Foraging: identifying and eating turks cap flowers and fruit, easy for beginners

Isn't that vivid red and green combo perfect for this time of year?

Identification difficulty: Beginner

Turk's cap sometimes known as Texas mallow, Drummond's mallow or Mexican apple, and formally known as Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii, is an edible wild plant and a member of the hibiscus family, native to Texas, the Southwestern US, and Mexico. 

Most, if not all, members of the hibiscus family have edible parts, or are at least, non-poisonous. The flowers of many varieties are steeped into herbal teas, where they impart a tartness, like pomegranate, but also a lovely floral note.  For those of you who enjoy Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger, that's a hibiscus-focused tea. 

Even if hibiscus isn't the primary flavor in your tea, check out the package, chances are, there's some hibiscus in there. The flower family is used to provide floral aromas, tartness and rich color to teas, candies, confections and more. 

The most famously used hibiscus is the roselle, Hibiscus sabdariffa, native to Africa. Roselle is the main ingredient in the famous Jamaican sorrel punch, infused with citrus, sugar and ginger and served virgin or spiked with rum. It's also used throughout processed foods, primarily to impart a vivid red color. When you see "natural colors and flavors" and the item is red, there's a good chance it contains hibiscus, specifically roselle. 

My point in this divergence is that you've almost certainly eaten a hibiscus before, even if you didn't know it. 

Most hibiscus have edible flowers, and some, like roselle, are used for their calyxes or buds, but turk's cap also produces an edible fruit of a reasonable size and decent flavor. Furthermore, while the whole family is pretty easy to identify, Turk's cap is one of the easiest of them all. 

Turk's cap is an important late season food source for bees

Identifying spring curly dock: an edible, weedy wild plant

This is one of the most healthy, beautiful curly dock plants I've ever seen

Identification difficulty level: novice

Curly dock, Latin name: Rumex crispus, is an excellent wild plant to know. It provides food for at least 6-9 months, and year-round in some climates. It's fairly easy to identify, and grows abundantly throughout all of non-Arctic North America. Curly dock has a mild flavor, a subtly sour note, and a pleasant texture, making it a very versatile ingredient in the kitchen. Curly dock comes from Eurasia, so it's an invasive species here in the Americas. Invasivore eating is one of the most locally-sourced, extremely sustainable ways to look at food. 

Easy to ID, delicious, abundant, nutritious, and sustainable? I wonder why everyone isn't jumping on the curly dock bandwagon!

Small warning: curly dock has oxalic acid, and should be avoided by people with rheumatoid arthritis and kidney or liver problems, more on that below. 

My first time trying foraged ginkgo nuts: from identification, to eating, and preservation

When we first moved into our new home, last October, I was excited to see a ginkgo tree in the front yard. There was a handful of fruit on the ground, letting me know the tree was female (ginkgo are deciduous, and only females produce fruit). I sat back and waited for more fruit to fall.

Sadly, last year we only got about 10-12 fruits. I researched this, and learned that when a tree produces very few fruit it generally means it's in very bad shape, and most likely going to die. I suspect that the 7 year drought Texas had just been through was to blame.

This year, we had rain again, and we really baby-d the tree: pruning dead branches, extra watering, etc. She seems to have made a full recovery, as the ground this fall has been completely covered in fruit every single week!

Identification difficulty level: Beginner

Special warning: do not handle gingko fruit, especially broken fruit, with your bare hands. If you come in contact with it, wash thoroughly. People with blood clotting problems, bleeding disorders, or prone to heavy bruising shouldn't take ginkgo in any form. Nor should those who are have had seizures, pregnant women, and anyone who will be going in for surgery.  Raw ginkgo nuts are dangerous, and toxic to many. The fruit and the raw nut should not be eaten. More on all this and how to safely harvest and prepare, further on.

This is what falls every week, on ONE side of the tree! Even more must fall into the bushes or our driveway.

Ginkgo quick history & medicinal uses

Ginkgo biloba (full name), also known as the maidenhair tree, duck feet tree, silver apricot, silver almond, white nut or silver fruit, is a living fossil, the last member of it's family. Ginkgo itself would most likely be extinct as well, if it hadn't been preserved through the ice age by ancient Chinese priests who considered it holy. They grew ginkgo in their temples, and still do today. Ginkgo is very long-lived and hardy, some of the temple trees are several thousand years old, and still other ginkgo trees survived the nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Foraging: identifying and sustainably harvesting wild Virginian (American) persimmons

  

Identification difficulty: Beginner

So last September, I think on Labor Day weekend, I went out for a forage, and I found wild persimmons, Diospyros virginiana. They were hard as rocks, and quite unripe, so I looked them up and figured they'd be ready to go in November. So I waited, came back in November, and the trees were completely bare. 

This Labor Day weekend, I went out again, and found them to be just starting to ripen. So what the season for these guys is, I don't quite know yet. 

I do know that I got my first taste of wild Virginian (or American) persimmon, and it was amazing. They taste so much better than the cultivated varieties, which have always been bland and rather chalky to me. These are sweet, mellow and with subtle tropical flavors: guava, mango, peach and banana, maybe. They're hard to describe. 

These are actually somewhat underripe, and leave a tang on the tongue. I'll be harvesting more this coming weekend, and see if that astringency goes away. Still they are very very tasty. 

But if you're in North Texas, they are coming into season for you right now, so I'll show you what to look for.