the following is the introduction from
feasting free on wild edibles by
Bradford Andre by published by stackpole
books the ISBN number is 0-
8117 d275
4-8 it's an awesome book I highly
recommend
it says some of the best foods in the
world are free long before we thought of
raising them in our Gardens and on our
farms and ranches all our commonest
fruits and vegetables were growing wild
wild foods have always been important in
this young country the pilgrims derive
considerable nourishment during their
first desperate winter from ground nuts
which are similar to Small
Potatoes California's 49ers plagued by
scurvy because of the scarcity of food
in some of the gold camps were
introduced to miners lettuce by the
Indians and
Spanish farther north scurvy scurvy
grass performed a similar function both
preventing and curing the vitamin
deficiency disease amongst early
frontiersmen when regular rations of the
Lewis and Clark expedition had be had to
be reduced to one biscuit a day it was a
sweet yellow fruit of the pawpaw that
kept men
going even today in this age of space
flight and split atoms sustenance tasty
enough to satisfy us in times of Plenty
and nourishing enough to keep us healthy
if survival ever becomes a problem grows
free for the asking in yards vacant Lots
Fields along roadsides seash Shores and
meses stream Banks Lake edges and within
marshes and sequestered Woodlands ready
and waiting for those who recognize the
bounties they
hold I'll finish there the introduction
goes on but I want to discuss with you
uh dandon
and I'll read you here what it says of
dandelion and and uh or at least the
beginning of what it has to offer on the
subject from this book it says here
that the book here offers a recipe for
uh dandelion wine likewise it offers a
recipe for dandelion greens with mixed
with eggs
and uh mentions that uh toxicum which
comes from the roots of dandelion is
uh also a laxative and uh but they can
be eaten and I actually prefer them
they're quite tasty but you have to take
into mind their laxative
properties uh they're highly similar to
uh carrots or
parsnips it
uh it says here there's about three
pages on dandelion greens I'm just going
to read a portion from one paragraph it
says that
uh the well-known dandelion of flower
beds Lawns pastures Meadows roadsides
and other moist open places boast some
three species in this country and about
25 in the Civilized world over which it
is
widespread the green leaves are long and
narrow spreading in Rose at at the
bottom their coarse edges irregularly
LED and tooth give this wild edible its
name which means Lion's
tooth all right let's look here here you
see in the opening picture here for the
last 3 minutes you've seen uh this
roadside image this is actually near my
mother's house in a rural community
outside of this
city and uh these are not dandelion but
I was getting an image just to show you
the the region this is actually at the
front of her driveway these are dandes
these yellow flowers you see here you
can see uh the little budded stems there
with where the flowers have yet to open
often times you find these uh in their
little uh they'll have the
cottony Seedy
uh uh things out of buds that open up at
some part of the season in which
children often blow into the air
next
uh here's a picture of a dandelion up
close of course you can see the buds
even
closer now I'm going to go into picking
and cleaning these here
and you'll see here uh the saw tooth
loes they were talking about at the
bottom of this plant here and of course
here's a closeup of the image
and these are the
actual tastiest part of the most
abundant part I I I particularly like
the roots as I think they're much
tastier but the greens are good too and
if you like spinach they're they're they
have a texture cooked which is not
unsimilar to cooked spinach and the
flavor is is actually a bit different
but now they have to be prepared
correctly in order to be eaten and
palatable um carefully
grab the dig out around the edges of the
the base of the leaves to secure the the
whole plant grabbing the roots and all
you'll there uh should come out in one
nice Clump uh probably bringing a bit of
soil with it when it
does
and Shake as much soil off of the the uh
The Roots there as you
can and then when you get ready to cook
them you're going to need some Pebbles
so if you don't have pebbles at the
house and they're available in the area
in which you're plucking your wild
dandelion greens uh I suggest getting
them there and keep in mind the area in
which you grab these greens should be uh
familiar to you as some areas of
roadsides are treated by uh chemicals
and such and you don't want to poison
yourself due to man's chemicals uh uh
curbing things this area as I said was
out in a Ral community and they don't
worry about such there likewise you can
find dandes in your own backyard and uh
a lot of times you can
anyway uh fields and vacant Lots all
over and I I'm looking out my window now
across the streets a vacant lot actually
it's my door I'm looking out and I can
see a a number of dandelions almost knee
high over over there so uh they're
pretty abundant and of course I know
from living in the area that that
Field's not treated with uh Alum more
let alone any kind of insecticides so it
uh it they're readily
available when you get ready to cook
them you're going to need some you see
here you're going to need some butter
you're going to need a small
pot uh sauce pan will work well uh some
salt some uh I like chopped onion and
you'll definitely need some garlic I
I've got garlic powder here and I used
uh uh I I prefer garlic cloves uh whole
garlic cloves or minced
garlic there is
uh um The Garlic is going to offset the
flavor some and and add to it uh
and now
you'll need the Pebbles to go into the
bottom of the pot when you cook the the
uh the plant and I'll go into detail
what parts are most tasty and what have
you in a minute but when you cook it you
can cook it all together after you've
separated its entities but you'll want
to par boil it uh at least twice I I
usually boil them about three
times you'll the first time you put some
rocks in the bottom of the pot you can
see here I put the little gravel and you
want gravel as opposed to actual rocks
because you want them to be able to
float up in the boiling water this is
going to this is going to act as an
abrasive and
um you can actually add salt the first
time and and uh or you can wait till the
second time I I do both I use a salt in
conjunction with the pebbles in order to
uh to uh par boil the the leaves and The
Roots and this is to get get rid of that
strong earthy flavor that they contain
uh pretty much I guess a better word
would be
dirt if you don't like eating dirt
you'll definitely want to ensure that
you parboil your your plant here and
again the greens are quite tasty once
they're cooked right uh if they're
they're not cooked right especially the
roots the tubers if you if you don't
cook those right you'll certainly know
it and uh uh they'll be very bitter and
uh they won't they won't make you sick
or anything except perhaps the bitter
flavor in the immediate moment but it's
no long-term damage you got to worry
about it's just the actual sensation of
dealing with that uh unpleasant
taste you want to take and wash the
roots off very
thoroughly
um shaking off all of the dirt and
washing it all off and then you'll want
of course to go in and begin separating
the plant I usually separate first the
the buds and the flower heads now the
buds are really really bitter and I
don't cook them they are edible but and
there's vitamins there but I don't cook
them the flowers they add color to the
uh to the
uh to the final dish and they add flavor
and they are somewhat different than the
leavf or the roots and the stems
themselves they're they're edible but
they're they're very uh um straw likee
if you don't cook them very very well
and so what happens is you have to cook
certain parts of the plants longer than
other uh if you're focused on the leaves
uh
then you probably par boiling them three
times with a final boil of about 20
minutes it'll take about an hour total
to prepare uh will produce the leaves
and you can do you can produce the roots
in about the same time but the roots
need to actually
boil uh a little bit longer than than
the leaves because they'll have a
stronger
flavor and likewise the flowers should
boil with the roots longer than the
leaves
um while the again while the stems are
edible I I focus more so on the my
favorite part is the The Roots the
tubers
now basically cleaning the leaves is
nothing more than separating them from
the plant and washing them the tubers
The Roots they're a little bit different
and uh you can see here I've got
everything sorted into three stacks here
I've got uh actually there's kind of
like four but one plate over to the far
left has just the leaves this is just
one plant and this is a whole meal for
one person and actually two could eat
off of this uh the middle tray has
buds uh flowers and the smaller
roots and then the bowl to the right is
going to have the larger roots and
tubers and now I I ended up discarding
these the buds off of the middle tray
though I kept the flowers cuz they are
tasty and uh they're not uh nearly as
bitter as the buds the buds are probably
the most bitter most part of course the
leaves here you can
see
um a good size portion of them
there now what you want to do with all
of these stems the big ones and the
small ones although some of the small
ones such as here on this plate with the
flowers will be uh a little more diff
difficult um sometimes to clean than the
larger ones um uh you can pretty much
clean them with your thumbnail uh
although you may prefer for the larger
ones to use a small peeling knife but
that won't be uh that won't be efficient
for the smaller Roots you'll have to use
your
thumbnails and what you'll do is uh you
can see here the remnants of the plant
once I have sorted it all out the you
can see in the think there the bad
leaves as well as uh some of the stems
and roots that were no good
and uh what you want to do is you if
you're going to eat the uh the stems
you're going to want to cut them into
smaller pieces
um The Roots you're going to take and
peel with your the out they've got an
external skin that you'll want to peel
off when you finish they should be kind
of white for a minute rather than uh
dirty they'll have like dirty brown
spots it's not dirt it's the color of
the skin and you want to just slip them
between two fingernails and just peel
off the smaller
ones you can see a cleaned one here it's
uh White there's no more it's uh it's no
more dark stuff on it of course the
larger ones you want to scrape like
peeling uh uh
a
potato and you can see here the darkened
color the exterior
skin and you can see the shavings down
there in the sink where I've cleaned
several of the roots this is actually
the shavings from all of that pile of
roots that was left
over and then you add everything into
the
pot and add salt I I don't add butter
the first time because it uh well the
cost of butter is kind of high and
there's no need at that point because
you're going to you're going to boil
these once with the Pebbles and with the
salt and then you're going to drain off
all of the water and boil them a second
time with more salt and I don't remove
the Pebbles until the final
boil uh you're going to probably want
about an eighth of a cup of salt um this
is a small pot I could probably for sake
of reference uh probably holds
about six or seven maybe six to eight
cups of water total in this pot if that
I I could fit one fist down in it but I
certainly couldn't fit two
it's
[Music]
um
now I didn't
uh I meant to take pictures of the final
product before eating it but
unfortunately for you they I was so
tempted once I pulled them out of the
pot that I completely forgot and so I
ate them and they were quite tasty and I
might add that I had a relative there
who seen me or known of me eating these
things on occasion but this was the
first time they've actually they've seen
them seen me eating them at my house but
they've never seen me prepare them and I
was I was at my mother's house when i'
done this and she actually tried them
and found it quite tasty and uh I uh the
leaves are probably the most edible I re
recommend the leaves and The Roots more
so than the buds flowers or stems
although the flowers are good if you
cook them for an extra duration beyond
the leaves you want to drain the water
the first time add more water and more
salt and then bring them to a bowl
again and uh letting them boil probably
about 10 or 15 minutes on the first and
second boil and then on the final boil
you'll want to remove all of the Pebbles
and you will want to
uh return them again at this point
uh you will boil them uh you'll use less
water you'll use just enough water to if
you place all of the mesh in the pot
you'll have just enough water to skim
the surface of the top you won't have a
full pot of boiling water here and at
this point you want to add uh in this
pot here I probably used a qu4
tablespoon of uh or a
qu about uh yeah 2 tablespoons of uh
butter and I used uh
likewise um I used
uh about uh in the final product about I
don't know maybe a tablespoon of salt
and a tablespoon of garlic powder
although a garlic clove and a little bit
of salt would replace tast this and uh
of course you can just use garlic salt
as well um and again they were quite
tasty so go out find you a plant know
where you're getting it from and try it
out I think you'll find they rather
tasty and
enjoyable and uh I'll try to go out and
Forge for some more treats out there for
you and put this on here I'm my focus at
this point has been to focus on plants
that are available in the entire
continental US rather than a specific
region such as right here in North
Carolina and that's for sake of uh this
coming famine I've been warning people
of for several years and uh the concept
that people may may be not in the same
region as myself at such time and uh
this plant was a staple amongst
survivors amongst uh Pioneers for
survival and uh the early days of this
country as it grows coast to
coast and so my emphasis was on uh the
most immediate needs of people wherever
they are so again thanks for checking
out the video and uh I hope you get up
the courage to go out and try them you
might find there's some good food
growing right there in your own front
yard outside of uh having to go down to
the grocery store and you'll see in this
coming event that food's a little more
prevalent than you think it it is so God
bless those who are truly seeking the
truth and take care of yourselves