I planted sea kale two years ago and it seems to be doing well. I haven’t had any issues with flea-bugs or cabbage moths. Here’s a photo from today:
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Speaking of which:
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It’s nice to see grain amaranth mentioned. It’s one of the ones that was in the process of being domesticated by early Native Americans before they switched over to the already fully-domesticated crops radiating from Mesoamerica. Pretty much everything we associated with Native American agriculture, corn, squash, beans, turkey, were actually domesticated in Mesoamerica first. Native Americans had a bunch of other crops they were growing, but having started later, theirs weren’t as well-domesticated yet, so they quickly abandoned those crops as soon as the stuff from Mesoamerica arrived.
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There are some early agricultural sites near me that were excavated and documented. One in particular Im familiar was a sort of pit house or granary that contained seeds of several species. It was apparently before the introduction of maize, and the most abundant crop found was some type of bedstraw. Presumably it was grown as a grain of sorts
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Would that have happened to be little barley, Hordeum pusillum? I know that’s one of the ones in the Eastern Agriculture Complex that predated the introduction of Mesoamerican crops.
I dont think so. The site in question, Skitchewaug, is just north of me. I think the excavation was mid woodland period or so. I think the eastern agricultural complex was not as established here as it was south of here a bit. Maize did eventually arrive here and was grown by the Abenaki. Its hard to find details on the spot, but Im fairly certain it was a Galium, ie bedstraw. This is describing another site in the Champlain valley:
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Didn’t know you could eat Mulberry leaves. I had one growing out of control and cut it down. Too big for my little land.
To be clear, that doesn’t say they found any evidence of those being grown, just gathered and stored. That being said, that’s step one on the road to domesticated crops.
yeah, I believe thats the case. The dig Im familiar with happened in the 90’s on a floodplain field near the banks of the Connecticut River in Skitchewaug, a long time Indian site in present day Springfield, VT. The meandering of the river’s path through fluvial erosion exposed a pit house that was dated to something like 1000 AD, before the introduction of maize to the region. I don’t believe the role of cultivation vs foraging is very clearly delineated for that time period. If anything, the dig probably added substantially to the relatively small amount of information from which such interpretations might be drawn. I just found it interesting that a Galium appeared to be a staple. The two Im familiar with are Galium mollugo, a forb known for it’s pernicious bully habits in hayfields and pastures and Galium odoratum, a fairly delicate woodland wildflower. Its hard to imagine subsisting on something of the sort. Comparatively, maize is obviously a powerhouse
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of course, the floodplain site would strongly suggest agricultural activities, and presumably the western Abenaki transitioned to growing corn relatively seamlessly following its introduction. Other groups who foraged and hunted more exclusively never managed to adopt maize and other mesoamerica. crops. Given that there is a documented Indian presence in the area going back to circa 11,000 BP, its pretty likely that a lot of those developments happened well before the introduction of maize.
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I’m curious not being experienced in herbs and grasses. But was there a variety of dandelion for better roots? I would like to try Dandelion Coffee.
nope. just plain unsprayed dandelion.
Dandelions are from Europe, the natives didn’t have them
yeah, the name comes from French : dent de lion, ie lion’s tooth. I think it was one of the first wave of post-Columbian invaders. I believe it was broad leaved plantain, another early arriver, that was famously given the appellation “white man’s foot” in the early colonial period.
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You can… With a major caveat that I would be absolutely sure they are safe to eat. As I understand it, M. alba is actually like 7 very close species, and then you have rubra, nigra, and others, and all of them might have different chemicals (good or bad) in the leaves.
"In parts of Asia, mulberry leaves have been used for tea, wine, bean curd, and noodles.
In traditional Chinese medicine, mulberry leaves are used to treat diabetes (“Xiao-ke”) as well as cough, sore throats, fever, and bronchitis.
Preparations from white mulberry leaves are sold as dietary supplements for controlling weight and blood glucose.
While beyond the scope of this fact sheet, preliminary research suggests that morusin, a compound in the bark of white mulberry, may have antioxidant, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, and neuroprotective activity. However, further study is needed to determine its efficacy. "
I would be remiss to not include the darker side of things… https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/26/health/congressman-dies-weightloss/index.html
Based on what I’ve read, it seems like milkweed, mulberry, fig, and others are very much palatable as either a meal or tea if cooked in some way.
The Forest Garden podcast discusses mulberry leaf edibility in a few episodes. I’m still in the research phase for all the seedlings in my yard but may include some in a soup to trial this year.
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Looking into Dandelions I decided to pass. they have some tendencies to badly interact with some medicines I use.
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How about chicory root coffee? It used to be poor-man’s coffee (or kids’ coffee) in Europe and is still very popular.
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I had an Illinois Everbearing Mulberry. Very vigorous grower. Sounds like White Mulberry is used as an herb. I was thinking you could cook the leaves as greens from your original post.
Yes! That is my understanding as well; Blanching them may remove whatever laxative effect the senators wife apparently succumbed to, similarly to eating milkweed. The folks on that podcast I mentioned said one tree they sampled had leaves better tasting than most traditional greens. There are some mulberries specifically marketed for edible leaves.
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Not in the US, that’s for sure.
The vast majority of dandelions in the US are genetic clones of each other. Common dandelion is triploid and by and large only reproduces via apomixis. If you’ve ever had a dandelion flower bud in water long enough, so long as it’s got a decent amount of stalk attached, it’ll actually bloom and then set seed just sitting there on the table or whatever. It won’t have enough energy to make the full fluffy seed head, but it does try, regardless of never being pollinated.
That being said, the dandelion brought to the US was already the one grown for food iirc. So to the extent that the variety was already improved, that’s what we got. But since then, yeah there hasn’t been much any genetically new dandelion in the US to select from.