UPDATE - Please read! 👀 Upon further investigation, I’ve found that the edibility of Air Yam, Dioscorea bulbifera, is less clear than what my initial research showed. It appears as if there are different varieties in the wild and some can be eaten as I showed in the video, while others may require additional processing. I suspect that those that require additional processing would be quite bitter and unpalatable. I’ve consumed a fair amount of Wild Chinese Yam, Dioscorea polystachya, without issue (and that’s the one I mainly focused on in the video), but I don’t have a lot of personal experience with D. bulbifera as it grows out of my range. Hopefully I’ll be able to take a trip to Florida in the future to build my personal experience and I’ll be sure to report back to all of you what I find. At this time, I cannot recommend the consumption of D. bulbifera before I’ve eaten it more myself! I apologize for this oversight. I put in a lot of work to ensure my information is accurate as possible, but I’m not perfect and sometimes things slip through the cracks. This is why I recommend you ALWAYS cross-reference your foraging information with multiple independent sources in my “How to Start Foraging” guide. I hope you found the video helpful!
Lots of bulbifera in florida thats for sure. as far as I can tell D. Alata also grows abundantly in florida and is non toxic. While you're down here try your hands at gathering some coontie(Zamia pumila), it was another staple starch food down here for a long time.
Im sure was not intentional but, as someone who is affected by trypophobia your video thumbnail was very disturbing to scroll by in the feed. You were probably not even aware of such condition. Hope in the future you could be mindful of it! Best of luck with your endeavours and have a happy fulfiling life!
I was introduced to "Air potatoes" here in TN & they were quite tasty. I was thrilled to find them while visiting FL. Much larger & I prepared some for my hosts. Wow, they were nasty! Astringent in flavor. At least now I know I didn"t somehow mess up the prep. This was 40 years ago- I can still remember that awful flavor.
Yes, keep up the good work. We need to know more about staple foods available around us. I really appreciate the info on American lotus. Rural OK has much to offer but most of us who live out in the sticks walk right over abundance to get to the known offerings. Acorns here are not palatable though. We even have our own burn remedy plant since aloe doesn't survive freezing. Peel back some layers of a cattail stalk. There you'll find the same beneficial slime as aloe. Tiz the season for persimmon ice cream now. Although they don't look fresh like Asian persimmons and they're full of seeds, after the first hard frost American wild persimmon are sweet and gooey, the natural alumn content is past. Almost a ready made pie filling after deseeded.
Even without disasters, I’ve had to rely on wild foods after losing a job in the inland Northwest for several weeks. It’s good to have some knowledge about wild foods.
The idea is to have options, backup ,and backup for your back up plan! Buy from the store, grow your own And actively forage for food that is in your area. Knowing you have these options is your path to food security. I fully appreciate this channel and its presenter!!A true teacher!😊😊
Swiss cheese model! Also, one of these steps (and it should be among the top ones) really ought to be making friends with as many people around you as possible, so you can hopefully help each other.
Read an account of French fur trade Native peoples crushed and boiled the hickory nuts and skimmed the oil off the top. Thanks for sharing this food and a practical
My favourite food that you listed are shagbark hickory nuts. I grew up with those & and they are so much easier to process than Black Walnuts! I'm not sure about the availability of slippery elm around here or Lotus. I live in the north so if it's up here it would have a much slower growth because of the cold winters. I will have to look up Slippery & Siberian Elms and see if we have them here. Please share more about hickories, and any other similar foods to these, that are also available & grow in the middle to northern part of North America. Thanks very much!
I've been foraging wild Chinese yam in their native habitat in Korea 🇰🇷 and it's truly difficult to get it out of the ground without a proper tool, particularly since the ground tends to be full of small rocks here! 😅 I'm amazed by how quickly you managed to dig them up with that long shovel! Btw, I'd like to recommend eating the tubers of Dioscorea polystachya without the skin and using gloves when peeling them! ❗ The skin contains oxalates that can irritate human skin and mouth. In Korea, it's always consumed without the skin, and often enjoyed raw! When raw, the white tuber is very crunchy and it releases a slimy liquid. (I know this texture can be off-putting to some people, but it is appreciated by others.) Air potatoes (Dioscorea bulbifera) do not grow in the wild in Korea (winters are too cold), but they are farmed and can be found in stores sometimes. They are yellowish inside and the texture is crunchy and slimy as well. Here, people also eat them mostly raw. Some eat the fruits of Dioscorea bulbifera with the skin on, but I personally find the texture of the skin unpleasant and bitter.
the "why I made this video" section is exactly why I subscribe to your channel. you're such a kind soul, looking to share his knowledge of an incredibly important and innately human topic with the world to equip people with the skills to do the best they can. thank you for what you do! always looking forward to your uploads.
I am 74, raised in rural Iowa. I have fond, fond memories of my mother and neighbor ladies going into the woods and “nutting” for walnuts, hickory nuts. Then they would go to one of their homes and sit around a table picking out the nut meats, all the while gossiping and laughing about things going on in the area :-).
I got into foraging after the pandemic and I saw what certain groups of people were saying and threatening to do to others for thinking or believing in a certain way. I bought Thayer's books and read and reread them but haven't actually started foraging much. I really like these videos b/c they offer the opportunity to see and hear a lot of the info in Thayer's books. Unfortunately, I believe that quite soon, this info is going to become very important and hopefully save some lives.
Wonderful video! Side note: your nails seem to suggest an iron deficiency (large lunula and some spooning). May want to get a blood test. Here's to your health!
Hmm. Mine are like that. I have very little red meat in my diet. And I haven't been supplementing recently beyond my multivitamin. Thanks for my sake too! 🙏
This is why people used to be a lot leaner. You actually had to put in a good amount of physical labor to be able to eat something that was very low in hollow calories.
@@LeeEisPrettyStrange It is a combination things, the sedentary lifestyle is certainly a part of it. So is the absolute lack of essential nutrients in factory foods, and even agricultural products from depleted soils on mega farms. ETC.
@@LeeEisPrettyStrange sugar used to be kept in a locked spice cabinet, as it was valuable due to scarcity. However now it is everywhere under many different names and disguises. Detective work required, ongoing.
Thanks for sharing this info, knowledge like this is always important to have! Hickory Nuts are a common and tasty thing in my area (Southwest Virginia), they're next to acorns and walnuts, with chestnuts being uncommon but still obtainable. I've had wild yam before, there's a whole patch about 250 yards from my house. They're good eating. Had plenty of slippery elm, though I'm more knowledgeable of sycamore. Which also has various medical benefits, and tastes like rooibos tea. A little milk and honey makes this tea amazing! Ahh and acorn which I already mentioned, YES, these are an amazing staple food. I spent a long time as a kid being told acorns are poisonous, only to grown up and find out the "poison" is water soluble tannins, that can be easily removed with boiling(over several changes of water) to make a very tasty and nutritious food. Also the bugs you get from the acorns can be used as fishing bait, thus making them into bigger food. Lotus is a favorite of mine(right next to cattail in terms of watershed survival), glad to see you showcase it here.
This is a great video. The information is presented in a way that most will understand. I had no idea on the hickory nuts, we have a shagbark hickory nut tree on our property. I am learning so much from your channel. Thank You for the great information.
Wish I had this video a year ago when my neighbor damaged the shagbark hickory in my yard. It fell and dropped literally thousands, probably tens of thousands of nuts. At least the squirrels had fun that year!
I had no idea you can use the invasive siberian elm the same way as slippery elm! I've battled with these trees coming up in my old garden, not knowing i could eat the inner bark. Theyre a huge pain in the ass to deal with, but they'll make me a little less angry knowing i can make some good tea from the inner bark.
In terms of volume and calories I would rate blackberry as first on the list. I can literally pick 5 gallons of blackberries in 3-4 hours. And I can do it everyday for about a month or two depending on how long the plants produce in large volume.
Growing up in Missouri, we would gather hickory and walnuts every year. Wonderful! We also ate wild blackberries, gooseberries, mulberries and persimmons. & drank sassafras tea... In the spring my Grampa would bring us wonderful morels. He would never let anyone go with him on his search. He had special places to find them.
In western WA, we used to go to a neighbor's field for morels. As kids, it amused us to find them on the borders, among last year's bracken leaves, where they thought they were perfectly disguised.
I'm obsessed with the American chestnut. if only that were still in our forests, with its large range, incredible size, and reliable mast production, it was truly the king of foraged nuts.
This guy might legitimately save lives one day with this information. And if anything g happens where we lose everything, it'll be people like this whole lead entire towns to survival.
@@rebeccaknudsen6190 I don't think you can upload video here, but the basics is you crack the nut all the way around the center and it's equator. A basic nutcracker that looks like metal nunchucks, does the job perfect
slippery elm is also very medicinal and heals anything it touches. if you dry the inner bark and grind it up you can use it on wounds after using a bit of water to make a paste and then apply it as a paltice with a bandage wrap. you can also make a salve with it as well will a plant based fatty oil like olive or coconut or a nut oil. Add eucaluptus for the anti microbial and anti fungal properties.
This is fabulous! I have shagbark hhickory on my property, and ever since going on a kayaking expedition with Sultana Education Foundation on the Sassafras River in MD years ago, I have been fascinated by American lotus. I began growing it in pots, and now a couple of garden ponds (made from a pond liner, and one 100 gallon stock tank). The local Susquehanna River also has a large area of lotus that we have paddled through. Now that I know more about their edibility, I will have to collect more pods.
I truly learned a lot from this episode. I'm in southern Louisiana, if you can ever help me out down here 🤭✌🏼 The pecans, hickory, the info about acorn flour...I'm bread maker (by hand, no machines except the oven).
Can the hickory nut milk be dried to make a powder? That would make a high calorie powder concentrate.100 grams of powder would keep a person alive if took three times a day.
OMGosh!!!! we have had hickory nuts everywhere, but i wasn't sure we could do anything with them. Now I need to go and see if there are any left asap! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Your channel is fascinating! (my husband "retired me" to the Ozarks, and there is a plethora of fauna, etc., here!)
In northern California, native Americans relied heavily on acorns. The nuts would be shelled, crushed and soaked in multiple changes of water to remove tannins. The acorns would be cooked to make a nutritious mush.
I did odd jobs for several elderly ladies in Willcox, AZ. Harvesting and shelling pecans was a couple of those tasks. They all boiled water, smoked the hulled, dried nuts for about ?30? Seconds, then I would crack the shells. Once I got the hang of it, more of them came out half's and wholes.
I read somewhere that some indigenous tribes called elms bread trees, but I know that many called the chestnut a bread tree and used dried out chestnuts to make flour so I don't know if there was a mix up, or if they really did use elms to extract the starch and make bread with it.
I like that you also give the scientific names of the species. Most other US channels on this topic I have no idea what they are talking about (I can recognize some visually, but as they continue the video, I already forgot the English name).
1. please go into more detail about the each of these food items. 2. how can you use acorns if you do not have a year or method to dry them out quickly. Can they be cracked raw and cooked several times to make them edible? How to do that would be great to know. Thanks for all your work.
Good vid, further north so a few not as common here in WV but as I mentioned my parents' place that I grew up has shagbark hickory and it is too much work with a worm getting most and the hard shell to crack. I do love them as a treat sometimes with the meat is creamier than most other nuts. Rather leave the acorns to the deer (that can also feed you) but have sampled them. Be careful with walnut because it grows fast and hard to keep cut back or killed off from places you don't want it (plus it has fury gardener helper spreading it far and wide). FYI A major WV event is the Black Walnut Festival in Buckhannon we also have an Apple Festival in Clay (birthplace of the Golden Delicious). I wish I could find a copy of the photo of the tree in the birdcage stopped at Mink Shoals as it was moved to OH (a mile from my home on US 119) that I saw when I was young. My grandmother lived on a farm so besides the Lotus most I was aware of from spending summers on it. In a prior job at a church they did a weekly free dinner that ended due to getting dangerous. I had the Idea for something like this vid in pamphlet form to print and hand out for WV plants to help the homeless that came in. I have told many people while it is easy to go hungry it is hard to starve in WV. Just common yard weeds alone pulled in an hour or two can feed you, provided you know them. Dandelion, Onions/Garlic/Ramps and Cattails are plentiful and easy to tell. (I even graze on them as I weed a garden.) While it might cost a bit to print and may need reedited you might consider doing something like that with a charity kitchen or pantry. In this case that cost being given away could be a write off while increasing a printing order too to save per unit cost. Just a few thoughts.
Absolutely outstanding teaching. I grew up in N Arkansas Ozarks foraging foods as a kid. But this is a first I've heard of the AMERICAN LOTUS. Also may I suggest you look into PINE NEEDLE TEAS a handful of them has as much Vitamin C as a large orange. Thanks Again 👍🏻
Being in Nevada, this is all inapplicable to us, since none of these things grow here, but we use similar processes for our wild food (pine nuts, tule roots, elderberries, etc)... Cool video! 👍❤️
Hickory nuts don't grow in the wild where I live, but walnuts do. You don't need a hammer or a stone or a block of wood to crash them (makes a mess). You also don't need a mechanical nutcracker. I am not particularly strong, but there is an easy way to crack them in your hand. Just take two nuts (with the wooden shell) in one hand and crack. There is always one of the two that will give up and it is only in two to three pieces. It works even better when you put the seam of one nut against the round part of the other. That means, with 100 nuts collected you are left with one that you have to smash, or just leave it in the woods for a new tree to grow.
ACORNS can be usedto make acorn powder which can be used to make acorn jelly. If done right acorn jelly has little to no flavor. Adding crushed berry and honey sauce can make a unique desert to lift the spirit. OR make the traditional soysauce based sauce. Acorns have a lot of uses. Acorn flour was used during tbe great depression, I know since my grandmother taught me a few recipes. Lotus stems and leaf kimchi. Lotus nut lotus nuts !!!
I remember my grandma had some dried lotus heads in a vase with other dried plants like fox tails and even some peacock feathers. They had been painted for decoration. But i always wondered what kind of plant looked like the enlarged back of a Surinam toad. She didn't remember what it was from either.
With the acorns, it is best and less tannic acid if you gather the sub-genre of the white oak varieties instead of the red oak varieties. The way to tell if you have red oak or white oak varieties is to peel the bark back and if the inner bark is darker color of red or reddish brown that is your red oaks species and of the inner bark is white to medium brownish/tan then those are your white oaks. The red oaks takes a bit more time and detanning to reduce the tannins to a substantial edible status. The white oaks take less time and processing for the acorn to be palatable.
Leeched acorn praline was my favorite recipe idea that I derived from a video where it was used sort of like it to mix with an oak flavored ice cream and all of that sounded awesome! Also saw this great video about a theorized Native American hickory nut oil extraction. Find this super interesting because people don’t stress enough that Europeans did this too. It would’ve been a much better time during historical times out in these parts if you had some hickory nut oil and a friend to fool around with I’m sure the going got pretty painful and rough.
Very interesting would you be willing to do a small series like this with a video for each state? Like on a few wild beneficial plants from each state? Would be really informative to see and would probably help a lot of people.
Mesquite beans . Unique flavor , eliminates many spices . It tastes like cross between nutmeg , cinnamon , and burnt caramel . No gluten , so you have to put another type of flour in with it , not a lot , but it needs it . Being a deset tree , the suger composition is different , and safe for diabetics .
Once you know what's out there, what to look for and how to find it and process it; it can be mind boggling how much actual food is around us while everyone relies entirely on the grocery stores.
Wow, thank you for this, you are a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate you sharing with us. I'm interested if finding out more about the lotus--range, processing, etc. Thanks!
As a young girl(i am 67) i would walk home with my friends from elementary school. There was a hill where we would routinely go to eat the pig nuts we found there
Speaking of California, I grew up my whole life being told the spiky, red, berries of the strawberry tree (Arbutus Unedo) were toxic. I just recently learned that they're not only edible, they are in fact delicious and make an incredible jam, with the consistency of a banana and the taste of mild apricot.
UPDATE - Please read! 👀
Upon further investigation, I’ve found that the edibility of Air Yam, Dioscorea bulbifera, is less clear than what my initial research showed. It appears as if there are different varieties in the wild and some can be eaten as I showed in the video, while others may require additional processing. I suspect that those that require additional processing would be quite bitter and unpalatable. I’ve consumed a fair amount of Wild Chinese Yam, Dioscorea polystachya, without issue (and that’s the one I mainly focused on in the video), but I don’t have a lot of personal experience with D. bulbifera as it grows out of my range. Hopefully I’ll be able to take a trip to Florida in the future to build my personal experience and I’ll be sure to report back to all of you what I find. At this time, I cannot recommend the consumption of D. bulbifera before I’ve eaten it more myself!
I apologize for this oversight. I put in a lot of work to ensure my information is accurate as possible, but I’m not perfect and sometimes things slip through the cracks. This is why I recommend you ALWAYS cross-reference your foraging information with multiple independent sources in my “How to Start Foraging” guide.
I hope you found the video helpful!
Lots of bulbifera in florida thats for sure. as far as I can tell D. Alata also grows abundantly in florida and is non toxic. While you're down here try your hands at gathering some coontie(Zamia pumila), it was another staple starch food down here for a long time.
Im sure was not intentional but, as someone who is affected by trypophobia your video thumbnail was very disturbing to scroll by in the feed. You were probably not even aware of such condition. Hope in the future you could be mindful of it! Best of luck with your endeavours and have a happy fulfiling life!
I was introduced to "Air potatoes" here in TN & they were quite tasty. I was thrilled to find them while visiting FL. Much larger & I prepared some for my hosts. Wow, they were nasty! Astringent in flavor. At least now I know I didn"t somehow mess up the prep. This was 40 years ago- I can still remember that awful flavor.
Yes, keep up the good work. We need to know more about staple foods available around us. I really appreciate the info on American lotus. Rural OK has much to offer but most of us who live out in the sticks walk right over abundance to get to the known offerings. Acorns here are not palatable though.
We even have our own burn remedy plant since aloe doesn't survive freezing. Peel back some layers of a cattail stalk. There you'll find the same beneficial slime as aloe.
Tiz the season for persimmon ice cream now. Although they don't look fresh like Asian persimmons and they're full of seeds, after the first hard frost American wild persimmon are sweet and gooey, the natural alumn content is past. Almost a ready made pie filling after deseeded.
Even without disasters, I’ve had to rely on wild foods after losing a job in the inland Northwest for several weeks. It’s good to have some knowledge about wild foods.
I can relate. Pecans were the bulk of my lunches for a while too.
A note about acorns: those weevil worms are exceptionally fatty. Get a whole bowl and fry em up like bacon.
Makes good bait for pan fish too
Thank you!
People use them as chichen feed too.
Makes better bait for fatty fish like trout
Yum
The idea is to have options, backup ,and backup for your back up plan! Buy from the store, grow your own And actively forage for food that is in your area. Knowing you have these options is your path to food security. I fully appreciate this channel and its presenter!!A true teacher!😊😊
Swiss cheese model!
Also, one of these steps (and it should be among the top ones) really ought to be making friends with as many people around you as possible, so you can hopefully help each other.
Read an account of French fur trade Native peoples crushed and boiled the hickory nuts and skimmed the oil off the top. Thanks for sharing this food and a practical
My favourite food that you listed are shagbark hickory nuts. I grew up with those & and they are so much easier to process than Black Walnuts!
I'm not sure about the availability of slippery elm around here or Lotus. I live in the north so if it's up here it would have a much slower growth because of the cold winters. I will have to look up Slippery & Siberian Elms and see if we have them here.
Please share more about hickories, and any other similar foods to these, that are also available & grow in the middle to northern part of North America. Thanks very much!
Yes, the Native Americans crushed hickory nuts and boiled them to make the 'milk. I watched an elder teach her granddaughter how to do it.
I've been foraging wild Chinese yam in their native habitat in Korea 🇰🇷 and it's truly difficult to get it out of the ground without a proper tool, particularly since the ground tends to be full of small rocks here! 😅 I'm amazed by how quickly you managed to dig them up with that long shovel!
Btw, I'd like to recommend eating the tubers of Dioscorea polystachya without the skin and using gloves when peeling them! ❗ The skin contains oxalates that can irritate human skin and mouth. In Korea, it's always consumed without the skin, and often enjoyed raw! When raw, the white tuber is very crunchy and it releases a slimy liquid. (I know this texture can be off-putting to some people, but it is appreciated by others.)
Air potatoes (Dioscorea bulbifera) do not grow in the wild in Korea (winters are too cold), but they are farmed and can be found in stores sometimes. They are yellowish inside and the texture is crunchy and slimy as well. Here, people also eat them mostly raw. Some eat the fruits of Dioscorea bulbifera with the skin on, but I personally find the texture of the skin unpleasant and bitter.
the "why I made this video" section is exactly why I subscribe to your channel. you're such a kind soul, looking to share his knowledge of an incredibly important and innately human topic with the world to equip people with the skills to do the best they can. thank you for what you do! always looking forward to your uploads.
I am 74, raised in rural Iowa. I have fond, fond memories of my mother and neighbor ladies going into the woods and “nutting” for walnuts, hickory nuts. Then they would go to one of their homes and sit around a table picking out the nut meats, all the while gossiping and laughing about things going on in the area :-).
I really appreciate the effort you put into educating folks about wild foods. Really excellent content. ❤
I got into foraging after the pandemic and I saw what certain groups of people were saying and threatening to do to others for thinking or believing in a certain way. I bought Thayer's books and read and reread them but haven't actually started foraging much. I really like these videos b/c they offer the opportunity to see and hear a lot of the info in Thayer's books.
Unfortunately, I believe that quite soon, this info is going to become very important and hopefully save some lives.
Wonderful video! Side note: your nails seem to suggest an iron deficiency (large lunula and some spooning). May want to get a blood test. Here's to your health!
good eye/catch!
Hmm. Mine are like that. I have very little red meat in my diet. And I haven't been supplementing recently beyond my multivitamin. Thanks for my sake too! 🙏
FYI, if taking iron supplements, take them every other day and with vitamin C at the same time.
You are quickly becoming one of my favorite channels. Amazing quality and presentation of information. Thank you
When winnowing anything, pour from a square sided cat litter bucket. More surface area. Fewer passes to get a clean product.
Wild lotus grows wild in one of my ponds.
I get about an acres worth of coverage in the shallow end.
Ill be trying some soon.😊
This is why people used to be a lot leaner. You actually had to put in a good amount of physical labor to be able to eat something that was very low in hollow calories.
They were leaner because they didn't eat the adulterated over processed junk they call food today
Nah. It's because of refined sugar.
@@LeeEisPrettyStrange, try making your refined sugar. 🤦🏿♀
@@LeeEisPrettyStrange It is a combination things, the sedentary lifestyle is certainly a part of it. So is the absolute lack of essential nutrients in factory foods, and even agricultural products from depleted soils on mega farms. ETC.
@@LeeEisPrettyStrange sugar used to be kept in a locked spice cabinet, as it was valuable due to scarcity. However now it is everywhere under many different names and disguises. Detective work required, ongoing.
Wow, Thankyou Young Man, I have huge oak trees and I know where there are plenty of lotus. I will give them both a try. God Bless You 🙌
In Japan, lotus tubers are called renkon. They are a staple part of the Japanese diet.
Can you process them and eat the whole flower stem root leaves like the seeds of American Lotus
Thanks for sharing this info, knowledge like this is always important to have!
Hickory Nuts are a common and tasty thing in my area (Southwest Virginia), they're next to acorns and walnuts, with chestnuts being uncommon but still obtainable.
I've had wild yam before, there's a whole patch about 250 yards from my house. They're good eating.
Had plenty of slippery elm, though I'm more knowledgeable of sycamore. Which also has various medical benefits, and tastes like rooibos tea. A little milk and honey makes this tea amazing!
Ahh and acorn which I already mentioned, YES, these are an amazing staple food. I spent a long time as a kid being told acorns are poisonous, only to grown up and find out the "poison" is water soluble tannins, that can be easily removed with boiling(over several changes of water) to make a very tasty and nutritious food. Also the bugs you get from the acorns can be used as fishing bait, thus making them into bigger food.
Lotus is a favorite of mine(right next to cattail in terms of watershed survival), glad to see you showcase it here.
It would be interesting to know more about edible root/tuber species that you can forage!
Sunchokes grow wild out east, I hear. Groundnuts (apios americana). In the west there are camas and other brodeias.
This is a great video. The information is presented in a way that most will understand. I had no idea on the hickory nuts, we have a shagbark hickory nut tree on our property. I am learning so much from your channel. Thank You for the great information.
This has been a fantastic video! Please make a part two!
Kinda disappointed no mention of cattails which are way easier to use than hickory. But very happy to know of some of these others.
On the list for the next video! 😄
PLEASE MAKE A VIDEO ON WILD GREENS LIKE MUSTARD, PIG THISTLE, PLANTAIN, ETC.
You may want to check out Eat the Weeds, he has all the basics.
Wish I had this video a year ago when my neighbor damaged the shagbark hickory in my yard. It fell and dropped literally thousands, probably tens of thousands of nuts.
At least the squirrels had fun that year!
I had no idea you can use the invasive siberian elm the same way as slippery elm! I've battled with these trees coming up in my old garden, not knowing i could eat the inner bark. Theyre a huge pain in the ass to deal with, but they'll make me a little less angry knowing i can make some good tea from the inner bark.
In terms of volume and calories I would rate blackberry as first on the list. I can literally pick 5 gallons of blackberries in 3-4 hours. And I can do it everyday for about a month or two depending on how long the plants produce in large volume.
Extremely interesting and informative! Do please continue, perhaps make this a series.
Growing up in Missouri, we would gather hickory and walnuts every year. Wonderful! We also ate wild blackberries, gooseberries, mulberries and persimmons. & drank sassafras tea... In the spring my Grampa would bring us wonderful morels. He would never let anyone go with him on his search. He had special places to find them.
In western WA, we used to go to a neighbor's field for morels. As kids, it amused us to find them on the borders, among last year's bracken leaves, where they thought they were perfectly disguised.
Here in California acorns are what I will be foraging for in an emergency. So many oak where I live!
I'm obsessed with the American chestnut. if only that were still in our forests, with its large range, incredible size, and reliable mast production, it was truly the king of foraged nuts.
I grow everything thank you for sharing this with us
This guy might legitimately save lives one day with this information. And if anything g happens where we lose everything, it'll be people like this whole lead entire towns to survival.
So in the talk about gathering wild nuts & processing them, we can better understand the old saying, "Let's get cracking!"
A Chinese friend invited me to dinner once and cooked lotus root. It was great! Tasted similar to potato.
every single one of these I started out saying nahhhhh thats gonna be bad, but the prepper in me after each one was like I should plant these
Back in Louisiana, we used to pick these in the fresh water swamps. We called water peanuts. They are good
I have a Grandpa’s Goody Getter! Cracks walnuts and pecans so well! Wish I had access to hickory.
Please make a video on ghost pipe!💛
I can totally remove all the meat out of the hickory nut, it's an art form.
Do tell the secret, better yet demonstrate it for everyone.
@abittwisted please show us.❤❤❤
@@rebeccaknudsen6190 I don't think you can upload video here, but the basics is you crack the nut all the way around the center and it's equator. A basic nutcracker that looks like metal nunchucks, does the job perfect
Mark is a champion. I'm sure he appreciates the shout out 👍👍
Let's -- Get into it !!!
"Self Sufficient Me" is an awesome channel.
I've learned tons of knowledge from him.
I live in western mass...i am a forager So much to learn ...love your channel....
The northern and western Rocky Mountains desert region has some special challenges. I’d love to see a video on foraging here
Shag bark hickory tree is also easy to spot.
How cool is that?! I had no clue about the lotus!
slippery elm is also very medicinal and heals anything it touches. if you dry the inner bark and grind it up you can use it on wounds after using a bit of water to make a paste and then apply it as a paltice with a bandage wrap. you can also make a salve with it as well will a plant based fatty oil like olive or coconut or a nut oil. Add eucaluptus for the anti microbial and anti fungal properties.
Yes. Very good and very important to learn. Thank you for this information! Looking forward to more.
When o was a child I ate the lotus seed fresh off the bulb while its green. It was considered a treat.
Dunno if you know this, but on a side note, you can sharpen your blenders blades. They are also replaceable. The motor is replaceable as well.
This is my favorite video so far and I almost didn't watch it because I thought the thumbnail was fake. The lotus seeds looked like they had eyes!
This is a common fear for people. Tiny circled. Not kidding. It's very off putting. 😅
This is fabulous!
I have shagbark hhickory on my property, and ever since going on a kayaking expedition with Sultana Education Foundation on the Sassafras River in MD years ago, I have been fascinated by American lotus. I began growing it in pots, and now a couple of garden ponds (made from a pond liner, and one 100 gallon stock tank). The local Susquehanna River also has a large area of lotus that we have paddled through.
Now that I know more about their edibility, I will have to collect more pods.
I truly learned a lot from this episode. I'm in southern Louisiana, if you can ever help me out down here 🤭✌🏼
The pecans, hickory, the info about acorn flour...I'm bread maker (by hand, no machines except the oven).
Can the hickory nut milk be dried to make a powder? That would make a high calorie powder concentrate.100 grams of powder would keep a person alive if took three times a day.
I have many fond memories of cracking hickory nuts. A great pastime in winter when there as no tv, internet, etc.
OMGosh!!!! we have had hickory nuts everywhere, but i wasn't sure we could do anything with them. Now I need to go and see if there are any left asap! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Your channel is fascinating! (my husband "retired me" to the Ozarks, and there is a plethora of fauna, etc., here!)
FYI, in some asian cultures, those lotus seeds are dried and added to soups for medicinal benefits
This video, especially if mixed with other agroforestry processes, is so unbelievably valuable, good work!
I have children to share with, great info. Thanks again. 😊
In northern California, native Americans relied heavily on acorns. The nuts would be shelled, crushed and soaked in multiple changes of water to remove tannins. The acorns would be cooked to make a nutritious mush.
I did odd jobs for several elderly ladies in Willcox, AZ.
Harvesting and shelling pecans was a couple of those tasks.
They all boiled water, smoked the hulled, dried nuts for about ?30? Seconds, then I would crack the shells. Once I got the hang of it, more of them came out half's and wholes.
I read somewhere that some indigenous tribes called elms bread trees, but I know that many called the chestnut a bread tree and used dried out chestnuts to make flour so I don't know if there was a mix up, or if they really did use elms to extract the starch and make bread with it.
I like that you also give the scientific names of the species. Most other US channels on this topic I have no idea what they are talking about (I can recognize some visually, but as they continue the video, I already forgot the English name).
1. please go into more detail about the each of these food items. 2. how can you use acorns if you do not have a year or method to dry them out quickly. Can they be cracked raw and cooked several times to make them edible? How to do that would be great to know. Thanks for all your work.
Keep these videos coming! I'm still trying to find a slippery elm on my property.
Make an icecream with hickory nut milk
Shellbark better than shag and pig. Shellbark you can pick out in halves.
Thanks, I enjoyed this information and look forward to putting some of it to use.
I have SOOOO many black walnuts!!! I gathered and processed them, and stored them in shell from last year but idk what to do with them now lol
Pasta sauce. It's amazing
@ wait, really?? Recipe??
Black walnut cake, cookies and ice cream!
Good vid, further north so a few not as common here in WV but as I mentioned my parents' place that I grew up has shagbark hickory and it is too much work with a worm getting most and the hard shell to crack. I do love them as a treat sometimes with the meat is creamier than most other nuts. Rather leave the acorns to the deer (that can also feed you) but have sampled them. Be careful with walnut because it grows fast and hard to keep cut back or killed off from places you don't want it (plus it has fury gardener helper spreading it far and wide). FYI A major WV event is the Black Walnut Festival in Buckhannon we also have an Apple Festival in Clay (birthplace of the Golden Delicious). I wish I could find a copy of the photo of the tree in the birdcage stopped at Mink Shoals as it was moved to OH (a mile from my home on US 119) that I saw when I was young. My grandmother lived on a farm so besides the Lotus most I was aware of from spending summers on it. In a prior job at a church they did a weekly free dinner that ended due to getting dangerous. I had the Idea for something like this vid in pamphlet form to print and hand out for WV plants to help the homeless that came in. I have told many people while it is easy to go hungry it is hard to starve in WV. Just common yard weeds alone pulled in an hour or two can feed you, provided you know them. Dandelion, Onions/Garlic/Ramps and Cattails are plentiful and easy to tell. (I even graze on them as I weed a garden.) While it might cost a bit to print and may need reedited you might consider doing something like that with a charity kitchen or pantry. In this case that cost being given away could be a write off while increasing a printing order too to save per unit cost. Just a few thoughts.
Nature blushes her secrets. Returning us to the grove.
Absolutely outstanding teaching. I grew up in N Arkansas Ozarks foraging foods as a kid. But this is a first I've heard of the AMERICAN LOTUS. Also may I suggest you look into PINE NEEDLE TEAS a handful of them has as much Vitamin C as a large orange. Thanks Again 👍🏻
Being in Nevada, this is all inapplicable to us, since none of these things grow here, but we use similar processes for our wild food (pine nuts, tule roots, elderberries, etc)... Cool video! 👍❤️
Hickory nuts don't grow in the wild where I live, but walnuts do. You don't need a hammer or a stone or a block of wood to crash them (makes a mess). You also don't need a mechanical nutcracker. I am not particularly strong, but there is an easy way to crack them in your hand.
Just take two nuts (with the wooden shell) in one hand and crack. There is always one of the two that will give up and it is only in two to three pieces. It works even better when you put the seam of one nut against the round part of the other.
That means, with 100 nuts collected you are left with one that you have to smash, or just leave it in the woods for a new tree to grow.
Lotus nuts make delicious “popcorn.” 😅
ACORNS can be usedto make acorn powder which can be used to make acorn jelly. If done right acorn jelly has little to no flavor. Adding crushed berry and honey sauce can make a unique desert to lift the spirit. OR make the traditional soysauce based sauce. Acorns have a lot of uses. Acorn flour was used during tbe great depression, I know since my grandmother taught me a few recipes. Lotus stems and leaf kimchi. Lotus nut lotus nuts !!!
Great great video thank you for the info. My biggest struggle is identifying specimens. Any tips for that?
I remember my grandma had some dried lotus heads in a vase with other dried plants like fox tails and even some peacock feathers. They had been painted for decoration. But i always wondered what kind of plant looked like the enlarged back of a Surinam toad. She didn't remember what it was from either.
I am very excited to learn this information! Please continue, you have my full attention!
With the acorns, it is best and less tannic acid if you gather the sub-genre of the white oak varieties instead of the red oak varieties. The way to tell if you have red oak or white oak varieties is to peel the bark back and if the inner bark is darker color of red or reddish brown that is your red oaks species and of the inner bark is white to medium brownish/tan then those are your white oaks. The red oaks takes a bit more time and detanning to reduce the tannins to a substantial edible status. The white oaks take less time and processing for the acorn to be palatable.
I do wish you showed us the tree and leaves to know what to look for
He does in the longer videos for each.
Didn't think of using the woody park of the hickory nut as food. Blending takes care of that.
Leeched acorn praline was my favorite recipe idea that I derived from a video where it was used sort of like it to mix with an oak flavored ice cream and all of that sounded awesome! Also saw this great video about a theorized Native American hickory nut oil extraction. Find this super interesting because people don’t stress enough that Europeans did this too. It would’ve been a much better time during historical times out in these parts if you had some hickory nut oil and a friend to fool around with I’m sure the going got pretty painful and rough.
Excellent stuff!
“Shriveled up nut meat” is definitely one way to say it…
My jokes aside great video
Very interesting would you be willing to do a small series like this with a video for each state? Like on a few wild beneficial plants from each state? Would be really informative to see and would probably help a lot of people.
Pecans and Lotus seeds were interesting
Mesquite beans . Unique flavor , eliminates many spices . It tastes like cross between nutmeg , cinnamon , and burnt caramel . No gluten , so you have to put another type of flour in with it , not a lot , but it needs it . Being a deset tree , the suger composition is different , and safe for diabetics .
My friend was raised by her Cherokee grandparents who would forage for wild plants used for food and medicine. She was taught these skills as a child.
Once you know what's out there, what to look for and how to find it and process it; it can be mind boggling how much actual food is around us while everyone relies entirely on the grocery stores.
Very interesting! Yes, would love more videos. thank you!
Thank you 🙏🏾 so much
Do a top 5 for the West Coast.
hickory is sooooo yummmm!
Wow, thank you for this, you are a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate you sharing with us. I'm interested if finding out more about the lotus--range, processing, etc. Thanks!
In Chinatown i used to often see fresh lotus tubers. The Chinese would slice them and incorporate in various dishes
As a young girl(i am 67) i would walk home with my friends from elementary school. There was a hill where we would routinely go to eat the pig nuts we found there
Speaking of California, I grew up my whole life being told the spiky, red, berries of the strawberry tree (Arbutus Unedo) were toxic. I just recently learned that they're not only edible, they are in fact delicious and make an incredible jam, with the consistency of a banana and the taste of mild apricot.
Acorn is the nut in abundance in the north east.
Keep making these lists!!
Here in Oklahoma, I'm west of the "cross timbers". So elm, pecan and oaks grow. Everything else, would have to go east to find.
little bug larvae on outside = good pan fish bait.