Purple Green-Smoothie

Green Smoothies are all the rage.  And for good reason.   Full of Raw and often Wild Greens they are packed with healthy minerals, vitamins and medicinal compounds.   The embodiment of  the Raw Food and Whole Food ideals they are touted for providing enzymes and compounds found only in plants.   When Wild Edibles are used in the Green Smoothie, we are utilizing plants with which we co-evolved.  This co-evolution developing compounds in the plant that nourish us and heal us.

The taste of the Green Smoothie is earthy and tastes like spring, like Nature.  In a sense, it tastes Green.

Today, I mixed it up.  Into my Green Smoothie, containing the usual  suspects including Plantain, Dandelion, Clover and all, I added Wild Blackberries and Huckleberries picked this season, and frozen overnight.  It’s not necessary to freeze them, but it made the Smoothie ice cold and somewhat thicker.   I added to it some cold brewed Green Tea.

The taste was entirely transformed and quite interesting.  Not surprisingly the Berries took front stage, but the Green Tea made it taste lighter and refreshing and kept the Berries from dominating.   I could taste subtle notes of the Wild Edible Greens, like old friends that quitely and reliably stand behind you and “got your back”.

The Cold Brewed Green Tea addition was a nice transforming addition and stretched my smoothie out giving me another glass, which is always appreciated on a hot summer day.

• What ways do you Mix-it up with your Green Smoothies?
• Let us know by clicking the Comments below.
• To see Melissa make a Green Smoothie, check out her video here: Melissa Making Green  Smoothie.

Enjoy,

Jason

Prickly Pear Granita

Summer in the Sonoran Desert.   Hot.  Dry.  Everything that has spikes tries to spike.  And everything has spikes.

I just got back from the Tucson Arizona, right in the Sonoran Desert.  The Desert was in bloom, full of life.  But Wild Edibles?  You bet.  Wild Edibles and Medicinals Abound.

Except for scorpions and Snoopy’s brother Spike, the territory and wildlife was unknown to me.  The first thing I did was go to the Library and check out as many books as I could find.  One of these books, Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest was fantastic and I highly recommend it.

Armed with this book as a guide, I headed into the desert.

Jason in the Sonoran Desert

I found Jojoba, Mesquite, Saguaro Cacti, Agave, Aloe, and Prickly Pear Cacti amongst other desert edibles. The prickly pear cacti were everywhere.   Prickly pear fruit are edible in themselves, but I had another destination in mind.  A Sorbet!  With no sorbet machine, I made a Granita — which is an Italian type of sorbet. You need no machinery except a freezer, a pan and a fork.

The Prickly Pear Cacti were covered with the Edible Cactus Fruits, which in turn were covered with painful spikes. The cactus and fruit are covered with medium sized spines that are obvious. It is also covered with tiny spines called Glochids. Although inconspicuous visually, they don’t go unnoticed! These little glochids hurt. Alot. And they are everywhere.

Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit

Prickly Pear Glochids

Here’s is how I went from Glochid to Granita:

The ripe prickly pear cactus fruits come off the cactus easily. Definitely wear thick gloves or better yet use tongs (I wish I had thought of that at the time). At first I tried to scrape the spines and glochids off with my knife. This works well for the large spines, but takes a too long for the glochids, and you do not want to miss any.

Next I tried to skewer the prickly pear and burn off the glochids over a flame. This worked great, was fast, easy and effective. It also gave a very slight roasted flavor to the finished product which was a pleasant surprise.

Burning Prickly Pear glochids

Next extract the juice. I used a metal strainer lined with a coffee filter and a potato masher.

Prickly Pear - Straining Juice

Water was sweetened with dissolved sugar (2 parts water to 1 part sugar) and this water was mixed equal parts with the juice. This was quite sweet and the sugar could certainly be cut back. Or try it with honey or Agave syrup (made from the agave plant also indigenous to the desert). The juice of 1/2 lemon was added.

That’s it. Experiment with the ratios to get the taste you want.

To make a granita, pour this mixture in flat pan and put into the freezer. Once it starts to form ice crystals, stir with a large fork to break up the ice crystals. Do this every 20-30 minutes.

Finished Prickly Pear Cactus Granita in Pan

To serve scrape the frozen treat with a spoon and serve.

This is a basic sorbet or granita recipe.  Any juice or edible extract can be used.

Recommendations:

• Try using tools so as not to handle the fruits until the glochids are burned off.  Tongs, skewers.
• Put the whole fruit or peeled fruit in a blender and strain that to get the juice.  This would be quicker than what I did.
• Use less sugar or use other natural sweeteners — Agave Syrup, Honey, or add Juice from a sweeter wild edible
• **Freeze the prickly pear fruits (after burning off the glochids).  Then put the whole fruit with some honey and lime juice into a Vitamix blender for an instant and easy Wild Edible Sorbet!

Anyone desert folks with tips?  Please comment below now.

• What’s the best way to handle the prickly pears?
• Any other Prickly Pear Recipes?
• Has anyone had this or other Cactus Fruits?  How about the Saguaro?

Share your knowledge with us by commenting below.

Jason

Wild Greens Crisps

I was vegging on the couch after a long day out and about.  Longing for a nosh, my mind went to Potato Chips –  a habit from years of a commercialized diet.  Luckily I had purged my home of such processed temptations.   I began to shake… withdrawals from Western Junk food.   I was jonesing for a Crunchy-Crispy snack.   I needed a fix.

Luckily I remembered the Wild Edible Recipe Melissa gave me to put into the Newsletter.   The recipe uses Wild Greens to make a Crisp that has so much flavor and zip that it makes the Potato Chip look like a “Couch-Potato” Chip.

It more that satisfies, it nourishes and inspires.   It is Healthy, organic version of a Chip using Wild Herbs and Edible Greens found foraging.   When made with a dehydrator, it is a delicious Raw Food alternative to the potato chip.  You’ll never go back.

The chip is a mix of foraged Wild Edible Greens,  coated with sauce made of Lemon, Garlic, Chili powder and other spices, then dehydrated into a Crisp.  It’s a Raw Food Chip!

I won’t repeat the full details here.  They are available to the members of the Food Under Foot Family.   You can join the family for Free, by subscribing to the Newsletter. When you join you get this recipe and dozens of others AND the 5-part Wild Edible Series eBook which contains wild edible recipes (including raw food recipes), Wild Edible Plant identification information, instructions on making Wild Herb Medicinal Tinctures and Salves and much more!   All this and the Newsletter are FREE.

You’ve enjoyed the Food Under Foot website — you’re going to LOVE the Newsletter and eBook, which goes into greater detail on Wild Plant identification and Edible Plant and Wild Herb education.   The price can’t be beat — it’s Free.   It’s simple — Just put your First name and Email in the Green and Blue box at the TOP-RIGHT of the page and you are on your way — just check your email.

Hope to see you there.   Please join, you’ll get the 5-Part Series and the Crisp Recipe.

Experiment with the recipe, using different greens and seasonings and report your findings here.   COMMENT on this post to share your successful adventures with this recipe.

Take care,

Jason

Don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter list in the box at the top right of every page!

You’ll get tips and updates not available on the website, and THE WILD EDIBLE SERIES eBook as our FREE gift to you.

The ebook goes into great detail in the identification, harvest, preparation, and uses of 5 very common and abundant wild edibles. We discuss some of their uses medicinally and traditional and include great Photos to assist in identification and distinguish from common look-alikes.

Each episode is complete with plenty of Recipes!

People are really pleased with how these have come out.  Here are some of the comments we’ve been receiving:

(I’ve left off some names for privacy as these were sent to us as emails.  If you recognize your quote and want acknowledgment send me an email )

These ebooks are incredibly helpful. I read the one on Burdock, went outside and noticed a nice plant right at the foot of the steps. Thank you for helping me access a bank of information that has been lost in the shuffle of “progress” and modern living. This type of skill only takes one generation to be forgotten. ~R.

I’m in love with the dandelion. It brings back so many childhood memories. I lived in an Italian neighborhood and one of the things I remember them using dandelions for is wine…I love your series of e-books and am enjoying them immensely.  Keep up the good work. ~Rita

First of all, let me say that I LOVE your eBook series!! It is so great to have information on plants that actually grow around my area (I’m on Vancouver Island).   I am real new to this whole thing but very keen on learning as much as I can about what is edible right in our own backyards many times. I have very recently discovered the treats of dandelions. Well, actually, when I was growing up in Saskatchewan my mother used to steam dandelion leaves early in the spring (and they were delicious). But I didn’t know about the flowers and roots part. Frittered dandelion flowers with a sprinkling of sugar and cinnamon … yummmm. I am so pleased to get information from you in my inbox and check your website regularly for other tidbits of info. Please keep up the great work! ~P.

I’m am artist/herbalist/educator in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.  I offer “Wild Walks” and classes on native flora/fauna, wild-eating and cultivating a more natural lifestyle to customers of our local herb shop and guests of my vacation rental.  (You can see me at 1000pointsofpeace.com and my place at riverhousewv.com) I recently was directed to your website by a friend, and am on your email list…Just wanted to say…”Great job!”  Fun and easy website–and Melissa’s wild-walks are just what I do!  Kudos, friends! Keep up the good work! ~K.

I just received my first installment of the “Wild Edible Series” and can I just say WOW! So much more than I ever expected. This is awesome. I found your blog through Wendi Dee of Pure Jeevan and I’m so happy I did. I am a brand new herbalist and love having this to refer to. This morning I watched Melissa’s video on Mugwort and enjoyed that as well. Keep up the good work guys! I only wish you were closer! ~R. Newmarket, NH

This is outstanding!  Just outstanding!  You have done an incredible job!  I love it. ~L.

This is so exciting. My Granddaughter Tiana, 11 years old, has just really got a huge interest in herbs (due to the book series she’s been reading ‘Warrior Cats’.) For Easter I put 10 or 11 seed packs in her basket~~~thrilled her no end… We live in Gold Creek, Montana, where our growing season might make 60 days. We will be putting up a small greenhouse soon. I am so looking forward to your e-mails and the downloadable books. all the best, ~P.

Very cool!  I am so glad someone is putting something like this together.  I wish I had known what burdock was a couple of years ago when it grew wild behind my house and I dug it up and threw it away! Thanks! ~K.

I am loving your series. I have never eaten plantain but will try it now. Stinging nettle is one of my favorites this time of year, steamed with a little butter, sometimes maybe some lemon too. After reading your dandelion recipe, I added pine nuts, what a treat… I missed picking the dandelion to dry or make tincture… I will have to keep it in mind this fall. ~A.

Loving the e-books!  I don’t have anyone locally to ask about foraging my lawn, and this is helping!  Yum! Om Shanti ~F.

I have to say you’re right it is worth it……some beautiful pictures and a great deal of information, I have been looking for some in depth  information on wild edibles in  the part of the country, I’m in Northern Cal. Thank you very much. Looking forward to some more…….. ~C.

This is great!!! ~Phyllis

I am soooo happy you created this site and so grateful to have joined the FoodUnderFoot Family! Keep me posted I am hungry for more! xo ~Cayce

This is a great series, I hope to be able to go out and pick things from using it.  Especially since my garden is in kind of a field, and I spent a lot of time last spring and summer pulling said‘weeds’ out of it!  I think we’re eating the wrong stuff:  the weeds grow by themselves, they are very frost-tolerant, the deer leave them alone, and if the bugs eat them, there’s so many more growing that it doesn’t matter!  The vegetables, though amazing in their own right, are much more fragile… I’m just starting to pick dandelion leaves, and am going to run them through my juicer (with apples for drink-ability!) Thanks a lot for the series. ~M.

Thank you so much for these wonderful e-books.  Some 35 years ago while a college biology major I took a field botany course which changed my life.  Now I am greeting my “old friends” the wild edibles once again! Euell Gibbons wrote several excellent books about eating in the wild, but my favorite was Stalking the Wild Asparagus. I carried a copy of that with me for years until it literally fell apart. Thanks to your e-books I am once again able to access this vital information. I hope that you will continue this excellent series. ~Roberta “Bobbie” Cook, MD.

If you have any feedback on the eBooks, please post them here so everyone can see them!

Take Care and thank you to all for your support and feedback.

~Jason

What’s your favorite wild edible?

Add your comments, your recipe or tips below! (if the comment box isn’t there, click on the word “Comments” immediately below this message.)

Dandelion and Onions Cooking in Pan

This recipe was my first adventure in the Wild Edible Arena.  I came up with it after a forage around town.  It turned out quite nice.  The caramelization of the onions playing well with the earthy greens and crunch of the rich Pine Nuts.

Read The Rest of This Post »

Dandelion with Early Flower

Walking along the roadside near a park in Seattle, I stooped along the edge of the forest to collect some dinner.  Young dandelion greens.  The leaves were jagged and coarsely toothed and arranged in their typical ringed pattern (rosette) right on the ground at the base of the plant (basal).  Growing next to it, was another ring of toothed leaves;  these were hairy, and therefore not dandelions,

Read The Rest of This Post »