Wild Summer and Fall Plant Foods: The Foxfire Americana Library (8)

by Edited by Foxfire Students

  Persimmon butter: cook and strain persimmons. Add ½ teaspoon soda to each cup pulp. Sweeten and flavor with spices or orange rind. Cook thoroughly and bottle.

  Persimmon-nut bread: 1⁄3 cup shortening; ½ cup sugar; two eggs; 1¾ cups flour; two teaspoons baking powder; ½ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon soda; one cup mashed persimmons; ½ cup chopped hickory-nut or black-walnut meats. Cream shortening, add sugar and eggs; beat well. Sift dry ingredients, add to creamed mixture alternately with persimmons and nuts. Pour in greased loaf pan and bake at 350° for one hour.

  Persimmons can be used instead of prunes or pineapple for upside-down cake, or used as a topping with nuts and sugar on coffee cake.

  Groundcherry (Physalis virginiana, Physalis heterophylla, Physalis pubescens) (family Solanaceae)

  (cape gooseberry, husk tomato, bladder cherry)

  The groundcherries are low, spreading plants, the various species differing mostly in the amount of hairiness on the leaves. These natives of Peru and Mexico often appear in cultivated gardens or in waste places. Leaves are variable in shape or form. Flowers are an inverted bell, pale yellow with a brownish center. The edible cherries, yellow when ripe, are enclosed in a papery husk. The husk also turns yellow when the cherry is ripe. The cherries are used in preserves or pies. DO NOT EAT THE LEAVES, for they have the poisonous properties of most members of the nightshade family.

  Physalis viscosa is a closely related species distinguished by very sticky stems and leaves. Physalis edulis (oxocarpa) the cultivated garden groundcherry, or strawberry tomato, will also escape and naturalize or reseed itself in old gardens. This plant has slightly larger fruits with a bright yellow or purplish-red cherry.

  Many people are very fond of groundcherries, others have to develop a taste for them. Mrs. Norton said, “I had a daughter who was always picking groundcherries and eating them, but I never did like them. I’d have to be real hungry to eat them.”

  Jake Waldroop says, “They are a sweetish, good-flavored thing. They are small, something like the end of your little finger. They come up in the summertime and die down in the fall. You don’t use them much until after the frost falls on them. That’s when they’re really good. They’re white-looking with little stripes and have a husk on them. You take the husk off and the cherry is inside.”

  Groundcherries are often dried and used for sweetening. When preserved, they need very little sugar.

  ILLUSTRATION 31 Groundcherry

  Groundcherry pie: one pint hulled cherries; ½ cup white sugar; ½ cup brown sugar; one tablespoon butter; one tablespoon quick-cooking tapioca; juice and grated rind of ½ lemon. Combine and bake between two pie crusts.

  Baked groundcherries: mix groundcherries with eggs, milk, and a little flour. Bake at low heat until firm. Serve with milk or cream.

  Groundcherry sauce: one quart washed groundcherries; two cups honey; one cup water; ½ teaspoon cinnamon; one tablespoon lemon juice. Boil.

  Tops, bottoms, and in-betweens—this is a designation for a variety of wild plant foods that do not fit any specific category. We might bring them under miscellaneous but that seems a dull way of treating a most interesting assortment of plants. They are given here in botanical order.

  Cattail (Typha latifolia) (family Typhaceae)

  (reed-mace)

  This is the familiar cattail of marshes and stream banks, with tall stalks, broad grassy leaves, and a brown flower spike. Early in the season, the flower spike is double and the top, or staminate part, rich with yellow pollen. All parts of the plant are edible, from the rhizome roots to the young green spikes. Young shoots can be a substitute for asparagus. The bulb-like sprouts can be peeled and boiled as a vegetable, or pickled for salads. The young shoots are a good substitute for poke salad. Roots can also be ground into meal or flour said to be the equal of corn or rice. Rich in pollen, this yellow substance can be gathered and used in baking.

  Cattail shoots may be boiled or creamed. Cut the whole sprout up and roll in meal. Add salt and pepper and fry them. Or, boil young cattails one inch long for fifteen to twenty minutes and cover with cream sauce.

  ILLUSTRATION 32 Cattail

  Cattail flapjacks: two cups pollen; two cups flour; four teaspoons baking powder; one teaspoon salt; two eggs; one cup milk; 1½ cups water; one tablespoon sugar or syrup; bacon drippings. Mix and fry in a greased pan.

  Cattail pancakes: boil roots into gruel, then dry. Mix with an egg, milk, ½ teaspoon salt, and margarine. Drop by tablespoons into a well-greased cast-iron skillet. Serve with cooked blueberries or stewed apples.

  Cattail soup: cook in water until tender and drain. Add water, milk, salt, and pepper; top with cubes of toasted bread before serving.

  Nut grass (Cyperus rotundus) (family Cyperaceae)

  (coco-grass, earth almond, rush nut, ground nut)

  A small weedy sedge, native of Europe, but naturalized everywhere in waste places. It has long, running rootstocks bearing small, hard tubers at intervals. These are usually too hard to eat raw, but can be cooked and used as you would use any nuts. Nuts can be ground into meal that makes a good cooked cereal.

  Nut sedge (Cyperus esculentus)

  (coco-sedge, yellow galingale, chufa, ground nut)

  This larger sedge grows in damp, weedy places. It has rather stout stems up to eighteen inches high, with yellowish divided flower heads. Sweet nutty tubers with a tough, dry rind occur on the roots. These can be ground into flour.

  ILLUSTRATION 33 Nut grass

  Chufa drink: soak tubers eight hours. Mash, add one quart water and ½ pound sugar to each ½ pound of tubers. Strain through a sieve and serve as a drink.

  Chufa (ground nut) bread: 2½ cups warm water; two packages active dry yeast; one tablespoon salt; one tablespoon melted margarine or butter; seven cups unsifted flour; one cup peanut butter; ¼ cup softened margarine or butter; one egg white; one tablespoon cold water; ¼ cup chopped ground nuts. Measure warm water into a warm mixing bowl. Sprinkle in yeast and stir. Add salt and melted margarine. Add flour and stir until dough is sticky. Place in a greased bowl; let rise one hour. Turn dough on a floured board. Roll half into an oblong pan, cover with peanut butter, softened margarine, and ground nuts. Cover with rest of dough. Roll up and seal. Brush top with egg white. Bake in 450° oven for 25 minutes.

  Chiney-brier (Smilax pseudochina, Smilax bona-nox, Smilax glauca, Smilax rotundifolia), (family Liliaceae)

  (greenbrier, ground nut, sarsaparilla, saw brier, prickly bamboo, China brier, cat brier, biscuit leaves)

  The chiney-briers are weedy vines found everywhere, with tough prickly stems, oval to arrow-shaped leaves, and fuzzy, very sweet-scented green flowers followed by blue or black berries. The tips of the arching new shoots are very good to eat. Before the days of commercial gelatin desserts, the knobby roots of all four species of Smilax were dug and used for food. The berries have been used for seasoning.

  ILLUSTRATION 34 Greenbriers: Smilax glauca (left) and Smilax rotundifolia (right).

  Gather greenbrier shoots when tender enough to snap, and use them raw in salad, or cook into a cream soup. They can be combined with lettuce or other greens, or used as a substitute in any recipe that calls for asparagus.

  Chop up or grind roots, and cover with water; strain, leaving powdery residue. This will be an edible powder of a reddish color. Mix with warm water and honey for a delicious jelly; cook into gruel for invalids; fry in hot grease for hotcakes; or use as a cornmeal substitute for fritters or bread.

  Wild bean vine (Phaseolus polystachios) (family Leguminosae)

  (wild kidney bean)

  A slender, twining vine, found in rich, damp woodlands and along streams. It is a perennial with tri-divided bright green leaves, and small bunches of white or pale purple flowers. The beans occur in small pods, are edible, and can be used as one uses dried garden beans, but they are difficult to obtain, as the pods coil up and expel the seeds as soon as they ripen. The round, white tubers on the roots are called ground nuts.

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nbsp; ILLUSTRATION 35 Wild kidney bean

  Hog peanut (Amphicarpa bracteata)

  (wild peanut, hog vine)

  This slender vine twines to seven feet over other shrubbery. It has tridivided light green leaves followed by two kinds of pods: those at the upper part of the vine have slender pods with small mottled beans; those near the base of the plant bend and go underground (like peanuts) where they form fleshy underground pods. Both are edible after boiling, but have a rather poor taste.

  ILLUSTRATION 36 Hog peanut

  Ground nut (Apios americana)

  (sprig nut, Indian potato, bear potato)

  A four- to five-foot vine found in very wet places, usually growing in great patches. Leaves have five to seven leaflets. There are clusters of maroon, sweet-smelling flowers in midsummer. The roots have a string of small rhizomes, or thickened tubers, that have a delicious, nutlike flavor. They can be roasted, boiled, or sliced and fried. Cooked in syrup, they are superior to yams. THEY ARE NOT CONSIDERED EDIBLE UNTIL COOKED.

  ILLUSTRATION 37 Ground nut: flowers (left) and tubers (right).

  In the mountains, the names wild sweet potatoes, or pig potatoes, seem to be given to the tubers of the wild bean (Phaseolus) or the ground nut (Apios). The hog peanut (Amphicarpa) is not as common as the other two leguminous vines, but was probably used for food where it was available.

  Roast the wild sweet potatoes in ashes; or peel and slice, boil in salted water so they won’t turn dark, and fry in grease, adding brown sugar, salt, and pepper.

  You can make a delicious pudding out of ground nuts by steaming them. Tie them in a cloth with a mixture of flour, sugar, and an egg and hang over your boiler to steam.

  Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) (family Leguminosae)

  The honey locust is a small, very thorny tree found in hedge rows and waste places, woods’ edges, and rocky outcrops. It has compound leaves, and small, honey-sweet, greenish-yellow flowers in April and May. The long pods contain many small seeds, and a small amount of sweet edible pulp. These have been used to make a drink, ground into meal, or used with persimmons in persimmon beer.

  The honey locust tree produces long, flat seed pods which are dark brown or black when ripe. They may be eaten raw, as there’s a honey flavor in the pod.

  Honey locust beans: shell beans from pods, soak overnight, and boil.

  Locust bread: dry pods and grind into meal for bread.

  Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) (family Compositae)

  (bread root)

  This tall sunflower grows to twelve feet in rich bottom lands where it has naturalized. It is also found in waste places and persists in old garden sites. The leaves are opposite, ovate, and rough-hairy. Large yellow flowers with greenish centers appear in autumn. The root tubers are high in calories and are a very desirable food. They can be used raw or cooked, and should be harvested in late fall or early spring. Attached to the roots of a tall, straight plant, they look similar to a knobby potato, and can be cooked and eaten like regular potatoes. They are good sliced raw and salted. They’re also good sliced and fried in grease. Some use them diced in relish along with peppers and onions or just boil them until they’re tender and serve with a plain white sauce.

  Boiled artichokes: one pound unpeeled, shredded, or diced artichokes. Simmer in hot milk, add a pinch of salt and parsley or onion before serving.

  Baked artichokes: slice thin in a baking dish, cover with white sauce and bake. Or combine with wild onions and grated cheese in a baking dish and bake.

  Artichoke relish: five quarts Jerusalem artichokes; three pounds white cabbage; six green peppers; one quart onions, coarsely ground; three pounds sugar; one small box mustard; one gallon vinegar; two tablespoons turmeric; one tablespoon black pepper; three tablespoons white mustard seed; ¾ cup flour. Scrub artichokes, cut fine, and soak in one gallon of water with two cups salt for twenty-four hours. Coarsely grind the peppers, cabbage, and onion, and mix with sugar, black pepper, mustard seed, dry mustard, and vinegar. Bring mixture to boil, and cook until vegetables are clear. Add artichokes, return to a boil, and stir in turmeric. Pour immediately into hot sterilized jars and seal.

  ILLUSTRATION 38 Jerusalem artichoke

  Pickled artichoke: ½ peck artichoke root; two quarts vinegar; 1½ pounds brown sugar; ¼ pound mustard; one ounce white mustard seed; one ounce pepper; one ounce turmeric; ½ teaspoon cloves; three teaspoons allspice; two sticks cinnamon. Peel artichokes and sprinkle well with salt. Slice and salt a few white onions. Let stand twenty-four hours, then wash off well. Cook apple vinegar, sugar, and spices together a few minutes. Drop in artichokes and onion to heat through. Seal while hot. [NOTE: Spices may be omitted and horseradish used instead.]

  Jerusalem artichoke pickle: two quarts artichokes, scraped and peeled; one pint vinegar; two onions or several white multiplying onions; 1½ cups brown sugar; two tablespoons salt; one teaspoon allspice; one teaspoon turmeric. Boil vinegar, sugar, and spices ten minutes. Add onions and artichokes, and boil ten minutes. Seal in jars.

  Thistle (Cirsium altissimum) (family Compositae)

  The thistle is found in damp fields, marshes, and along streams. It has a tall, straight stem from a perennial root. Leaves are sparingly spiny-edged, and a gray-green color. The showy lavender flower heads attract many bees and butterflies. Seeds are winged. The young thistle stems, when peeled, are edible and pickles can be made from them. Make them as you would a sweet cucumber pickle.

  Fried thistle rings: peel young thistle stems, cut into rings. Fry in butter and serve hot.

  Stuffing: boil peeled thistle stems in salt water. Use to stuff fish.

  WILD TEAS

  A variety of plants can be gathered and used to make pleasant-tasting teas. Some of these (sassafras, sweet birch, and spicewood) were included in the section of spring plant foods in Foxfire 2 (pp. 49–53). The plants given here, gathered in midsummer, seem to have a special quality, as if all the goodness of summer sun and showers was embodied in their leaves and flowers.

  Sometimes various plants are combined in special mixtures. For example, “fatigue tea” combines nettles, dandelions, and yarrow. Garden tea is a mixture of strawberry leaves, grape leaves, and rose petals.

  The mountain people used teas as beverages and as tonics. They would usually gather the plants in the proper season, remove the leaves or roots, and dry them. The dried material would be stored in jars or in a dry place and used as needed. They would keep all year if dried properly. Honey or syrup was used for sweetening, if desired.

  Agrimony (Agrimonia parviflora, Agrimonia rostellata), (family Rosaceae) (tormentil, church steeples, cathedral plant)

  The small agrimony (A. parviflora) and the large agrimony (A. rostellata) are very similar, except for size. Both are found along roadsides, in wet ditches, and around old homesites. They are perennials, with hairy stems and compound leaves. The leaves are very spicy when crushed. The small yellow flowers appear in midsummer and are followed by sticky seeds that adhere to clothing.

  Though not as well known as some of the tea plants, both the flowers and the leaves make a fragrant tea. A lady near Blairsville called it “spice-tea,” and said it tasted like “apples with cinnamon.” Gather the leaves and flowers and boil, strain, and serve with lemon or sugar.

  Red clover (Trifolium pratense) (family Leguminosae)

  Red clover is common along roadsides and in old fields and pastures. It grows to two feet, with tri-divided leaves, each leaflet often marked with white. Occasionally leaves produce the lucky “four-leaf clovers.” The deep rose-red flowers appear in May, but blossom late in autumn. The flowers are very sweet-scented and favorites of bumblebees.

  The flowers are edible and can be used in spring salads or brewed into tea. It is known as a “spring bracer” and when combined with honey made a good-tasting tea that was also a spring tonic. Clover blossoms are often combined with mints in midsummer or used in “old field tea”—made of sage, mullein, clover blossoms, and bass
wood blooms. Most of these teas were used to relax the drinker, and they did.

  ILLUSTRATION 39 Red clover

  It is said that red clover blooms can be combined with apples to make a pleasant-tasting jelly.

  Basswood (Tilia americana) (family Tiliaceae)

  (linden, bee tree, bast, daddywort)

  The basswood is a tall tree of the rich mountain coves, with large, heart-shaped leaves and smooth bark. The very fragrant, creamy-white flowers appear in early summer. Bees seek out basswood after sourwood, and basswood honey is a clear white, flavorsome honey produced in some areas of the mountains. The nectar within the flowers is about 50 per cent pure sugar. The blossoms are gathered for tea or used in fruit desserts and candy.

  Basswood blossom tea: a teaspoonful of flowers for each pint of water. Strain and add sugar or honey, or drop a couple of cloves into the pot.

  Basswood bark tea: peel the bark and boil it. Strain and add sugar to taste. It was sometimes used for colds and flu.

  MINTS

  Our most flavorsome midsummer teas come from the many species of aromatic mints. Used alone, or in combination with other plants, they are considered very healthful as well as good-tasting.

  Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea, Nepeta glechoma) (family Labiatae) (jill-over-the-ground, lizzie-run-around-the-hedge, hedge maids, tunhoof, maymaids, catsfoot, field-balm, heart’s ease, run-away-robin)