Happy 2014, y’all!

It’s a new year, why not embark on new culinary adventures: WILD EDIBLES! Ever heard of burdock, purslane, morel, wood sorrel, and borage? If not, check out the following links at the end of this blog and/or do your own research. You get brownie points if you can guess the wild edibles embedded in my graphic above!

You will be astonished at the availability of food for us foraging vegetarians and veggie-lovers! In fact, when I visited a Farmer’s Market in Portland, OR, I saw chickweed and henbit — “backyard weeds” that I’d uprooted from my own garden countless times before! At a vegan, raw food restaurant in Austin, TX, I noticed there were Lamb’s Quarters (no, it’s not what you think) mixed into my salad! On a hike in the Ozark Mountains region of NW Arkansas, I crossed a flowing stream with clusters of watercress, beckoning my name. In college, a friend and I used to go hunting for wild morel mushrooms early in the morning, after a thunderstorm from the night before. All along the roadsides of a quaint Peloponnesian town in Greece, I found plenty of chamomile soaking up the Mediterannean sun! And you cannot imagine my delightful surprise when I discovered that the Jamaican street fare, callaloo pies, were actually made with amaranth! When I was a child, we used to go foraging for wild amaranth so that my sweet Mama could make soup for dinner. It truly is simply amazing how much wild, edible food is just right beneath your feet, or within reach right in your own backyard! You just have to look! 🙂

CAUTION: Do NOT CONSUME anything you are not 150% CERTAIN is a wild edible. I and the authors and photographers of these websites are not accountable. If you are interested in becoming a forager, do LOTS of research, or consult an expert.

WEBSITES:
Here are some very informative websites for starters. Thank-you to these wonderful bloggers/contributors!

• Discovery.com: Guide to Common Edible Wild Plants
• Eat the Weeds
• Edible Wild Foods
• Foraging Texas
• Pinterest: Edible Flowers and Wild Plants
• Surviving in the Wild: 19 Common Edible Plants
• Wild Edible
• Wilderness Survival

If you know of any cool sites/books with quality photographs and/or illustrations, please share that intel with me and readers of this blog!