Wild Plants to Eat
There are many wild plants that are edible and good for survival food. However, there are enough toxic and otherwise harmful plants to make this a guessing game unless you learn the differences.
This section is not a comprehensive list of all edible wild plants, but rather, it will give me a place to show some different plants as time goes on. The plants will change from time to time so you can come back to visit and get new information.
It seems appropriate to start with the common Cattail, Typha latifolia. The roots can be mashed in water to extract the starch and made into a type of flour when settled and dried. The new sprouts can be eaten raw or added to a salad. The white heart core can be eaten as celery. And, pollen can be collected and used in stews to add protein to the diet.
Next we will look at another common "weed" found along the roadside all over our land. Chicory, Cichorium intybus, is mistaken for the common dandelion in the early spring. However, you can eat the fresh leaves the same as dandelion so this should not matter. After it develops the well known blue blossoms it becomes very bitter and is then best used as a beverage. Clean the large tap root, dry it, grind it, and use it as a coffee substitute.
Queen Anne's Lace, Daucus carota, is also know as wild carrot and for a good reason. The long white taproot smells like and tastes like a garden carrot. Only, it is white in color an very fibrous. Use it the same as you would a carrot but slice it very thin in cross section so you handle the fiber. The wild carrot blossom is a common "weed" shown here as the white umbels among the beautiful Purple Loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria.
Sweet Fern, Comptonia peregrina, can be found in many mountainous areas and is great as a beverage. It is not actually a fern but it gets its name because the leaves look like fern. Make a tea out of the leaves even if they are dried on the stems during the winter months. Don't expect any color but this beverage is very aromatic.
