The Rural Voice, 1979-05, Page 44the rural
Family
Wild Ginger
The feast in our fields:
By Alice Gibb
Solomon's Seal casserole, pink
clover mead, marsh marigold
rolls and wild spinach soup aren't
recipes you're likely to find in
your standard cookbook.
But they are recipes found in
the growing number of cookbooks
which deal with preparing edible
wild plants for the family menu.
Today, with the price of
vegetables on supermarket
shelves climbing steadily and
with people growing tired of
sometimes tasteless canned or
frozen products, more and more
people are discovering that wild
plants, and even common garden
weeds, make surprisingly tasty
alternatives to our traditional
foods.
While the Indians long ago
survived on a diet of wild plants.
and there have always been
hobby foragers like American
Euell Gibbons it'; only in recent
years that writers have started
publishing practical books on how
to gather and cook or preserve the
"edible wild."
In spring, nature's crop of
edible plants is available just
about anywhere from our front
lawns, to nearby marshes and
swampy areas and farmer's
woodlots.
wild cookery
Here are some suggestions on
wild plant cookery that can be
tried now, and on through the
summer months. One warning,
try and gather wild plants at least
25 feet away from the roadway or
from any area where they might
have been sprayed with weed
killer. Also, pick only plants you
can positively identify. since
some plants which arc edible
have related _species which are
poisonous when consumed by
humans. Jnfortunately the story
that any plant or berry eaten by a
bird or animal is safe for
consumption by humans is strictly
an old wives tale. The pig can eat
THE RURAL VOICE/MAY 1979 PG. 43