While out on this now fabled winter chanterelle hike, I also did a forage for fresh cleavers (Galium sp., also known as beadstraw), They are in the coffee family and noni family. A great ally, very nutritious, medicinal (helps clean the lymph system for starters), cucumber like flavor. Grows in shade or sun as a weed.
These are extraordinarily common wild and deliciously edible plants that grow here in the winter and spring. They are cool season greens that are great for the garden, too! (That is, if you're not already overrun with them. If this is your problem I suggest juicing). Green smoothie, anyone?
Out in the field, FeralKevin quickly goes over a very important plant to know: poison hemlock. It's a wild plant that is deadly poisonous and has edible lookalikes. I insist that beginners and even experts avoid even the lookalikes, as none of them, besides fennel and yampah, are worth any potential risk (in my opinion). After all, we're talking about something that could kill you!
FeralKevin visits the plant of many names. Physalis peruviana: golden berry, Incan Berry (from David Wolfe), poha (from Hawaii), ground cherry, and often here sold as Cape gooseberry.
What do I call it? Well, I like to call it Physalis peruviana.
FeralKevin revisits his balcony and provides updates on Prunus laurocerasus (Cherry Laurel), Chia (Salvia hispanica), and Goldenberry (Physalis peruviana, ground cherry, cape gooseberry, poha, or as David Wolfe says -- Incan berry).
FeralKevin cooks up a gourmet, slow food, and wild foraged edible. Others call it a weed. It's the wild artichoke,-- a giant, super tenacious plant that grows in the most marginal areas around here. Delicious!
http://www.feralk evin.com
FeralKevin makes creme of nettle soup with the fresh tops from his urban balcony garden.
It's pretty much "edible apartment balcony: local food and urban permaculture" PART 2, for real.
The delicious and loved and hated fruit that seems to have no good common name people can agree upon. But they make your mouth turn inside out, some say, by their astringency. This year, I was blessed with much fruit. music by Quiet Lightning
The delicious and loved and hated fruit that seems to have no good common name people can agree upon. But they make your mouth turn inside out, some say, by their astringency. This year, I was blessed with much fruit. music by Quiet Lightning
FeralKevin revisits his enthusiasm for Campanula and also discusses his Camassia and Shiso, although this time in his feral garden, not on his balcony. A "guild" is a permaculture term that in this case describes plants growing in a mutally benefical manner -- in a way that mimics an ecological system.
