Like most medicinal herbs, Heal All was cast aside by modern medicine more than a century ago in favor of synthetic pharmaceuticals. Plant medicines have been considered by most physicians and pharmacists in the past hundred years to be unreliable folk tales at best, and dangerous at worst. Even among the herbal medicine community, Heal All was marginalized to a second-tier herb in favor of more powerful and trendy plants. But modern science may be vindicating it.
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 8/1 - Sarsaparilla
The fact that these plants are valuable as wild edibles and medicinals are evidence that God doesn’t create anything without a purpose, and that everything that grows in the forests and fields has a use… because I absolutely despise them.
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 7/25 - Maypop Passionflower
“Before all children everywhere became locked on iPad screens, kids in the country used to have fights with green maypops. They’re a uniform shape and easy to throw accurately, and they raise a good welt if you throw them hard. They make an awesome hand grenade if you’re nine years old and have an active imagination. (I may or may not be speaking from experience.)”
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 7/18 - Fleabane
“And all those paintings, books, and movies depicting pretty medieval peasant girls with a sprig of the daisy-like flowers tucked behind their ear or woven into crown? They were trying to keep fleas out of their hair, which was a constant problem in the Middle Ages. Attractive, right?”
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 7/4 - White Pine
“The true American answer to overbearing authority is defiance, not obedience. After all, they were willing to pick a fight with the British Crown over a tree.”
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 6/27 - Blackberry
“Although they grow all over the world, blackberries are about as all-American as it gets. They’re a part of our culture, especially in the South. I have many fond memories of picking blackberries with friends and family, and then enjoying a cobbler fresh out of the oven with vanilla ice cream that evening.”
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 6/13 - Dewberry
Some plants that we’ve covered in the past, while they’ll keep you alive and might even be highly nutritious, really just taste awful. But then there are those that are not only passable, but delicious.
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 6/6 - Henbit Deadnettle
So named because chickens absolutely love it, it’s very closely related to Purple Deadnettle from a few months ago, and the two can be used interchangeably. Consider it a 2-for-1 deadnettle deal: If you can learn how to use one, you know how to use the other by default.
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 5/16 - Wood Sorrel
“In an ironic twist of fate which we find highly entertaining, some of the fanciest restaurants in New York, L.A., Atlanta, and elsewhere serve wood sorrel as a garnish or a dish to complement meals that would be worth a few day’s pay for us.”
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 5/9 - Lyre-Leaf Sage
Native Americans and early pioneers held to the belief that “like cured like.” So, since lyre-leaf sage spreads quickly and aggressively over the ground like a cancer, it naturally made sense to use it to treat the disease.
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 5/2 - Ground Ivy
It’s the herpes of the plant world – once you’ve got it… you’ve got it. It’s nearly impossible to kill, and most conventional weed removal methods actually help it spread. But here at SARCRAFT, we have a solution: Eat it.
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 4/11 - Indian Strawberry
Spoiler alert: It's not really a strawberry.
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 3/28 - Wild Mustard
During the oppressive, impoverished years of Reconstruction in the South, mustard greens made up a large part of the diet of most poor farmers in rural areas, like my ancestors in the west end of Pickens County.
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 3/21 - Common Blue Violet
Violets have a long association with the coming of spring in various cultures throughout the world, which is not surprising as they’re one of the first flowers to brave the cold and bloom out in late winter.
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 3/14 - White Clover
"The shamrock became a symbol of rebellion, worn proudly by Irish freedom fighters attempting to throw off the oppressive English rule... a three-leaved middle finger to the British Crown for the whole world to see."
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 3/7 - Eastern Redbud
"Many tribes also had a tradition of decorating their dwellings with redbud wreaths and twigs, to help “drive out the spirit of winter” and bring on planting time."
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 2/21 - Yucca
"Yucca has several survival and bushcraft uses, and they’re all really, really cool. Three particular ones stand out, however."
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 2/14 - Wild Onion
"One of the most effective traditional uses of the plant is to crush up the leaves and rub down your whole body with them – it’s a surefire way to repel ticks, mosquitoes, biting flies, fleas, and other humans."
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 1/31 - Creeping Cedar
"The first fossil records we have of this species are from the Carboniferous period, about 400 million years ago. Remains of this exact plant are being burned as coal this very day."
Read more#WildEdibleWednesday 1/17 - Black Walnut
"Poachers will sneak onto a property in the middle of the night, cut down a walnut tree, and steal it... So if you have some of these trees on your property, our advice to you is to keep a good hold on your walnuts. Don’t want nobody touchin’ your walnuts without permission."
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