Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

by landlubber Sun Feb 05, 2017 3:20 pm

I have often wondered how many people realise that it's possible to find food and medicines free and growing in the great out doors. Although I have a reasonable knowledge of what can be found out there in our beautiful countryside, I am still learning about the natural medicines to be found. As with anything ingested from the wild, the most important aspect is that we shouldn't touch anything that is growing close to roadsides because of pollution from passing traffic. Even then, care must be taken when identifying plants, since although there are plentiful types that can cure, then are quite a number that can kill you or make you very ill indeed. The variety of plants is staggering and although most are seen as weeds to most who find them, there are many who uses as medicines go back centuries.

This is just the beginning of a series concerning Food for Free and Medicines from the Wild...

by **daveiron** Sun Feb 05, 2017 3:47 pm

Indeed LL,
One of my grand daughters is being home schooled ,and this autumn i have been taking her out once a week & we have been studying fungi.
while we are out we also collect chesnuts etc She is in Australia for a few weeks at the moment & her mother tells me she is finding fungi there and will i.d. them when she returns.which is great as it shows she is taking a real interest in the subject.I'm getting her a microscope and next we will do insects .
TBH i am getting a lot out of this myself as we really seem to have bonded so much more, & i look forward to our trips.

by **assassin** Mon Feb 06, 2017 1:37 am

Foraging is a great source of food LL and the only way to learn about it is doing it, mushrooms in abundance, fresh water cress, blackberries and wild raspberries in abundance as well as apples, pears, damsons, peaches, and many more things can be found within 15 minutes of my door.

by landlubber Mon Feb 06, 2017 2:38 pm

You're absolutely right, Dave, all of these things are an amazing way of bonding with someone who is close to us. Most women in general are frightened off by spiders and wasps etc, but when my partner and I go out seeking these creatures in order to photograph them every year, the change in attitude towards these insects and other bugs was awesome. Now she can't wait to get out there and wade in amongst these once scary creatures without so much as a second thought.

As far plants and wild edibles, I began studying my local botany back in the early 80's and learned to identify plants by their botanical names, more than 600 of them I hasten to add. Oddly enough, I have never come across peaches among my discoveries, Assassin, but then it takes a lot to survive the harsh Peak District weather, though it has improved during the past couple of decades. Wild strawberries are in abundance all around this area, though tiny by comparison to shop bought fruits, which are actually quite tasteless, the wild cousin is packed with a taste that is never forgotten for its about a half a centimeter size or more, and these are within 7/8 minutes of my door. Very Happy

by **assassin** Mon Feb 06, 2017 6:44 pm

I regularly go off roading in the Peak District LL and you can make a nourishing meal from what you can find there if you know what to look for, the horseradish is amazing and you just pick it when in season.

by landlubber Thu Feb 09, 2017 12:09 am

The Bramble Rubus fruiticosus widely known as the Blackberry, has around 320 micro-species in Britain alone, so it is of little wonder that it is so widespread and popular when it ripens into the tasty morsel during the Summer months and well into late Autumn. Just as there is such a wide variety, the same applies to its size and taste. One thing is sure, it's delicious and it's one of our most sought after free Wild foods.

Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild <a href=

Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild <a href=

Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild Autumnal-blackberry-flowers3_zpsnled6rvm

" />

Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild Autumnal-blackberry-flowers2_zps4m1cv800

" />

by landlubber Thu Feb 09, 2017 12:12 am

So few people ever consider eating wild plants, Assassin, it's why there's always so much to be found for those like us who appreciate this rich bounty. Very Happy

by **urchinatheart** Thu Feb 09, 2017 8:48 pm

Wild food is the absolute best way to get vitamins and minerals, as the plants are growing in a spot they chose to thrive in, not the depleted soils of farm fields. Also, wild plants often have root sytems capable of drawing up minerals from sub-soils and below, e.g Dandelion, Burdock and Nettles.Wild green leaves are probably the richest source of the nutrients most of us lack,any bitter tastes can be overcome by blending them with sweet fruits and water to make smoothies.
Two books to get you started "How to Enjoy your Weeds" by Audrey Wynn-Hatfield and " British Flora in Colour" (or New British Flora) by W.Keble Martin give accurate depictions and detailed descriptions so you can avoid toxic mistakes. Both books available on Amazon very cheaply and packed with info.

by landlubber Fri Feb 10, 2017 7:58 pm

Hi urchinatheart. I bought my first copy of W. keble Martin's book way back in 1981 when I was learning all about my local flora. There is one point that I feel that I should bring up here, it's that all wild foods, herbs and natural medicines should be thoroughly washed before consuming it, just to try and clean off any chemicals that maybe present from chemtrail spraying. Best to play it safe rather than to be sorry.

by landlubber Fri Feb 10, 2017 11:33 pm

Rubus Tricolor Known as Chinese Creeping Bramble. While technically not a wild plant as such, it does grow wild in many places where birds are likely to have spread the seed from eating the fruit. I have this growing in my garden as a result of tossing the ripe fruit over freshly dug soil. One thing to note it's that it spreads rapidly once it takes a hold. Not unattractive with its darkish to light evergreen leaves that are rough to the touch because the coating of darkish hairs, it likes to ramble through other shrubs. The fruit itself is delicious and is about the size of a raspberry and actually better tasting too, imo. Very Happy

Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild Chinese%20Bramble%20Rubus%20tricolor_zpsnr0yf2w6

" />

by landlubber Fri Feb 10, 2017 11:35 pm

Just for those who may be wondering...No, these berries are not growing in my garden. They are close to a local canal. Laughing

by landlubber Sat Feb 11, 2017 12:06 am

Hairy Bittercress Cardamine hirsuta This almost instantly recognizable plant grows almost everywhere and anywhere. It flowers from March to September, but its rosette of leaves can be seen on almost every month of the year. It has a taste that is sweeter than watercress and the whole plant can be eaten. Very Happy

Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild Hairy%20Bittercress%20Cardamine%20hirsuta_zpswcnxyxq8

" />

by **assassin** Sat Feb 18, 2017 2:53 am

LL, the small fruit are great for jam making as they have a slightly darker colour usually, and instead of cutting them up you can use them whole so you get a lot more flavour and a whole strawberry in a bite.

by **Society of the Spectacle** Sat Feb 25, 2017 2:54 pm

This guy was a student of the Famous Dr Sebi.
Here he talks of the benefits of Tamarind , from under Dr Sebis favourite Tamarind Tree,

by landlubber Sat Feb 25, 2017 4:09 pm

assassin wrote:LL, the small fruit are great for jam making as they have a slightly darker colour usually, and instead of cutting them up you can use them whole so you get a lot more flavour and a whole strawberry in a bite.

Absolutely right on that, assassin, I once picked an almost full cereal bowl full of them and put them in a jelly for my then young children. The taste is phenomenal and shop bought strawberries are tasteless by comparison. For me at the time, they were just too small to cut up and I never bother even nowadays to do it. There are so many places nearby where I can pick them, I actually look forward to the harvest every year. Yummy! Very Happy

by **assassin** Sat Feb 25, 2017 7:23 pm

I grow the loganberry up against a wall at home and they are brilliant, great taste, good size, and they grow in rubbish ground.

Made a feed up from comfrey steeping in water and fed them with it once and they went ballistec and yielded much more fruit.

by Waffle Mon Mar 27, 2017 11:02 pm

This is a great thread, sourcing free food is just another legacy lost though the generations. Although these skills have largely been lost they are not forgotten and there are lots of teachings we can use to rebuild these skills.

I have some experience with foraging and am building on these skill to hand back to the next generation.

Spring is a great time for foraging, especially for greens. Some people I have met don't buy any greens from spring to autumn, perhaps they have a little more time on their hands than others.

I had a fantastic 10 mile walk through the country side over the weekend, lots of fresh spring growth. I picked nettles, dandelion leaves, cleavers, young bramble leaves and had a fortunate find which was wild garlic.

Nettles are a superfood, packed densely with vitamins and minerals, cleavers are excellent for cleansing, particularly for the glands and highly recommended for healing if you are or have suffered with glandular fever, bramble leaves are high in vitamins, garlic was for flavour, and dandelion you'll have to look into.

Depending on the location of the foraged food i will either blanch or steep to cook. If its low down (which I try to avoid) then it gets blanced, otherwise a slow steep to retain the vital nutrients. If you want you can also drink the water after cooking. A lot of nutrients are leeched from the plants into the fluid, as with reverse osmosis.

Mine were made into a wild food salad with a honey and mustard dressing.

by **Lopsum** Mon Mar 27, 2017 11:37 pm

nice

Nettles are very good , researched for 46 diseases http://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/nettle
cleavers - sticky willie , hadnt thought about eating that before now , tiny bit of research on this http://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/cleavers
black berrys are v good vs sodium flouride toxicity , again id never thought about the leaves. great post!
Btw the site im linking has a database of "pub med" research papers relating to natural substances

by Waffle Tue Mar 28, 2017 12:12 am

Medicine on our doorstep, fascinating over 50 scientific studies on nettles, one was its positive effects on prostate cancer..... Great links, that kind of information should really encourage us to be more proactive with sourcing free food.

Ive been trying to include a little macrobiotics into my diet. What they encourage is whole foods, by that they mean if you eat a carrot, for example, eat the carrot greens too. The plants come as one and should be eaten as one, as a whole, whole food. Dandelions would be geode to try, the root, leaves and flower..... A whole food. Theres a few more months until the berries are ready and brambles are difficult for obvious reasons, but we can eat the young green leaves, which are also the most nutritious.

Theres some interesting info, about nettle root and its benefits for the prostate and urinary tract which would nicely contribute your links lopsum, but I can't yet post them. And how to eat nettles raw.... Raw nettles as a whole food, It'll take some courage to try that!

by **Lopsum** Tue Mar 28, 2017 12:25 am

ill go tick your permissions Very Happy

by **Lopsum** Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:06 am

http://easyhealthoptions.com/stinging-nettle-root-for-enlarged-prostate/
i also saw that nettle seeds have some benefits too.
Time to make some nettle wine for next winter , nettle tea in the mean time. http://www.greenmedinfo.com/article/influence-temperature-and-brewing-time-nettle-infusions-vitamin-c-content

by **assassin** Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:16 am

Waffle:

By using any of the above you are creating prevention and often dont need a cure for something as you have prevented it in the first place.

They always say prevention is better than cure dont they?

by Waffle Tue Mar 28, 2017 5:04 pm

Nettle wine and tea, you could make a cook book just for nettles, don't miss out nettle chips tho.... Very Happy

Absolutely Assassin, prevention is far better than the cure keep telling people that, we have all forgotten how to prevent disease and are always looking for the cure instead. Thats decades and probably centuries of sorcery from the Pharma companies.... Preventions don't make the right people money. Marketing the cures is what they do, ill defiantly go eat some raw nettles if I see an advert on tv "forget these pills for every ill, eat wild nettles to prevent prostate cancer"

I wonder how much it would cost to get an ad like that broadcast......!!

by **assassin** Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:36 pm

Many people do forget prevention Waffle, and this is where they play into the hands of the system. I personally prefer the other way of preventing prostate cancer, much more fun.

by Sponsored content

Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Bramble the humble Blackberry

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild

Re: Food for Free and natural medicines from the wild