Foraging

I've been trying to learn about and identify all the local edible flora. 

This is a salad that I made today with some of the plants I found on my walk this morning. I'm really enjoying the new flavors I'm finding. Salads were starting to get really boring. That motivated me to look into foraging. The woods where I'm collecting has never been sprayed with pesticides or fertilizer, and the soil has never been farmed. My hope was to get a more diverse variety of phytonutrients than what I can get at the grocery store. The interesting flavors are turning out to be an added bonus.

This is spiderwort. The flowers have a really light flavor that seems like a blend of fruit and anise. The leaves have a stronger flavor like kale or broccoli. I've read that spiderwort is supposed to help with allergies.

 This is greenbriar. The leaves taste like a cross between green beans and asparagus. It's supposed to have anti-inflammatory properties.

In addition to spiderwort and greenbriar, I put cucumber, onion, spearmint leaves, and sunflower seeds in this salad. For dessert, I put strawberries, blueberries, and juniper berries (also foraged), and local honey in a blender, and then poured it over pecans. Juniper berries are a great anti-inflammatory. I could tell right away after the first time I tried them.

These are juniper berries with yaupon in the background. Yaupon is the only naturally caffeinated plant in North America. The leaves can be used to make tea, but don't eat the berries. Yaupon tea used to be a very popular tea generations ago.