Wild Edible Notebook—October release!

October 7, 2013 By Erica M. Davis 3 Comments

The leaves are a’changing and the cool winds have begun to blow. Still, foraging season continues into October, and with it, a new-and-improved Wild Edible Notebook blows into town.

October 2013 brings many exciting changes to the Notebook, including a new look-and-feel with an improved cover and 2-column layout, designed to look better overall and also to improve viewing on smart phone devices. And, October 2013 and all future issues are available for iPad and iPhone in the Apple Newsstand! Improvements to the PDF versions include a wider screen reading PDF, a new 2-sided print-and-fold PDF designed to print on legal (8.5” x 14”) paper, and an Android-formatted PDF.

The October 2013 issue dives deep into rosehips, the fruits that develop at the bases of wild and domesticated roses. Not only are rosehips an excellent source of vitamin C, but they also lend themselves to numerous culinary preparations. Next is the tale of my mission to dry dandelion leaves for winter, inspired by the idea to make a nutritious green powder described by Colorado forager Katrina Blair of Turtle Lake Refuge. This edition also includes a review of Practical Herbs, a medicinal plant how-to by renowned Finland-based herbalist Henriette Kress, which will soon be followed by the book’s sequel, Practical Herbs 2. There are a handful of rosehip recipes by yours truly as well as my Colorado-based partner in crime, Butter. There’s a rosehip coloring page on the print version, and an announcement about the 3rd Annual Florida Herbal Conference, coming up in February/March of 2014, in all of them.

The procedure for downloading the Wild Edible Notebook has changed. Please visit the Wild Edible Notebook page for information on subscribing to the iPad/iPhone or PDF versions for $1.99/month. Your support makes the continued development of this publication possible, both on the content and technical sides.

To download a free issue of the Wild Edible Notebook and stay abreast of future developments, please join the email list by filling out your info at the very bottom of the website. Thanks!

Comments

jim mcgowan says
October 8, 2013 at 10:56 am

thank you
Kassandra Power says
October 8, 2013 at 6:59 pm

thanks
Debbie Barnhart says
July 27, 2019 at 5:48 am

Looking forward to expanding from garlic focus to identifying and sustainably harvesting local wild edibles!

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2 days ago

I took myself on a solo road trip to Nevada last week, and I’m so happy I did! I have been studying pinyon pines, primarily our local two-needle pinyon (Pinus edulis), but I wanted to check out the singleleaf pinyons (P. monophylla) of the Great Basin too. They are having a mast year there, so the trees and ground were covered with pinyon nuts of many colors, shapes, and sizes. Even better, when I pulled into the campground I met a nice Navajo couple up from Arizona to do the same, so we camped and harvested pinyons together for a couple days.

It is a Navajo belief that if you shake the trees, early winter will come—so we just gathered from the ground, talking and telling stories to pass the time. I am embarrassed to say it took some work to keep up with my new 65 and 70-year-old friends, who could go for 6 hours straight. But I learned so much—how they winnowed out the blanks, and roasted and salted pinyon nuts to perfection, not to mention other things like how various other plants are used for medicine, food, and utility, and how to make ash bread and fry bread and nixtamalize corn with juniper ash.

I am counting my blessings for such a wonderful and unexpected experience with new friends—and of course, all the pinyones I’m stuffing my face with right now. ... See MoreSee Less

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1 week ago

Here is a neat plant I found for the first time on my cross-country trip last week—purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata). I first read about this plant in Kelly Kindscher’s book, Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie. Then Sam Thayer chose it to grace the cover of his latest book, Incredible Wild Edibles (2017), and of course included a very useful account.

This relative of common mallow (Malva neglecta) is also low-growing with leaves that are similarly structured, but more deeply lobed. It is also known as “prairie winecups” for its pretty flowers, which I was glad to find too.The green parts and flowers are edible, as is the taproot. Sadly, I didn’t find a place to dig any purple poppy mallow on my trip. The first place I found it had only a couple specimens, and this native perennial should only be dug where there is a healthy population, preferable one that needs thinning, Sam writes. The second spot had a decent-sized population in the mowed grass along an Arby’s parking lot, but I didn’t think Arby’s would love it if I dug up their lawn. So, next time!

Sam shows eastern Colorado as the starting point (headed east) for this Great Plains species, but I didn’t find any in Colorado. The two populations I found were in central Nebraska. These are often cultivated as landscaping plants too. ... See MoreSee Less

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2 weeks ago

Hello fellow pine nut hunters! I’m curious to hear how your season has been going. Here where I gather in Colorado, in spring it was looking to be a great year, as our local Colorado or New Mexico pinyon (Pinus edulis) were well-crusted in fat, green cones. Then, seemingly owing to the lack of rain in late summer, a lot them “browned out,” the cones turning brown, shrinking, and in some cases dropping prematurely.

Still, a good grove remains where I’ve been collecting green cones over the last month—a harvest method used by tribes to the west in singleleaf pinyon (P. monophylla) country. These I laid to dry in flat boxes, and they have been opening up in the last couple weeks, to release seeds both viable and empty, as to be expected.

Yesterday, after a weeklong trip I returned to the pinyon-juniper to find that the cones on the trees were opening—but all were empty of viable nuts, and I couldn’t find any good ones on the ground either. To me this says, due to the lean year surrounding my particular grove: 1) the woodland animals are getting them as soon as they open if not before, and 2) it may not be a good year for tree-shaking or collecting from the ground (in that location). I walked a ways through the woodland and couldn’t find one candidate I wanted to lay my tarp under.

So I’m curious: Does this sound like your pinyon grove too? What are your observations? Thanks! ... See MoreSee Less

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