Wild broccoli does not exist.

[Deleted]

Did you know that?

[frenchmystiquetour]

But wild asparagus does exist and is delicious according to Mrs. Mystique.

[hwinpp]

A bit disingenuous, Jack.

Broccoli is actually kale, and kale is available in the wild.

Same with cows (according to the reasoning of the author of that piece), they've been bred for 10000 years and you can't find them in the wild...

[Deleted]

However, this does make me wonder how much food we could find if our only option was to find it wild. With rural family members, I have collected mushrooms, nuts and berries and have dug up dandelion plants for salads, but that's about it.

I wonder where one finds wild carrots, beans and cabbages, etc. I suppose the only wild potatoes (except for abandoned agricultural fields) would be in Peru.

[bixaorellana]

I've collected and eaten Indian potatoes in the wilds of Mississippi, along with wild onions and crawfish.

Abandoned cultivated crops must eventually revert to a wild parent form, although they wouldn't be truly wild plants in the sense of occurring naturally.

I assumed Kerouac was right about wild potatoes, but look at this:
Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, and Mexico are where 90% of the wild potatoes are foundThere are about 199 species of wild potato. source

No corn on the cob here:

In 1977, Rafael Guzman, a
Mexican biologist, discovered
a previously unknown teosinte
species, Zea diploperennis (shown),
in South-central Mexico. This species
happens to carry particularly useful
genes—including genes for resistance
to seven viral diseases that affect
domestic corn.

[hwinpp]

I'd probably starve in the wild, unless I was allowed to steal chickens from farmers.

[tod2]

Wild spinach aka weeds is eaten everyday in Africa. I am not familiar with most weeds that can be cooked except one.
We call them 'black-jacks' because the seed is a long needle-thin black hard shell with a barb at the end. This seed clings veraciously to socks, garments and animal fur so it is easily spread.
The young leaves near the top can be picked and boiled - the water becomes a brown colour and should be poured away.
The leaves have a bitter taste but I guess if you are really hungry that would be a minor detail.

The African name is 'Marrogo' - pronounced Ma - raw - gor (the last 'gor' must sound like you are clearing your throat.

[bixaorellana]

Hee-hee, HW ~~ I'm picturing you in the farm yard, running away from the farmer's buckshot.

Interesting stuff, Tod2. Maybe the bitterness is an acquired taste?

Here's my latest foray into foraged food. Actually, I didn't forage this stuff. I merely handed over 10 pesos for a bag of these beauties that weighed over a kilo.

These are quiotes ~~ the small buds of some kind of agave flower. After discussing them with the vendor, being given a taste, plus recipes, I felt compelled to buy them, even though the taste was pretty awful -- quite bitter.

Anyway I brought them home and washed them, sampling a couple of raw ones (still bitter).


While I was boiling the salted water for pre-cooking the quiotes, I noticed that my throat was sort of dry/scratchy/numb. Checking on the internet, I found that quiotes gave some people a rash. I made sure the door was open so the dog could get out if I keeled over.

What was really neat was that as soon as the tightly closed little buds hit the boiling water, they bloomed:

The smell from the steam was great -- sort of reminded me of asparagus.
The taste was good too, except bitter, really bitter.
I carried on as directed, sauteeing them with onion, garlic, chile, & herbs, them scrambling eggs into them, along with a little cheese. I ate a decent-sized serving, which was good, except ..... bitter.


I described all of this over the phone to a Mexican friend of mine, who said they should be good. I told her I'd bring her some the next day, and maybe she could tell me what I did wrong. I brought her both the plain cooked ones and the ones with egg. She tasted them and pronounced them delicious, saying I'd cooked them to perfection and that's how they were supposed to taste. Apparently the rest of her family got to enjoy them later.

[Deleted]

Nettles are supposed to be delicious cooked, and there is certainly no lack of them in France. However, I have never eaten any (yet) and I don't want to harvest them myself. I'm hoping that somebody will serve some to me some day.

[Deleted]

I guess those quiotes are an acquired taste, bixaorellana.

[tod2]

I guess the only way to pick nettles is with surgical gloves and shirt sleeves pulled right over the wrists - I think once they hit hot water all danger passes
I have unfortunately brushed up against them in England only because I didn't know what they were - I was trying to get to the wild garlic on the side of the road!
Picture a cat jumping back into the air with fright....that was me.

[hwinpp]

I've had nettles, we used to collect them en famille. We'd also collect water cress, daisy leaves, and other stuff.

Also mushrooms.

This was when my father was in his 'back to nature' stage,...

[happytraveller]

There is a lot of food growing in the wild. But unfortunately we have forgotten what is edible that grows in the wild.

[Deleted]

It might be just as well. People already fight over mushroom and berry spots and things like that.

[happytraveller]

True !

[Deleted]

Oh, I used to absolutely love to go hunting for blackberries when was little. Thank god they were so plentiful since so many of them were eaten immediately. My mother would make blackberry cobbler (one of her totally American items -- I have no idea if somebody taught her how to do it or if she found out in a magazine or cookbook).

It is one of those memories from my childhood that I have never tasted again.

[Kimby]

My grandpa used to take me hunting for wild asparagus along fence-rows when I was little. Since the roadside grass grows so tall, you almost never find the tender young shoots unless you have staked out the location the season before, when the plants that weren't picked shot up and went to seed (berry). By noting where these gone-to-seed asparagus plants were in the fall, you could go back to those spots in the spring and cut the tender young shoots. I suspect that birds ate the berries and perched on the fences, pooping out the seeds and planting another crop of asparagus. Or maybe asparagus grows along fence-rows because the mowers and plows don't go there.

I also am fond of berry-picking, having 1/4 Swedish blood. "A good Swede never passes up an opportunity to pick berries."