What's for Dinner?
An Introductory Guide
to Edible Plants
in an Oak-Hickory Forest
By S J Freeman
Copyright © 2008 by S J Freeman, All Rights Reserved
What if your characters
choose to or are forced to "live off the land" in an oak-hickory
forest? What are these characters going to eat? Since spring is in the
air, we'll start the march through the seasons there.
I'll begin with one of my
favorites, poke salet. Salet is an Old English word meaning "cooked
greens," which refers to the fact that this plant should never be eaten
raw. All parts of this plant are toxic when raw. As few as 10 of the
ripe berries can cause death. Improperly prepared leaves and stalks can
cause severe vomiting and diarrhea, and nonfatal doses of the root and
berries can cause the same. The toxins become more concentrated as the
plants get older. The primary toxin in poke salet is a lectin, the same
type as the world's most toxic seeds, the castor bean and the prayer
bead. Why would people eat poke salet if it has such potential to be
harmful? It's one of the first green things that can be eaten in
spring. Before the age of supermarkets, these extremely tasty early
greens provided a source of vitamins A and C to people who had had very
few vegetables and fruits during the winter.
Poke salet grows along the
edges of clearings, in fencerows, under power lines, in any place that
has sunlight and a perch for birds. It has large dark green leaves,
which are broken off the stems when the plant is no more than 18 inches
high. Usually the stalk is then snapped off at ground level, forcing
the plant to start again. This allows the same plants to be harvested
for several weeks. However, the stalk will eventually begin to come
back with a reddish tinge that indicates that it is maturing. This is
the end of the poke salet season. When mature, plants reach a height of
9-10 feet and have long, loose clusters of red to deep purple berries.
The berries can be used as dye.
Proper cooking involves
boiling the leaves, then pouring off the water, rinsing, adding new
water, and boiling again. After this, the greens are safe and can be
cooked any way that spinach is cooked. Some popular methods involve
draining the greens and then frying them, either in bacon grease or with
scrambled eggs. The taste is unique and strong, though not as strong as
spinach.
Dandelion leaves, in very
early spring, are tasty, though bitter. Do not eat the root. It is
extremely toxic. The greens of violets can be eaten in salads, though
care should be taken to be sure that the greens come from violets and
not poisonous weeds with similar flowers. The flowers of the violet can
be candied or boiled to make jelly. The jelly comes out the same color
as the flowers, though it has very little natural flavor, and needs some
colorless flavoring mixed with it. Don't worry about hurting the
plant's reproduction -- the violet flowers are fakes; the real fruiting
flowers of this plant are green and don't appear until fall. Wild
mustard, wild lettuce, wild onions, sour dock, crow's foot, and many
other types of greens are edible. Most can be eaten raw, but they are
not necessarily easily identifiable.
As the seasons march on, the
greens will become bitter or even toxic. What can your characters find
to eat in the late spring and summer months? The answer is a wide
variety of berries: blackberries, wild raspberries, dewberries,
boysenberries, elderberries, wild strawberries, hackberries, mulberries,
and huckleberries. Blackberries, wild raspberries, dewberries, and
boysenberries all are very similar plants. All are thorny brambles or
bushes, and even the leaves are covered with hairs that irritate the
skin. The wild varieties taste very similar to the tame varieties, but
the berries are smaller with larger seeds. Huckleberries are bushes
with small berries that are similar in appearance and taste to
blueberries. Hackberries and mulberries both grow on large trees. The
fruits often do not survive the birds and insects long enough to fall to
the ground, and can be very difficult to collect from the treetops.
Walking under a mulberry tree in late spring is a good way to begin
turning purple. The berries stain everything they touch. Elderberries
grow on large, tall bushes. They are purplish-black berries that grow
in loose clusters. Be careful with elderberries as the stems, roots,
and leaves are poisonous, and there are some varieties that have
poisonous berries as well.
Summer grapes, also known as
possum grapes, are a fall delicacy. These have the potential to be
involved in a humorous scene, if an unsuspecting character can be duped
into eating one raw. They resemble small darkly colored blueberries,
but they are sour enough to make it feel like your mouth has turned
inside out. They are highly desired for making jelly. Muscadines are
also a popular late berry. Muscadines come in several colors from
bronze to green to purple. They have very thick skin and up to 5 seeds
per fruit. The fruits grow in loose clusters that don't always ripen at
the same time. Their texture is similar to European grapes, but they
have a unique flavor. Muscadines have been bred for cultivation and
domesticated varieties can be trellised.
Both wild muscadines and
possum grapes grow as woody, supple, climbing vines up to 100 feet
tall. They can smother their host tree to death, but do create a
habitat and food for wildlife. If they are cut off at the base, they
can be used as a rope swing -- for a time. When my mother was a child,
she and her siblings cut off a grape vine and used it to swing out over
a rocky branch (small seasonal stream) all fall. When they went back in
the spring, my mother swung out and the now-brittle vine broke, dropping
her 15 feet into a pile of rocks. She broke her leg very badly, and
when they got to the hospital the doctor, a recent immigrant from India
who had only seen vineyard grape vines, almost called the police on them
for child abuse. His nurse did finally manage to convince him that they
were talking about a rope swing.
Persimmons are another fall
fruit, though they are sour or bitter until the first frost. After the
first hard frost they are juicy, sweet, and mellow. The small scrubby
trees grow along fencerows and spread heartily. Trees can be much
larger if cultivated or in very rich soil. The fruits are orange when
ripe. Pawpaws are the largest fruit native to North America. They are
usually found in moist areas, and the trees seldom get above 20 feet
tall. They have long, lobe-shaped leaves, which in some varieties are
evergreen. They grow in large clusters and spread through the root
system. The large, heavy berries ripen from a bright green to a yellow
or brown in September or October. They have a texture that can be
described as custard-like and a very sweet flavor, reminiscent of
bananas. They do not store well, so are primarily for immediate eating.
Nuts begin to be a factor at
this time of year. One native nut that is rare in modern times is the
American chestnut, the chinkapin. These trees were common until the mid
1940s, when Asian chestnuts spread a deadly blight, which they have been
bred to resist. Chinkapins produce nuts in spine covered hulls that
often have 2-3 lobes, each containing a nut. The inside of the shell is
covered with a soft downy fur that feels like velvet. The nut tastes
similar to other chestnuts.
If your characters are
lucky, they might come across a black walnut tree. These trees grow
very tall -- up to 150 feet. They have dark brown, almost black, rough
bark. The leaves are composites of small, pointed ovals evenly spaced
along each twig. The space under this tree will be clear, because black
walnuts emit a chemical that is toxic to almost all other plants -- even
most grasses. The nuts begin encased in green fruits about the size of
a tennis ball. These fall to the ground with some force, and create
loud crashing sounds. The skin of the fruit is tough and leathery and
bright green. Some sources say to pick the nuts up at this stage and
hull them. This seems a messy waste of time to me. Once on the ground,
the fruit immediately begins to rot. In just a few weeks, the skin will
begin to crack and shrivel, revealing a slimy black goo covering the
nut. These hulls were once considered an excellent source of permanent
dark brown dye.
Nuts can be gathered at this
stage, or in a few more weeks when most of the gunk will have largely
dried up. Even then it is best to wear old clothing and gloves, and to
expect stains to your skin through them. The nuts are roughly heart
shaped and the point can be sharp. They are black in color and deeply
grooved. It would not be hard to fill a 50 gallon barrel from under a
single mature tree (though moving it after it was full would be an
adventure!). These nuts are very hard to crack. One method for
cracking them en masse for storage is to spread them in the driveway and
allow them to dry in the sun for a few days to get rid of the last of
the goo. Then run over them with a large vehicle. Hitting them with a
hammer or rock on a hard surface is possible, though they are roundish
and hard, and will skitter away without a direct hit. Any method
requires care, because of the potential for flying debris. The nut wall
is very thick. The meat of the nuts is generally smaller than English
walnuts and is absolutely not similar in taste or appearance. The black
walnuts have a unique strong flavor and aftertaste, and a more chewy
texture.
I have purposefully left
mushrooms out of this article, though I have provided a link to a
detailed paper. The best advice relative to mushrooms is avoid them at
all costs, unless you are with an experienced mushroom hunter. I also
have not talked about plants that are primarily used to make tea or for
medicinal purposes. These are too numerous to begin counting, though I
will mention two of the most popular -- American ginseng and sassafras.
I've already mentioned
several plants or plant parts to avoid, but one that might be useful to
know about is the Jack in the Pulpit. This plant grows on a short stalk
with one large leaf opening at the top of the stem. This leaf curls
over forward, forming a little stage for the upright "jack." It is
quite pretty, and distinctive. Pulling it up by the root reveals a
small turnip shape. Do not attempt to eat it. I don't know what it
would do if it were actually swallowed, because no one in my knowledge
has ever accomplished that monumental task. Just touching the tip of
your tongue to this root will instantly cause the sensation that
thousands of needles are puncturing your entire tongue. This extremely
painful reaction will last for over an hour. I have found some sources
that label this plant as potentially edible if the root is dried, but
that seems to be advice to take at your own risk.
It should be clear by now
that it isn't easy to find a free lunch in a wild forest environment.
The edible plants either require a lot of processing, or are hard to get
to. If you really want your characters to live off the land, a lot of
research would be required to prevent their death, either by poisoning
or starvation. A good place to begin would be finding a trail guide to
edible plants, though care must be taken to be sure that the plants
described actually grow in the specific environment you are writing
about. Most field guides describe plants from a broad region,
frequently including plants that won't be found within 100 miles of each
other, and on foot that is a huge distance. Also, remember that while
field guides might include common names for plants, local names for
plants can be quite colorful. My grandparents have mentioned eating a
plant they called deer's tongue. My sister has a Master's degree in
forest ecology, with a bachelor's in wildlife biology. She has years of
experience in oak-hickory forest plants, including common names, and she
still hasn't been able to figure out what plant they are talking about.
Also, calling a plant by its proper name or one not used locally will
quickly label your character as an outsider, even if they have managed
to blend to that point.
http://www.wildpantry.com/wildgreens.htm (poke salet)
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph24.htm (poke salet)
http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/mushrooms/mushroom/edible.htm
http://www.treetrail.net/diospyros.html (persimmons)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawpaw (pawpaws)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitis_aestivalis (possum grapes)
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/vine/vitaes/all.html
(possum grapes)
http://ostermiller.org/tree/blackwalnut.html (black
walnut)
http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/doc/pg_capu9.doc (chinkapin)
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/clay79.html (acorns)
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/muscadinegrape.html (muscadines)
http://wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Violets.html (violets)
http://wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Plants.html
(This is an index to a variety of wild edibles, though not all are
specific to the discussed environment. All pages have great
pictures)
http://www.nps.gov/archive/hocu/html/plants.html (This is
another index of edibles. The pictures are line drawings)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arisaema_triphyllum (jack in
the pulpit)
http://home.okstate.edu/tools/webtools.nsf/Images/hortext/$FILE/poisonousplants.pdf
(An index of poisonous plants-many of which you probably never
suspected!)
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