My grandma used to tell me about eating mustard greens, cress, and dandelions while she was growing up. It went in one ear, out the other. Now, I thank her for sharing her knowledge- she's 93 and doing well:) looks fantastic! Now that I'm in the countryside, I'll have to try this.
He calls this foraging and killing invasive plants.. but he purposely grows the invasive plants and his videos encourage others to do so as well. Epic fail.
@@jonslg240 You can literally see that he foraged the garlic mustard from a forest. The daylilies I couldn't tell, maybe he grew those, or maybe they made their way into his garden like dandelions and other weeds do (many weeds are edible)
I've always been very intrigued by foraging since I live in a desert and we don't really have anything to do this with. Deer do live here though and it is super good. Nice job y'all.
@@ordelian7795 well, you'll know what he means if you watch his stuff. But it's mostly a reference to his background, his ethics, and his relationship with the United States government.
@@ordelian7795 eh? Don't know if he ever did hard time. He's from Boston. He's got ink. He's got the accent. In his own words he's a "working class mook". His given name's Joey Santore
As a Native american, I grew up on the reservation and we ate from the wild all the time. Every thing from root, grass seed, juniper sap, huckleberries, trout, eel, deer, hawk, dandelions and glacier water.
My only problem with foraging in public areas is that you don’t know how the ground has been treated, ie chemicals or not. Is this important to you and if so how do you overcome it?
When you're foraging you take into consideration where you are foraging.... usually a state park or wooded area is not being sprayed for weed control. You also want to consider what is around and the water source...for example you don't want to collect weeds around a sewer pipe or runoff waste water, and you wouldn't want to pick in area with cars like right off the side of the road with the air pollutants coming from the exhaust and oils and stuff running off after the rain. You don't want to collect in a busy park where people take their dogs to pee around on everything.... yes there are plentiful weeds and foods to forage but you do have to be smart about the location....you don't want to pick from a maintained area that you just happen to see a few weeds in...that's likely sprayed for weed control... etc
@@bumbygrl adding to that, there are a few weeds that are very likely to get sprayed with herbicides even in natural areas because that's literally the only way to prevent it from taking over (e.g. Japanese knotweed) For these, don't forage unless you know they are ok to eat
For the most part, weeds that have been sprayed or treated won't be healthy looking. I'd exercise some common sense and stay away from highly manicured areas like golf courses or school campuses... Other than that, if it's healthy then you're probably okay. Poisons work. If the pants have absorbed them, they won't be healthy and will be noticeably weak.
@@bumbygrl good point! But with state parks, make sure you check state rules to see if its ok to pick greens in the first place! Iirc, different states have different policies.
I love fighting back garlic mustard, the salad test better knowing you're helping protect important habitat space. But I had no idea you could use the root like that. I'll have to try this once the snow melts
I love the people who are all like “foraging shows you are trying to be cheap” or “you don’t know what’s been on it! What if an animal has peed on it?!” Or better yet, “I get mine from the store cause I wanna KNOW where mine comes from.” And all the other crap 😂 how do you think stores carry those veggies? We foraged similar vegetables millennia ago, and have just evolved from there for higher demand! I love this and think it’s awesome 🎉
“You’ve probably heard other foragers”, no, can’t say that I have. You are the first I’ve seen on RU-vid, and im feeling pretty lucky ATM. This one video was incredibly informative, easy subscribe
Speaking of restaurants.. y’all should open up a foraging foods one. Or do in home lessons for people. The possibilities are endless! I am disabled so I cannot do much gardening on my own but sure do miss the “old days” when my grandparents farmed and grew and preserved their own food. Love the videos and interesting facts. 💜
I love garlic mustard and harvest as much of it as I can find! I usually leave a little patch in the backyard and try to make sure I get all the spreading plants every year. It's tasty and nutritious! Same with day lilies and I've heard that drying and powdering the tubers makes a great thickener!
So neat! I have never tried garlic mustard root before. I've tried making pesto from the greens, but I'm not terribly fond of it. Good to know the roots taste differently!
Whaaaaat! I did not know that about day lily tubers! So thankful to have found your channel … I’m heading out to my gardens as soon as the rain lets us! 🥳🥳☀️
One of the best foraging channels I've watched. I live in the bay area now but moved from Pittsburgh- it was crazy to hear you guys are from there! Now I want to go back 😂
What part of the US are you in? I’ve never heard of the garlic mustard one but I do have daylillies in my garden. Lol. (I’m in north Louisiana, daylillies, iris, daffodils, and spider lilies are old home site staples here)
Slow-cooked mustard leaves are real good. My AG teacher, after we harvested them, slow-cooked them and let us try them. Delicious! Wish I asked for her recipe
I’m torn on this. On the one hand, phenomenal message and I totally agree with the environmental impacts and living off the land mentality. On the other hand, it makes my heart cry with grief to see the land and traditional ways taken from so many different Peoples on Turtle Island through settler colonialism. And while these Peoples are still being systemically oppressed and have to work extra hard to get back to the place of relation with the land. So to see this vibe become trendy… to me it’s integral to decolonize our minds before reconnecting with the land.
A note on daylily tubers: Pick only light colored ones: dark colored ones have an off taste. Blanch them and slip the skins off, unless you have a particular need for additional fiber in your diet. You may find that you prefer to keep the plant around for its edible flowers in particular, however: They taste better than the best lettuce you have ever had, and the unopened flowers can be cooked and eaten like green beans.
I used to go in the garden as a little kid and dig up day lillies and eat them one by one all the time! (I always picked them out of the back garden so mom wouldnt yell at me lol) Uncooked they taste like sugar snap pea shells. I miss them.
I started looking up foraging recipes after my DnD Group's DM said that Medieval Food was tasteless and a Chef themed Adventurer wouldn't make any sense. This'll be an interesting meal to prepare for them next time I see them.
Make sure you are 100% certain that’s what it is before you eat any of it. And then, if it truly is an edible invasive plant, enjoy it with no fear of over-harvesting.
Are daylily greens safe to eat as well? I ask because I'm fostering 9 puppies and just discovered they have devoured an entire patch of them in my backyard.
I love mustard garlic. I make tempura with the leaves and flowers, also dry them out n make a condement powder for adding to things like salt for meats n veg. Brilliant short
love the mentality of eating weeds and pests whenever possible and as you know a lot of them grow in terrible soil no worries so more accessible than a lot of other foraging I feel, great mindset to be sharing and another thing you can do is catch carp and use them for great fertiliser, can be made to a liquid fertiliser easily too that smells less than a lot of brought ones, if you're lazy like me in sure there is an american "Charlie carp". That's a fertiliser made from carp caught from our only great river(one of the world's biggest) by a good Aussie company a few hours up the road, surely there's heaps of the similar thing in america with the amount of freshwater lakes and big rivers you guys have. As always love your work and big love from down under, I'm up at 4.30 in the morning about to get the days gardening started, wish me luck!
Heck yeah! I've been eating the local mustard greens for years (in NM) but they don't have much of a root system. Right now is the season to harvest the Mexican poppies around here and before you know it I'll be drowning in mulberry.
Highly invasive plant as well, one of the few kinds of plants i recommend to not hold back on "overharvesting" here in the states. A perfect way of obtaining some sweetness before the winter comes, also have some promising heath benefits backed by science
@@themushroominside6540 oh yeah for sure. If I find one that’s loaded down with berries I’m not gentle about getting the ones that are higher up. Another thing from the autumn olive is the flowers. The flowers are so sweet and would probably make a lovely tea. Though I feel more reluctant to take the flowers because I don’t want to take flowers bees like🙂
@@CassandraHouse Since Autumn olives outcompete native species of plants (many of which have very specific mutualistic relationship native pollinators), they tend to benefit only one kind of bee species which is the common European honey bee. Its better to remove any possibility for the invasive plant to reproduce than to remove one potential food resource for a non native bee. Birds do love the fruits of Autumn Olives but they are better off eatting and spreading the seeds of native species since Autumn olives are so prolific.
@@readyfuels17 We're actually planning to do exactly that for next year as a matter of fact! Depending on how quickly the foraging course comes together maybe we can release it this Fall as well
By “daylilies“ do you mean the orange flowers that grow in the side of the road? Or the flowers that multiply every year and take over in area? They have that orange flowers with black specs on them? Are you talking about the cultivated daylilies that are yellow flowers? I would absolutely love to try this because our “tiger lilies“ (that’s what I’ve always called them with the orange flowers) have overtaken our side yard and I love to find new greens to forage for! We have the greens you’re referring to, I believe, as well. They have a little tiny purple flowers on them… Correct? I would love to prepare this for my husband without telling him what it is and then when he raves about it, fill him in on my secret. Look forward to your reply.
I would look up pictures just to be sure, but what you described definitely sounds like Orange Day lilly to me. True Lilies have bulbs, and Day Lillies have tubers, so you might just try digging one up to see :P
Who says wild food is flavorless?? It's often more flavorful than the stuff you can buy at the store... Unless that stuff is pumped full of msg or other "flavor enhancers"
In Indiana, I harvested garlic mustard and nettles from the local State Park, and sulphur shelf and morels because they're easy to identify! I also fished the Lakes, and harvested feral apples if I could find them, from orchards planted during prohibition to make hard cider since booze was illegal. I've also harvested wild mustard leaves, and the seeds, which I dried and ground to make homemade mustard which was some of the hottest stuff I've ever put on a hot dog!
We’re working on one, but we also just launched a foraging course and each of the wild food sections includes at least one recipe featuring that plant, fruit or mushroom 🙂
Sadly the invasive plants in my area were mostly picked for lawn decoration. They just produced way too many seeds. I could try to see if some of them are edible but I'm pretty sure most of them aren't. And a lot of them are trees. And is there any books to help me identify plants that are really good?
I like your guys channel but far away from being close to a community garden or even thinking of having such backyard land. One day (Inshallah) Godwillingly. I have bookmarked your course page. So def in the future when I can dedicate more time to this
Me i wish you guys was my neighbors.. i would totally just let you guys use my land to grown all yall foods .. i be just happy with seen all the beautiful grows ❤
Wow man ..... amazing....that looks like restaurant gourmet.....on the money but you know what it taste better than a restaurant with those natural ingredients from your backyard...I would love one day just to pick something out your garden for me to cook for my family...looks amazing..,....🙏🙇🙏📿🐐
Well now I am seriously considering pulling up all my day Lillies, lol .. I have a few square shaped areas and row of the lillies, probably around 30-40ft long, that spread more and more every year.
Grocery store is flavorless because it has no nutrients. Wild foraged food is packed with nutrients, and since flavors are associated with nutrients, they are very flavorful.
