The forest bottomland is not just for bathing in nature; you can actually dine there. Our indigenous predecessors did. They viewed plants and other species as equals with much to teach us. As Robin Kimmerer has observed in her book Braiding Sweetgrass, “plants know how to make food and medicine from light and water, and then they give it away.” Indigenous people foraged for edible and medicinal wild plants which they cultivated from seed as they migrated. Many of those plants are still available just outside the levee you crossed coming to the Buckeye Trail or in the sunlit spots on the trail.
So, what’s on the menu?
- Dewberry (Rubus flagellaris). A tasty berry and its leaves in the early spring can be dried for tea. Also, young tender shoots in the early spring can be peeled and eaten raw. The scraped and dried summer root was used by Native Americans in a bitter-tasting tea for children with bowel trouble.
- Curly Dock (Rumex crispus) root was used for treatment of skin disease. Consumption of curly dock in large quantities can cause liver damage, but tea from the root is a liver cleanser useful for those who are recovering from alcoholism or chemotherapy
- Cleaver (Bedstraw) (Galium aparine) can be made into a tea from dried stems and leaves and is used as a diuretic or as a lymph cleanser. Young shoots can be added to salads and eaten raw but have a more desirable texture for eating when boiled first. Native Americans and settlers both commonly molded the clinging shoots into a bunch allowing them to be used as a strainer and as stuffing for mattresses.
- Common mullein (Verbascum thapsus). The first year, dried leaves can be used to make a tea for asthma and respiratory problems. The second year leaves and flowers can be used. Some individuals are reported to experience relief from respiratory problems within a few days of regular consumption. Pour 1 cup of water over 1-2 teaspoons of dried mullein leaves or flowers. Steep for 15 minutes before drinking. Inhaling steam from a bowl of hot water and dried mullein may help loosen mucous in the airways. The roots can be used too as a tincture for incontinence or bedwetting. For a tincture, fill a small jar halfway with vodka. Add the root and shake the jar daily. Strain after 14 days and store in a dropper bottle.
- Wavy-leafed thistle (Cirsium undulatum). Use gloves and collect stems with a long-handled knife. Scissors can be used to cut off the spines before leaves, which taste like celery or asparagus, are peeled and eaten raw or cooked. The leaves can also be used as a pot herb. Thistles can easily spread so cut off the seed heads if growing them in a garden so that they will not become established in a neighboring property. Note: there are only 3 species of edible thistle; those with milky white sap are not edible.
- Mustang grapes (Vitis mustangensis) need a lot of sugar to make the tart fruit into jelly, preserves, and wine. Leaves and young tendrils of the Mustang grape are also edible when cooked. They are reported to be delicious when harvested green and prepared in a spicy brine (like olives.) They often grow on hackberry trees.
- Common hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) and sugarberry (Celtis laevigata). Hackberry tree fruit is edible. The Dakota were known to pound up the hard stone and the fruit of the hackberry to use as a seasoning for meat. The edible seed is rich in protein and fats but is extremely hard. When eating hackberries, crunch through the entire fruit, including the pit. It may feel like you are going to break your teeth, but for most people it is just fine. Sugarberry fruits are juicer and sweeter and the leaves are narrower with mostly smooth margins. It is less winter hardy than common hackberry. The hackberry fruit ripens in the fall.
- Wild onion (Allium canadense). All wild onions are safe to eat if they smell like onions. Onion flowers are delicious on the grill.
wild onion
Always sample a small amount of any new food and wait 48 hours before eating more.
Make sure you are harvesting from non-polluted sources, away from roads, and where no pesticides or other contaminants may have been used.
Scientific or traditional knowledge about plant medicine included above is not intended as medical advice.
References include:
- Kelly Kindsher’s ethnobotanical guides Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie and Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie;
- An educational walk on the Buckeye Trail with Bob Richie, a local forager and Master Naturalist
- Listings from historical versions of US Pharmacopeia
