Let’s Get Back to Healthier Times and Eat a Little Wild

Many of my earliest memories have to do with wild, edible plants. I  spent many happy hours sitting under a huge, old oak tree eating acorns or perched in the branches of a pine tree, digging pine nuts out of pine cones.

In the spring I ate the tiny, red strawberries that grew in the orchards. In late summer I ate the clumps of tiny, blue elder berries that grew on small trees in the nearby hills. In the fall I ate wild blackberries that grew along roads and over the hillsides.

I walked through the olive orchard with my dad, chewing on clover flowers or sucking the sweet nectar out of grasses or honeysuckle blossoms, while he pointed out the difference between the edible mushrooms and the poisonous ones.

As I wandered through the orchard and nearby hills, it seemed there was always something good to put in my mouth. And you know what? I never gained weight. I was always skinny and full of energy.

But that was the good old days before I grew up, got married and moved to town and started buying all my food from the grocery store. All of it refined, precooked and fill of artificial flavors, colors and preservatives. All of it grown with chemical fertilizers and sprayed with chemical pesticides.

I long to get back to those wonderful days but don’t get me wrong. I would hate to have to “live off the land,” gathering all my own food, killing my own meat. UGH!! I’d have to become a vegetarian. But wouldn’t it be nice to know you could survive if you had to?

Wouldn’t it be interesting to eat foods with no chemicals in them or on them? Surely we’d be healthier. Would our bodies be better able to fight off cancer, diabetes and other killer diseases?

Do you know what wild greens to use in salads? What roots to eat? When to harvest them? How to cook them? Can you tell the difference between edible plants and poisonous ones?

Wouldn’t it be nice to know?

Let’s take a look at the wild dandelion. It’s so full of nutrition and medicinal value that Europeans brought it  to the American Colonies to plant in their gardens.  It wasn’t long before it went wild and now it grows everywhere.

The very young, tender leaves are great in salads but when they get older and flowers start to appear, the leaves become very bitter. To eat them, they need to be blanched in boiling water, then rinsed in cool water. They will still be a little bitter but you can use them in soups and stews.

The roots can be cooked like potatoes and used anytime. Nutritionists will probably tell you that you should not peel them because you will peel away most off the nutrition. Be that as it may, I like to peel them because…well…they look…sorta…dirty!

Here are just a few of the health qualities of the lowly dandelion.

• The leaves, roots and flowers have been used as a liver tonic to treat liver diseases, such as hepatitis.
• The root contains insulin and other nutrients to help control blood sugar and stimulate digestion.
• It helps control edema and high blood pressure by draining excess fluid in the ankles and around heart.
• It relieves constipation, eliminates congestion and reduces cholesterol.

A few precautions.

All parts of the dandelion are edible except possibly the stem. The white juice in the stem has been know to make children sick.

Never, never, never stop taking your prescription medicines without talking to you doctor first. Even though herbal remedies may help your blood pressure or cholesterol, it takes time to build up in your body and it may not be enough to do the job.

If you have allergies to certain foods or weeds be very careful and consult with your doctor before eating any food or plant you are not familiar with or have not eaten before.

Here’s a partial list of other wild, edible plants.

Bergamot, chickweed, chicory, cattails, goldenrod, feverfew, huckleberries, mullein, plantain, roses, mushrooms, cacti, wild garlic, yarrow, violets.

So how about it folks? Let’s get a little healthier and eat a little wild. To learn more about eating and using wild herbs, visit our website at www.healthyherbalplants.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

Dina Hunter is the author and owner of www.healthyherbalplants.com She is a firm believer in natural healing with fresh natural foods and herbs.She uses herbs for pain, stress and joint care As a cancer survivor she has done a lot of research on herbs to help recover from the effects of chemotherapy and radiation.

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