I read that new hosta shoots are often eaten in Japan. I’m planning to try it come spring! My husband hates hostas, they’re so common here. Maybe he’ll be glad to find a second use for them!
2 Likes
I did some research, and it is true the red beans are poisonous raw or undercooked. Wow.
2 Likes
That advice above, of always passing your beans through the pressure cooker, is gold. They are always lighter on your system. Of course you should also always soak them, discarding the water.
1 Like
There are actually 5 different species in the common bean group with one of the species having seriously high levels of poisonous lectins. Red Kidney is in that group. This story is complicated because the 5 species can be crossed, but there are incompatibility problems that affect fertility. As an example, you could cross Kentucky Wonder X Red Kidney, but if you did, there would be problems getting the resulting plant to produce much in the way of viable seed. These barriers are not as hard to overcome as for example a cross between the common bean and the tepary bean which requires embryo rescue.
1 Like
Elephant ear ornamentals are eaten in other places so much they are considered the 14th most popular vegetable in the world Cool Colocasias - Elephant Ears for the Garden | Article by Plant Delights Nursery
There are also 110 edible bamboo plants https://www.guaduabamboo.com/types/edible-bamboo-species but like poke greens make sure you cook bamboo! With bamboo you need to make sure it’s the right type to eat! I would love to have a cold hardy edible bamboo someday.
Purslan is good as a salad with feta and tomatoes also. It has a pleasant tart flavor.
Edit: pickles are also made with the stems.
I see them growing in a number of the community gardens here, including where I have a plot. The gardener next to me is from Bangladesh and has a nice big crop going. It actually seems to do a lot better in this hot humid area than a lot of the things I’m growing. I should probably give them a try.
I’ve also been enjoying the greens from my sweet potatoes, usually sauteed in olive oil with some garlic, and I’ve been trying to find out if I can eat the flowers as well. I know they don’t usually flower, but mine is flowering heavily this year with all the rain we’ve had. I posted in the questions thread, but didn’t get a definitive answer so I haven’t given them a try yet. They would be very pretty in a salad.
2 Likes
But because it is all 18 carbon, the Omega 3 content does not matter much. The body uses mostly Omega 3 with 20 and 22 carbon atoms, and the human body is much less efficient at elongating said chains than, say, a chicken body. that is what millions of years eating mammoth and bison does to your system, you lose that ability because there is plenty in your diet and you want to save energy. Chickens evolved eating insects, which do not elongate, so they had to keep those enzymes.
So the best purslane, fat wise, is the one eaten by chicken, and then you eat the chicken (or the egg). It is still my favorite wild vegetable, good for your gut and full of other nutrients.
5 Likes
Interesting.
is purslane a warm weather weed? never seen it up here.
Also called Portulaca. Some folks plant it for the flowers. Most don’t understand just how badly it seeds/spreads.
yes, it needs thoroughly warm soil. It is available in August and later in Michigan.
1 Like
That’s for sure. My garden area is mostly wood chips so weeds are not a big problem except for the purslane. It is very drought resistant so if I pull some out and drop it on the ground it usually just reroots if there is some rain.
1 Like
They are fibrous, but free, organic (in my yard), and able to diversify the gut microbiome.
JohN S
PDX OR
1 Like
I like purslane too. Crunchy and just a bit tangy. Grows in hot dry places like baseball infields. I am tempted to grab some when I’m playing second base.
John S
PDX OR
I’m in Michigan and I get purslane from late June right through fall. I did wipe it out as a weed a number of years back in my yard and had to procure seeds online (a French culinary variety with larger leaves/pads) which seems to have crossed with what nature has reintroduced and it does well.
Its great in salads, almost a cucumber-ish flavor, but with a lemony hint as well.
Scott
2 Likes
When I lived in a semi arid area I grew a lot of purslane as living mulch under corn. When irrigated it grew to 1/2 a foot tall and was so thick no light hit the soil. It made a big difference to yield.
Purslane survives when it is far too dry/hot for grass to survive, so served as free poultry feed over summer.
@glib that is fascinating about the omega 3. I am not convinced that eating mammoths and bison being the reason for us losing that ability though. Humans have eaten insects since the dawn of time and in many countries still do, it is only in western nations that eating insects is not common. Regardless of the reason why we are not good at elongating, it is still fascinating.
i have also noted that purslane can increase yields due to its mulching capability. A friend in sandy soil had two non-irrigated corn plots (he is a vegan), in a dry year only the one “infested” with purslane gave a crop. and all domestic animals love it.
It is true that we have always eaten insects, but if your diet gives you enough of a nutrient, eventually you lose the ability to manufacture it. it is the same with vitamin C. Although we have been eating insects far longer than we have eaten megafauna, insects were never a dominant part of the diet. But homo sapiens was often subsisting entirely on megafauna.
The other thing I did not mention: to elongate, say from 18 to 20 or 22, you need a high concentration of 2 and 4 fat molecules available for the reaction. That is acetic acid and butyric acid. Where do they come from? all from fermentable fiber, fermenting in the gut (for you and me, beans, potatoes, and the like). We have about ten times less by concentration, and therefore a smaller chance of doing the conversion, because we have a smaller gut compared to wild and domestic animals.
1 Like
It doesn’t do well in a forest. It needs cleared land and prefers dry soil. I couldn’t grow it as part of my permaculture food forest, so I put it in the parking strip and it grew.