Forage Friday – Page 5 – LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC

Forage Friday #114 Elderberry

Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Elderberry 62321a” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.

Please remember that Forage Friday is presented as trivia and not to be mistaken for medical advice.

There are few plants in the world that carry the reputation of the Elderberry bush. They are associated with sweet treats, powerful medicine, deadly poison and even music. As a child while walking the fences with my grandfather we noticed an elderberry bush growing up through the fence and being the inquisitive youngster that I was I asked him about berries. He grinned widely and began to recount how growing up in the Great Depression he had elderberry for breakfast. On those occasions when they had breakfast cereal and the elderberry was available he along with his brothers and sisters would sprinkle a few elderberries in their breakfast. He reached out and shook one of the berry clusters into his hand to obtain a small sample for me to try. And they were delicious!

Now I should probably point out that there are different varieties of elderberries. Red varieties of elderberry have to be cooked to rid them of toxins and all varieties carry a toxin in the stems, roots and bark that induces cyanide poisoning. Fortunately the fruit of native elderberries that are black or purple is edible straight from the bush and it’s those varieties that I’m focusing on in this post.

Elderberries as an edible are extremely versatile. They can be eaten as described above. Juiced and enjoyed as a drink Elderberries provide a powerhouse of antioxidants. A cup of the raw berries provide large amounts of vitamins A and C as well as iron, calcium, Potassium and folate. That same cup of little black berries will also give you about a third of the recommend fiber.

A shot of the Elderberry flower and leaves. Notice that the leaves are compound leaves and grow in the opposite pattern.

Traditionally the flowers are also edible as fritters. A simple egg and flower batter with a little salt and pepper to taste and fried in butter is a great addition for most meals. No need to worry too much about the toxins since they are cooked out but don’t include too much stem. This video has little bit more of a fancy recipe than the basic one I described but it looks awesome.

Going back to the berries a few good ideas I’ve encountered have been various sauces and jams. One in particular that was mentioned was an elderberry sauce that was served hot over vanilla ice cream.

And if you have a simple syrup you can add it to carbonated water for a unique soft drink.

Elderberry is also made into a medicinal syrup. It’s my understanding that doing this with low heat is important to preserve the phenols that are responsible for the medicinal values. According to PubMed a randomized study of elderberry extract shows that people using the elderberry recover four days sooner from the flu than those who got the placebo.

Early in my interest in the medicinal values of plants I came across a compound that called for one part mint, one part yarrow and one part elderberry flowers. ( the dried flowers lose their toxins just like when they’re cooked. ) over using yarrow can lead to sun sensitivity so please do further research before attempting this compound.

Propagation of elderberry is fairly simple. Take a cutting about eighteen inches long. The cut should be on a forty five degree angle and about two inches below the buds. Jam it into fertil moist soil and let it grow.

Friends that’s it for tonight. Good night and be blessed throughout your days.

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Forage Friday #113 Nannyberry

Color Photography, Forage Friday, wildlife

Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Nannyberry 61621” and was taken specifically for Forage Friday. All photos found on my website are my original work unless otherwise specified and are available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.

Please remember that Forage Friday is presented as trivia and not to be mistaken for medical advice.

Thunder rolls through the ridges and hollers of my Appalachian Mountains and the skies pour out their water in great sheets. The Spring shower lasts only a few minutes and soon the birds return from their shelters. By the time I take up the trail the landscape is mostly dry again. Near the edge of the small lake the bright white clusters of small flowers glistens in the bright afternoon sun. Though the nannyberry is nearly twenty feet tall the presence of multiple stems classifies it a shrub and not a tree. And this one is loaded with bloom. The umbel cluster of small flowers are reminiscent of elderberry and hydrangeas or maybe the silky dogwood. Like the silky dogwood nannyberry yields a cluster of dark colored fruit and red fall leaves in the fall.

The edible part of nannyberry is of course the fruit which is described as sweet and somewhat a mix between a prune and a banana. In fact one of the names given to nannyberry is “sweet viburnum”. Nannyberry of course being a type of viburnum. (⚠️ some types of viburnum are toxic. ) It’s generally recommended that the berries are crushed and the hard seeds processed out. The puree is then made into a variety of things like sauces and puddings and even cakes. The usefulness of nannyberry, attractive flowers and colorful fall leaves make nannyberry a great opportunity for those who practice edible landscaping.

Medicinal values include as an antispasmodic made from the bark. The leaves were made into an infusion for treating measles. And as a diuretic,

That’s it for tonight’s #foragefriday Friends.

Good night and be blessed throughout your days!

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Forage Friday #112 – Indian Cucumbers

Color Photography, Forage Friday

Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Indian Cucumber In Bloom 61521” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.

Please remember that Forage Friday is presented as trivia and not to be mistaken for medical advice. Furthermore, please remember to respect landowners and public parks when foraging. Always obtain permission from landowners and keep in mind that most parks strictly forbid foraging.

Just beyond the edge of the tall forest there’s a place where the light is not too bright but not too dim. It’s in this area that the Indian Cucumbers grow. They love rich open forest. However, they’re not really abundant everywhere so they should only be harvested when found in abundance. And if you have access to land where they grow well it might be worth learning how to propagate them.

Image shows Indian Cucumbers flourishing in open forest.

Most of my sources say that the tubers are the part that you can eat although one source stated that the leaves are also edible. The flavor is like a Cucumber. I’m not really a big fan of Cucumbers myself but have sampled this root in the past and I found that it’s a little milder than a real Cucumber. The tubers are about the size of most people’s pinky finger which makes it worth a harvest if found in sufficient numbers.

Medicinally the Indian Cucumber is said to have anticonvulsant properties and was as such by Native Americans and specifically for children.

Indian Cucumber growing near a colony of ferns. They seem to enjoy the same growing conditions. Notice the whorl of leaves at the base.

In August Indian Cucumber will have purplish waxy berries. A few sources say that Indian Cucumber has no wildlife value but I suspect that pheasants and Turkeys may disagree. Nevertheless, because the plant isn’t really found in great numbers this is one that I would consider for a wild edibles garden or even a Guerilla Garden in the Eastern United States. ( If you plan to Guerilla Garden please select native plants and avoid invasive species. )The recommended method is to collect the ripe berries and start them in a cold frame. When you re-wild them try to memic the growth patterns they were found in. They are usually found in loose colonies with a clump of plants here and there in rich sandy soil. When collecting the seeds look up and around. Take note of the trees and other companion plants that were present with the parent plants. This last part is a good idea for any wild plants you’re going to propagate. As noted in last night’s post about Indian Pipes many wild plants require a combination of fungus and trees to do well. If a section of forest has the same trees, shrubs and soil then it’s likely that the fungus is there too. The symbiotic fungus is going to actively be searched for new connections and will likely bond to the new plants. And even if you’re like me and don’t really care for the Cucumber flavor this is a native species that should be preserved for the future. That’s it for tonight’s Forage Friday!

Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.

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Forage Friday #111 Wild Hydrangeas

Color Photography, Forage Friday

Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Wild Hydrangeas 60921a”. All photos found on my website are my original work unless otherwise specified and are available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.

Please remember that Forage Friday is presented as trivia and not to be mistaken for medical advice.
⚠️ Wild Hydrangeas are associated with gastrointestinal distress, Dizziness and chest pain. Peterson’s Field Guide says that hydrangeas produce a cyanide like poisoning.

Late Spring and Early Summer are almost indistinguishable on my mountain. We normally awaken to the sound of rain and a roll of thunder as my little buddy Scout (my dog) snuggles closer for safety.

As the day progresses the sun reclaims the rain as mists that rise from the ridges and hollers. The forest is lush and green from the replenishment of the sun/rain cycle. It’s at this time that the trails and edges begin to sprout clusters of little white flowers.

While wild hydrangeas are listed as edible in some sources they don’t really rank well as a food. Nevertheless they have been consumed. (See Warning above) The twigs and branches are used in teas and the new growth can be peeled and boiled until tender. Then removed from the water and fried. I presume that the boiling process is intended to be an attempt to remove toxins as well as softening the cellulose to a point where it can be chewed and swallowed. But it doesn’t seem to have been used often as a food. In fact a very large amount of it can result in poisoning.

Where Hydrangeas seem to come into their own is in medicinal values. There isn’t a large range of uses as with most plants that I cover. It’s mostly used as a treatment for urinary issues as a diuretic. The roots are valued by diggers who sell them to the supplement industry. And my honest opinion is that the selling of the roots is probably the best way to benefit from wild hydrangeas unless you’re a beekeeper converting the bloom into honey and propolis. If you read the warning above ( And you really should.) You’ll see that it does seem to have an effect on the cardiovascular system. Native Americans did in fact use wild hydrangeas as a heart medicine. They also seemed to use it topically for burns, sprains and muscle soreness.

So would I actually use hydrangeas? Well, in an apocalyptic situation where I had no other choice I might. Otherwise I think that our Appalachian forest has so many different plants that offer the same benefits without the hazards that it’s not really worth the risks. Now there is a Japanese variety that is being looked into as a treatment for diabetes and malaria but that doesn’t mean that all varieties will be acceptable for this use.

That’s it for tonight’s #foragefriday. Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.

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Forage Friday #110 Daisy Fleabane

Color Photography, Forage Friday, wildlife

Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Daisy Fleabane 51821” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.

Please remember that Forage Friday is presented as trivia and not to be mistaken for medical advice.

Among the native wildflowers that grace my mountain the daisy fleabane has always been one of the most welcomed. It typically shows up as a small rosette of wooly leaves just before the grass really starts to turn green. The hair on the young leaves is velvety and soft to the touch. The stem is also quite fuzzy and soon shoots up to around two feet tall give or take a few inches. It’s one of the first plants to flower in spring and the blooms seem to last until the climate finds its summer heat. The flower is a greenish yellow disk and what we commonly call the petals is white tinged with pinks and purples. Being a member of the compositae family the daisy fleabane flower is actually a cluster of little tiny flowers. Each little bump in the disk and every one of those petals is it’s own individual flower.

It’s most likely that fuzzy coat that prevents us from considering daisy fleabane as part of our vegetable garden. But it is considered an edible plant. I’ve not worked up the nerve to try it myself but those who have tell me that it has a peppery flavor. The edible part is the leaves which are boiled like spinach. It’s also said that it should be mixed with other ingredients such as basswood leaves or buds to help conceal the fuzzy texture.

But why would we want to add those fuzzy leaves to a meal in the first place if we have more palatable options to bulk up the pot? Well, Hippocrates advised to let food be our medicine and medicine to be our food. And the main things that fleabane seems to bring to the table is it’s medicinal values.

Some of my own hesitancy in trying fleabane comes from it’s name. I’d always assumed that because of it’s name that it contains some toxic components that are so offsetting that not even a bug would touch it. And it’s true that the plant was once dried and placed in bags and used as a sachet in a belief that it repelled fleas. However, the plant is neither toxic to fleas or humans. The whole thing was simply marketing. But I have an idea of where someone got the idea that fleabane would repell fleas.

In all of online sources that I reviewed fleabane is listed as an anti-inflammatory. As such it’s reasonable to presume that it was commonly used to relieve itchy bug bites such as one might receive from a flea. An association was made between the use of the plant and the source of the itch and the sachet was invented in hopes of preventing the bites.

The secret of fleabane’s anti-inflammatory power lies not in the power to repel anything but in it concentration of Caffeic Acid . As you might suspect Caffeic Acid is found in coffee but it’s not caffeine and coffee only has modest levels of Caffeic Acid. And Caffeic Acid is actually found in a wide variety of foods including thyme, sage, spearmint, apple sauce and even barley.

According to various articles Caffeic Acid may help improve athletic performance and weight loss, help with viral infections like HIV and Herpes and even help prevent different types of cancer.

Herbalism commonly uses fleabane in the form of a tea. The teas are said to help with tumors, bronchitis, kidney stones, bleeding from the bowels and digestive tract, nosebleeds and diabetes. Peterson’s Field Guides also warn that some people could suffer contact dermatitis from handling fleabane. I have never suffered any ill effects from just touching fleabane though.

I also see quite a few comments from folks that are active on Facebook and MeWe wild food groups and plant ID groups that praise fleabane as an edible. So if you are one of those people I’d love to hear about your experience with fleabane as an edible or wild medical plant. You can comment on the social media post or at the bottom of each blog post.

Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days!

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