Comments on: UNUSUAL EDIBLES

By: Lien

Lien — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:59:03 +0000

Oh by the way if you google banana flower recipes, there is a bunch that come up including for salads, cheers!

By: Lien

Lien — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:56:56 +0000

Hi from downunder. Big fan of your blog/family journey.
Growing up, we ate the banana blooms ( the purple heart).my mother would shred it and add it Vietnamese sour soup similar to the Thai Tom yum soups. You can add it to curries I believe! Very delicious texture of crunchiness.

By: Frugal in Mexico

Frugal in Mexico — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:51:40 +0000

I have lots of banana plants of several kinds. Finding out how to prepare any part of the plant would be useful for me. I did hear that you can eat the big bloom from the banana plant but failed to find out how. Most of the time I click on a web page my laptop freezes. Next week with fast speed Internet I hope to get more information.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:55:19 +0000

I've been tasting and trying different edibles growing around my house. Strangest for me so far is: Yuka Flowers, Purslane (I always thought it was a weed but it's delicious in salad), Lambs Quarter and Clover Flowers.

My kids enjoy trying the different types of things growing in our yard as well. Thanks for the cool post. You learn something new everyday and it's sometimes surprising what you learn.

By: Jill

Jill — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:51:19 +0000

My grandmother used to make fried lilies. I'm not sure about all types of lilies, but she cooked the ones that grow wild in Indiana by the side of the road (the orange ones).

By: Daniela

Daniela — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:33:18 +0000

I recently pulled up some 'weeds' from our back yard and sauteed them for dinner. Who knew that I'd been throwing out purslane all this time?! It grows pretty much anywhere there's a patch of bare earth that gets some water up here in the high desert of the SW. It tasted kind of like a cross between spinach and seaweed. Not unpleasant at all, just different! Turns out our chickens LOVE the stuff, too! Whoo hoo!

By: Debra

Debra — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:42:16 +0000

Squash leaves and flowers, broccoli leaves, and strawberry leaves. Also carrot greens and beet greens.

By: gaiasdaughter

gaiasdaughter — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:05:02 +0000

I took a class recently on edible wild plants in our region. It turns out that dollar weed, the bane of our garden, is in the carrot family and quite edible! I've tried picking the young, tender leaves to add to salads. And yes, they have a mild, carroty taste.

By: SuperMomNoCape

SuperMomNoCape — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:58:27 +0000

Thanks for the link to the post about using the banana pith. In the comments section of that post, one of the commentors mentioned how he over-winters his banana trees so they don't freeze and so will then fruit the next year. I'm going to give that a try with ours this fall and see if it will work for here in NW Georgia.

I originally planted our banana trees because I missed seeing them out my bedroom window like we had in Hawaii. And we also use the leaves to wrap pork roasts in to make kalua pork.

We were surprized that we had baby ones grow after freezing that first winter and then again this spring. But of course, they don't produce fruit their first year. Hopefully if this over-wintering method works, we'll have our own bananas next summer.

By: betweendreams82

betweendreams82 — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:19:31 +0000

Not completely rare, but-

I cook the male zucchini and yellow squash flowers once they wilt at the end of the day, sauteed in olive oil and sprinkled with parmesan. Or just cooked with the squash itsself.

We pick the dandelion leaved that grow in the yard and add them t our salad.

I make tea out of carrot greens and honey..mmm...