Can I Eat That Wild Plant?

 

Continuing on our survival theme at co-op, this week we learned about plants that can and can't be eaten. 

 

A few things we learned that are true:

• Plants are a valuable source of food because they are widely available and easily found
• You identify plants using factors such as leaf shape and margin, leaf arrangements, and root structure.
• Stay away from grain heads with ink, purplish, or black spurs.
• You can eat any berries you can positively identify.
• Purple, blue and black berries are 90% eatable.
• The inner bark of a tree (especially cotton wood, birch, aspen, willow and pine) may be eaten raw or cooked.
• Acorns are this country's most important wildlife food - there are 85 different oaks in the USA
• You can eat most parts of burdock, cattails, and dandelions.
• You can make different dyes using onion skins, walnut hulls or pokeberries.
• Plants can be used to help in cases of aches and sprains.
• Knowing poisonous plants is as important as knowing edible plants.

A few things that are false:

 

• You don't need to identify plants in order to use them as food or medicine.
• One rule to follow is to watch the animals and eat what they eat.
• All plants with a red color are poisonous
• Plants generally poison by contact only.
• If you boil the plant in water, it will kill all the poison.
• You should burn a contact poisonous plant once you identify it.
• There are only two poisonous plants known to us that cause skin irritations
• You can eat mushrooms in any survival situation.
• Tasting or swallowing a small amount of a plant is ok even if you don't know what it is.
• You can eat as much of a plant as you want  if you are hungry.
• It is safe to eat any plants that have beans, bulbs or seeds inside the pods.