# Survival > Foraging & Wild Edibles >  Wild Edibles that actually taste good ??

## Justin Case

I do not know much about eating weeds,,,,  I see lots of posts about wild edibles but are there any that really taste good ?   :Confused1:    I know blueberries and the like do,,  I guess I am talking about greens mostly...  For example,,,  does wild lettuce grow a head and taste anything the the lettuce i get at the store ??

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## MidWestMat

watercress is great in a salad, clover also great in salad, wild onions are great fried up with my eggs or in salad, I lke to browse on 'sweettarts' (a cloverlike plant that grows along the forest floor here), blueberries any way, blackberries any way plus leaves for tea, wild rose hips for tea, sassafras for tea, persimmons straight or in pie..

thats pretty much my common browse anyway, I am sure there are many more

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## Rick

I like both dandelions and purslane. Both make a great addition to a salad. Dandelions can become bitter so pick young leaves in shade for the best flavor. I add both all summer long to salads. I like tea made from bea balm and pine. And any of the berries are great.

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## Trabitha

Tiger lily buds sautéed in butter are YUMMY!  We eat that as a side dish a lot in the summer.  
Purslane and Garlic mustard make a WONDERFUl salad that is similar to spinach.  I cut the garlic mustard when it's really young...they almost look like violets at that stage.  
Wood Sorrel/clover and Sheep sorrel, have a sour bite to them.  They are great to pick at...but you can get sick if you eat a lot of it.  I put a bit in my salads too, but it makes a great accent to soups when you have no lemon.

I'm not a fan of the bitter dandelion...but some people love it.

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## Justin Case

Well I do have a few Pine trees in the yard,,  can I make tea from these needles ?

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## MidWestMat

The only time I tried Pine tea it was very bitter.  In a survival situation it is a great source of vitamin C, and I am sure a couple of others also but from my experience I wouldn't drink it unless I had to.  Of course, it is always possible that I did something horribly wrong in my efforts to make tea!   :Wink:

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## Alaska Grandma

Up here in the Interior of Alaska we have tons of wild, good tasting greens. Most are best when picked in early spring, after that they can get bitter and tough. I go for the fireweed stalks early on when they first pop out of the ground and are 3-6 inches tall, raw in salad, cooked or steams like asparagus. lambs quarter is also a healthy, tasty green and similar to spinach. Wild onions as well as many delicious flowers (rose, bluebell, fireweed are good too just to name a few. Later in the summer we go for edible roots (like Indian potato, however, not to be confused with bear root), the very bottom of some varieties of sedge is nice in stir fry, but just eat the tender white bottom of the stalk.  And cattail bulbs if you can find any are super cooked up like potatoes. Then, in late fall it is all about berries. 

As always, make sure to positively identify your plants and berries before consuming! 

Grandma Lori

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## randyt

around here we have leeks that can spice up a salad. Although your honey probably wont want a kiss from you after eating a few.

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## Rick

I can't tell from the picture but pine will have 5 needles coming out of a single stem. The larger picture looks like pine to me. I've never found pine bitter. In fact, it leaves the mouth with a really great clean feeling. I've even had blue spruce. It's good but not worth the trouble because those dang needles are sharp on the spruce. 

Hey, T - I have a bunch of Lilys growing here and decided last fall that I'd try them this year. Are you just eating the buds of the flowers? 

On the dandelions, if you pick them in shade and young you won't have the strong bitter taste that you find in full sun dandys. I've fried the flowers in a batter but it was really a non-event. About the only taste was the batter. I'd certainly eat them if I had too and they add nice color to a meal but otherwise not much worth the effort. 

Nasturtiums are another treat. All parts of the above ground plant are good. The flowers are both sweet and peppery at the same time. The leaves are a bit peppery tasting and just the right size for burgers.

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## Alaska Grandma

> around here we have leeks that can spice up a salad. Although your honey probably wont want a kiss from you after eating a few.


Unless of course you are both eating them! Then it might not matter at all

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## randyt

> Unless of course you are both eating them! Then it might not matter at all


this is true. you don't ever see any Italian sweethearts concerned about garlic breath LOL.

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## Trabitha

> Hey, T - I have a bunch of Lilys growing here and decided last fall that I'd try them this year. Are you just eating the buds of the flowers? 
> 
> On the dandelions, if you pick them in shade and young you won't have the strong bitter taste that you find in full sun dandys. I've fried the flowers in a batter but it was really a non-event. About the only taste was the batter. I'd certainly eat them if I had too and they add nice color to a meal but otherwise not much worth the effort. 
> 
> Nasturtiums are another treat. All parts of the above ground plant are good. The flowers are both sweet and peppery at the same time. The leaves are a bit peppery tasting and just the right size for burgers.


LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Nasturtiums, but I grow them in my herb garden from seed each year.  :Wink:   I think they taste like radishes. 

The lily's...yes while they are still buds is when I eat them.  Chris puts a nice combo of spices on them like you would green beans.  Very good. 
I'll have to try the dandelions like that!  Thanks!!!

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## COWBOYSURVIVAL

+1 on the Dandelions...Just tried them of late as I have a plenty around here. These were the first thing to green after winter. First I tried the flower just plain it was good! So I harvested a salad fixed it my usual way and it was great! I was surprised! In fact it made up for the lettuce I haven't made any "head" way with growing...

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## your_comforting_company

Portulaca oleracea (purslane) tastes just like lettuce to me. I think chickweed does too. wild lettuce does not form a head like the stuff at the grocers. Raphanus raphanistrum tastes just like the curly leaf mustards I grow in my garden. Stachys floridana tastes like a sweet green peanut, some roots a bit sweeter than others. It's delicious but make sure you aren't picking the hollow "spent" roots. Oxalis stricta is very tart and I would imagine makes a very nice zest to tea, but I always just eat 'em. gonna have to try it. Blackberries and dewberries are tart to sweet and I eat them a lot, as well as scupplins, muscadines, and bullaces. All very good to eat.
And then of course there's the venison, squirrel, dove, rabbit, fish... All very wild, very edible, and very good to eat  :Big Grin:

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## Justin Case

> Portulaca oleracea (purslane) tastes just like lettuce to me. I think chickweed does too. wild lettuce does not form a head like the stuff at the grocers. Raphanus raphanistrum tastes just like the curly leaf mustards I grow in my garden. Stachys floridana tastes like a sweet green peanut, some roots a bit sweeter than others. It's delicious but make sure you aren't picking the hollow "spent" roots. Oxalis stricta is very tart and I would imagine makes a very nice zest to tea, but I always just eat 'em. gonna have to try it. Blackberries and dewberries are tart to sweet and I eat them a lot, as well as scupplins, muscadines, and bullaces. All very good to eat.
> *And then of course there's the venison, squirrel, dove, rabbit, fish... All very wild, very edible, and very good to eat*


lol,, Good point,,  :Wink:

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## MidWestMat

> I can't tell from the picture but pine will have 5 needles coming out of a single stem. The larger picture looks like pine to me. I've never found pine bitter. In fact, it leaves the mouth with a really great clean feeling. I've even had blue spruce. It's good but not worth the trouble because those dang needles are sharp on the spruce.


Alright Rick, now I am going to have to try another batch of pine tea.  I will let you know how it goes!

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## OhioGrizzLapp

I am partial to wild strawberries, persimmons, various berries, water cress, pine nuts, honey, honey suckle, wild apples, wild onions and garlic as well as wild garlic chives. Spruce, sassafrass, birch and maple teas are great. Wild potatos and lettuce are good too. So many greens I cannot even mention.

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## Rick

Mat - Everything I've ever read says to break the needles up and put them in boiling water. I've done that but I've also used whole needles and just dropped them in. I really can't tell much difference. If you are a bit tougher than me you might try blue spruce. It has a stronger flavor than pine. A bit more piney flavor. I guess it's the turpines(?) but, as I said, those needles are killers.

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## rwc1969

Not counting mushrooms,ramps, cattail shoots, cattail flower heads, daylily flower buds, autumn olive berries, curly dock, stinging nettle, asparagus, spring beauty roots, common evening primrose flowers and buds,  hazelnuts, sorrel.

Those are just off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's at least 5-10 more that I commonly eat and really do taste good. I've heard people say that wild edibles forthemostpart are not that tasty and not worth the effort learning to ID, find, and prepare them, but that's simply not the case. They're great!

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## krazykangaroo

There are a lot of wild edibles here in Aus that taste good but most aren't worth the trouble unless you had no other food. 
You have to remember that wild foods haven't had the centuries of selective breeding to make them taste and grow like our usual garden vegetables and fruit so you can't really compare them.

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## Rick

I can't speak to Australia but most of the foods here have been selectively bred for storage and shipping. Taste fell by the wayside. A greenhouse tomato is nearly tasteless and hard as a rock, usually. It wouldn't take a whole lot for cardboard to taste better.

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## MidWestMat

> Not counting mushrooms?!


How oh how could I have forgotten mushrooms?!?!  One of the most delicious and otherwise awesome wild foods for me!    :Wink:

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## Justin Case

> Not counting mushrooms,ramps, cattail shoots, cattail flower heads, daylily flower buds, autumn olive berries, curly dock, stinging nettle, asparagus, spring beauty roots, common evening primrose flowers and buds,  hazelnuts, sorrel.
> 
> Those are just off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's at least 5-10 more that I commonly eat and really do taste good. I*'ve heard people say that wild edibles forthemostpart are not that tasty and not worth the effort learning to ID, find, and prepare them, but that's simply not the case. They're great!*


 I must admit (before this thread)  That was my mindset exactly....

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## preachtheWORD

Besides the obvious - berries, nuts, fruit, dead "aminals" - there are some wild edibles that are surprisingly good.  

Lots of people have mentioned dandelion.  I just don't care for it.  Just too bitter for me.  Maybe I haven't had it cooked right.

Here are two of the best that I have encountered: *daylillies* (especially the flowers), and *indian cucumber-root*.  

I posted a thread on daylillies last year.  Check it out here:http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...light-Daylilly

Indian cucumber-root tastes very much like a sweet, crisp cucumber.  Probably better than actual cucumbers.  It's not very abundant, though.

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## Rick

I think it was your thread that convinced me to try them this year.

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## LAW1397

I was at the park today and I decided to try some dandelion. They were growing under the shade of a big pavilion and when I tried a flower I was surprised that it was actually sweet. Maybe the older plants are bitter but this one didn't taste bitter at all. I couldn't stop eating them.

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## LowKey

Maybe it was the 'fertilizer' on the dandelions in the park that tasted good.  :Stick Out Tongue:  
Seriously though, some good points about being careful with your identifications.

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## randyt

A treat that I enjoy in the winter time when it's nice and cold is frozen high bush cranberries. Being frozen changes the taste to the better. maybe it's like cheap beer, ya know it has to be super cold to freeze the taste buds LOL. good beer as we know tastes best at cellar temps.

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## r0ckhamm3r

The ones I have tried and really like are stinging nettles (like a mild flavored spinach), wild garlic, cattail stalks (taste like cucumber to me), paw paw (kind of like custard), persimmons, morel mushrooms and puffball mushrooms.

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## Rick

The smaller leaves, especially before the dandelion blooms, are the best for eating in a salad. At least that's what I've found. The bitter stuff is called taraxicin and is more concentrated in the larger, older leaves. You can still eat them but it's best to cook them to remove the taraxicin. They'll be less bitter once cooked. I have no idea what the sun does but those in shade always seem to have less of the taraxicin in them so I'm assuming the sun does something to concentrate the bitter stuff in the leaves.

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## Canadian-guerilla

> Here are two of the best that I have encountered: *daylillies* (especially the flowers), and *indian cucumber-root*.  
> 
> I posted a thread on daylillies last year.  Check it out here:http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...light-Daylilly


i love the " fresh veggie crunch " of day lillies

alone with purslane, 2 of my favorite " pick'em n eat'em " wild edibles


*NOTE - Purslane has a non-edible lookalike - Spurge*

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## Rick

Personally, I don't think spurge looks anything like Purslane. I can see why some folks might get the two confused, however. Once you know what purslane looks like you won't mistake it. Also, spurge has a milky sap and the sap of Purslane is clear.

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## r0ckhamm3r

Rick, you have convinced me to give dandelions another try.  I have never heard there was a difference in taste based on the amount of light they receive.  I have tried them several times in the past and even with boiling in a couple of changes of water, they were still bitter to me.  I will give it a try and let you know how it turns out.  Thanks.

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## Old GI

> Mat - Everything I've ever read says to break the needles up and put them in boiling water. I've done that but I've also used whole needles and just dropped them in. I really can't tell much difference. If you are a bit tougher than me you might try blue spruce. It has a stronger flavor than pine. A bit more piney flavor. I guess it's the turpines(?) but, as I said, those needles are killers.


When I was taught and imbibed pine tea, we just put them in whole.  Don't recall any bitterness and, at about 10 degrees in the Uwharrie, what a warm, wonderful elixir!

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## IA Woodsman

I love Wood Nettles. If you get them right when they are coming out of the ground they taste like broccoli. If you boil them for 2 minutes the whole young plant is excellent. Fern fiddle heads are almost as good.

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## ClayPick

Dulse is a daily staple in my household. It’s a geographical thing and most likely an acquired taste. Seaweed tends to go over the top on the nutrition scale.

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## danmc

> autumn olive berries, [snip] common evening primrose flowers and buds



+1 on the autumn olive berries.  I like those straight from the tree and love jam made from them.  The jam reminds me of rhubarb.

On the evening primrose flowers, are you eating those raw in a salad or do you cook them?  I don't know the plant yet but it is on my short list of ones I need to learn.

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## danmc

> I can't tell from the picture but pine will have 5 needles coming out of a single ..


white pines (pinus strobus) have 5 as do some of the western pines but in the east only white pine has 5.  Others like loblolly have 3 or 2 like virginia pine.  I certainly don't have the full list memorized.  My personal taste seems to not be a good match for pine needle tea (I've only tried with white pine).  I'll save that for when I'm really in need of the vit. C.  I do like a cup of hot white pine inner bark tea when I feel a cold coming on though.

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## Rick

You're right. I should have been more specific. I guess I was thinking white pine and thought everyone would (shrug). We have several different varieties of pine but white is by far the most prolific. My neighbor beside me has one and my neighbor behind has one. Both grow next to my fence so snatching a late night......I mean white pine is easy to find.

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## rwc1969

> ...
> 
> On the evening primrose flowers, are you eating those raw in a salad or do you cook them? I don't know the plant yet but it is on my short list of ones I need to learn.


I just eat them straight off the plant, but they'd be great in salad.

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## your_comforting_company

I have lots of them growing among the mustards in the garden (which are VERY spicy now I might add). I think I'll go pick a few handfulls of flowers and try them tonight with mustard leaves in the salad instead of pepper. Don't know what the OL had in mind for supper, but a cold salad sounds good.. It's 92F outside! whew!

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## gfoust

Something that I enjoyed when I was a kid and living in Florida were saw palmetto shoots. Pluck the fans from the root before they unfold and harvest the white part at the end of the stem, the rest is too woody. They are great raw as a snack and really good sliced thin and added to stir-fry. Somewhat like bamboo shoots when cooked this way. The rule of thumb I was taught is no more than 2 fans from each root clump, not that there ever was a shortage of them where I was from!

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## hman765

i like wild onions but they taste better with water and dandilllions

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## rwc1969

I harvested a bunch of small garlic mustard roots the other day as I was intent on making some "horseradishy" type sauce with them. Surprisingly, they were not as hot as the ones I harvested last year. In fact, they tasted really good raw, sort of a parsnip/ carrot with just a bit of onion/ garlic type heat. They weren't nearly as stringy/ woody either and were quite tender. I've been munching on them since.

It's hard to find wild roots that aren't woody and taste good, these are very abundant, and although small, can be gathered in quantity quickly. I harvest them from a pine plantation which makes gathering even easier as they just pull right out of the ground, no shovel required.

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## ClayPick

Made a nice haul of fiddleheads today. Not bad considering they go for around $6.00 per lb.
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## ClayPick

Found a mess of last years cranberries a few days ago.
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## ClayPick

Lots of Tout Lilly on  the go now.
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## ClayPick

Also Labrador Tea.
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## ClayPick

Even found a good skull for the wife to paint.
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## crashdive123

Nice haul - great pics.

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## Justin Case

+1,,,,,,,,,,,  Nice !

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## rwc1969

Nice pics. I found my first fiddleheads ever today, two small patches in the woods, left em to grow, hopefully they'll spread.

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## edr730

We can't forget Poke Salad. As well as the ditch lily blossoms, we always ate squash blossoms. The blossoms with the long stems don't produce anything, so we use those. Rose of Sharon blossoms are good too. We always dip them in egg then cornmeal and fry them.

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## Rick

The blossoms with the long stems are the male flower. The female flower has a squash growing.

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## EdD270

Justin Case, you might want to refer to these web sites for good info on good eating:
www.ofthefield.com, mobileedibles.blogspot.com, www.sacredearth.com, and my favorite www.eattheweeds.com. there are many others as well. 
Be aware there are regional, even within a state, differences in plants of the same common name, so pay attention to the scientific names too. 
Good eating to you!

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## ravenscar

cattails, diced and fryed in meat, then wrapped in a curly dock leaf.

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## RandyRhoads

> Well I do have a few Pine trees in the yard,,  can I make tea from these needles ?
> 
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> 
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And you can eat those catkin (small flower bud) and collect the pollen from them to eat as well.


Wild artichoke and thistle stalk is good too.

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## BrianP

That just sickens me...I miss Sassafras tea, we don't get it around here...sigh.

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## Rick

Sassafras has been identified as a cancer causing agent and banned by the FDA. Whether it is or not I choose not take on the risk.

http://www.drugs.com/npp/sassafras.html

http://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/herb/sassafras

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## Chris

purslane is good and healthy and easy to find and grow, in the summer I add it to soups, stir fries, casseroles, spaghetti, taco meat, almost anything really.

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## Rick

...and salads or just for munching while in the garden.

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## shiftyer1

My wild edibles are the runnin around kind.  I have never developed a taste for veggies,  I don't know what it is but I just can't do it.  I have been making small steps as I get older.  I do sometimes keep a garden for the wife and kids and she has told me the leaf lettuce tastes different from head? lettuce although I don't know if it is actually taste or just the texture.  Wild lettuce would be similar to leaf lettuce.

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## matt47

> There are a lot of wild edibles here in Aus that taste good but most aren't worth the trouble unless you had no other food. 
> You have to remember that wild foods haven't had the centuries of selective breeding to make them taste and grow like our usual garden vegetables and fruit so you can't really compare them.


Are you kidding? Maybe in Vic...but in central OZ there are tons of tasty wild edibles (and lots more in other areas of OZ from what I've heard) that me, my wife and my in-laws use as a *regular food source*. They certainly taste much better than garden vegetables...I couldn't compare bland store-bought veggies to honey-ants, witchetty grubs, wild bush tomatoes, bush passionfruit, bush bananas, bush onions, bush orange, quandong, etc...my favorite are the honey-ants...there's lots of tasty edibles in OZ

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## Edz

I like most parts of cattail.  Like Jerusalem Artichoke, like day lily tubers, shoots and flowers.  LOVE indian cucumber when I can find it.  Fiddleheads are good, though I prefer em smothered in butter.  Ramps, wild onion and garlic all yummy!  Like wintergreen tea but actually can't stand pine needle tea!  Queen annes lace (wild carrot) is ok.    I love packing a trout (or other fish) with sorrel then wrapping it up and cooking it on the coals!  Just a few.

edz

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## backtobasics

stinging nettle is real tasty to me. And watercress

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## Wildthang

I have heard that May apples are edible. Anybody ever tried them?

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