wet edges, low-lying and watershed meadows, grassy swamps, swampy shores of reservoirs, snake mountaineer (Polygonum bistorta) grows - a perennial herbaceous plant with a tall, up to a meter, stem; large basal leaves the length of a palm, but much narrower and pointed. top leaves small, linear, wavy-notched, grayish below. The flowers are pink, collected in a spikelet. Highlander snake is edible. Young shoots and leaves are mainly used for food, which, after removing the middle veins, can be boiled or eaten fresh or dried. The aerial part of the plant contains a fair amount of vitamin C. The rhizome of the plant is thick, sinuous, resembling a cancer neck, and is also edible. It contains a lot of starch, carotene, vitamin C, organic acids. However, due to the large amount of tannins, the rhizomes must be soaked. Then they are dried, pounded and added to flour when baking bread and cakes. Knotweed root is used as a strong astringent in acute bowel disorders. Outwardly, decoctions and tinctures treat chronic wounds, boils and ulcers.
The very first settler of forest fires is fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium). It lives on the edges, in tall grass meadows, on clearings and slopes. This is a plant with a smooth, tall, ankle-shaped stem, on which the next leaves, excised by a reticulum of veins, sit. Fireweed blooms all summer - from afar, its lilac-red or purple flowers, collected in long brushes, are striking. The leaves and roots of fireweed contain a large amount of proteins, carbohydrates, sugars, organic acids. Almost all parts of the plant can be used as food. So, young leaves taste no worse than lettuce. Leaves and unopened flower buds are brewed like tea. Fireweed roots can be eaten raw or cooked like asparagus or cabbage. Flour from dried rhizomes is suitable for baking cakes, pancakes and making porridge. An infusion of fireweed leaves (two tablespoons of leaves brewed with a glass of boiling water) is used as an anti-inflammatory, analgesic and tonic.
Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) grows on forest edges, along roadsides and wastelands. This plant, long introduced into cultivation and moved to vegetable gardens, is known to everyone - everyone has tried its sour spear-shaped leaves on long cuttings. The stem of the plant is straight, furrowed, sometimes up to a meter high. The leaves grow from a lush basal rosette. Only about three weeks after the ground thaws, sorrel leaves are already suitable for harvesting. In addition to oxalic acid, the leaves contain a lot of protein, iron, ascorbic acid. Sorrel is used to make soup, sour cabbage soup, salads or eaten raw. A decoction of the seeds and roots helps with indigestion and dysentery.
Another edible grass - goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria) - is often found in a humid shaded forest, along ravines and gullies, damp banks of streams. This is one of the very first spring grasses, appearing in the forest at the same time as the nettle shoots. Snot from the umbrella family - inflorescences are fixed on thin knitting needles, which diverge in rays in radial directions. At the top of the plant is the largest fist-sized umbrella. In those places where there is little light, gout forms thickets, consisting entirely of leaves without flowering stems. In glades rich in sun, the plant acquires a fairly tall stem with a white umbrella. Even in the heat, the leaves of the plant are covered with droplets of water - this is perspiration that seeped through the water cracks in the green plates. Shchi cooked from goutweed is not inferior to cabbage soup in taste. Harvest young, unfolded leaves and petioles. The stems are also eaten, from which the skin is first cut off. Petioles and stems put in a salad will give it a piquant taste. Wild goutweed as a very nutritious and vitamin product was widely used by Moscow canteens in the spring of 1942 and 1943. Dozens of people went to the forests near Moscow to harvest this grass. Snyt in those difficult years also helped out in the winter - it was chopped in advance and salted like cabbage. The soup from the goutweed is prepared as follows: chopped and fried petioles of the leaves of the goutweed, onion, finely chopped meat is placed in a pot, poured with meat broth and put on fire. Crushed gout leaves are added to the barely boiled broth and boiled for another thirty minutes, and fifteen minutes before the end of cooking add salt, pepper, bay leaf.
One of the few forest plants in which leaves, stems, and rhizomes are suitable for food is hogweed. Among our herbs, it is unlikely that another such giant will be found. The powerful ribbed, covered with bristles, the trunk of this plant sometimes reaches two meters in height. Trifoliate hogweed leaves are also unusually large, coarse, woolly, dissected into large lobes. No wonder the popular name of the hogweed is " bear Paw". This is a common inhabitant of the edges, forest meadows, wastelands, roadsides. Its peeled stems have a sweetish, pleasant taste, somewhat reminiscent of the taste of a cucumber. They can be eaten raw, boiled or fried in oil. In spring, the cow parsnip is tender, and its young leaves with a taste of carrots are also edible. All types of cow parsnip contain essential oils and therefore smell strongly. Hogweed greens are usually first scalded in order to reduce the pungent smell, and then put in borscht or put out to stew. A decoction of hogweed resembles chicken broth. The sweetish rhizome of the plant, containing up to 10% sugar, is not inferior in calories and taste garden vegetables and corn. The juice of some cow parsnip contains furocoumarin, which can cause skin burns. Therefore, care must be taken when harvesting this plant.
In clearings and conflagrations, in damp and shady places often vast areas are covered with luxurious fans of the bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum). Its thick brown rhizome is overgrown with filiform roots; large pinnately complex leathery leaves emerge from the top of the rhizome. The bracken differs from other ferns in that the spore sacs are placed under the wrapped edges of the leaves. As a food product, bracken is widely used in Siberia and Far East. Its young shoots and leaves are boiled in a large amount of salt water and washed thoroughly to remove all scales from the leaves. Soup from bracken shoots tastes like mushroom soup.
Another inhabitant of the forest, migrated and cultivated in vegetable gardens, is rhubarb (Rheum). In rhubarb, from an underground shoot (rhizome), long-leaved leaves collected in a rosette with more or less wavy plates depart. It grows on forest edges, along streams and rivers, on hillsides. Fleshy leaf cuttings are used for food, which, after peeling, can be eaten raw, boiled or prepared from them compote, fruit drink. In England, rhubarb is used to make soup.
Along the banks of rivers, swamps and lakes, dense thickets of cattail (Typha angustifolia) can be found in the water. Its black-brown inflorescences, resembling a ramrod on long, almost leafless stems, cannot be confused with anything. In food, fleshy rhizomes containing starch, proteins and sugar are usually used. They can be boiled or baked. From dried and ground into flour, the roots of cattail are baked pancakes, flat cakes, and porridge is cooked. To make flour, the rhizomes are cut into small slices, dried in the sun until they break apart with a dry crackle, after which they can be ground. Young spring shoots, rich in starch and sugar, are eaten raw, boiled or fried. When boiled, cattail shoots taste very similar to asparagus. Yellow-brown flower pollen, mixed with water to a pulp, can be used to bake small breads.
One of the most beautiful plants forests - white water lily (Nymphaea candida). It grows in quiet reservoirs, along stagnant and slowly flowing waters. The leaves of the water lily are large, their upper side is green, the lower one is purple. Its highly developed rhizome is eaten boiled or baked. The roots are also suitable for making flour. In this case, they are cleaned, divided into narrow strips, cut into centimeter-long pieces and dried in the sun, and then pounded on stones. To remove tannins from the resulting flour, it is poured with water for four to five hours, draining the water several times and replacing it with fresh water. After that, the flour is scattered in a thin layer on paper or cloth and dried.
water chestnut chilim
Another inhabitant of water bodies is also edible - chilim, or water chestnut (Tgara natans). This is an aquatic plant with large greenish leaves, very similar to currant. Long thin stems stretch from the leaves to the very bottom. If you lift them up, then under the leaves on the stem you can see small blackish boxes with five spikes. In size and taste, chilim resembles chestnuts. The local population sometimes collects it in bags in autumn. In some countries, the water chestnut (Tgara bicornis) is widely cultivated. Chilim can be eaten raw, boiled in salt water, baked in ashes like potatoes, boiled into soup. Bread is baked from nuts ground into flour. Boiled fruits of this plant are sold everywhere in China.
The calla (Calla palustris) has long been called the marsh bread box. This conspicuous inhabitant of the swamps is low and, being a relative of exotic callas, has many similarities with them. “Leaves on long petioles are flush with the stem. Each plate is wide, pointed, with a contour like a heart, sparkles with lacquer greens ... But first of all, this plant is distinguished by an ear in which are collected small flowers. With a stearin candle, such cobs turn white among thickets of swamp grasses. One and a half, or even three centimeters, the calla ear rises, putting forward the coverlet - the covering leaf. This leaf is fleshy, pointed, snow-white on the inside, and green on the outside, ”A.N. Strizhev and L.V. Garibova. All parts of the plant, especially the rhizome, are poisonous. Therefore, before eating, the calla root is cut into small slices, dried, ground, and the resulting flour is boiled. Then the water is drained, and the thick is dried again. After this treatment, calla root flour loses its bitterness and poisonous properties and can be used for baking bread. Bread made from white calla flour is lush and delicious.
Susak - wild bread
Along the banks of rivers and lakes, in swampy meadows, susak grows, nicknamed wild bread. An adult plant is large - up to one and a half meters in height, usually lives in water. On its straight standing stem, umbrellas of white-pink or green flowers stick out in all directions. There are no leaves on the stem, and therefore the flowers are especially noticeable. Trihedral susak leaves are very narrow, long, straight. They are collected in a bunch and rise from the very base of the stem. The thick, fleshy rhizomes are edible. After peeling, they are baked, fried or boiled like potatoes. The flour obtained from the dried rhizome is suitable for baking bread. Rhizomes contain not only starch, but quite a lot of protein and even some fat. So nutritionally it is even better than regular bread.
Robinson's Dinner: Edible Plants
The Chinese say that you can eat everything except the moon and its reflection in the water. This is true. You will be in the forest, in the meadow or even in the park - know that food grows under your feet. Delicious, nutritious and sometimes delicious.
There are so many edible wild plants that we see every day that they need a whole book. Here are just the most interesting ones. It's February, so let's start early.
Surepka
Almost the most common growth in our fields, wet lowlands, and just on garden beds. The old Russian prefix "su-" means an incomplete resemblance to something: twilight is not night, sandy loam is not sand, colza is not turnip. Its leaves, rich in vitamins, are slightly pungent in taste and resemble mustard, so they are added to salads, mixed with other plants. They eat colza very young, before flowering, while the stems and leaves are still tender. The same with flowers - they should be consumed immediately, as soon as they have blossomed, while the lower flowers have not yet begun to crumble. Otherwise, they are simply indigestible. But pancakes from young flowers are delicious. Very reminiscent of cabbage, only more beautiful - bright yellow. The colza is especially valued in the USA and Canada. But without fanaticism. Contraindications - bowel disease and stomach ulcers.
Shepherd's bag
The same "snowdrop", like colza, appears already in March-April. Latin name capsella is translated as "shepherd's bag". Shepherd's purse is known primarily as a medicinal plant, so few people know that it is also eaten. In China, it is known as a vegetable. Raw is added to salads, boiled - to soups, borscht and even salted.
bell rapunzel
When botanists hear this name, they breathe a sigh of relief. Like, thank God that no one except them knows about this plant, otherwise they would have eaten it long ago. But in Western Europe, rapunzel is bred as a vegetable, and very tasty. "Rapa" in Latin is "turnip", and "rapunculus" is "little turnip".
“In the notes to the fairy tale (we are talking about the fairy tale “Rapunzel”. - Approx. ed.), the translator without thinking twice wrote: “Rapunzel is an edible plant, a root crop.” I honestly heard in this “root crop” something like a turnip. The beauty, whose name is the turnip, did not fit in my head, and I could not stand this fairy tale, ”wrote the famous botanist Natalya Zamyatina.
In our latitudes, the turnip bell itself does not grow, but its closest species, the rapunzel-shaped bell (C. rapunculoides), directly thrives. On the edges, in bushes, fallows, sometimes on the cliffs of river streams, in gardens and abandoned parks. You will recognize it by its light lilac large flowers.
Bell leaves go to salad and soup (but again, only young and tender), the root is simply boiled. It is very reminiscent of young corn, so it is eaten with butter and salt. And, by the way, they also take it young, while the greens have not yet grown, otherwise the sweetness will leave it and instead of corn you will get potatoes. Note that the root is covered with as many as two layers of skin. In addition to the top, thick after cooking, you need to remove the second - thin.
bracken fern
There are many types of ferns. Surprised? Still would. Many of them can only be distinguished under a microscope. But we are not interested in them. To imagine the bracken, look at Shishkin's album of reproductions. "Forest hero-artist" had an inexplicable passion for this type of fern. Maybe because I saw it everywhere - it does not grow only in Antarctica, tundra, deserts and steppes. They eat petioles from the bracken - they are beautifully called rachis. And only when the leaf plate is still in its infancy, when the rachis reach their maximum length- about 20 cm, and at the top they are folded into characteristic "snails". The blossoming bracken is tough, like Thai boxing. We do not recommend eating it. But if at the beginning of summer you see fern “hooks” in the forest, feel free to collect them. They make an excellent stew. The taste is something between eggplant and mushrooms. You can also salt in jars or in a barrel.
burdock
It would seem, well, what is the maximum cure. Bitter and disgusting. Because in burdock leaves are eaten very young, as well as the root, which has long been considered an analogue of potatoes. True, he can be a little bitter. Especially spider burdock root (A. tomentosum). By the way, in the Moscow region this is the main type of burdock. But the Japanese cultivate and eat large burdock (A. lappa). It is fried in pieces or boiled whole. We also have it, but less frequently.
Blooming Sally
Or fireweed narrow-leaved. “How will Ivan tea bloom, from this very color early summer - goodbye, hello, midday summer” - remember Tvardovsky? Because Ivan tea must be sought from the beginning of June until the second half of August. In forest clearings, and especially in places of former conflagrations. It is there that the flower sea of willow-tea “flares up”, to which even linden is inferior in yield. And the use of fireweed is generally an unprecedented case. Rarely, what kind of grass immediately gives cabbage soup, bread, wine, tea, pillows, ropes and cloth (rough stems of the plant). Not counting honey (ivan tea is an incomparable honey plant). Fireweed root contains starch, mucus and sugar and is eaten as a vegetable. Or dried, and then ground into flour and baked cakes. Well, alcohol, of course. Very young fireweed greens - while it has not yet unfolded and the leaves look like glue brushes - are stewed, boiled, fried or added to salads raw.
Clover
In the old days in Russia, clover was called porridge. And not in vain. Its sweet inflorescences are adored by children. As if they know that they contain a lot of proteins, sugars, starch, vitamins C, P, E, carotene and folic acid. In the USA and Canada, clover is loved in salads, in Asia - dried, as a seasoning, in the Caucasus, clover flowers are sour, like cabbage, and served in winter as a delicious salad. In Ireland, flowers (and leaves) are dried, ground into flour and added to bread. But you should not abuse it - in shock doses, clover can do harm.
Chistets marsh
Grows in meadows, fields and gardens. Smells unpleasant, but very tasty. The fleshy and mealy tubers resemble asparagus (for the sake of these tubers in England it was cultivated as a vegetable). You need to look for it at the end of August - September, before the tubers simply do not ripen. They are boiled or fried like potatoes, and dried or salted for the winter. They wilt quickly when fresh, so store them in a plastic bag filled with sand in the fridge or use them right away.
cattail
yes, these are the same puffs, similar to popsicles, which for some reason are usually called reeds. Do not believe it - the reed is a completely different plant, it does not have any puffs, although it also loves swamps and rivers. There is a cattail in front of you, and you can eat it. Imagine. But not the brown cobs beloved by the children, but the root. By the way, cattail and matting are relatives: long leaves cattails have long been used to make matting, shoes, bags, furniture or roof decking. Well, the fluff went to pillows, mattresses or instead of cotton wool. It was even added to felt for hats.
Cattail roots are baked like potatoes, dried and cooked into flour or pickled. Young greens, by the way, are also edible, but at the very rhizome. It can be added to a salad or boiled.
acorns
But a lot of people know about them. Especially the older generation, who grew up on acorn coffee, which cost 11 kopecks and was called "Health". And for good reason - acorns are very rich in protein, starch, sugars, crude fat and fiber. Acorns should be harvested in the fall, after the first frost, that is, when they are already ripe and begin to fall off (green acorns are poisonous). Then they are cleaned, cut and soaked in water for two days, changing the water (to remove tannins that give them an astringent unpleasant taste). Then bring to a boil and rinse. Pass through a meat grinder and dry. Coarse acorns are used for porridge, finer - for flour for cakes, powdered - for coffee.
And further. You may get the impression that you can stand in the middle of a forest, meadow or on the shore of a swamp and start chewing everything. Alas. poisonous plants a lot, so be careful!
Finding food is the original form of travel. Even if the search area is only a couple of blocks of urban or suburban parkland, such an activity can appear as something primitive, something pre-linguistic, which lies in the immemorial times of early mankind.
I first started studying edible plants when I was seven or eight years old. For thirty years of his research, he came to a startling conclusion:
- no matter how harsh the conditions may seem, you can always find something to chew on, what you can get hold of if you know what and where to look.
- searching for wild food can give you the ability to see, feel, hear, and understand terrain details—such as directions and slopes—that you may not have noticed before.
My main criteria for selecting the following wild plants was their availability and growth right in urban and suburban areas. When collecting food, do not forget to correctly identify plants, for which use special guides and reference books, and do not eat more than you need. But basically, if you are not lost, then when looking for wild edible plants, just enjoy the walk.
Plantain is good example how "weeds" can often be full of edible parts that you didn't even know existed.
Growing in the most unsightly areas, such as overgrown lawns, roadsides, and sometimes growing right out of pavement cracks, plantain is easily identified by its recognizable stems.
The outer leaves of psyllium are tough and need to be cooked so that they are not too bitter, while the inner shoots are tender and can be eaten raw.
Perhaps the most readily available of all edible plants, pine and most conifer needles can provide vitamin C that can be chewed or brewed into a tea. Young shoots (usually lighter green) are more tender and less bitter.
Master once told me that if you find yourself in a survival situation and find reeds, you will never go hungry.
It has a few edible parts that I've never tried but heard are delicious - like pollen that can be used as a substitute for flour.
And I tried cattail root, which can be cooked like potatoes. And it's really delicious.
Acorns are edible and highly nutritious, however they need to be pre-treated (leached) before cooking to remove the tannic acid that makes acorns bitter.
For leaching, you need to boil them for 15 minutes, thus softening the shell. After cooling, cut them in half and scoop out the pulp. Collect this pulp in a saucepan, fill with water, salt, and cook again for 10 minutes. Drain the water, and boil again, repeating the process 1-2 times. As a result, you will be left with the sweet pulp of an acorn. Salt to taste.
Sumac is a bushy tree with spirally arranged pinnate leaves.
Remember that there is a poison sumac that is best to stay away from, but it is easy to distinguish by the white fruits instead of the red ones of the common sumac.
We made delicious lemonade from sumac fruits: boil water, add fruits, let it brew and cool, then strain through cheesecloth. Then add sugar and ice.
Juniper is small coniferous trees and shrubs. There are dozens of its species found all over the world in their native habitat, and it is also used as ornamental plant. Juniper needles range from soft to hard and prickly.
Berries when ripe become from green to green-gray in color, eventually ripening to a deep of blue color. Being more of a spice than a real food, juniper berries can be chewed while spitting out the seeds.
Their medicinal properties are still being studied by science as a medicine for the treatment of diabetes.
wild mint
There are dozens of species of the genus Mentha that are found all over the world. The definition of mint is a good introduction to the study of plant structure, since all types of mint have a well-defined square shape stem (as opposed to the usual round) stem.
Take, brew, and get a wonderful fragrant tea.
wild bow
Wild onions are easy to identify by their smell and hollow, rounded stems (similar to regular onions). Look for it in fields and grassy areas.
Hare cabbage is sometimes confused with sorrel. Both plants have three leaves, but the leaves of rabbit cabbage are heart-shaped, not rounded. Bunny cabbage leaves are edible, have a pleasant tart taste, and are rich in vitamin C. Eat in moderation.
Dandelions can be found everywhere. can be used for cooking. Added directly to salads.
Ivan Chai is beautiful purple flower on a high stalk, whose seed pods are palatable, especially young ones that have not yet opened (located at the top of the flower pictured here) and have a delicate honey aroma. The young shoots are also edible.
I found fennel or wild dill everywhere I went. Take a pinch of the sprouts and smell it, if it instantly smells like licorice, it's fennel. The shoots can be chewed raw and the seeds can be harvested and used as a spice.
Clover also grows almost everywhere. All parts of the plant - flowers, stems, seeds and leaves - are edible. As is the case with most green plants, young shoots are the most tender and palatable.
